Teen Titans #1 // Review
The original team would get contacted to work with the U.N. They might get asked to help with the high school dropout rate in a small town. They did whatever they could to help people out, but they weren’t exactly the Justice League, so they took what they could get. The important thing was helping people. Well over Half a century later, a team with the same named finds itself on similar ground in Teen Titans #1. Writer Kyle Higgins and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo open a whole new team with new challenges as Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani’s venerable teen superhero team continues with a fresh perspective.
And then somebody breaks into the video arcade that they're hanging out at. It's an armed robbery. People in mascot masks. Maybe it's something bigger. They could get something more concerning. Naturally, you are going to follow their instincts. And those things proved to be a little bit more dangerous than defending against a simple armed robbery. Maybe human life might be at risk. Very young experienced. But they need a mentor. Red Hood happens to stumble into them...and against all probability he decides to work with them. They might not be getting the mentor they need...
Higgins respects the complexity of everything that's going on before. And that's not an easy thing to do given a complex and convoluted history of the teams and titles that have been associated with the Titans. Any writer control a bunch of different characters at the page and they can see interesting the real challenge that Higgins is managing and involves articulating them all in a way that makes them seem individual dynamic. Given the fact that there are always as many characters in the opening issue as there are, that's not an easy task. Higgins makes it look easy.
Di Nicuolo has a sharp manga-inspired style that amplifies the action without overpowering the well-articulated energy of Higgins’ script. Emotions might be amplified in various directions, but they are ampified in ways that all feel stylish and appealing. It all fits together with remarkably interesting style that feels respectably immersive. They stylishness of the art might occasionally wash-out some of the more subtle moments that Higgins is conjuring to the page, but there’s a great deal of momentum and gravity about the visual style that Di Nicuolo is bringing to the page...so it all kind of makes its own kind of visual sense.
Though the basic premise is modification of a mutation of something that's made it to the page in million times before, it's kind of nice to see it. Articulated began with a different group of characters. Young heroes being taught by a dark figure who is large medium owner, and an experienced with the concept of being a mentor. It's been done before. And it's been done before at least feel much more powerful than the opening issue of this particular series. Higgins manages to deliver quite a bit of personality to the page that could make this particular Titans a lot of fun.
