Teen Titans: Titans Around The World


By Geoff Johns, Tony Daniel & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-442-5

After the non-stop calamity of the DC Infinite Crisis the company re-set the time line of all their publications to begin One Year Later.  This enabled them to retool their characters as they saw fit, provide a jumping on point for new converts and also give themselves some narrative wiggle-room.

One of the titles that made the most of that creative opportunity was the Teen Titans. In the missing year not only did the characters undergo vast personal changes but the team and the core-concept itself was stretched leaving a broad canvas to tell tales and spring “Big Reveals” on the reader (who after all had only been away for thirty days!).

Collecting issues # 34-41 of the comicbook series, the story opens with team lynchpin Cyborg coming out of a year-long coma caused by injuries received during the aforementioned Infinite Crisis. He awakens to a team he doesn’t recognise, including Rose, daughter of their arch-foe the Terminator, who was actively trying to kill him when he last saw her.

In rapid fashion Cyborg goes into action trashing not only her but also a teen-aged demon, and a couple of preppy teen whiz-kids before Robin intervenes. The Boy Wonder explains that in the past year since Superboy died saving the universe, Wonder Girl has gone solo, Beast Boy/Changeling has returned to the fatalistically surreal Doom Patrol and more than two dozen young heroes have joined – and mostly left – the ranks of the teen super-group.

Determined to pull the Titans back together, they set off to re-recruit some old friends only to fall afoul of both the Brotherhood of Evil and the Doom Patrol themselves, in a taut, devious thriller that perfectly kick-starts the new era. But what is the obsessive secret Robin is hiding from his comrades?

The four-part ‘New Teen Titans’ is by scripter Geoff Johns, penciller, Tony Daniel, with inks from Kevin Conrad, Andy Lanning and Norm Rapmund.

It’s followed by the eponymous ‘Titans around the World’ another four parter that reveals some of the incredible events of that lost year. While Cyborg was recovering, a huge number of troubles super-kids passed through the doors of Titans HQ, but as the new team mentor reviews recordings of that time he is unsettled…

The mystic Raven has disappeared and by checking with some of those past recruits he discovers that the team may have been harbouring a traitor in its midst…

Produced by Johns, Tony Daniel and fellow pencillers Carlos Ferreira, Paco Diaz and Ryan Benjamin, with inks by Conrad, Art Thibert, Drew Geraci, Silvio Spotti, Jonathan Glapion, Michael Lopez, Edwin Rosell, Saleem Crawford and Vincente Cifuentes, this is a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the classic Teen Titans manner that should delight fans of the superhero genre and might even make a few new converts along the way.

This is another fights ‘n’ tights triumph for Geoff Johns who seems determined to revitalize the entire DC pantheon. Surely such a noble undertaking deserves a few brief moments of your time?

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

2 Replies to “Teen Titans: Titans Around The World”

  1. I must say that I`m really impressed. I thought I had read a lot of comics, but now I have to really start reading. My only objection is that some of the DC and Marvel comics you review aren`t on my Must read list.

  2. Thank you very much. I’m pretty impressed with the content and subject matter of your blog too – although I have enough trouble with English and sadly don’t speak much European.

    Just think however how long that list would be if we’d read and reviewed the rubbish too…

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