Friday, August 27, 2021

Comics Review: Bargain Bin Grab Bag: JLE and Teen Titans

Part 3




Justice League Europe #14

This was a poor concept to begin with.  The group might be called, “The Justice League of America,” but it was always implied that they were there to protect the world.  From reading a couple of issues, it was always mostly American superheroes with Europe as a backdrop.  Maybe Justice League International Missions would have been a better concept for the title.  Just show the JLA working around the world with some local superheroes.  Too bad, I’m not a DC editor in the 90’s.


 


As to this issue, the superheroes aren’t even in costume for it, so the characters weren’t even taking the story seriously.  I didn’t understand the “villain” in this.  Was he even a villain?  It all seemed too silly.  Yeah, that’s my whole review for the issue.  It wasn’t even worth this amount of effort.  (And how did Toho's lawyers miss this obvious reference to Godzilla?)   




Teen Titans #17

At last, we have a winner, as far as my tastes are concerned.  I’m not sure what volume of Teen Titians this would be in 1998.  None of the original Titans are in this.  Atom is a team leader in this, but he is able to grow to giant size and he’s definitely not a teen.  Argent is another prominent member.  I don’t know anything about her other than the entry in my DC Comics Encyclopedia.  (Yes, I know about Wikipedia.)  She’s very appealing here and clearly a favorite of the artist.  The character seems to have just disappeared since this iteration of the title.  Actually, I didn’t even know about this version of the team.


 


In any case, the story is simply Atom and Argent ill-advisedly hosting an open tryout for new members and drawing an attack from a super-villain group.  This is why you need a Robin in the group, somebody with enough brains to think these things through.  This set up did create lots of action and characterization opportunities.   


 


I didn’t recognize a lot of the characters, but there were familiar faces making cameos, like Superboy, Supergirl, Robin (Tim Drake, who isn’t and was never gay), Spoiler (Tim’s long time girlfriend and not a beard), Impulse (by next year, I’ll be saying, “Tim Drake was never a transsexual Muslim feminist), Arsenal (I’m not angry over this Tim Drake thing, because there’s nothing in current comics I consider canonical), and a very welcome appearance by Captain Marvel Jr.  (Since Captain Marvel later got officially renamed Shazam, what’s Junior called?  CM3?  Does that make any sense?) 


 

Captain Marvel Jr. is such a natural fit for the Titans you wonder why didn’t happen before this.  Argent calling him “Lightning Boy” was the best line in the book.  Then Junior thinks, I can’t say “I’m Captain Marvel,” because then I’ll turn back into Freddie Freeman and have to go back to playing first base for the Atlanta Braves.  Okay, part of the statement is directly from the comic book, part of it is mine, but it is steeped in comic book lore.  (If Captain Marvel is now Shazam, he can’t say his own name without turning back into Billy Batson.  My head is hurting.)


 

Admittedly, most of the guest stars in this seem to be here to promote their own books, like Robin, Supergirl, and Superboy, who has his own team, The Ravers.  Wow, that team is not only unnecessary, it really sounds dumb.  I may seem to be ragging on this a lot, which I am, but the issue is intentionally funny in places and just fun in general.  This is the kind of stuff, we read comics for: interesting characters, good story, great art, and having fun.

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