It might be easy to view the new Teen Titans as just cross-marketing, considering the launch of the new Cartoon Network show, but with the quality of this creative team, it's hard to care why we're getting a new series and easier to just be happy about it. Johns has shown his ability to handle DC's legacies and history while giving everything a fresh spin in his work on JSA and Flash, and Teen Titans sets off in that same direction, but with a different set of characters and a slightly more grim edge. Unlike Outsiders #1, which could be considered this title's sister book (or maybe its big brother), this one is much more about the character interaction than the mechanics and setup of the team, and while readers may be left asking a few questions, after viewing the gorgeous artwork and getting a load of the well-written cast, I suspect most will want to stick around for the answers.
One of my concerns about Outsiders was that it was playing around with continuity from Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, a series I only skimmed and honestly didn't much like. Titans has the same potential danger, and in particular the death of Donna Troy resonates throughout this issue, wreaking some havoc on the interpersonal relationships and behavior of every one of the four lead teens. However, you needn't have read Graduation Day to understand the tension between the former teammates, and given the combined history shared by these individual characters and the Titans in general, Johns does a really nice job of keeping things accessible.
Over at Marvel, the events of this issue probably would have taken up the entire arc, per the new "decompressed storytelling" mandate. Fortunately for us, Johns gets to introduce his characters and bring them together much more quickly. He doesn't lose the establishing characterization time with this quicker pacing, though; new and old readers alike will get the basics of the characters as Johns sees them in this issue. Superboy's boredom with Smallville and unease with his role as boy or Superboy, the stressed relationship between Impulse and the Flash and the potential Bart has to be more than a gag character and Wonder Girl's frustration all come through loud and clear. Even Robin, stoic like his mentor, carries a bit of the tension that seems to be surrounding the situation.
Because the team is gathered from all over the country, artists McKone and Alquiza really get to show off, and they certainly do. McKone does some breathtaking establishing shots, whether it's in the corn fields of Kansas, on the streets of Gotham or in the suburban home of Jay and Joan Garrick in Keystone, culminating in a jaw-dropping double-page spread of San Francisco and the Titans' new headquarters. Leaving aside the gorgeous scenery, McKone is a great character artist, giving these characters such strong expressions and emotive faces that the troubled emotional state that they are all in after the events of Graduation Day comes across in subtle ways as well as being put across in the script.
Like Morrison's revamp of the JLA to focus on the "Big Seven," the idea of making a new Teen Titans about the iconic teenage super-heroes in the DC Universe seems like a great idea just on the face of it. Johns, McKone and the rest of the team have delivered on that potential in a big way, serving up a strong first issue that doesn't quite kick into high gear the way Outsiders did, but which sets a strong foundation for the future and has me very excited about this corner of the DC Universe.
