The New Teen Titans title line up is announced and...

[icon_uk]

if I had to use a word to describe it, I think I'd pick


Announced over at Newsarama

Will Pfeifer (Who has worked on Catwoman and Aquaman but hasn't written comics in a good few years) is writing, and Kenneth Rocafort is on art. (I may not have liked Red Hood and the Outlaws, but it was usually pretty to look at in the previews and scans I saw)

But this is the exciting new line up...



So... ummm... it's the exact same line up as the last one plus Beast Boy? Oh and minus Superboy, Kid Flash, Solstice and Skitter (if she still counts as a member).

And I see Raven still has her mildly hilarious "face full of feathers" look but on the plus side, Beast Boy is green again... so there's that.

It's an interesting interview at the link, and Phiefer is certainly heartfelt about the title, which I can respect, I just don't see anything particularly exciting about the vague things outlined for the group.

I hope the title does well, I really do, but I'm not sure I'm interested in seeing this group again so soon.
 

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

I like this--I felt like Lobdell had a lot of interesting ideas and characterization, but varied wildly in terms of execution. It seems like Pfiefer is going to take those and make them into solid, consistent stories at the very least. Basically giving this team a chance to redeem themselves instead of just wildly relaunching it.

[crinos]

Why the hell is Cassie's lasso made out of bubble tape?

Its six feet of gum for her, not bad guys.

[onceaskrull]

Looks like it's ABC gum to me.

[akodo_rokku]

Looks like it's *supposed* to be barbed wire, to me.

[shadowpsykie]

that's what it was originally, but now it looks like stars.

[crinos]

Now it looks like a strip of chewed bubble gum.

Seriously, aside from Bunker, all these designs are terrible.

[junipepper]

I'd just like to know why they still can't find her a shirt that fits.

[skemono]

Well, she's a growing woman.

[kamino_neko]

Hey, Bunker's back. Wonder if he brought his boyfriend with him.

I'm mostly wondering if they'll follow up on Commodore trying to buy the Titans at the end of Green Team, though...

[akodo_rokku]

Is the Young Justice book *also* happening? Or is this a replacement?

[shadowpsykie]

they are doing Gen 13 i heard

[riderscoutjordan]

Why do I feel like I'm looking at a particularly dull album cover? Because that's the vibe I'm getting from this cover Well, that and "If at first you don't succeed, cancel the book and only make the barest changes possible". Unless of course Cassie supposed to be leading the team now, given her placement front and center in the cover.

[zapbiffpow]

I'm willing to trust Will Pfiefer.

H.E.R.O was fantastic, and I'd love to see a story arc like what happened over there, with plot points connecting together and such.

[randyripoff]

Agreed. His Catwoman was good too. I'm in...cautiously.

[tugrul]

Oh come on, guys. The cover is sweet. And since I haven't read anything DC from before the reboot… to me as a newbie Raven's look is awesome. Her look would be even more awesome if she could shape her hand like a raven's claw.

Everyone looks awesome here, except Bunker, with his weird legs.

[icon_uk]

Always nice to hear a voice of positivity! :)

[mrstatham]

This. I actually like Raven's look more than her old one - The old one was fine for an older design, but if she's meant to be a demon's child, and has a stronger connection to him in this set of stories than previously, make her costume look the part. It's not perfect, but it at least looks more interesting, to me.

And.. Yeah, people are complaining about 'same old same old', but.. Surely that would actually involve just farting out the book again under Lobdell and Booth? The creative team is, in itself, at least something of a step up, and despite Rocafort being associated with the Starfire controversy early in the reboot, he's still a pretty good artist.

Again, it just strikes me that, sometimes, people are negative for the sake of being negative. Every complaint about the reboot often seems to yearn for the pre-boot days back, as though DC didn't publish any shitty comic books prior to Flashpoint's ending, and.. Yeah, sure.

[mastermahan]

I prefer the concept of Raven's new costume to her original. Evening gown and a hooded cape has never really said "half-demon" to me. A creepy, multi-eyed organic helmet? That gets the point across.

That's concept, though. The execution, on the other hand... well, it's just ugly. I appreciate the intention, but that thing needs a definite redesign.

[icon_uk]

The point of Raven though is that she's only half-demon, the other half is a girl who was raised as a sort-of-Buddhist nun, in order to repress all emotion, it's the human half she clings to because to do anything else is unthinkable to her because she knows what her demonic side is capable of.

To have an outfit that emphasises the demonic side just doesn't work for me.

[benuben]

Cassie seems pretty grossly sexualised for a teenage girl.

[tugrul]

How old is she supposed to be? I hadn't noticed how tight her clothing and how much cleavage she's showing. You're right. Guess I was paying attention to more to the spacy colour and lines of the artist. Also looks like the artist attached sharp stars to her lasso rather than it resembling barbed wire?

I really like the bits of fur on beast boys arms, yet still showing his muscles. His bracelet and stylish backpack are a nice touch as well and his lunchbag says "Please do not feed the animals" ^_^

The building Robin looks to be sitting on has a weird height. Or they should've drawn him smaller. Otherwise his pose is great.

[jlbarnett]

unless I'm told otherwise I expect a teen team like this to be made of seventeen year olds approaching their 18th birthday

[arbre_rieur]

Agreed on Raven's costume. It looks utterly bizarre, weird, and alien... in other words, totally fitting the daughter of a demon king. It's like something a weirdo in a Guillermo del Toro movie would wear. I honestly don't see what people's issue with it is.

[icon_uk]

The design isn't bad, so much as very weird, which is fine in some circumstances, but it conceals her face so much it's sort of hard to see her as a "person", so much as a "person who is trying to inhale a pigeon", which means I (for one), can't take her as seriously as I'm probably supposed to.

I should add that costumes being silly I don't mind, in fact I enjoy the inherent silliness, but when the character is supposed to have some gravitas to them, it's sort of spoils the mood.

[big_daddy_d]

................................................The fuck is the damn point in a new book!!? Jeebus I hate this new no. 1 shit. Just keep the damn book going and just create a new arc with the new creative team. This is so goddamn pointless. Same damn team. Nothing new except a creative team but I highly doubt within the book they will say "Hey guys, it's a new day! We got new...gods..dictating our lives." *looks out through 4th wall.*

[espanolbot]

The point of a new book is that Lobdell drove the book into the ground with bad plotting and characterisation. Such as, for example, having Solstice, a character powered by Hindu gods, suddenly become a murderous born-again Christian after falling in love with murderous religious Bart Allen (they also made her white, though that's more of an artist error).

Or having Trigon make Tim Drake sleep with Wonder Girl and Solstice, then have everyone act like it was Tim's fault he was compelled by supernatural forces to do it, resulting in Bart beating him mostly to death..

Or the entire Culling storyline, with Harvest, a villain who changed his plan and motivation every couple of pages to prevent the heroes from getting any advantages over him.

Or how they introduced the YJ-version of Artemis Crock to the DCnU, only to have her violently killed off over only a few pages to provide angst to Tim Drake?

[big_daddy_d]

Still doesn't convince me to buy a new book nor see a point in one where we basically have the same team. As far as I feel, this is just Teen Titans with a new creative team. A new no. 1 is pointless. I feel that way with a great deal of books lately in fact. And putting "New" in the title is even more pointless. We got a new creative team, fine. Let's hope they do a better job than what Lobdell gave us, which shouldn't be hard. I just stopped buying into "new number 1's" and find it to be a highly annoying practice.

[kurenai_tenka]

...I missed some of those minor details. Urgh, so much cringing and minor-disgust.

[espanolbot]

Personally? Starting from today's Batman Eternal comics the Bat Books are having a "soft reboot", with the flashback series Year Zero acting as the official start of the continuity with BE filling in the new gaps. And Geoff Johns is also doing a mild reboot of the Superman comics when Lobdell leaves the book too.

Really they should have just swept it aside and just started the Teen Titans books again from scratch.

[kurenai_tenka]

A soft reboot would certainly be nice- they've tried so hard to do 'shocking' and 'exciting' storylines that everything is now thoroughly messed up.

As for Lobdell, everytime they get a new writer after him they just get stuck with damage control and working with his awful plotlines. Completely gutted he's back on RHATO, it's like playing racket ball between books to see which gets stuck with him.

[q99]

I don't mind a new number 1 if there's a new cast and direction. This, though? Nah, it's the same team.

[jlbarnett]

well, considering the fact they're not immediately relaunching it maybe they wanted a bit to wash the taste out of people's mouths

[shadowpsykie]

i'm mostly happy because of Bunker and the writer... Rocafort has actually done better than this so i am not impressed with that. he drew Cassie as more muscled (befitting a bruiser)

i am willing to give it a try because though it seems to be missing solstice, i like this line up, and the writer

[silverzeo]

SO BB is green again? I thought, or at least Linkara said, that Garfield is red in the new 52 due to the Red and Green deal going on with Swamp and AnimalMan....

[icon_uk]

New 52 Beast Boy has been red up until now because of the whole "the Red" thing, which made not a lick of sense since AFAIK the majority of life on Earth (insects) doesn't have red blood

[shingi70]

Its odd Iwhen ever the new 52 comes up the comments here become more tamed version of stereotypical comic nerds who Hayes new stuff despite getting brought into comics by a similar event/reboot.

[icon_uk]

I'm curious, is there a particular event you are thinking ofr? We cover a prety wide age range here, from well before Crisis on Infinite Earths in some cases.

And many of us ARE comic book nerds, so the stereotyping thing may have an element of truth to it! :)

[shingi70]

I was guessing Crisis is to flashpoint as post crisis reboot was to the new 52. I started reading with the new 52 so my opinion is mostly colored by that.

There are some crap books like Lobdells titans or Catwoman but I tend to think on average the new 52 is much better than it usually gets credit for.

That Raven design is terrible and I'd much rather she someone else on the team than a secret evil person.

[espanolbot]

I liked Pfiefer's work in Catwoman, so I'd probably assume this'll be good. Also like that Cassie is wearing a modified version Donna Troy's costume, rather than... whatever the hell that spikey thing was.

Tim and Raven's costumes still look stupid though.

[althechi]

Why is Beast Boy green again? I am a confuse.

[mastermahan]

I'm going to go with "everyone thought red Beast Boy was stupid".

[kurenai_tenka]

Rocafort does gorgeous faces, great men, but his female bodies make me want to tear things*. Sadly that is enough to make me go 'urgh, Rocafort'.

*Not so much based on this particular cover though, although what's with Cassie's top? Super impractical.

[kurenai_tenka]

Teen Titans scribe Scott Lobdell takes over Red Hood in June, while current Red Hood scribe Pfeifer lands on the new Teen Titans in July.

Also this makes me extremely sad. Why can't I have nice things? :( We'd finally got rid of him.

[coldfury]

Well, I guess this resolves the Superboy/Wonder Girl/Red Robin triangle.

I can't blame them, Superboy's book was a major drag on the last run. Better to get these guys self contained so they can get some momentum going in their own storylines. Now if we can just keep this book from getting dragged into every Batman event, we'll be solid.

*sigh* I'd *just* gotten used to the idea of dropping DC, with the cancellation of 2 of the 4 books I still read.

[jlbarnett]

maybe the time travel involving Future's End will change some things about the team

[mastermahan]

I think DC made a mistake here. The Lobdell run was, well, terrible, and keeping everything looking pretty much the same is going to make reader expect more of the same. Not changing the look more is a missed opportunity.