GOOD THING: The conceit that Dove radiates a pure white light that shorts out the Black Lanterns. No indication is given if this is due to Dawn Granger being so emotionally well-balanced (all of her emotions are in perfect moderation) or due to some special ability granted by the Lords of Order, who would presumably be against the Black that is raising the dead and bring about the destruction of all life. Either way, it would make sense and is quite cool.
BAD THING: Since I don't want to look lazy for saying "It Has Donna Troy in it" for two reviews straight, I choose 'Ed Benes is allowed to draw Starfire'. Granting that it's hard for most artists NOT to go all fan-service with Kory... well, just look at it.
Starfire: Proof You Can't Spell "Titans" Without T and A.
Definitely the weakest of the Blackest Night tie-ins so far.
The biggest problem is that there's no real character development and apart from the scenes with Beast Boy/Terra and Donna/her family, the story doesn't really exploit the sheer horror of being confronted with an undead version of a loved one. And even those seem a bit flat when the characters are forced to "toughen up" to fight back.
You'd expect to see a little more emotional torment in a situation like this, especially given they are fighting people who they didn't know were dead, like Tempest and the new Hawk. But you don't. Hell, Donna even goes as far as to snap the neck of the zombie Omen.
Omen, for the record, is a magic-using Teen Titan heroine who died in the same Titans/Teen Titans special in which Donna Troy died (again)... and the narrator outright said that nobody much cared about Omen dying but EVERYONE missed Donna Troy. So having Donna be the one to take her out... yeah.
This whole state of affairs is especially problematic given that this is the Teen Titans we're talking about. I've haven't particularly been a fan of this series - or any Titans series, for that matter - but I do know from conversing with fans who are that one of the biggest selling points of the series has been the relationships between the characters.
You don't see any of that here. Hell, you see the other characters acting like jerks to one-another, like when Cyborg and Starfire give Beast Boy a hard time regarding his feelings for Terra to the point of wondering out-loud why they even built a memorial statue for someone who turned traitor and nearly got them all killed.
Granting that this is a valid concern, I can't help but wonder why wasn't this brought up when they were building the statue garden in the first place? And did I mention this is happening at a ceremony to honor the dead?
And I hate to keep harping on about this... but Donna Troy needs to die and stay dead. Seriously.
No, you CAN fight like that, Donna. Unless they changed your origin story again in the past hour, last I checked you're a frelling Amazon! You can fight naked in the rain, in a muddy pit with nothing but a pointy stick for a weapon (in fact, Ed Benes probably has a sketch of that somewhere) so you can damn well fight zombies in your bed clothes.
Fair warning: I was hard pressed to limit it to just ONE bad thing.
ReplyDeleteGOOD THING: The conceit that Dove radiates a pure white light that shorts out the Black Lanterns. No indication is given if this is due to Dawn Granger being so emotionally well-balanced (all of her emotions are in perfect moderation) or due to some special ability granted by the Lords of Order, who would presumably be against the Black that is raising the dead and bring about the destruction of all life. Either way, it would make sense and is quite cool.
Yes on both of these. I dug the Good Thing for sure. The rest of the book was crap, especially the loss of Holly who we never even got to know (and the few times we did see her she was written as an actual human being with flaws, and whims and will).
Bad thing: Bart only having Compassion and Fear in his colours. For Impulse there should be Hope and Will in there somewhere.
Keep in mind that the color-aura only reflects their current emotional state and the dominant emotion overshadows everything else.
ReplyDeleteSo Bart's aura being a mix of fear and compassion would make sense, what with Bart worrying about his friends. Which is the only time it is ever acceptable to show Bart worrying about anything, IMHO. :)
Agreed. However it is pretty bizarre for the guy who fought the Rogues without his powers wouldn't have Hope and Will in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that almost everyone else has rage as a dominant emotion.
Like I said, the current emotion - if strong enough - overshadows the person's normal state. In this case, the yellow and purple are stronger than the blue and green.
ReplyDeleteI imagine most of the Titans normally wouldn't have so much red in their aura.
Yep I agree, I still find myself surprised :)
ReplyDeleteI like that Vic has lots of pent up Rage in him and the will to unleash it. :)
Maybe we will see a return of Donna to her Darkstar like status given that she is now "infected" and can see the colour spectrum. I could live with her becoming some kind of weird DC equivalent of Silver Surfer if she were to become some kind of herald of the Black Lanterns and then break free.
In retrospect, I find myself bothered that it is only the younger heroes - Bart and Cassie - who are feeling fear.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty telling Bart is the only one who has any compassion, though. :)
Well you know they feel fear because they haven't gone through anything near what the original Titans have been through. They really haven't done anything that has resulted in them having the mettle to really be heroes. When you think about it, they are really third string legacy characters that no one really likes anyways. I really should have held to my guns and left most of them dead - and killed the rest, preferably involving fire. I can't wait till I get all the Silver Age characters back.
ReplyDelete*ugh my head* Where am I ... I think I just channeled Dan Didio. I think I'm going to be sick.
To Dan's credit, he has enough of a sense of humor about himself to be the villain of Ambush Bug: Year None. That's more than Joe Quesada will allow.
ReplyDeleteYep I suppose ... but why does he have to come across as a jerk all the time? Every time I see/hear/watch an interview with him he seems awful condescending to the fans.
ReplyDeleteI can see that. Of course, I've heard similar things said about Stan Lee.
ReplyDeleteI suspect my own saint-like patience would be sorely tested given the sheer number of complaints he must deal with at conventions, to say nothing of the pressures of running a professional publishing company. And lord knows I'M a sarcastic prick, even about things I enjoy. See the rest of this blog for examples of that. :)
THHHHHHHAT WOULD BE AWEEEEESOME.....
ReplyDeleteI thought it was hope and fear.
ReplyDeletecompassion's rare in the confines of the story.
ReplyDeleteWell, apart from Garfield trying to understand Terra. But there was a bit of Love in that too.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at Raven. She has blue in her aura. Bart's color is darker than that.
ReplyDeleteFYI
ReplyDeleteIn the Hawk and Dove series in the 90s, it was revealed that Dove's 'true' form was that of a being of light (around issues 15-17), powered by the Lord of Order, Terataya. I'd think this is somewhat related.
Re: FYI
ReplyDeleteHuh. Cool.
Hahaha, and yet I felt compelled to click anyway. (And I don't even watch the show!)
ReplyDeleteD'oh.
Donna Troy
ReplyDeleteI can agree that this was a story line where the Titans failed to show compassion. To have to grieve someone a second time is horrible. That is the writers fault. I think your aggressive anger towards Donna Troy speaks volumes of your misunderstanding of the core of the Titans. ONLY because you admittedly don't read it. I do, I have read it since I was a child and the originals were together. They have grown with me as much as I have grown with them. I am still reeling from the death of Tempest, but this I hope will soon be rectified. Killing one of them, is like killing one of the DC 3...Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Donna Troy,Flash, Nightwing, Red Arrow, and Tempest represent what you can become after you get out of the shadow of someone great. Don't Judge.
Re: Donna Troy
ReplyDeleteMy anger isn't toward Donna - it's toward the writers that have misused her over the last ten years to the point where she's a complete cypher as a character. I'd rather see her dead and in limbo than see her in her current state.
Admittedly, I have an odd perspective on Donna. You sound like you grew up with her during the 80s or that you grew up reading the comics from the 80s when Teen Titans were competing with X-Men. My first exposure to Donna was as Kyle Rayner's mentor/girlfriend.
I loved the Donna we saw in Green Lantern.
Then John Byrne came along and asked to bring Donna back into the Wonder Woman. Which led to Terry Long and Donna's son being killed off-panel in a car crash and Donna suddenly deciding she had to dump Kyle (for some reason). And then came the first of several pointless retcons in which Donna's whole background and personality would be jettisoned to turn her into (in no particular order)...
1) a Mary Sue so pure that her touch burned evil.
2) a literal clone of Wonder Woman
3) Wonder Woman's bitchier sister.
Honestly, I'm so sick of not knowing what Donna's real background and personality are and getting a different answer from every writer at this point, I'd be happier if they kill her off - again - stick her in a "DO NOT TOUCH" box for ten years and then bring her back once Geoff Johns figures out a way to fix everything like they did with Hawkman.