Reviewer: John Babos
Story Title: Commencement (part 2 of 3)
Written by: Judd Winick
Penciled by: Alé Garza
Inked by: Lary Stucker
Colored by: Jeromy Cox
Lettered by: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Breganza
Publisher: DC Comics
Issue 1 of Graduation Day, reviewed here at 411, sets up the dissolution of two DC super-teams that are either extensions of or inspirations from the Silver Age Teen Titans, respectively The Titans and Young Justice.
From the aftermath of this 3 part mini-series two new ongoing titles will launch, Outsiders in June and Teen Titans in July, timed with the debut of the new Teen Titans Animated TV Series and the subsequent release of the Silver Age Teen Titans Archive Edition from DC — compiling the hard-to-find first few appearances of the Teen Titans in the early 1960s.
Part 2 of Graduation Day has both teams dealing with the aftermath of their joint battle against a “cybernetic girl from the future”. Cyborg has had his lower body blown off, Argent and Empress have been severely electrocuted, a whining Impulse is recovering from his wounds, while the remaining Titans and Young Justice members are collectively and individually engaged in serious bouts of wound and ego licking.
Writer Judd Winick proves to be consistently inconsistent in his writing endeavors. My criticisms of his work over the last few months, particularly the Green Arrow / Green Lantern multi-issue cross-over mess and Graduation Day #1, have focused on his poor scripting, marked by a distinct lack of character understanding, and an inability to understand how people really talk. Interestingly, the “few” good moments of Graduation Day #2 are the respective moments of reflection by Titans’ team leader Nightwing and Young Justice team leader Robin — both protégés of Batman.
The weakness of this story is surprisingly not Winick’s scripting, but his choice of antagonists and lack of storytelling ability. A “cybernetic girl from the future” does not make a good antagonist, particularly in light of the fact that she is destined to become a member of Winick’s new Outsiders series. Nor is a Superman Robot a good choice of villain either. Robots and “folks from the future” are poor plot devices and characters — mainly used as crutches by weak writers. These are not new concepts and rarely are pulled off well.
A character dies in this issue and its pointless — with at least another death expected in issue 3. Oh, did I mention that recklessly killing characters are also hallmarks of weak writers?
Winick’s work at DC has been unimpressive so far. His Green Arrow work so far is lack-lustre, but better than the GA/GL crossover. However, that’s not really a compliment since I’ve had more meaningful reading experiences when reviewing the fine-print on Duracell battery packaging.
Issue #1 had some potential. The wheels have, for most part, fallen off Winick’s creative bus in issue #2.
The only redeeming part of Graduation Day so far are the amazing pencils by Wildstorm alumni Alé Garza. He brings an energy to his panels that really help mask much of the mediocre plotting by Winick. However, the plotting is so bad, Garza can only do so much. The facial expressions on Garza’s characters are very revealing as are other elements like character posture, stances and other little things that show that Garza has an understanding of the people that Winick, sadly, sorely lacks.
The art alone is worth price of admission. Plus, readers will want to see how the train wreck, that will almost certainly characterize Graduation Day’s final instalment in 2 weeks, is set up in this issue.
Geoff Johns would have been a real super hero if he wrote Graduation Day and saved us all from Judd Winick.
