Sunday, November 27, 2016

Teen Titans #1 (Rebirth)

"You're officially a teenager. God save us all." Alfred Pennyworth.


SPOILERS AHEAD

We see Damian's 13th birthday as shown in DC Universe Rebirth except he has Alfred with him. Apparently Bruce wouldn't take the night off. It seems that even Damian has had enough of Bruce being an absentee father and has stopped defending him. In fact he tells Alfred not to make excuses for him. As I stated in another entry this surprised me because I didn't think DC or Damian or would acknowledge how Bruce hasn't been a good parent lately. He's been making his own bat team and hanging out with Duke barely appearing with Damian.

It appears no one else is at the "party" which is strange. Tim is "dead", Jason is undercover but what about Dick? Does Duke live there? When I first saw Damian was turning 13 I thought it was mistake since DC made a big deal about keeping everyone young and comic creators seem to think kids age their parents. I think Tim has been stated as 16 so just Damian was aged up? He's only three years younger than Tim not six? I haven't seen anyone else aged up. How does the missing ten years work in DCU? I'm confused.

Damian thinks how he's lived in the shadow of great men, does he mean all the previous Robins? Speaking of them Alfred mentions how Dick and Tim had the Titans and Damian cuts him off before he can finish. I'm not sure if this is because Percy is unsure what Jason's past is (Lobdell said he wasn't a TT in an interview) or just not acknowledging him. Kori didn't mention Jason previously so their time on a team seems to be ignored. Starfire's solo series pointedly ignored him even making it look like Essence was her BFF in the short preview story.

Cut back to the present and Damian loses his sympathy card by taunting the captured Titans. Makes me wonder how Damian would handle this if it happened to him. I got my wish that Kori broke out setting the others free too. Unfortunately they don't get to set Damian straight as working together somehow proves Damian was right. Yes their stronger together but they already knew that. Starfire worked with Dick, Roy and Jason in teams. Beast Boy and Raven worked with Tim and this new Wally he worked with Barry. This also doesn't excuse what he's done.

He says their the new TT which Gar objects to stating that Damain is no Tim Drake. Damian tries to turn this around but the others tell him it's not the way to go about a team up. I think the team is being too easy on Damian but I like the way Damian slowly admits he doesn't have friends besides Goliath (what about Maya?) I hate that he has a point about Tim failing with the TT but I hate even more the implication that he's apparently going to do better with little effort.

They all smile after his speech and Gar shrugs off Damian's horrible first impression. Happily Kori (despite smiling three panels prior) doesn't look pleased and asks why they should follow someone like him. He reveals that they all apparently have targets on their back.

His grandfather wants to test Damian and for some reason this slips past Bruce's radar. This series has potential, there's some good writing here but a lot of it really annoyed me. Damian does have likable moments but he goes about this the wrong way when he should know better. Given three of these team members have history with his brothers it makes his kidnapping even more ridiculous. What about Kori trying to save people? Are they going to be harmed because Damian couldn't let her help them? He's still too overpowered and I can't buy him as a leader especially after "recruiting" them the way he did.

As a result I find myself rooting for the TT when they break free and attack him. There were enjoyable parts but I'm tired of Damian being written as overly skilled, being rude to allies and getting away with it while still getting what he wants. He's worse elsewhere but I'm so tired of these tropes. I'm also sick of Bruce not keeping track of his son. Seriously, after Damian died you'd think Bruce would at least be wary of the Al Ghuls and make sure his son didn't die again. Hell Tim just "died" and he's still like this. Not being there for his sons was why two of them actually died. Three if you count Tim.




Did You Notice?: The skull in the candle smoke.

The shadow behind Damian looks like Batman when he says he's Robin, Son of Batman.



Say What?: Bar Mitzvah huh? So someone remembered he's part Jewish?



Questions Raised?: Is Starfire the only one that's not a teenager?

Few years? So what Cassie is in her twenties and Tim is in his late teens? Did DC just agree to this time jump? I thought Tim graduated young and was going to college early? Wouldn't that mean no one besides Damian and Wally were teens? Was Tim supposed to be younger? Wasn't he still the same age? Urgh, my head hurts again.

Bruce has crappy security if Ra's can get that "gift" inside the manor but why hasn't Damian shown it to his family? Pride?

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