TEEN TITANS GO! #1.
© DC Comics
Issue: 1
Authors: J. Torres, Todd Nauck, Lary Stucker
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.25
TEEN TITANS GO! #1
By: Tony WhittDate: Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Gizmo has devised a program that allows him to analyze the Teen Titans' fighting skills as they play their favorite video game SUPER NINJA FURY, and the Titans don't even know it. Can the Titans fight off foes who know their moves better than they themselves do? Well, d'uh, dude!
Before I begin, let me just make it clear that I understand that TEEN TITANS GO! isn't really intended for anyone over the age of ten - heck, let's play it safe and make that seven. This series is firmly in the realm of the kids' comic, far more so than other based-on-animated-series titles like BATMAN ADVENTURES and JLA ADVENTURES. I also have nothing - I tell you, nothing - against a series aimed solely at the pre-teen set. But when I compare this series to the series that were aimed at the younger kids in my own generation - titles such as SUPER FRIENDS and SPIDEY SUPER-STORIES - it makes me look at TEEN TITANS GO! and cringe so hard my shoulders ache.
The biggest problem with TEEN TITANS GO! - one which its television counterpart doesn't quite share - is that it crosses the fine line between "cute" and "cutesy," a distinction that anyone who's watched an episode or two of THE CARE BEARS can easily comprehend. Silly humor and over-the-top characterization isn't necessarily a problem in a series like this, but silly humor and over-the-top characterization combined with mini-manga characters running along the bottom of the page doing things like telling knock-knock jokes and riddles really takes the cake. It also talks down to its audience, something that those two aforementioned "made for kids" comic series never did - or if they ever did, they never did it to this degree. If I were a seven-year old reading this series, I'd most likely be appalled - and if I didn't know that word yet, I'd still be feeling the emotion.
Before you go saying that I'm looking at this book too seriously, let me just say that a grown man with plush figures of Death and the Golden Age Green Lantern, an army of DC Pocket Superheroes, and a score of toy Daleks adorning every bit of shelf space in his house can hardly be accused of taking anything too seriously. (Of course, that admission may be enough to ensure that no one takes me seriously ever again.) What do I know, though - this is meant for kids, and the kids may indeed like it. Heck, they may even love it, particularly if they love the TV series. But for grown comics fans in general, and NEW TEEN TITANS fans in particular, reading TEEN TITANS GO! is the comics equivalent of watching a BARNEY marathon. I am so not kidding. Buy it for the kids - it's perfectly safe for them, I promise you. Just don't look at it yourself, or else you'll never stop throwing up.
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