I was into comics in the 90s, but I fell out of them for a number of reasons. Thanks to writing for The Daily Crate, I got back into the comic scene rather hardcore. With the New 52 and several Marvel reboots, it seemed like the perfect time to jump back in. One series I jumped into was Teen Titans, which received yet another reboot in 2014, even though the last Teen Titans series ended in the exact same year. I figured the newer series was a true reboot like several other series, and it didn’t take long to figure out just how wrong I was. In order to have half a prayer in knowing what the Hell was going on with the characters, I needed the 2011-2014 series. Which I started two weeks ago and just finished. And holy hell, that was incredibly rough.
Simply put, everything I dislike in mainstream comics, the reasons why I fell out of comics in the first place, were all present in this series.
- Time travel
- Crossovers between other series that are impossible to follow without those issue purchases
- Alternate universes
If Wolverine would have made an appearance, which yes, would have been impossible, I would have thrown my comic reader across the room.
Do I expect the crossover thing? Of course I do. I’m well aware this is how DC and Marvel spur sales and garner new interest in other series for comic fans. However, it would have been nice if the largest and most important arcs weren’t all in other crossover issues. Since I was reading the trades, the other series that contained the rest of the crossover weren’t even listed. If I wanted to purchase these wayward issues, I couldn’t because I had no idea which series they came from, much less which issue numbers contained these stories.
I lost a major section of the Harvest/Culling arc as a result. One minute, they’re gathering intel on the Culling, the next, they’re fighting Harvest at a Culling with a team of Titans from the future. And somewhere in there, one of the Titans just bolted, and I have no idea why as I wasn’t privy to how they got there, how the future Titans appeared, or really anything else.
Same thing happened later when the Titans were constantly jumping the time stream. There were so many references to another Beast Boy centuries in the future who survived the slaughter of the Justice League in one possible timeline, something about oh hai we knew all along Raven was playing us, and don’t mind how Kon El just disappeared after attempting to kill Jon Lane Kent, the spawn of Superman from one future that Kon was cloned from.
You know what? I have a headache after typing that.
No wonder the powers that be at DC ended that comic series and attempted to try again just a few months later. The saddest part about it is that I could have easily overlooked the time travel and alternate futures BS if the crossovers weren’t so poorly implemented. The books started out so great, and if I had all of the story at my disposal, I bet it would have been great throughout.
Here’s hoping this current Teen Titans series isn’t half as painful. Yes, I’m keeping my subscription because I have a problem. That and I adore the artist, Kenneth Rocafort. I’ll read almost anything he draws.
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