Comic Book Review: Teen Titans #85

It's almost like Christmas came early this week. Not only do we get a new issue of Outsiders this week, but we also get the next chapter of Felicia D Henderson's awful Teen Titans arc. In case you've missed it, Teen Titans is hands down the worst book coming out of the DCU, but there is hope. Earlier this month, DC announced that starting in November, JT Krul and Nicola Scott will be ongoing Teen Titans team. Bad news is though, we still have to bear through three more issues of Henderson's awful book.

The book is still continuing the story line where the Titans are in the "World of the Wyld" looking for Raven. This arc has been unnecessarily long, showing us that Henderson is clearly a fan or torture. How long can these heroes roam through an unknown land and encounter unoriginal monsters? The answer is at least five boring issues.

As if the drawn out story wasn't bad enough, she continues the lame dialogue and same pointless emotions. If you caught the Teen Titans announcement a few weeks ago on The Source, (DCU official blog) then I'm sure you heard that Henderson will be writing an ongoing Static Shock series. In the description of the series, Henderson points out that Static is a regular teen, and if not for his powers he would be "chasing girls, playing video games, downloading underground mixes of his favorite music." Cheesy, no? She has this infatuation with trying to be "cool," but really only ends up making a fool of herself.

I'm counting down the days until November when hopefully we'll get a Titans book worth reading. Until then, two more issues of awful that is sure to be continued in the Static monthly. I'm sure it won't take long though for DC to realize that with the rising price of comic books, there's just no room for bad writers with no original ideas.

Comic Book Review: Teen Titans #83

I really wish that I could tell you that Felicia D Henderson's learned from the criticism of her last issues, but I can't. I wish I could tell you that the book is getting better, that there is a reason to continue to spend the $3.99 on it each month, but once again, I can't.

Issue #83 of this series picks up on the story thread of Wyld, the creature that has taken Raven to another dimension. Henderson has clearly run out of ideas already, with yet another save Raven story line that we have seen so many times throughout the years. The plot in a nutshell is pretty simple: The Titans join forces with a couple of CADMUS Labs scientist in order to track Wyld, and in turn Raven. While the scientist work at finding a portal of some sort, an ailing Miss Martian is nursing back to health, and another Titan, Jamie a.k.a Blue Beetle, decides it's time to go home. In the end, the scientists find a portal, with the key being deep within the ocean, and the door being on an island used by the Russian Navy. In three sentences, I told you everything you needed to know about the story, yet somehow, Henderson managed to make a useless twenty-two pages out of it.

Last month in my review of Teen Titans #82, one of my complaints was Henderson's inability to find the voice of the characters. That complaint is still valid this issue, as she swaps story telling for bad innuendo, and teen drama reminiscent of middle school. Connor and Cassie's petty bickering, leading them to get a little heated and lusty before being interrupted. For some reason, Connor feels the need to tell Bart about him and Cassie almost hooking up, all of this Cassie hears, causing another fight, with Connor finally flying off. Not sure why any of that was necessary, these fickle emotions she pushes on these characters. Also, it always seems like Aquagirl is always looking to get some nookie, especially from Connor. What?

It seems like Henderson is trying to make these characters actual teenagers, annoying ones that can be seen on any lame MTV show. It's just not working for her, and I'm not really sure she knows how to fix it herself.

I hate campaigning for someone to get fired, but Henderson really needs to give up the title, almost anyone would be better. There was a rumor that ran on Bleeding Cool a couple weeks ago, about JT Krul possibly becoming the writer of Teen Titans due the reaction Henderson has been getting. While Krul isn't the best writer around, as noted by his Rise of Arsenal miniseries, his work on Blackest Night Titans, and the two parter in the ongoing certainly have earned him at least an opportunity to try his hand at the book. This book is like a sick puppy, one that you love, but hate to see suffer. Someone please put this book to rest before the characters are ruined for all of us.

Comic Book Review: Teen Titans #82

Teen Titans #82 was released yesterday, another issue by Felicia D Henderson continuing her Static Shock story arc. There wasn't much substance to this issue, so a quick summary.

The Teen Titans were captured by Holocaust, leaving Connor, Bart, and Cyborg to take him out. After a loud angry, angry fight, the Teen Titans are rescued , and collectively throw Holocaust far within the Earth. After Static takes care of some personal business in his hometown, the Titans get on a plane, with a fat man dressed man in a superman shirt, who reveals that he has powers and flies out the T-Wing with a sickly Raven.

Alright, so that wasn't that much to talk about in this is issue, however, there is a lot to say about the issue itself, namely the writing. So here's the thing, I don't know why DC has so much faith in Felicia D Henderson. She fills the page with what she believes to be witty banter, only to come out ridiculously cheesy and almost pathetic. She doesn't seem to have a good idea about the voice of the characters she writing, having them act rude, sometimes even paranoid, for no particular reason.

What's even worse than her dialogue, is her plot progression, which sometimes leans on incoherent. The ideas she has aren't bad them self, just poorly executed.

The only good thing about the issue, was that it was only twenty-two pages long, and then led to a decent Ravager second feature that ended nicely. I'm not terribly familiar with Henderson's other writing endeavors, but I think she should have stuck to TV.

I looked into the sales a bit, and have noticed that they have been declining harshly as of late, with the last numbers being 25,759 for March. It's sad, because Teen Titans has a pretty decent group of characters, and could be a great book, but right now, that only DC book worse in my opinion is Outsiders. Hopefully the company will soon realize that there is a demand for these characters, just not with these creators attached to them.