Teen Titans #27

Archive

Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Legacy Part One

Written by: Gail Simone
Art by: Rob Liefeld
Colored by: Matt Yackey
Lettered by: Comicraft
Editor: Joan Hilty
Publisher: DC Comics

Yes…I bought this book. Despite what the cover tells you, it wasn’t because I “wanted” it. I was really sort of apathetic to the whole endeavor. I figured, skip two issues, what’s the big deal? So I thought about it and came up with this. I like Gail Simone. I think she is a great writer, why wouldn’t I want to throw her some bucks? The only real justification I could come up with was the art. The thing is though…I’ve never actually read or bought an “Art by Rob Liefeld” comic (by the way, did you know he did his own inking? I had no idea.). I mean, sure, I was familiar with his rendition of Captain America that made every bone in the Sentinel of Liberty’s nose visible (and yes, I know that the nose is really only cartilage, not bone, but take a look at those comics and tell me what else those protrusions could possibly be), but I had never, personally, given this much maligned man a shot. So that meant, I was basically letting other people decide what I should and should not like. Well, I don’t cop to that, so I went to the store and decided to make up my own mind.

Turns out all of you were right. You have my apologies.

It’s not even the Mr. Liefeld’s anatomy issues that bother me. I mean, I get that they are off, but so are a lot of people’s. Maybe not to the same degree or in the same way, but I am willing to swallow some amount of stylistic tics. Ditto to characters that look like other characters (i.e. Domino, Blob, and Void who show up as villains at one point). People say that all of Michael Turner’s ladies look the same and that rarely bothers me, so, for the sake of fairness, I can overlook this too. Heck, even the changes that Liefeld makes to the character designs I can deal with. I don’t know why Robin needs a tunic all of the sudden, but I am willing to smile and nod on the matter.

What I cannot overlook is poor storytelling. Sadly, Liefeld’s work demonstrates that in spades. Characters disappear and reappear on the page with no explanation offered, especially in fight scenes. When the Titans go to fight Kestrel and his minions, can anyone tell me where the heck Beast Boy and Kid Flash came from? They certainly weren’t on the plane. Most of the time it seems like the Titans are made up of only Robin, Wonder Girl, and Cyborg. Raven, for being so integral to the part, has very little on panel time. There are other instances where dialogue and captions seem to refer to events that should appear in the art, but don’t (Robin handcuffing a villain while speaking to “Christina”, a character he knocked out three panels before, for one). Finally, in other instances, Liefeld makes decisions that undercut the dramatic tension of the moment (check out the scene in which Kestrel makes the juvies kill one another to escape for the most grievous example of this).

Unfortunately, the problems with this issue do not stop at Liefeld’s linework. The coloring is wonky in places too. Check out the way Kestrel looked back in the day, as depicted by Liefeld.

Pretty intimidating guy, right? Nice design and good use of color. Now, take a look at that last page of this issue. Then look at the old one again. Now tell me, which version is making that purple work for him?

Finally, some of the fault must be laid at Simone’s feet. As I said, I very much like her work, especially Birds of Prey, but a weak script is a weak script and this, ladies and gentlemen, is a weak script. Beyond the bowling scene the book lacks Simone’s characteristic pop, with both the dialogue and the action falling flat. Her introduction of the superpowered juvies in the beginning doesn’t explain who they are or even pause to give them all names. They have cannon fodder written all over them. Later, when the big one says, “We’re like a family,” you don’t believe it for a moment because, well, why should you? Her work on the Titans is not much better. Robin and Cyborg fare okay and Raven gets one great line, but everyone else is left to simply pose and spout out generic dialogue, when, of course, Liefeld can be bother to depict them.