Wednesday Special: Buy this Now #2
Last week, Blue Beetle #22 came out and blew me away. This week, it was Teen Titans: Year 1 #1. The Year 1 series in DC comics is designed to tell the origin story of a character or group. This series was written by Amy Wolfram who is best known for her work on the really good Teen Titans TV show--she wrote most of the Terra episodes and many other great ones--and was penciled by Karl Kerschl who I knew for his cartoony style which is a good match for Wolfram. Together, they tell the story of the first meeting of the Teen Titans, a group of teenaged sidekicks to adult superheroes.
Hey! I didn't take that long this time.
This issue is mostly vignettes of the sidekicks who will come together to form the Titans. We start with Batman's sidekick, Dick Grayson--the original Robin.
You'll notice two things right away. 1) Batman uses Macs. 2) Even though the first Titans comics were written in the 60s and in theory (based on the characters' current ages and the current year) the Titans should have been formed in the 90s they have all the technology of the modern day. Robin uses a slick Mac. Wally West has a Nintendo DS. This is a flashback comic, but it is also attempting to update the Titans's origin. Hence the modern tech.
Batman is rarely portrayed as warm and fuzzy, but that's a bit dickish even for him.
Next we bounce over to the Flash's nephew and sidekick, Wally West--Kid Flash.
The downside of superspeed. Everyone else seems so slow.
His snack? French fries from France.
We then jump under the sea, where Aquaman's sidekick, Aqualad is having a tough time. Apparently he's easily startled.
This book made the Aquapeople interesting. That's a sign of pure genius for me. So is this icon by
yazzle:
Never gets old.
Finally we meet Donna Troy, Wonder Woman's sidekick, Wonder Girl. Donna Troy has one of the most convoluted origins ever, but basically she's Wonder Woman's little sister.
The layouts--the way the panels are constructed to tell the story--are great throughout the book, but this page is one of the best I have ever seen.
Okay, the clef and key signature are drawn on the wrong lines and there are 6 beats in that first measure, but the rest of the song is actually playable. It goes along with the scene very well.
Donna Troy grew up on Paradise Island, a place with no men. Odds are, this is the first boy her age she's seen.
Awww. Its' hard to see in this scan, but the back of that guy's jacket reads "Steve Holt."
After these introductions, we hop back to Gotham City where Batman continues to be a dick.
He keeps mentioning wasted time. I'm calling it, Batman is being mind-control by some clock villain and is trying to drop clues for Robin.
The following day, Robin and Kid Flash, in their civilian IDs, are hanging out at Robin's school, when Robin sees on his Bat-iPhone that a jewelry store is being robbed. Kid Flash offers to help, but Robin turns him down.
"No, stay here. It's too dangerous."
Wally can run at Mach 10 without breaking a sweat. I think he can handle a jewel thief. I'm thinking that Robin will learn an important lesson about teamwork by the end of this.
At the jewelry store, Robin sees Batman beating the would-be thief nearly to death and has to pull Batman off of him.
Ouch.
The last two pages of the book feature a talking fish, cracking bad jokes. A talking green fish. Considering Wolfram's vita, I think were going to see some Beast Boy action in the near future.
In case anyone is interested, here's a picture of the team that put this book together from Kerschl's website. Steph Peru is a dude?
Hey! I didn't take that long this time.
This issue is mostly vignettes of the sidekicks who will come together to form the Titans. We start with Batman's sidekick, Dick Grayson--the original Robin.
You'll notice two things right away. 1) Batman uses Macs. 2) Even though the first Titans comics were written in the 60s and in theory (based on the characters' current ages and the current year) the Titans should have been formed in the 90s they have all the technology of the modern day. Robin uses a slick Mac. Wally West has a Nintendo DS. This is a flashback comic, but it is also attempting to update the Titans's origin. Hence the modern tech.
Batman is rarely portrayed as warm and fuzzy, but that's a bit dickish even for him.
Next we bounce over to the Flash's nephew and sidekick, Wally West--Kid Flash.
The downside of superspeed. Everyone else seems so slow.
His snack? French fries from France.
We then jump under the sea, where Aquaman's sidekick, Aqualad is having a tough time. Apparently he's easily startled.
This book made the Aquapeople interesting. That's a sign of pure genius for me. So is this icon by
yazzle:
Never gets old.
Finally we meet Donna Troy, Wonder Woman's sidekick, Wonder Girl. Donna Troy has one of the most convoluted origins ever, but basically she's Wonder Woman's little sister.
The layouts--the way the panels are constructed to tell the story--are great throughout the book, but this page is one of the best I have ever seen.
Okay, the clef and key signature are drawn on the wrong lines and there are 6 beats in that first measure, but the rest of the song is actually playable. It goes along with the scene very well.
Donna Troy grew up on Paradise Island, a place with no men. Odds are, this is the first boy her age she's seen.
Awww. Its' hard to see in this scan, but the back of that guy's jacket reads "Steve Holt."
After these introductions, we hop back to Gotham City where Batman continues to be a dick.
He keeps mentioning wasted time. I'm calling it, Batman is being mind-control by some clock villain and is trying to drop clues for Robin.
The following day, Robin and Kid Flash, in their civilian IDs, are hanging out at Robin's school, when Robin sees on his Bat-iPhone that a jewelry store is being robbed. Kid Flash offers to help, but Robin turns him down.
"No, stay here. It's too dangerous."
Wally can run at Mach 10 without breaking a sweat. I think he can handle a jewel thief. I'm thinking that Robin will learn an important lesson about teamwork by the end of this.
At the jewelry store, Robin sees Batman beating the would-be thief nearly to death and has to pull Batman off of him.
Ouch.
The last two pages of the book feature a talking fish, cracking bad jokes. A talking green fish. Considering Wolfram's vita, I think were going to see some Beast Boy action in the near future.
In case anyone is interested, here's a picture of the team that put this book together from Kerschl's website. Steph Peru is a dude?