In Short

The Titans are back, but maybe not the ones you're familiar with. This is a new group of Teen Titans, and if you're expecting the characters from the TV show you will be disappointed. Once billed as DC's answer to the X-Men, Teen Titans used to be DC's flagship title and with more excellent issues like these it could be again.

The Physical Thing

This is a glossy soft cover trade paper back (TPB) with Good quality art and Below Average paper quality. The lower paper stock is there for a reason, however, and i'm very happy about it. For $9.99 you're getting 192 pages. I'm an avid TPB collector and I can tell you that all of the TPBs in this series give you an incredible value for the price. The entire product is full color.

The Ideas

Those who are familiar with Teen Titans Go, the cartoon airing on Cartoon Network, will find this series accessible but different. Titans Go is loosely based on The New Teen Titans, the team that came before this one. Fear not, however, as several familiar characters are still there but just a bit older.

Returning characters include Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy or Changeling. New characters include Super Boy, Wonder Girl, Impulse, and the current incarnation of Robin.

I didn't have a good knowledge of the DC universe except for what I knew from watching the cartoons, and was somewhat less interested in the series when I learned it wasn't Titans Go. I was very surprised to discover that the writing was good, the new characters were very interesting, and that my exposure to Titans Go gave me enough familiarity to say “Hey, that character is like X only darker” from time to time.

If you've never heard of the Titans before, fear not. This book does a great job of introducing a reader to the characters, their back stories, and the history of the Titans. On the whole i'd have to say it's a little slow paced, and this is why. While there is action and adventure between these two covers, you'll find that most of the book is setup for the rest of the series.

The general premise is that young super heroes need to have a place where they can spend time with other young super heroes, to benefit from their knowledge, gain social experience, and deal with the problems of youth. The young people visit Titans Tower a few days a week, normally on the weekend, and while they do have established responsibilities they also have freedom to do generally what they want.

While no longer so young, Starfire and Cyborg bring their experience from the last incarnation of the Titans to the new one as its leaders. It's not always so obvious who is in charge of the Titans, however, as while Starfire and Cyborg will give orders the rest of the team tends to do what they think is best.

Writing from the perspective of a teen isn't easy, but the writers do a great job here. The characterizations were solid and I had no difficulty believing these were teenagers. While I wouldn't describe it as being “angst ridden”, if you don't like reading about teens reconciling duty to the world with duty to family and such then you may not like this series.

My Take

This is a great, but somewhat slow, introduction to the new series. The writing is solid, the art is good, and the characters are interesting. I also think it's a great book to pick up if you enjoy Titans Go and are wondering if the current incarnation is right for you.

If I had to do it all over i'd happily pick this one up again. For the cost you get an incredible amount of fun, and as a series this new Teen Titans is going strong.