Teen Titans Academy #8 Review

Back To School

Written By: Tim Sheridan

Art By: Mike Norton, Hi-Fi, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 30, 2021

Alright, we finally have the Teen Titans Academy feeling like it's catching up to real-time since it wants to do that for some reason, so we have our kids going back to school, and not only that, we've got another round of students making their way to the Roy Harper Academy but with the looming threats of Armageddon and Red X running around, I don't know if we'll have a student body...... or a student dead body... Yeah, I went there.  Let's jump into this issue and see the beginning of what led to our Titans' fate in Future State.  Let's check it out.

For this issue of Teen Titans Academy, we'll see that Roy Harper's death at the believed hands of Wally West, while figured out for you and me, redeeming our Fastest Man Alive, is still in the hearts and minds of everyday folks who might want to enroll their meta child into Teen Titans Academy and looking like he doesn't want to miss out on the Wally shaming, Red X shows back up this issue and continues the shaming in showing all the kids the half-truth of Wally freaking out and Roy Harper dying...... which feels weird because a lot of people died that day, not just Roy Harper..... fuck Lagoon Boy I guess.

Red X nonsense aside, we have the start of what we saw in Future State here with the death of the Titans and the unleashing of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.... which feels weird spelling it the correct way and this bit seems exciting because not only do we see the ramifications of the Shazam! spin-off mini, but our students treating the H-Dial like a ouija board and summoning something from beyond..... which looks like dead Titans from the past who could be Hawk, Dove, Kole, and Terra, but we only get their outlines here and I'm left with intrigue to see what happens next.   Not to mention, a former Titan makes his return to the Tower this issue.

All in all, the art in this issue was great and I love that we're getting back to school and getting on with the story that led to Future State..... mostly because I want to see it averted but like always when it comes to this title, the Red X stuff is the weakest and just makes everyone that we care about look like chumps so that Tim Sheridan can say how powerful Red X is without really doing anything but making other characters look less..... it's a nitpick of mine but I really hate the Red X stuff in this book.  Thankfully though, there's a bunch of cool stuff in this book that's setting up possible cooler stuff going forward that I found myself having a good time and looking forward to what comes next.

Bits and Pieces:

It's back to school for our Teen Titans Academy students and teachers, which sadly means it's time to do more Red X nonsense, but beyond that unfortunate inclusion to this book, we have the setup for what we saw in Future State start here, the ramifications of the Shazam! mini and some former Titans making their return in a fun way.  I hope that the series continues to feel like this.... and gets rid of Red X because I found myself having a decent time.

7.5/10