“My Future, My Enemy”
W: Scott Lobdell A: Art Thibert/Jesus Merino/Scott Hanna/Barry Kitson C: Pete Pantazis
The Teen Titans continue to randomly travel through time, as they try to regroup and return to the fight against the Crime Syndicate in the present they encounter a bleak alternate future.
The Ups: Time travel stories are usually hit or miss, and have a tendency to become somewhat cliché or convoluded, luckily the Teen Titans current journey through time is pretty interesting and well thought out so far. Scott Lobdell makes sure that every member of the team in this issue has something to do, in previous stories some of the Titans seemed as if they were written as an afterthought and it doesn’t seem to be the case here. The issue also sets up some great plot points for future Titans story lines, which shows that Lobdell has a larger plan for the series. The art team for this issue put out some decent art, the characters can look a little stiff at times but aside from that the action scenes look great and the characters are posed well and their facial expressions convey the precise emotions they need to. Fans of time travel stories will be glad to know that the designs of characters who appear in the future are visually interesting. Each alternate future character is an interesting and visually appealing extension of their counterpart in the present.
The Downs: This issue was pretty fragmented and choppy. With so many individual stories going on at once it can be somewhat overwhelming to keep track of everything. Because this is a side-story to the larger Forever Evil story-line this issue expects you to know everything up to this point. This issue is also a set up for multiple Teen-Titan-centric stories that will take place later on. Because this issue tries to set up so many things it reads as if the beginnings of several other comics were put together. In the long run I expect some great stories out of this set-up but for right now all of this jumping around between plot lines makes each one less potent.
Overall: If you’re okay with gratuitous amounts of set-up, or if you’re sucking it up because you’re expecting something amazing out of it (like me) then this issue is a great read. The issue itself assumes you have read a couple of other books (Forever Evil, Justice League, previous Teen Titans issues, and Superboy) so prepare to do some homework if you want to jump on this one and really get everything that’s going on. This issue contains plot points you will need to know for future Teen Titans issues and most likely some things you’ll need to know for Forever Evil. I recommend reading everything Forever Evil related anyways so hop to it. Pick this one up and stay in the loop, I predict great things from Forever Evil and Teen Titans.
Grade: 3 of 5
ComicsRefueled 