Teen Titans #4 Review

The Titans start coming together to face the menace of NOWHERE and their most powerful agent, Superboy.

Teen Titans #4

The Teen Titans do not exactly have a Happy New Year in “Danger Squared,” by Scott Lobdell. A major portion of the issue is the anticipated meeting and fight between the DCNU versions of Superboy and Wonder Girl. Between knocking each other silly and causing massive amounts of property damage, they both impress each other with their power levels and note some degree of potential attraction to each other. There is something of a hint as to how Cassie’s powers (or artefacts) work ,as her war bracelets warn her of Superboy’s approach.

Back at Tim Drake’s penthouse, the rest of the cast is slowly gathering, as Skitter bemoans her losing control when she changes forms, Bunker babbles nervously, and then Kid-Flash and Solstice arrive, apparently courtesy of the rebooted version of former Doom Patrol member Danny the Street. Aside from a bit of background on Kid-Flash (he doesn’t remember anything before six months ago), this is mostly set up to both assembling the team and the major fight which presumably happens next issue, when I expect the Titans and Superboy to clash before coming to an eventual understanding, likely involving an alliance against NOWHERE, or the team revealing to Superboy what NOWHERE has been up to.

Being wholly honest, I’m having trouble adjusting to the rebooted Teen Titans. This isn’t helped any by the conflicting stories we’ve gotten from the DC comics staff as to whether or not any of the previous Teen Titans history still exists. In this issue, Red Robin announces he was “thinking something like Teen Titans” for the name of the team. Bunker likes it, but no one shows any recognition of it. To me, this makes it seem more likely that the Titans’ past has been erased, as Bobbie Chase, the editor of the line, has stated in interviews.

There are a few good moments here, I’m certainly not claiming otherwise. Bart ends up stealing clothes from Tim a few times in this issue, including cobbling together a new costume from bits of various old Robin outfits. Solstice and Bunker have a nice little bonding scene, as both seem to be incurable optimists. The Wonder Girl/Superboy fight is done well for that kind of thing, there’s certainly no question that both of them are very powerful. And the cliffhanger of what looks to be a major, knock- down, drag-out fight next issue is executed well.

What I liked and what I didn’t:
The writing is good, I won’t take away from Mr. Lobdell on that. The inclusion of Danny the Street is an interesting choice. I’m suspecting he’s going to end up being the Titans’ mode of transport if nothing else. The hints of attraction between Superboy and Wonder Girl are signs that maybe that relationship will be revisited, which I’d like. Then again, the DCNU seems to be fairly anti-relationship, so who can tell? So far, Solstice and Bunker seem to be upbeat without being irritating about it, which makes a nice change from angst-ridden characters, especially teens.

I could have done without some of the clichés thrown in here. Superboy and the team are going to have a major battle, and then he’s eventually going to join. Bart doesn’t remember his past. The two fighting each other are already showing interest in each other. And, while we can see why Bart didn’t need to call anyone on escaping from NOWHERE, Solstice doesn’t seem to feel the need to contact anyone either. Is this to be an entire team of orphans, with no adults in their lives? Bunker has family back in Mexico somewhere, but he doesn’t seem to be in contact with them.

All in all, this is a decent, but not great, issue. Some nice moments and ideas are counter-balanced by a prevalence of clichés.

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Tags: Red Robin Scott Lobdell Teen Titans Wonder Girl