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Tag Starfire
A Nightwing #88 Micro-Review – Subtly Provocative
***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***
TITLE: Nightwing #88
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Andworld Design (Letterer). Variant cover by Jamal Campbell.
RELEASED: January 18, 2022
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
Both my wife and my local comic shop guy did a double take when they saw this cover. This isn’t an overtly sexy image. But it’s subtly provocative. It’s certainly eye catching, which I suppose is the point.
We get the Flash, Starfire, and the rest of the Titans in this issue, and Superman is advertised for next issue. So we’re heavy on guest stars for a couple months. But for Nightwing I don’t mind that as much, as he’s got such an open heart, and has so many connections across the DC Universe.
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Weekly Comic 100s: Teen Titans Academy #2
***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
TITLE: Teen Titans Academy #2
AUTHOR: Tim Sheridan
ARTISTS: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona (Inker), Alejandro Sanchez (Colorist), Rob Leigh (Letterer)
RELEASED: April 27, 2021
I rolled my eyes a couple of times during this issue. First at the on again/off again romance between Nightwing and Starfire, which is still a thing. Second, that our cliffhanger sees another superhero team butting into this book, and we’re only on issue #2.
On the plus side? We get to know a young speedster named Bolt in this issue, who wears blades in place of her lower legs like Oscar Pistorious did. I like that juxtaposition. It catches you by surprise.
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
Weekly Comic 100s: Future State: Teen Titans #2
***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
TITLE: Future State: Teen Titans #2
AUTHOR: Tim Sheridan
ARTISTS: Rafa Sandoval, Julio Ferreira (Inker), Alejandro Sanchez (Colorist), Rob Leigh
RELEASED: February 9, 2021
The plot got lost for me on this one. We’ve got Nightwing running around in a Deathstroke mask for no real reason, a bunch of dead characters to mourn, and too many surviving characters to keep track of.
How about this: Leave Nightwing out entirely. He’s got his own book, and it doesn’t really mesh here too well. Do Cybeast (see last issue), Starfire, and a few of the surviving young heroes. Let them take on…whoever the big enemy is here?
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
Titans Trailer Reaction: F**k Batman???
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The trailer for the upcoming Titans TV series, based on the DC Comics characters, dropped today. And, yeah…this is happening…
*ehem* Okay. So, let’s break this down to pros and cons. And yes, unfortunately, there are more cons than pros at this point.
Pros:
– I actually like the idea of Raven seeking out Dick Grayson, and the genesis of the team sparking from there. But what’s Dick’s job? Is he a cop, as he was in the comics for awhile? A reporter?
– Brenton Thwaites, who plays Dick, seems like a solid choice for the role. He looks damn good in that costume. Teagan Croft (Raven) reminds me a lot of Chloe Grace Moretz. Though that’s neither a pro nor a con, really. Just a thing…
– I’m intrigued by the little glimpses of Hawk and Dove.
Cons:
– Very dark and dismal. You’d think DC would have learned their lesson after Batman v Superman, and all that Zack Snyder crap. Apparently not. This looks like Riverdale with superhero costumes.
Though in all fairness, Riverdale is a successful show. I guess darkness is what moody teenagers want to see. I ate up that kind of content when I was in my late teens and early 20s. But that doesn’t leave the rest of us with much.
– Why is this trailer rated TV MA? If they want Dick Grayson to be angsty, then make him angsty. But “F**k Batman” is a little on the nose, isn’t it? Not to mention tacky.
– Early set photos of Anna Diop’s Starfire costume caught a lot of flack. Admittedly, they looked pretty bad. She looked like a space hooker. She still kind of looks like a space hooker, to be honest. But consider her costume from most of the source material. They were almost screwed either way.
Still, I’m actually willing to wait and see how she looks in the show. My problems with this trailer have less to do with how the characters look, and more how the show itself looks.
– That “Madness” chorus is going to be stuck in my head for days…
Email Rob at PrimaryIgnition@yahoo.com, or follow Primary Ignition on Twitter.
A Teen Titans: Rebirth #1 Review – Make the Teen Titans Great Again!
TITLE: Teen Titans: Rebirth #1
AUTHOR: Benjamin Percy
PENCILLER: Jonboy Meyers
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: September 28, 2016
By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder
Here’s a sad truth: It’s been almost 10 years since we had a really good Teen Titans book.
Geoff Johns’ last issue as a regular writer for the book was in the summer of 2007. The man has his critics. But he knew how to write the Teen Titans, and the book hasn’t been nearly as good since he left nearly a decade ago.
Benjamin Percy, Jonboy Meyers, and their cohorts are the newest team to take a crack at it. To their credit, their take is the most promising I’ve seen since the Johns run. This issue sees Robin assemble the team in his own unique, forcible manner. Our members are Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven, and the newly christened Kid Flash, Wally West (not that one). From a plot perspective, the issue doesn’t give us much more than that. But there are some hopeful indicators for the books future.
First and foremost, Jonboy Meyers gives the series a much-needed face lift. Teen Titans has desperately needed a fresh look and energy for years now. As much respect as I have for the likes of Brett Booth, Kenneth Rocafort, and Ian Churchill, they didn’t give us that. The energy here is similar to what we’d find in the pages of Gotham Academy, or what Babs Tarr gave us in Batgirl. There’s a sense of fun in these pages. It’s been far too long since we had a fun Teen Titans book.
Damian becoming a permanent fixture in this series is long overdue. They put him on the team for a few issues in 2011, and it worked out so well it became part of the inspiration for the Justice League vs. Teen Titans animated film. Part of what’s so great about the Damian character is if you add him to a story, he stirs the pot. He’s an agitator, which makes for for memorable chemistry with other characters.
For awhile now, I’ve been a proponent of removing most of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez characters, i.e. Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy, from this series. At least for awhile. I assume they’re there to tie-in with Teen Titans Go! But this series needs new blood to couple with its new look. Damian is back, and we’ve also got the new Kid Flash (shown left). Both characters offer a lot of fresh intrigue, and I’m longing for more of that. In a perfect world, I’d have swapped out Starfire and Raven for Supergirl and Emiko Queen (the latter Percy is still writing in Green Arrow), and kept Beast Boy. We can also toss Natasha Irons in there as as a techno-whiz. Notice that not only gives us an even male to female ratio, but it further diversifies the team.
Still, Percy and Meyers make the most of the characters they have by playing up the emotional isolationism so many teenagers feel. The first line in the book, from Beast Boy, is: “I’m alone…” Then we go to Starfire, who talks about how working makes her feel like she has “a place in this alien world.” In the next scene, Raven goes to a museum to “commune with my sadness.” Then we get some real-world commentary, as Wally gets mistaken for a thief, and says he can’t “outrun the assumption I’m up to no good.”
These elements were present to a lesser extent at the start of the Scott Lobdell/Brett Booth series, and again in the Will Pfiefer/Kenneth Rocafort series. But in Rebirth it feels like the thread that unites the characters. It makes them more than just teammates. A unifying factor like that is something you find in a lot of great superhero team books, and its a really good omen.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the restoration of hope to the DCU. This new Teen Titans book is barely established yet, but it’s already instilled me with a lot of hope that the series can be a hot commodity. It’s time to make the Teen Titans great again!
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A Justice League of America: Team History Review – Will the Real JLA Please Stand Up?
TITLE: Justice League of America: Team History
AUTHOR: James Robinson
PENCILLER: Mark Bagley
COLLECTS: Justice League of America #38-43
FORMAT: Hardcover
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $19.99
RELEASE DATE: September 8, 2010
By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder
Some of the creative decisions surrounding Justice League of America in the past year or so have really left me scratching my head. Certain characters have been in the League for a little while, then left, only to be replaced by other characters, who then leave, and are replaced again. The cast/team line up has been in a constant state of flux.
James Robinson’s would-be epic, Justice League: Cry For Justice, is partially to blame for that. First they were going to make that book into it’s own series, then they decided to just make it a miniseries, and that seems to have screwed things up. Robinson was put on the main Justice League book, and proceeded to give us an almost entirely different team.
Still, he and Mark Bagley put on a decent show with Team History.
The book begins in the aftermath of Cry For Justice, with Vixen, Plastic Man, Dr. Light and Red Tornado contemplating whether the Justice League should even exist in its current incarnation. Soon, the events of Blackest Night kick in, and Zatanna must confront her zombified father. Meanwhile, Vixen and Gypsy face their old teammates from the Detroit Justice League, and Dr. Light deals with her villainous counterpart of the same name.
Then we jump post-Blackest Night, and everyone but Dr. Light and a bodyless Red Tornado remain on the team. So Robinson throws Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Batman (Dick Grayson), Donna Troy, Cyborg, Starfire, Mon-El, The Guardian, and The Atom together. Plus, we get Congorilla and Starman, who were featured in Cry For Justice. They take on, among other threats, a trio of villains who gain access to the Justice League Watchtower.
For my money, the first part of this book overshadows the second. Robinson does a really nice job with the confrontation between the good Dr. Light, and the sadistic rapist Dr. Light. He taps into some of that Identity Crisis magic really well. The fight with the Detroit League is fun too. I was pleasantly surprised.
The book gets convoluted during its second half. The assemblage of the team is done well enough, but the bad guys are introduced via a series of flashbacks that left me scratching my head. I knew who/what the threat was, I just wasn’t sure how they got to be a threat or why.
What frustrated me the most about this book, is that the new team seems to start imploding before their first adventure is even over. The events of The Fall of Green Arrow/The Rise of Arsenal start to take over, and there’s a big question mark left hanging over the entire team. Plus, based on events that have taken place since Justice League #43 was published, it’s looking like at least a couple of these heroes won’t be sticking around for the long haul.
Team History is a decent book on its own, but it left me frustrated at the lack of consistency in the Justice League’s roster. Heck, even the characters themselves seem to be getting frustrated. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have even complained about the Teen Titans, and saved my frustration for the League.
Seriously…will the real Justice League please stand up?
RATING: 6/10
Image 1 from craveonline.com. Image 2 from dreamwidth.org.
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