Announced at Emerald City Comicon in March, but in the works for, reportedly, a couple of years, “Teen Titans: Earth One” has finally arrived. Read below for a spoiler-free review of DC’s latest foray into the book market.
Written by Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Terry DodsonIn this new, original graphic novel, the young heroes of the Teen Titans never felt like normal kids…but they had no idea how right they were. Their seemingly idyllic Oregon upbringing hides a secret – one that will bring killers, shamans, and extraterrestrials down on their heads, and force them into an alliance that could shake the planet to its foundations! The superstar team of writer Jeff Lemire (ANIMAL MAN, GREEN ARROW) and artist Terry Dodson (WONDER WOMAN, HARLEY QUINN) reinvent DC’s youngest heroes, with an all-new mythos in an all-new world!
When I started reading this book, I kept repeating something, matra like, whenever I would hit something that I felt was “wrong”: this book isn’t meant for me. This book isn’t meant for me. This book isn’t meant for me.
But that didn’t stop me from really enjoying it.
The “Earth One” series of original graphic novels are intended, primarily, for the bookstore market. More specifically, they are designed for new readers, people to whom continuity is a messy proposition. This is a Teen Titans book for someone who has never read a Teen Titans book before.
If that sounds familiar, it should; it is, essentially, the same pitch as the New 52. Except that this concept hasn’t instantly sold itself out. Allow me a brief digression.
The New 52 was supposed to be the answer to the mythical “new reader” problem; it would give DC easy entrance points to all of their books for people who, in theory, would like to read comics, but who didn’t want to deal with decades of convoluted history. This decision was, at least in part, supported by the success of “Superman: Earth One,” which was released in October of 2010, which did exactly that for Superman. It let a creative team take everything that we knew about Superman, aside from the most basic concepts, and toss them out the window.
Four years (and four books) later, and the Earth One series is still living out its mission statement, whereas the New 52 has folded over on itself so many times that no one knows what is canon and what isn’t, and stories are still incredibly confusing and frustrating. The New 52 sold itself out rather quickly, eschewing the “we don’t talk about things pre-“Flashpoint” ever” manifesto in the first issue of “Legion of Super-Heroes,” which was released in the very first month of the New 52. So, in its efforts to give new readers a place to hang their hats, the Earth One series is DC’s only real option.
We also must note that “new reader” is a bullshit concept from jump street. Every kid’s first comic doesn’t have to be a #1 (mine was “Batman” #401), and continuity isn’t that hard to follow. New readers want good comics, plain and simple. But, for the purposes of this article “new reader” essentially means someone too lazy to consult their shop clerk or Wikipedia with a question they have about a particular book or character.
So where does this leave “Teen Titans: Earth One?” It leaves it in the extraordinarily capable hands of Jeff Lemire and the Dodsons.
Lemire chose all non-sidekick characters as his Titans, pulling from the Wolfman/Perez Titans Cyborg, Changeling/Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire and Jericho. This is an easy way to establish the team as its own entity, rather than a band of second fiddles. Because of the nature of the story, the “team” doesn’t really coalesce until the last fifth of the story, but their origin tale is interesting enough to make up for the lack of cohesion.
In Monument, Oregon, life appears to be normal – teenagers dislike their parents and sneak out when they can, kids are bullied, parents are frustrated with their children. However, under the surface, a lot of strange stuff is happening, starting with Vic Stone’s skin going liquid metal in batches. When other denizens of the high school start experiencing similarly weird things, it leads them to start asking questions – questions their parents want no part in answering.
Continued belowOne of the key components of being a teenager is hating your parents at least part of the time. Rebellion is natural, and it is nice to see Lemire using that as a device in the book. Of course, rebellion is more acceptable when it turns out that your parents aren’t exactly who they say you are, nor are you who you’ve lived your whole life believing you to be. To say too much more would be to spoil the big reveal of the plot, but suffice to say that Lemire’s methodology for getting the team together feels organic, both in a storytelling sense, as well as from a human nature perspective.
Lemire, with his reinvention of Raven, also taps into a similar vein as Equinox, his Cree-superhero created for “Justice League United.” Raven, here, is a Native American who acts as sort of a guardian angel for the kids in Monument. She also acts as a tool of meta-storytelling, allowing Lemire to infuse some history into the story, as well as setting up some future story threads without just coming out and doing so. The fact that Lemire has two integral characters – Raven and Starfire – operate far away from the action shows guts on his part, and allows the story to feel much larger than just a small-town adventure.
But that small town adventure is very much the heart of the story. Seeing Slade Wilson, not as a ravaging menace to society, but a goofy dad with a gut on a houseboat is a really fun inversion of the character. The fact that, at least initially, the stakes are so low here is a really nice change from the bombast of so many superhero stories. I won’t be as predictable as to say that this book feels more rooted in the “real” world, because I don’t believe that for a second, but Lemire, through his down to Earth characterization and sleepy, suburban setting, has made the story feel quite approachable.
The biggest part of what makes this book seem special, however, is the art by Terry Dodson. Dodson’s pencils inject a slight manga influence to the events, and more than anything else, make the characters look and feel more like teenagers than most other “Titans” stories. His Vic walks around looking too cool for school, whereas Tara/Terra looks every bit the bitch many teenagers spend a few years perfecting the appearance of. Gar/Beast Boy looks innocent, with a kindness in his eyes that can’t be hidden, and Joey/Jericho is as petulant a kid as you’d imagine Deathstroke raising.
Dodson’s easy, not too worked over style perfectly sets the stage for a “normal” life, but has, seemingly, thousands of threads that could be pulled upon to unleash a deluge of shit. Every panel, at first glance, is suburban and tame; but somewhere underneath that calm is a river of deception and tension, ready to spill over at any moment. The inks, by Rachel Dodson and Cam Smith, are heavy and emotive, giving the pencils a depth and density that hint at the submerged dread. In the best sequences, the inking seems to take on a life of its own, giving the book a darkness, visually, that really sets its apart. Brad Anderson’s understated colors add to this to; I can’t recall a superhero book with fewer primary colors on display. The muted tones echo the shades of grey that the adults in the book occupy, somewhere between benevolence and menace.
More than anything else the entire team does, what sets the book apart is the way that they never lose sight of the scale here, which is small. No one’s home is a palace, no character is preternaturally good looking or talented; even the big set piece that closes the book takes place in a setting that seems smaller and less flashy than you’d come to expect. Lemire’s script deserves some of the credit for that, but Dodson’s pencils are what really hammers that point home. Sure, this is a Teen Titans story, and there needs to be some superheroics, but never does the second word of their name overshadow the first. This is a teenage story, and the book features all of the typical tropes of the teen years: there’s lust and rebellion and anger and sadness and lies and confusion and betrayal and, after all of that, weird superpowers, aliens, and secret projects. But the order is always the same – these are Teen Titans, not Titans that happen to be Teens.
Continued belowOf course, try as I might, I can’t ever truly disassociate myself from my expectations of what a Teen Titans book is supposed to be. I have often argued that the Teen Titans, even more than Batman or Superman, are what is at the heart of DC comics – especially because of the legacy involved with them. DC has, for years, used the Titans as the avatars for what the future can look like. And so, a large part of me missed the legacy characters here. Sure, I understand why having Robin/Nightwing would be a complicated proposition – same for Donna Troy or Kid Flash. But damn it, I still wanted them around.
I also recognize the fact that, try as he might, Lemire can’t always make these origins better. Vic Stone’s part in the book is an important and intriguing one, but this origin isn’t nearly as compelling as his original one. And so, even though I tried to read this as an entirely new story, with no ties to the past, that is almost impossible, and so I would be lying if I said that there weren’t instances when I felt that the story was going somewhere just for the sake of being different.
It was exactly that feeling that led me to the most liberating part of the entire experience for me: I realized that, even if the story wasn’t expressly for me, I didn’t care. Towards the end of the book, when the big reveal comes, I found myself gripped and riveted, right alongside the (hopefully) thousands of new readers who will pick up this book. While Lemire and Dodson took their sights off of me and my ilk in order to aim for a wider audience, I failed to realize that I am still a part of that audience. Sure, this book is not exactly “Superman: Doomed” #2 in terms of long-time fan service, but it did something that no one has been able to do in the past three years: it created a Titans story that wasn’t an insult to what the Titans are supposed to be.
And so, even if it wasn’t written for me, I will still claim this as my own, and do so gladly.
Final Verdict: 8.4 – An emotionally satisfying OGN, perfect for all readers.
