TTG! HOW I LOVE THEE!
Ordered some back issues for myself off Amazon earlier this week. One came yesterday and two came today.
I am now in my happy place of squee. WHERE EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND NOTHING HURTS.
Teen Titans Go! #1 "Demo":
This issue starts out with a rare moment of Robin + Beast Boy bonding, as the duo fight ninjas. As I love tag-teaming and Robin and Beast Boy's friendship, I approve greatly of this scene. They're joined momentarily by Cyborg, and the whole thing is soon revealed to be actually a video game they're playing. And failing at beating.
Raven and Starfire rush in, having heard Beast Boy's girly scream of distress as his and the other boys' video game avatars are overrun by ninjas. And there is cute friend squabbling. Starfire attempts to cheer them all up with a group hug. (WHY ARE YOU SO ADORABLE STARFIRE I LOVE YOU.)
Cut to the HIVE trio watching in on the game, which it turns out was actually designed by Gizmo to learn the Titans' fighting style and moves. Then they rush off to have a battle against the Titans. Starfire continues to be utterly adorable. There's a nifty suiting up panel sequence as the Titans go out to meet the HIVE kids.
The action scene that follows is pretty good. There are Wizard of Oz references. And the Titans being all protective of each other and stuff. Robin gets to be a smug badass.
Aaaand then it's all revealed to be another simulation. This time overseen by the HIVE Headmistress and Slade. Slade gets to be awesomely evil and ominous and berate the HIVE trio smoothly. Yay.
Back with the Titans they've settled their squabble and there are friendhugs. D'aww.
Teen Titans Go! #16 "Beauty and the Wildebeest":
We open in the mall. The HIVE Headmistress is there again, instructing her lackeys to move in on a distressed-looking toddler. There are cute Titan chibis on the bottom, with money in their hands, following a sign that says, "The Mall". The HIVE Headmistress stalls her henchmen because there's a complication: Starfire. Who is drawn exceptionally beautifully by penciler Mike Norton.
Starfire immediately descends worriedly upon the toddler, who starts crying. Starfire proves how awesome she is with kids and gets him to stop crying by trying goggles on him. Some jerk vendor asks if she's going to pay for it. Hey dude, she's just letting the kid try it on to cheer him up.
One of the henchmen distracts the toddler by trying to steal Starfire's abandoned shopping bags. He powers up, revealing himself to be the Titan Wildebeest (in miniature, Baby Wildebeest form). His roaring scares a pair of teen girls, who shriek in a manner that makes Starfire cringe and have this awesome line:
Starfire: It is like... the death cry... of the Rhee Bird of Tamaran... but three octaves higher... and unbelievably louder.
Baby Wildebeest picks Starfire up and darts off, knocking over a few vendor carts on the way. Starfire flies them up to the second level away from the angry crowd of sellers. Then they're surrounded by Jump City police, who try to shoot Baby Wildebeest with a dart. That just makes him power up to full-grown form and get angry. Starfire gets hit trying to protect him and Wildebeest plows through the police, then gently scoops Starfire up to go get her help. Awwwww... This is adorable. Now I want to write Starfire + Wildebeest friendship fluff.
At the Tower, the Titans get the alert about the creature at the mall. Robin has this to say:
Robin: And didn't Starfire say she was going shopping today?
GUYS, HE'S WORRIED ABOUT HIS STARFIRE.
Back with Wildebeest, he finds the first aid room. Starfire looks adorable small and cute curled up unconscious in Wildebeest's arms. They are attacked by Rock, Paper, and Scissors. Who are in turn attacked by the Teen Titans. Robin asks worriedly if Starfire will be all right, and Raven assures him she wIll (ROB/STAR-NESS! SQUEE!). Wildebeest resumes human child form and Starfire coos over him adorably. Visually it looks almost like she's playing with her and Robin's child, due to the dark hair and blank eyes. And Cyborg teases Beast Boy about getting beat by this kid back in the Tournament of Heroes.
On the letters page, 9-year-old Amy from Ontario asks shipping questions. Relevant to my interests are these: "And does Robin like Starfire?" and "My big want-to-know question is: has Robin kissed Starfire before? Or a girl Titan? Or an ordinary girl?" The responder, 'Johnny DC', replies in the affirmative that Robin likes Starfire but hedges on the kiss question because obviously this is before Season Five and they haven't revealed that Starfire's already kissed Robin. (My personal headcanon is that she was his first kiss, of course.)
Teen Titans Go! #41 "Bad Girls":
I do like this thing the TTG! comics do where they show the faces of all the heroes that appear in the issue.
Open to the Tower, and Raven is outside the evidence room, nagging encouraging Robin to go to bed. But he's in Mission Mode, so there's no convincing him. Instead, he asks Raven to take Starfire to her own room. Because Starfire is currently right there with him in the room, asleep on his desk, having fallen asleep while helping him with the case.
THERE ARE NO WORDS TO CONTAIN MY SQUEE.
SHE WAS WITH HIM. IN THE EVIDENCE ROOM. HELPING HIM WITH THE CASE. OH HOW THEY'VE BOTH GROWN SINCE "MASKS" WHEN STARFIRE TRIED TO COAX HIM FROM THE ROOM 'CAUSE SHE'S WORRIED AS HECK ABOUT HIM AND HE SHUT THE DOOR IN HER FACE AND BRUSHED HER OFF.
Raven wakes Starfire and escorts her out, Robin promising her to wake her when he breaks the case. Robin goes over the evidence and there's a seamless montage of scenes of the new villainesses, all claiming to be the daughters of various villains. There's Joy Stick, "daughter" of Control Freak, Mad Maud, "daughter" of Mad Mod (duh), Marionette, "daughter" of the Puppet King (the hell does that work?), and Pink X, "daughter" of Red X (okay seriously, now she's getting sloppy, Red X isn't even old enough to have a daughter).
Argent gets a nice scene of her waking up in her all-red UK bedroom, as Robin checks on her to go over the case. (Will have to adjust personal behind-the-scenes headcanon to accommodate her stay in the UK, in order to fit with my fanfiction continuity. I'm kind of a stickler for that.) Her pajamas are cute. I like them. She's drawn beautifully in this issue.
Robin writes down the clues that occur to him and nods off, remembering his encounter with Pink X. That's when he realizes that all the new villainesses are actually one villainess-Kitten, daughter of Killer Moth. So Robin, Starfire, and Raven knock on Killer Moth's door and barge in looking for Kitten who, obviously, is not there. Moth is almost as annoyed as they are. (Starfire gets a cute moment cooing over the girlyness of Kitten's room door. Even she can forget her resentment of Kitten to be adorable and feminine.)
Kitten is currently attacking the city with a swarm of bees, now in "Daughter Blood" disguise. She chews out her father for missing various events of hers. He blusters trying to assure her he loves her. Raven snarkily deduces that everything was an elaborate stunt to get her father's attention and there is this hilarious line:
Kitten: You don't understand! And how could you? All you goody-goody superhero types probably come from lovey-dovey, well-adjusted, perfectly normal families!
Raven, Starfire, and Robin: ...*awkward, mildly chagrined silence*...
Raven makes a portal to send the bees off to a flower field, which Starfire adorably tries to follow them too. (STOP BEING SO CUTE DARN YOU!)
Back at the Tower, the sun is rising, and Raven is ruminating on what it would be like to have a normal father and family and angsts to Robin about it. He assures her that the Titans are her family now. This is a cute moment between them. I like. It showcases their nice, faux-siblingistic relationship nicely. But one quibble. This bit:
Raven: Do you ever miss not having your father around?
Robin: Of course I do. Why? Do you?
THAT IS A STUPID QUESTION ROBIN. YES, RAVEN MISSES THE TEN-STORY DEMON WHO RAPED HER MOTHER AND CURSED HER WITH DEMONIC POWERS THAT DON'T ALLOW HER TO EXPRESS HERSELF AND USED HER BODY AS A PORTAL TO ENTER THE WORLD AND DESTROY IT. HE'S JUST SUCH A LIKEABLE, MISSABLE GUY.
You are such a dense dork sometimes. Why do people think you can understand Raven better than anyone again?
Anyway, Beast Boy and Cyborg enter then, all exuberant and cheerful and offering movies and video games and fun. And the issue ends on a mutual quip between Robin and Raven about how he's not going to get any sleep, and she's probably never going to have a "normal" family. Come on Raven, you love the Titans.
Letters are unimpressive. Nothing too interesting to write about there.
Thirty-five issues down, twenty more to go before I have the full set. I'm doing well.
I am now in my happy place of squee. WHERE EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND NOTHING HURTS.
Teen Titans Go! #1 "Demo":
This issue starts out with a rare moment of Robin + Beast Boy bonding, as the duo fight ninjas. As I love tag-teaming and Robin and Beast Boy's friendship, I approve greatly of this scene. They're joined momentarily by Cyborg, and the whole thing is soon revealed to be actually a video game they're playing. And failing at beating.
Raven and Starfire rush in, having heard Beast Boy's girly scream of distress as his and the other boys' video game avatars are overrun by ninjas. And there is cute friend squabbling. Starfire attempts to cheer them all up with a group hug. (WHY ARE YOU SO ADORABLE STARFIRE I LOVE YOU.)
Cut to the HIVE trio watching in on the game, which it turns out was actually designed by Gizmo to learn the Titans' fighting style and moves. Then they rush off to have a battle against the Titans. Starfire continues to be utterly adorable. There's a nifty suiting up panel sequence as the Titans go out to meet the HIVE kids.
The action scene that follows is pretty good. There are Wizard of Oz references. And the Titans being all protective of each other and stuff. Robin gets to be a smug badass.
Aaaand then it's all revealed to be another simulation. This time overseen by the HIVE Headmistress and Slade. Slade gets to be awesomely evil and ominous and berate the HIVE trio smoothly. Yay.
Back with the Titans they've settled their squabble and there are friendhugs. D'aww.
Teen Titans Go! #16 "Beauty and the Wildebeest":
We open in the mall. The HIVE Headmistress is there again, instructing her lackeys to move in on a distressed-looking toddler. There are cute Titan chibis on the bottom, with money in their hands, following a sign that says, "The Mall". The HIVE Headmistress stalls her henchmen because there's a complication: Starfire. Who is drawn exceptionally beautifully by penciler Mike Norton.
Starfire immediately descends worriedly upon the toddler, who starts crying. Starfire proves how awesome she is with kids and gets him to stop crying by trying goggles on him. Some jerk vendor asks if she's going to pay for it. Hey dude, she's just letting the kid try it on to cheer him up.
One of the henchmen distracts the toddler by trying to steal Starfire's abandoned shopping bags. He powers up, revealing himself to be the Titan Wildebeest (in miniature, Baby Wildebeest form). His roaring scares a pair of teen girls, who shriek in a manner that makes Starfire cringe and have this awesome line:
Starfire: It is like... the death cry... of the Rhee Bird of Tamaran... but three octaves higher... and unbelievably louder.
Baby Wildebeest picks Starfire up and darts off, knocking over a few vendor carts on the way. Starfire flies them up to the second level away from the angry crowd of sellers. Then they're surrounded by Jump City police, who try to shoot Baby Wildebeest with a dart. That just makes him power up to full-grown form and get angry. Starfire gets hit trying to protect him and Wildebeest plows through the police, then gently scoops Starfire up to go get her help. Awwwww... This is adorable. Now I want to write Starfire + Wildebeest friendship fluff.
At the Tower, the Titans get the alert about the creature at the mall. Robin has this to say:
Robin: And didn't Starfire say she was going shopping today?
GUYS, HE'S WORRIED ABOUT HIS STARFIRE.
Back with Wildebeest, he finds the first aid room. Starfire looks adorable small and cute curled up unconscious in Wildebeest's arms. They are attacked by Rock, Paper, and Scissors. Who are in turn attacked by the Teen Titans. Robin asks worriedly if Starfire will be all right, and Raven assures him she wIll (ROB/STAR-NESS! SQUEE!). Wildebeest resumes human child form and Starfire coos over him adorably. Visually it looks almost like she's playing with her and Robin's child, due to the dark hair and blank eyes. And Cyborg teases Beast Boy about getting beat by this kid back in the Tournament of Heroes.
On the letters page, 9-year-old Amy from Ontario asks shipping questions. Relevant to my interests are these: "And does Robin like Starfire?" and "My big want-to-know question is: has Robin kissed Starfire before? Or a girl Titan? Or an ordinary girl?" The responder, 'Johnny DC', replies in the affirmative that Robin likes Starfire but hedges on the kiss question because obviously this is before Season Five and they haven't revealed that Starfire's already kissed Robin. (My personal headcanon is that she was his first kiss, of course.)
Teen Titans Go! #41 "Bad Girls":
I do like this thing the TTG! comics do where they show the faces of all the heroes that appear in the issue.
Open to the Tower, and Raven is outside the evidence room, nagging encouraging Robin to go to bed. But he's in Mission Mode, so there's no convincing him. Instead, he asks Raven to take Starfire to her own room. Because Starfire is currently right there with him in the room, asleep on his desk, having fallen asleep while helping him with the case.
THERE ARE NO WORDS TO CONTAIN MY SQUEE.
SHE WAS WITH HIM. IN THE EVIDENCE ROOM. HELPING HIM WITH THE CASE. OH HOW THEY'VE BOTH GROWN SINCE "MASKS" WHEN STARFIRE TRIED TO COAX HIM FROM THE ROOM 'CAUSE SHE'S WORRIED AS HECK ABOUT HIM AND HE SHUT THE DOOR IN HER FACE AND BRUSHED HER OFF.
Raven wakes Starfire and escorts her out, Robin promising her to wake her when he breaks the case. Robin goes over the evidence and there's a seamless montage of scenes of the new villainesses, all claiming to be the daughters of various villains. There's Joy Stick, "daughter" of Control Freak, Mad Maud, "daughter" of Mad Mod (duh), Marionette, "daughter" of the Puppet King (the hell does that work?), and Pink X, "daughter" of Red X (okay seriously, now she's getting sloppy, Red X isn't even old enough to have a daughter).
Argent gets a nice scene of her waking up in her all-red UK bedroom, as Robin checks on her to go over the case. (Will have to adjust personal behind-the-scenes headcanon to accommodate her stay in the UK, in order to fit with my fanfiction continuity. I'm kind of a stickler for that.) Her pajamas are cute. I like them. She's drawn beautifully in this issue.
Robin writes down the clues that occur to him and nods off, remembering his encounter with Pink X. That's when he realizes that all the new villainesses are actually one villainess-Kitten, daughter of Killer Moth. So Robin, Starfire, and Raven knock on Killer Moth's door and barge in looking for Kitten who, obviously, is not there. Moth is almost as annoyed as they are. (Starfire gets a cute moment cooing over the girlyness of Kitten's room door. Even she can forget her resentment of Kitten to be adorable and feminine.)
Kitten is currently attacking the city with a swarm of bees, now in "Daughter Blood" disguise. She chews out her father for missing various events of hers. He blusters trying to assure her he loves her. Raven snarkily deduces that everything was an elaborate stunt to get her father's attention and there is this hilarious line:
Kitten: You don't understand! And how could you? All you goody-goody superhero types probably come from lovey-dovey, well-adjusted, perfectly normal families!
Raven, Starfire, and Robin: ...*awkward, mildly chagrined silence*...
Raven makes a portal to send the bees off to a flower field, which Starfire adorably tries to follow them too. (STOP BEING SO CUTE DARN YOU!)
Back at the Tower, the sun is rising, and Raven is ruminating on what it would be like to have a normal father and family and angsts to Robin about it. He assures her that the Titans are her family now. This is a cute moment between them. I like. It showcases their nice, faux-siblingistic relationship nicely. But one quibble. This bit:
Raven: Do you ever miss not having your father around?
Robin: Of course I do. Why? Do you?
THAT IS A STUPID QUESTION ROBIN. YES, RAVEN MISSES THE TEN-STORY DEMON WHO RAPED HER MOTHER AND CURSED HER WITH DEMONIC POWERS THAT DON'T ALLOW HER TO EXPRESS HERSELF AND USED HER BODY AS A PORTAL TO ENTER THE WORLD AND DESTROY IT. HE'S JUST SUCH A LIKEABLE, MISSABLE GUY.
You are such a dense dork sometimes. Why do people think you can understand Raven better than anyone again?
Anyway, Beast Boy and Cyborg enter then, all exuberant and cheerful and offering movies and video games and fun. And the issue ends on a mutual quip between Robin and Raven about how he's not going to get any sleep, and she's probably never going to have a "normal" family. Come on Raven, you love the Titans.
Letters are unimpressive. Nothing too interesting to write about there.
Thirty-five issues down, twenty more to go before I have the full set. I'm doing well.