Teen Titans #6 Review

Teen Titans #6-Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
Here's a series that seems to be getting better and better with every issue. I am beginning to regret getting a Red Lanterns (or Justice League for that matter) subscription over this. Oh well, I thought it was better at the time. This issue starts out good and just gets better and better as the story progresses. I thoroughly enjoyed this issue, although I didn't quite get how the suit is the thing that is keeping Bart alive. I mean I could see if Virgil Hawkins (YES, THAT IT STATIC FOR THOSE OF YOU WONDERING) whipped up some kind of device that he could always have or some kind of chip or something, but I mean that would really suck ass having to wear your super-suit 24/7. Bart and Solstice now have something in common! Anyway, this issue was certainly a good filler issue and we got to see Static (one of my secret favorite characters)! My only complaint...well, not really a complaint...more of a question...would be why doesn't/hasn't Tim figured out that Virgil is Static? I mean wouldn't he want to recruit him for the Titans? (I sure as hell wish he would!) I mean Tim is, as I like to say, a "Mini-Bruce" so I'm just kind of confused about that. It's not a big issue, but whatever. I'm glad we got to see Cassie (Wonder Girl) and Miguel (Bunker) have a little character-bonding while Bart and Solstice hint at a future relationship (and figuring out Bart's origin) and we also got to see who I can only assume is Chameleon Girl posing as a detective asking about why Bart is in the 21st Century (and plus we got to see Bart in a snazzy BLUE outfit, assumptively from whatever time Bart's new origin makes him from). This issue had good character-bonding, an interesting new villain (named Grymm), and so yeah this issue easily gets a 10/10.

Kid Flash: "That's the thing, Kiran. I don't know. About my powers. How they work. How I got them. I don't even know who I am. I can usually pretend it doesn't bother me. Keep running. Keep joking. But now...I've stopped. And all those questions keep running around inside my head."
Solstice: "It will be okay, Bart. Get through this and we'll find those answers together. Promise."
Me: "Awwww!"

Justice League #7 Review!

Justice League #7-Geoff Johns & Gene Ha
This was kind of an odd issue. It doesn't really seem like that bad of an issue at first, but after re-reading it you kind of realize how ridiculous, out-of-place, and confusing it is. The issue is focused on Steve Trevor who seems to be getting the full "Geoff Johns' Treatment" up, down, and around again. Sadly we see very little of the League itself in this story and even less dialogue beyond bitching to Trevor about stupid issues while he's trying to have a nice conversation with Wonder Woman over video chat. Speaking of the video chat scene (which took up more pages than the fighting scene...), when Batman was bitching to Trevor about something, he was like invisible. Is Geoff Johns just adding in a power for Bats or something? I know he isn't like (the Pre-New-52) Mr. Terrific and that his "power" is to be invisible to technology. BUT HE JUST ISN'T THERE ON THE SCREEN AT ALL!!! Maybe it was a mistake on Gene Ha's part... Whatever. OH! And speaking of that, HOW THE HELL IS BATMAN GONNA TELL TREVOR TO SHUT DOWN THE J.L.I. He worked side-by-side with them and SAID to Booster that he is a good leader and that he can lead the team. CONTINUITY ERROR, CHAIRMAN JOHNS! JUST BECAUSE YOU HATE THE J.L.I. DOESN'T MEAN EVERYONE ELSE HAS TO!! And for some reason, every damn civilian seems to think that the Justice League would somehow be better government officials than the real government. Call me crazy, but I'd be pissed if Batman or Superman was the president. (Except for the parallel Earth's "President Superman" of course) This issue was just all-around confusing. Only interesting thing we learned was that the dude who wrote the novel that originally dubbed the J.L. as the "World's Greatest Super-Heroes," is the villain for the second story-arc. I give this issue a 7/10 not for the story, but because I was pleasantly surprised by the artwork from Gene Ha, which I have to admit I was not looking forward to but now after reading this issue...I'm glad I didn't just skip it. Plus, it sets up for the second story arc, which is hopefully better than the first.

As for the Shazam! back-up story...I thought it was okay. Gary Frank's artwork was great as always. But it was kind of confusing as to what was going on at first. Once you re-read it, it makes much more sense. I promise. It was good and I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of the New-52 Shazam (hopefully he will eventually join the League!!!). 8.5/10

Me: *looking at the cover* "It says "Justice League" but it stars Steve Trevor...why doesn't Geoff just write a Steve Trevor ongoing instead!?!?!?!?"

Yet ANOTHER Interview with TEEN TITANS artist, Brett Booth!

So a few weeks ago, you posted a picture of Wonder Woman on your blog. Is this a sign that Diana (and maybe some more Leaguers?) will be guest-starring in TT at some point?

Nope, just me blowing off some steam. In the TT annual, the Titans and the Legion all have 'Tron' suits. Which sort of makes doing lighting and rendering... difficult. Originally I was going to draw Power Girl in her new duds. But that wasn't working for me so I decided to do Diana instead:) I'd love to have her in TT for a bit but right now there are no plans.


Also speaking of things you posted on your blog...when you posted about how "creative differences" happened on G.I. Combat for your cover art, and you said something about "enough dinosaurs" showing up in TT soon. And the cover to TT #9 showed Solstice and Kid Flash alongside some dinosaurs. This a sign of just some crazy time-traveling tale, or are we actually gonna see some of your amazing dinosaurs?

I won't compromise on the dinosaurs. Accurate anatomy or I won't draw them. But to get to the meat (hehe!), there are dinosaurs in TT 10, all kinds of them:) It's sort of a one off issue, to give the team a chance to rest before we start up with more craziness! It should be a great character issue along with some cool dinosaur shots!

Is there any chance of us seeing Miss Martian in the series?

Both Scott and I are trying, but she's sort of in the same boat as Wally or Donna... we do have some ideas, hopefully one will sneak through! Funnily enough I just did a new design for her last night. Now's the tough part, getting it approved!

I went back and re-read all of my issues of TT so far and in the first issue Tim mentioned something about this being a new incarnation of the Teen Titans. I was curious if that was something that was meant to be there or are we supposed to be implying that there are former Titan teams out there?

I think this is still an 'up in the air' thing. We were told there were Titans before or at least groups of teen or 'sidekicks'. We know Kory, Dick and a few others used to hang out together. So I'm not really sure if it was anything more than people hanging out and fighting crime together. You'd have to ask Dan for a definitive answer and good luck with that! LOL!


Also in the first issue, we saw many characters in the background on the pages where we first meet Tim, like Miss Martian, Static, and (what seemed to be) Raven. Any chance of the line-up swapping out, or just purely adding in some characters like that?

As I said, we're trying to use more of the old Titans, but we are trying to keep the team number down to 6 for awhile. It's hard to give everyone something to do every issue, you always have a few that are just standing around for most of the issue. We're actually splitting the team up for a bit to cover more ground and give backstory to Cassie. Scott has some cool guest stars we're trying to get... As for swapping out... I think we've only just started with this group, to toss some before they have a chance to be flushed out seems like a bad idea. Who do you toss? Who gets to be brought in?

Static will not be in TT, because DC doesn't own him it makes using him difficult, Raven is going to be appearing in another book... We will see a few familiar names and faces but they won't be joining... at least not this team (Omen, KoffKoff);)

Thanks, Brett. You can check out my other interview with Brett here.

Batman #7 Review-SPOILERS AHEAD!

At the very beginning, Batman is brought back to life by some chick in a van. I should probably know who this is, but I don't. We then see the Court of Owls bring a new Talon to life, stating that he is now "faster, stronger than ever." We see Batman crawling his way to the underground entrance to the Cave,where Alfred grabs him and drags him in. Bruce sees that they have the old Talon who Bruce killed is on a slab in the Cave. Despite Alfred's arguments, Bruce demands he be placed on "the table" for examination. Now, we see the Court showing the new Talon who their "enemy" is (Batman) and putting on his armor. Back in the cave, Dick decides to stroll in and see Bruce. Apparently Talon was able to survive due to some thing about how a tooth made of electrum (click to find out what that is) which can apparently reanimate tissue. He apparently survived the fall off of Wayne Tower and the many other attacks due to the tooth but the freezing cold of the river made the electrum stop working or something. Apparently, this Talon (who looks like he's Dick's age), is Dick's great-grandfather, William Cobb. Dick begins ranting to Bruce about how he is cutting himself off from humanity and emotion and all kinds of other stuff, which leads Bruce to "KRACK"ing Dick in the face. (HA!!) But apparently it was only to get a tooth made of electrum out of his mouth. Well, shit. Think of how deep the control of the Court must go if they can control everyone, EVEN THE DENTISTS!!! Dick was supposed to become the next Talon. Apparently, Haley's Circus has been presenting children to the Court and Dick was chosen but since his parents' deaths and Bruce adopted him, that was blocked. Bruce tells Dick that he feels like the Court owns Gotham, but Dick tells him that neither the Court NOR Batman "are" Gotham. Then, the Court releases a shitload of Talons onto Gotham to take control of the city for the Court.

I think that the storyline is heating up, and that both Snyder and Capullo are bringing interesting twists to the Dark Knight and his supporting cast in this story. I'm enjoying it up and down, but this issue was certainly a strong set-up for things to come. Can't wait for the actual event. 8/10 Nightwing: "Yes, you made a mistake and underestimated them...but they're not Gotham City, Bruce. And neither are you." Alright, people. There you have my review of Batman #7. I was going to try and review Green Lantern & Red Lanterns #7 (even though I already did a "quickie" for them) but I'm just too tired, so I'll just skip that. I will hopefully be getting Justice League #7 soon and I'll review that, but I don't have high-hopes...so yeah, don't expect much of a review. See you soon!

Round-Up of My Reviews (So Far)

I figured that (since I've got nothing better to do) I would round up all of my reviews posts in one convenient spot. Sure, I've been kind of off-and-on with my reviews, but it's better than nothing, right? So here we go starting with...

Flashpoint #5-Geoff Johns & Andy Kubert
Justice League #1-Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
My "Quickies" for Sept. 2011 Comics
"Quickies" for the first 2-Weeks of October 2011
Justice League #2-Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
Batman #2-Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Green Lantern #1-Geoff Johns & Doug Mahnke
My "Quickies" to Catch Up the Rest of October 2011
My next batch of "Quickies"
Justice League #3-Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
Batman #3-Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
X-Men Regenesis One-Shot
Legion of Super-Heroes #3-Paul Levitz & Francis Portela
Justice League #5-Geoff Johns & Jim Lee (No, I didn't review #4. Yeah, I don't even remember why.)
Aquaman #5-Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis
Justice League International #6
Justice League International #7-Dan Jurgens & Aaron Lopresti
Most Recent "Quickies"