Review: Teen Titans #20

I wasn't extremely keen on this issue. I didn't hate it, it just didn't seem to be very appealing and wasn't particularly enjoyable.

This issue was basically Trigon explaining His and Raven's entire history, which, even though it was a good origin, I think could've been told better. The characters Trigon was explaining his story to were his sons, who I'm sure would already know the story, right? I think it could've worked better if Raven was explaining to the Teen Titans after last issue's battle as they obviously wouldn't know the story.

Another thing I wasn't keen on was some of Eddy Barrows' art. Particularly the faces. I loved his work on Nightwing but I feel like it's really stepped down on this book, his landscapes and full body or team shots are great but a lot of the faces just look odd.

This series seems to be at quite a dull level every month, and I really hope it steps up for the next arc, about Kid Flash's origin. The only thing really keeping me from dropping this book is my loyalty to the characters, with a lot of my favourites in this series I don't really want to drop it. It's a shame because Teen Titans' first arc was one of my favourite stories in the New 52, but I haven't enjoyed it nearly as much since then.

Rating: 4/10.

(Despite my bad review, the book got a 3 and not a 1 because the colours were good, some of Eddy Barrows' art was good and I like the characters)

Review: Teen Titans #19

Teen Titans #19 cover.

Teen Titans is a series that hasn't had the best comments from a lot of fans, but I've enjoyed it mostly since the beginning, and I disagree with most of the bad comments it's been getting. That said I did have one or two issues with this...issue, but we'll get onto those later.

Just to quickly sum up what's going on in this issue, Tim Drake has started taking his job more seriously, and isn't really treating the rest of the Teen Titans like equals, more like minions, and they're not taking it too well. They're getting quite suspicious of him, and very impatient with him, since he's barely told them anything about himself but they're risking their lives for his cause. I like that Lobdell is re-enforcing the fact that they aren't a fully formed team yet, and there are still very obvious problems between some of the members, and you would expect arguments between a team of super-powered teens.

I love Eddy Barrows' art on the book, he seems to portray the characters' emotions and movement styles just right. Although it's very different to the previous artist, Brett Booth's, art style which I was a big fan of, it's certainly up to the same standard and is pretty much excellent.

I like Scott Lobdell's writing, and he comes up with some good plots for this book, but I'm not too keen on some of the lines he gives the characters, and he seems to write teenagers quite stereotypically, with too many "like"s. Also, I'm not very keen on his use of thought bubbles, he uses them to explain things that have happened before but makes the characters speak in quite a patronising way for the audience.

My final problem is that you see Beast Boy in this issue, but it's set after the events of "The Ravagers" #12, which doesn't come out until next month, and it sort of spoils what happens in the final story in that book, pretty much revealing that Deathstroke's ruined the Ravagers, and pretty much everything's gone wrong.



Overall, it's a good issue, but I'm not keen on some of the aspects of the story, like how Lobdell writes teens.

Rating:
6/10