Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review
Publication: Available now
Description:
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!
Rating: 1 star
Review:
Teen Titans: Earth One was one of the books I was most looking forward to reading, I added it to my wish list. I even annoyed my friends about it. It's no wonder, I'm a huge Teen Titans fan and with a surprising bit of luck, I was able to read an advanced copy from DC Comics and NetGalley. I could not have been happier. That is until I read it.
It's so sad to say that this wasn't very good. This was so pitiful, it's laughable how awful this was from the bad writing to the whiny emo angst ridden stereotypical teens to the villainous parents, shadowy organization and aliens. The only characters I liked in this mess was Garfield (Beast Boy) and Raven because they were the only characters that were well written and didn't seem like caricatures. Slade Wilson a.k.a Deathstroke (one of the Titans known enemies) has been turned into a complete joke. He is one of the most deadliest characters and he has been turned into a bloated old man who can't even bring the fight to the Titans.
The artwork was also rather terrible and has this weird look to it. I know this is a minor issue but Cyborg's hair is just awful. Why would anyone draw this look for him. Oh, that is so awful.
Okay now for the story. Well, it's far from being interesting and I hate to say it but it's really another generic teen drama filled book. The dialogue for the characters was so bad it felt like the author watched some crappy teen show and jotted down the words. Nothing feels natural about these characters and their words feel forced. There's nothing but angst, bad attitudes and typical relationship drama with a little action thrown in as an after thought.
The story opens with a space ship crashing to Earth and a shadowy group collecting the ship and its occupants. Then the story skips a few years later with the soon to be Titans being everyday regular old teens until things started to happen. Victor Stone (Cyborg) was experiencing metal growing out of his skin, Tara's sudden powers gave her the ability to move the ground and Garfield started to transform and his skin turned green. Joseph (Jericho) although not showing any abilities was also connected to all the new changes. Meanwhile out in New Mexico, Raven found herself being tapped into everything.
There is nothing special or amazing about this book that went out of it's way to re-imagine the Teen Titans into something generic and bland. This was very rushed and it took every teen cliché and tossed them into a story which resulted in a lackluster unoriginal and boring book. After reading this I'm actually quite thankful that Robin was not in this. Because with how poorly written the other characters were and how disappointing this story was I can only image how terrible Robin would have been portrayed.
All I can say is that the Teen Titans deserved a better book than this.
A minor side note: by now if you have been reading the New 52 you are pretty used to abrupt changes to characters and the Earth One books are all about the changes. Case in point, Raven has now been changed to be Navajo Indian.
I still don't know why they re-imagined Raven when they have a newly created character Equinox (Miiyahbin Marten from Justice League United) they could have used or just created a totally new character for this book especially since none of the characters are anything like they once were. Aside from the changes Raven was still one of the best characters in the book.
(Illustration of Equinox from Justice League United issue #6)
No comments:
Post a Comment