When the initial book solicits were released for the New 52 # 1s last July, there was not a single book I was less looking forward to than Teen Titans. These are characters that I have a stong, long-standing personal investment in, and they looked to be changing more than any other characters in the relaunch – and changing for the worse.
As it turned out, though, I didn’t really have anything to worry about. The characters themselves (with the possible exception of Superboy) are mostly unchanged – they’re just being portrayed at different points in their lives, and some of the new team members are worth the book’s purchase price on their own. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Bunker, the least-publicized gay character in comics right now, is also the best gay character in comics right now. Lots of ink have been given over to Batwoman and Kevin Keller, but I find that Batwoman is far too overt in her sexuality to be taken seriously as an avatar for gay rights in comics, and Keller is just embarrasing, partly because he’s a character entirely defined by his sexuality, and partly because of the way in which his stories are written – beligerently pretending that no one in a small-town setting would ever have any problem at all with a gay teen.
Bunker, while publicized as an upcoming gay character in the book, is not defined by that trait. In fact, its only ever come up once so far in 8 issues of the book, in a simple exchange where he explained to Wonder Girl that he was gay, she apologized for the misunderstanding, and they moved on. That’s not to say that he’s a gay character in name only – his attitude and fashion sense very much reflect it – but its not a constant story point, nor is it something that Scott Lobdell feels the need to winkingly reference every few pages, which is a refreshing change of pace. I’ve noticed a number of people picking up Kevin Keller around Ground Zero that would be doing better for themselves to give this one a shot.
Now, as much as I like this book, there are some issues with it – Lobdell’s dialogue often leaves something to be desired (after over 20 years in the business, it seems he still hasn’t grasped the difference between interior and exterior monologue), and Brett Booth’s (and, by extension, this issue’s guest artist Ig Guara) artwork has more of that 90s Liefeld “Xtreme” mentality to it than I’m comfortable with, but for every negative point, there’s something truly brilliant, like the aforementioned character of Bunker, the reintroduction of Danny the Street (a character I honestly never had any illusions of seeing again), or the fascinatingly complex N.O.W.H.E.R.E. mythology Lobdell is using to bridge his two books (this and Superboy).
If you skipped out on this one due to the garish costume redesigns or slow-to-get-going first couple of issues, I’d heartily recommend giving this one another shot, if not now, than at least in September when the #0 issues hit.
Be sure and check out DC’s official page for the book here: http://www.dccomics.com/comics/teen-titans-2011/teen-titans-8 and you can purchase the book digitally from Ground Zero Comics here: https://comics.comixology.com/ret/383/Ground_Zero_Comics_DC_Comics_Digital_Store/#/issue/24056/Teen-Titans-2011-8
As published on examiner.com
