Whimper.... George Perez drawing m'man! :)

[icon_uk]

It's been a long, stressful week at work (I use stressful, but that doesn't quite convey the sense of a seemingly endless series of nerve shredding, bowel tightening moments), so I decided to get myself a little treat this weekend. So when I happened past a copy of the new "New Teen Titans" hardback, "Games" I couldn't resist.

Now, "Games" has a long (and I mean LONG) genesis, it's being released 25 years after it was started (and ironically maybe a week after the entire history of the Teen Titans is up in air), Marv Wolfman and George Perez started it, then stopped, and just never got back around to it, until recently when they got back together to finish it.

Now they had to do a fair rewrite of it, incorporating the pages George had already drawn, and events which happen in it basically make this into an alt-universe story in and of itself.

The story is... to be honest... not particularly awesome, there are a lot of rather random villains introduced to make the plot work, and the final reveal isn't notably well done. Within the page limits, they're a fairly lacklustre group, though there are several of them who would be well worth a more detailed appearance. For those of you who've read it, I'd say I want to see Knight and Squire (no, not Cecil and Beryl) and Holox again.

There's also the death of a long standing member of the cast which is rather gratuitous and a sort of fridging (inasmuch as it's used to get an emotional reaction from the Titan they know) but it's handled fairly tastefully and has a nice payoff at the end, with everyone's LEAST favourite Titan having a couple of good moments too, and which might have saved that character if Titans Hunt hadn't come along.

But that's by the by, and I'll let someone else post pages from the actual story if they see fit, I just wanted to showcase this gorgeous page and a bit, which reminds me yet again, that there is NO ONE who draws Dick Grayson as perfectly as George Perez





The puffing isn't me, but it was a close run thing... ye gods but that's some pretty manflesh

Also, just for kicks, a page showing that Joey Wilson, owner of absurdly luxuriant locks and sideburns the likes of which comics have not seen before or since, has absolutely NO shame when it comes to headwear either.



And for those interested, a quick check of the ASL (American Sign Language) website, confirms that Joey is spelling out T-I-T-A-N-S there.

Comments

[zenbro]

And that's why they call him "Swingin" Dick Grayson.

[shadowpsykie]

... who's Joey's girlfriend?

*sigh* i always like the idea that he was gay... but i understand Wolfman's decision not to...

also... mmmm acrobat booty all sweaty and....

*i'll be in my bunk*

[rdfox]

In the 1988 outline that they used to pitch the idea to management, which is reprinted in the book, they actually said that they wanted to imply that Joey had *several* girlfriends at the time.

Besides, we did have him having hit on Raven at one point in canon, so... bi at most, y'know?

[icon_uk]

they actually said that they wanted to imply that Joey had *several* girlfriends at the time.

That was stated categorically in both this story, and in the Titans run back in the day. There's one issue where we hear a recording of the messages that have been left for him whilst he's been away on a mission, and there are paintings for each of the several ladies in question in his studio.

[jlroberson]

Well, he's obviously a good listener, so...

[icon_uk]

No idea who this one is, but when, in a later scene, the Titans have to issue warnings to those closest to them (because a villain knows a LOT about their private lives) Vic warns his grandparents, Donna warns Terry and her co-workers etc), Nightwing is seen to leave messages on the ansaphones of at last seven women (and Adeline, Joey's mother).

I won't make any comment about double standards for male and female characters in this situation as I imagine a lot of people can already make those for themselves, but Joey has always been a very romantic flirt and was usually seeing several ladies at the same time.

[whitesycamore]

I won't make any comment about double standards for male and female characters in this situation as I imagine a lot of people can already make those for themselves, but Joey has always been a very romantic flirt and was usually seeing several ladies at the same time.

Then I won't either. *Bites tongue, very very hard.*

[icon_uk]

Hey, if bringing it up helps you, go for it, that's partly what we're here for.

[whitesycamore]

"blah blah blah when I wrote 'the beastly fornications of this rancid space-hooker' I didn't mean I had a problem with the *sex* - I was just talking about how I didn't like her characterisation in this book. Jeez, I don't know why on Earth you'd think *that* was slut-shaming language."

And so on.

[icon_uk]

I hope you don't mind that 'the beastly fornications of this rancid space-hooker' made me smile a little, though at the beautiful construction of the phrase rather than at any underlying implications.

[bariman]

Yes, implications aside, that's a wonderful phrase. I'm saving that in my ideas file for a space RPG setting I'm putting together.

[star_of_airdrie]

that's a whole new definition of 'wing' man...

[kamino_neko]

... Forget double standards, I'm just wondering where he finds the time.

[icon_uk]

Of course, there is one notion that might explain it... who says it's one at a time?

[aeka]

"My eyes are everywhere. Even the batcave."

*Mind wanders off to dark and scary places.*

[icon_uk]

Or some very HAPPY places! ;)

[jlroberson]

Well, for YOU, given this is Grayson. ;)

[icon_uk]

True, though given the usual reaction to my posts, I think I am far from alone in that! :)

[bariman]

I thought the CIA wasn't supposed to do operations on American soil? So a CIA agent just admitted to spying on American citizens on American soil. Yeah, that could cause a scandel there.

[icon_uk]

Nope, notice that Faraday is quite clear that he isn't CIA, he's CBI.

[bariman]

*blinks* Huh. I could have sworn I read him say Central Intelligence Agency. So much for my intelligence then.

That also raises the question: How did he get his "eyes" into the Batcave?

[icon_uk]

How much certain government organisations know about the Batclan is rarely clear, but probably more than they let on.

[rdfox]

X'HAL, was it good to see a competently-written Starfire again.

Not to mention gorgeous Perez-drawn Titans combined with modern coloring instead of the old flat four-color halftones... so, so pretty...

[icon_uk]

I can like the modern colouring process when used properly like this (and unlike quite a few other titles, where everyone looks... waxy), but I'll always have a soft spot for the four colour process, in the hands of a good colourist, like the late great Adrienne Roy, there was always a boldness and a vibrancy to them that really made them "pop"! :)

[whitesycamore]

It's been a long, stressful week at work (I use stressful, but that doesn't quite convey the sense of a seemingly endless series of nerve shredding, bowel tightening moments

Well I hope your nerves (and bowels) are fine now, sir - as fine as George Perez's Dick Grayson's undoubtedly are, were we but able to see them.

But man, Perez's pencils look so unfamiliar together with that colorist's work... Not bad exactly, but it doesn't feel like Perez either.

I think I've had the reverse of your week, btw. Comics have stressed me out, and I've had to take refuge in real life instead. :(

[icon_uk]

I agree, the combination of more delicate inking (There are actually three inkers, Al Vey, Mike Perkins and George himself) and a wider colour palette (colours by "Hi-Fi") does make it feel a little... different.

And the week resolved itself satisfactorily I'm happy to say, but it's not a week I plan on expending a lot of memory capacity one...

[whitesycamore]

I'm not a big fan of the shading on Dick's musculature, I must say - makes them look a little too rounded and bulbous.

The facial expressions are great though.

[perletwo]

If I can fit the hardback under the scanner hood without damaging either, I was thinking of scanning and posting the page where Raven apologizes to Vic, and offers to take on his pain. I hadn't realized how much I missed those two being friends - or any of this bunch being friends, after the fustercluck that the initial TITANS run made of the NTT's relationships.

I also hadn't realized how much I'd missed a well-written Raven, but that's another story....

[star_of_airdrie]

That was one of my favorite scenes in this, if not my favorite. It was so touching.

Yeah, friendships on a team, what a concept...

[icon_uk]

Good choice, it IS a powerful scene.

[blackruzsa]

FARRADAY 8D
Also, I loooove that they took separate panels to make him spell out TITANS.

Seriously. Makes me feel like I'm using my sign knowledge.

[icon_uk]

Faraday actually comes across as a major league dick in this story. The scene above is culminated by a one liner about Starfire which is extremely crass (to the point I deliberately didn't include it because it spoiled the moment for me) and he's genuinely unpleasant to the team when he doesn't get his way.

[blackruzsa]

.... oh damn it. I liked previous incarnations of Farraday, and normals in the DC universe used to be likeable.

[aaron_bourque]

Why doesn't this wash the taste of evil Joey out of my brain?

[icon_uk]

Yeah, it actually DOES hurt rather reading this in light of the shit he was dragged through later (though to be fair I loathed what Wolfman did with him in Titans Hunt)

[junipepper]

You have to like how they contrive to have 'Wing spend the last 1/4 or so of the book, shirtless. :-)

It's not a masterpiece, certainly, but it worked for me. Timing may have been on its side in this, since I haven't loved too many of the nU's and a bit of nostalgia was very welcome. Plus -- it's Kory! I recognize her!

[icon_uk]

You have to like how they contrive to have 'Wing spend the last 1/4 or so of the book, shirtless.

"Have" to? junipepper sweetie, there was no coercion required I assure you!

[junipepper]

Hmm. I thought you enjoyed coercion (*looks at icon's icon*)....

[icon_uk]

Well.... it's more of a "restraint" thing than coercion in my case, but I won't argue the point unduly.

[junipepper]

to-may-to, to-mah-to...

No, really, I do see the distinction you're making. BTW, there's one whole page that features panels of Dick's rear end in action. I thought about posting it, but I can't really get the book flat on my cheap, crappy scanner. And I figure, hey, you have this book. I feel sure you'll have already noted all the important scenes... :-)

-juni

[heckfire]

Ah, pretty pretty Perez artwork. And Titans acting like the Titans. Shame to hear it wasn't one of their best collabs, but after most of the reboots, even mediocre Wolfman/Perez is a welcome balm for a troubled soul.

It still boggles my mind sometimes that Joey and Rose are siblings. I do wish more could've been done between them.

[junipepper]

I'm not sure I'd call it a 'fridging,' since she was more a hero than a victim. She chose to do what she did -- so she had agency over her death. The villain didn't actually intend for her to die, did he? And Vic's emotional slide really started at the point where his grandparents were threatened.

It's certainly arguable, either way.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, which is why I said it was a "sort" of a fridging. In character terms it was a nicely handled sceneand she did go out on her own terms. But in terms of the overall narrative plot, it was done to give Vic something to angst over.

As you say, arguable.

[zukahnaut]

Joey Wilson, owner of absurdly luxuriant locks and sideburns the likes of which comics have not seen before or since?

Hornswaggle! I direct you to a recent issue of Jouney Into Mystery, where the devilish Mephisto lays rightful claim to maintaining the most luxuriant sideburns in all of creation!

Because those who put forth that sort of an effort must be recognized.

[superfangirl1]

Hot sweety dick grayson? Yes please. Just need a shower scene next. This book looks awesome and I need to pick it up like yesterday. <3