Written by JT Krul
Illustrated by Eduardo PansicaTEEN TITANS ships twice in July for extra thrills! He’s back! Don’t miss the issue where one of the deadliest and most psychotic threats in the DC Universe returns. It’s Superboy Prime! Of all things to hate, he hates The Teen Titans most of all. Now he’s coming for them, and he’s not coming alone.
Superboy-Prime is back! And he’s got punches on the brain! But wait, isn’t he dead? Or something?
I don’t know. Let’s figure it out after the cut!
The last time we saw Superboy-Prime was during Blackest Night when Geoff Johns took two issues of his otherwise successful Adventure Comics run to show us Superboy-Prime continue to be whiney for a while. Oh, and then get killed by a Black Lantern in a Johns version of an M. Night Shymalan twist. It was basically the logical conclusion to a character that had begun as a legitimate threat and then morphed into a parody of himself (kind of like a different villain Johns created named Larfleeze). And now he is somehow back in our reality, and he is – you guessed it – pissed off!
What we get is essentially a jam packed menagerie of references to previous Teen Titans arcs with characters and villains we haven’t seen for quite some time (let alone in this book), all making their appearance now for an “oh-so mysterious reason.” It’s one of those things that is rather insanely telegraphed despite Krul trying to play the opening scene off as deviously clever, but for the sake of argument we can play dumb for now. That’s essentially the mindset you have to be for this title: “Yeah, ok. I guess. Why not.” The issue is full of scenes meant to illustrate the broad spectrum of emotions the Teen Titans have in their new life post-whatever happened last arc, but really you’re just waiting for Superboy-Prime to show up and whine about for a bit – and wouldn’t you know it, he’s brought fans! Queue destruction! Queue rampage! Queue absolute nonsense.
I guess it makes sense that if anyone can write the proverbial “pissed off fanboy”, it would be JT Krul. After the internet rampage came with The Rise Of Arsenal, if anyone knows pissed off fanboys it’s JT Krul. But Krul takes it to a new level with this issue. Obviously the return of Superboy-Prime is under dubious pretenses, but when he brings in his fans everything goes out the window in a cascade of insane fists being thrown for the sake of throwing fists. The nice thing about these characters is that they are young enough that acting impulsively without questioning events – especially in the realm of superheroes – doesn’t seem too odd. But nothing about this issue isn’t odd. In fact, it’s odd to the point that it’s actually fairly funny, which I suppose wasn’t the intent.
I’d hate to spoil the fun, but the issue basically reads like a fanfic picked off of the deepest darkest pit of LiveJournal that someone thought might be fun to animate, so they threw it into Teen Titans because “Oh, the book is going to be brand new in September. Why not have some fun?” If that is the case – if the impetus of this particular arc is that – then it is nothing short of pure brilliance. If, however, this was an earnest attempt to reconcile some loose plot threads (from when Damian was around and I read the title) while throwing a wrench into the works of what was supposed to be a longer character arc – well, you got Johns’d, Krul. Sorry, man.
Fair is fair, though. Nicola Scott may not be on the title now for whatever unannounced reason, but Eduardo Pansica definitely does the best Scott impression he can. Pansica’s style is very similar to Scott with very sharply and shapely defined faces, and Pansica’s art reviles in illustrating action. As nonsensical as the action may be, there are a few shots of Garth in motion that are actually better than Wally in motion, and given that the whole point of the Flash is to be in motion all the time anyway I think it says a fair deal about how well Pansica is keeping the art sequential. Characters move from left to right in a panel instead of panels, and it keeps the flow of the book strong, even without the writing to back it up. Pansica does a fantastic job of really over-doing Superboy-Prime to the point that his petulant screaming and whining for a home long lost is, while silly at this point, rather pretty to look out. It’s kind of a shame that an artist as good as Pansica is working on a book as low in quality as Teen Titans, but it certainly makes the entire situation less painful to look at.
Continued belowIf it seems like I’m not taking the review too seriously, it’s because I’m not. I’ve heard otherwise good things about JT Krul’s run (despite what I might assume), so you’d figure that Krul would take the series out on a high-note before it is rebootlaunched. However, it seems like over-the-top is the name of the game here, and it’s more important to just jam pack as much ridiculousness into the book as possible before Scott Lobdell takes over. That isn’t inherently a bad thing; in all honesty, as silly as this is I enjoyed it. I like Superboy-Prime a lot for what he is, and although this very clearly isn’t the real Superboy-Prime – er, oops! Spoiler! – it’s still fun to see Krul play around with the concept, even if he can’t have the real toy. (Understanding that this isn’t the real Prime makes the whole “screwed up continuity” bit less painful, too.)
However, I did find myself laughing out loud at the last page, which was clearly designed as a shocker and just fell flat, and that is the ultimate signifier of the failure of the title. In 20 pages, it returned several threats to the stability of the Teen Titans, and I can’t even pretend to take it seriously. Not with a last page like that, anyway – and for those of you who read the book, I’m sure you’ll know what I mean (it’ll probably be all over the internet in a day or so anyway).
Then again, I guess it’s not like it matters. Give it another month and none of this will have ever happened. Oh well. Given this issue alone, it seems like Krul had a few plans that just won’t be realized (Whatever happened to that Aqualad fella, guys?), but as long as you have to rewrite and condense what was assumedly months of character-turmoil and planning into three issues, you might as well make those three issues the single most absurd thing ever*, so good effort.
Final Verdict: 6.0 – Eh, whatever. It’s ridiculous, but I can’t say I hated it. Browse.
*You know, minus the whole “beating up homeless people with a dead cat” thing. You’ll never top that one, JT Krul. Keep trying, though! You’re on the right track!
