Teen Titans Academy #1 Preview

[icon_uk]

Teen Ttians Academy has a preview up




Despite the fact the hand and fletching are ideally placed to cover up a goatee, that's Roy not Ollie (I didn't notice the R belt buckle at first), even if I didn't think Roy had used the Red Arrow codename since Flashpoint, never going beyond Speedy , Roy or Arsenal.





So random thoughts;

I like that it's named for Roy, though it's slightly embarassing now he's alive again, even if the Titans don't know that.

The teachers uniform appears to be "adding a T-buckle belt to existing costume" which seems a little odd, but fair enough.

It concerns me a little this is yet another teaching establishment where I suspect none of the teachers have even the remotest educational qualification.

I'm waiting for moments like;

"Now if you'd all like to count how many arms you have at the moment, that would be helpful. No don't worry about why, it was just a thing we needed to keep track of a while back for... reasons, and the habit sort of stuck."

Or perhaps

"We shall now sing the school song.

Massed reluctant adolescent voices singing in dirge-like fashion (as is customary for school singing in my experience)

"When there's trouble,
You know who to call;
TEEN TITANS!
From their Tower,
They can see it all!"

Comments

[dcbanacek]

Calling it now, the Toyman is going to kidnap a bunch of them and rein-act the Hunger Games.

[tinygaylaura]

I hate that I got that reference

[deh_tommy]

On the one hand, Avengers Arena was actually alright so I could see the idea working.

On the other, the last time the Teen Titans were in a battle royals was The Culling, which... bleh.

[tinygaylaura]

I shall politely disagree about Avengers Arena

But yes the Culling was a crime against my eyeballs and still one of the worst things to come out of the New 52.

[iamrman]

Red X is that one edgy kid, right?

[tinygaylaura]

In a city plagued by The Crime

A city of buildings

A city you know or could imagine

A city in pain

A city crying out for a hero

That hero

IS SKELETON MAN

[tinygaylaura]

"Mr Nightwing"

So we all agree that Kory and Dick are totally doing some kinky "Oh no I'm in detention...I'd do ANYTHING to get out of trouble sir...ANYTHING AT ALL" role play together in the Academy when they're all alone there, right?

[zachbeacon]

Thank you. I was worried I was the only one. Granted it was Dick calling Kory "Headmistress" that got me.

(Yeah, good call on Helena's part for telling their old students that Dick was gay and therefore off limits)

So is this going to be a real school or a superhero school? Like, is Beast Boy actually qualified to teach anything? I assume there's a wait list for any language classes Starfire is teaching.

[tinygaylaura]

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE

And I think this is basically going to be Introduction to Superhero-ing 101 so they won't be learning like, math or geography unless it's learning the mathematics required to reprogram Brainiac's skull ship or learning which countries are ruled by supervillains at present

[icon_uk]

Well... I mean... THIS is a cover for issue 4...

[tinygaylaura]

Dick: Kory I nearly spilled my coffee....

Kory: OH NO

I HAVE BEEN VERY VERY BAD

SOMEONE SHOULD SPANK ME

[juniper6]

Well, now I am, and it’s an improvement.

[tinygaylaura]

IT IS

And I refuse to believe that Starfire's sex life would be boring and vanilla

[akodo_rokku]

This is some INCREDIBLY stilted and awkward dialogue. And I'd say someone should know what a bad idea superhero schools usually are, but I don't think the DCU has had all that many. It's usually Marvel.

[beyondthefringe]

DC has never gone in for superhero schools like Marvel has. There was the Legion Academy, but of course that was in the 30th Century.

No, the best you could hope for in DC was to join one of the younger hero farm teams like Infinity Inc (mostly reserved for JSA legacy heroes), Young All-Stars (pre-Crisis WW2-era only), Young Justice, or Titans... and God help you if you join the Titans.

I'm honestly surprised that we never saw DC try to do a serious attempt at educating young heroes outside of a team setting. I guess it's because they never had an Xavier's School kind of thing.

[akodo_rokku]

Combining Titans mortality rates with superhero school mortality rates seems like an excellent way to create a bunch of cannon fodder.

[beyondthefringe]

Combine that with the glimpses we had of the Academy's future already and... I wouldn't get attached to any of them.

[akodo_rokku]

Less superhero schools, more superhero mentorship programs!

The only reason Xavier's has lasted so long as it has is that mutants are so screwed from the get-go that it can't get worse.

[jlbarnett]

honestly, I think it's a damn shame it's an idea that moved to DC.

[juniper6]

Stilted dialogue is at least thematically consistent with the stilted artwork...

[deh_tommy]

I think that stitchpunk person in the hoodie looks pretty cool.

[tinygaylaura]

There are some fun designs here :D

[zachbeacon]

I wonder if she's somehow related to Ragman

[bazor]

I thought that as well. If her hero name isn't Ragamuffin I'll be so disappointed. :D

[zachbeacon]

That's way better than "Rag Girl"... so you're probably setting yourself up for disappointment.

[icon_uk]

Based on the comment in the scan, I'm going to guess "Rag Doll"

[zachbeacon]

I guess. Rag Girl just seemed more in keeping with Rag Man (and the company that gave us Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, the Legion of Superheroes, ect)

[mastermahan]

I hope not - DC already has an excellent Rag Doll.

Unless Peter decided to adopt a kid, and that's who she is. I'd love to see that.

[tinygaylaura]

Oh god

Peter Merkel coming to a PTA meeting

"We need to talk about your daughters use of bad language"

"I've taught her all the curse words I know but I'm open to suggestions"

"Her behaviour around her classmates...."

"I've told her to make friends the way I did

wait for one of the people she knows to die and then taxidermy their corpse"

"And in her "Pick a historical figure you admire" essay she chose H.H Holmes"

"I did tell her that he was overrated"

[tinygaylaura]

That was my guess as well

[kurenai_tenka]

Aw the Roy thing is cute.

But also, stop pissing about and bring him back to life already (bring Alfred).

[icon_uk]

He's already back, we saw that he'd returned in the Infinite Frontier launch issue, but he's not wanting to tell anyone he knew before... presumably so he can avoid the ridiculous levels of drama that they entail.

[kurenai_tenka]

Oh, that's awesome news! I had no idea, thanks. :D

[juniper6]

I feel like DC has been operating on a Bring Your Own Continuity system for some time. Since Flashpoint, certainly.

[mastermahan]

Icon_UK is right about the irony of naming the school in the memory of a guy who's already been resurrected. It's not like there aren't plenty of other dead Titans. Or a number of other Heroes in Crisis victims that didn't get a resurrection.

Which kid do you all think is dying first? My money is on the Beast Boy fan with the glasses.

[zachbeacon]

Also seems a weird call to name a school after someone with substance abuse problems. Maybe not setting a great example for the kids.

I mean, I was just hate watching Glee by the end but they really outdid themselves in that last episode. I get wanting to pay tribute to the actor IRL but in the context of the show naming the auditorium after Finn is all kinds of ridiculous.

[sabertoothlotus]

I don't know... I think naming it after someone who OVERCAME his substance abuse problems, demonstrating that no hero is perfect, and that heroism isn't always about punching bad guys and saving the world... I think that's someone worth naming a school for.

[icon_uk]

Agreed, plus I don't know how well known/public Roy's substance abuse issue actually were.

[zachbeacon]

He was certainly making an effort (he died while at rehab) but he's fallen off the wagon too many times for me to say he overcame anything.

Maybe if we all pretended Cry for Justice and all subsequent events never happened.

Actually....*thinks of Lian*...CAN WE?

[icon_uk]

Actually, I was kind of hoping that we'd see something along those lines when he came back, that he was lying low because he now had a daughter (he's not sure how, but they both somehow know they're father and daughter) to work out how to raise and wanted to do it away from the weirdness of superheroes

[tinygaylaura]

I mean as far as DC continuity is concerned Cry for Justice and everything that happened after it didn't happen. Lian never even existed in current continuity and that story along with Rise of Arsenal and that godawful Titans run never happened.

[tinygaylaura]

It's the Jean Grey School all over again...