Teen Titans #13

Rogue Targets Part V

Written by Will Pfeifer
Pencilled by Ricken, Paolo Pantalena and Noel Rodriguez
Inked by Trevor Scott, Johnny Desjardins and Paolo Pantalena
Breakdowns by Ricken and Scott McDaniel
Colors by Tony Aviña
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver and Andrew Dalhouse
Monster of the Month Variant Cover by Aaron Lopresti
Associate Editor Paul Kaminski
Editor Mike Cotton
Group Editor Eddie Berganza

Ugh. Not only do we get our fifth different art team in as many issues, but now we have to endure Ethan Van Sciver's horrendous covers. I know, it's still weird for me to use the phrase "Van Sciver's horrendous covers," but something happened to him after his work on Impulse. Artistically and psychologically, he became a different person. And his artwork has never been as good since. This cover of a randomly giant Power Girl attacking Manchester Black shows how completely inept Van Sciver is at drawing breasts — especially on teenagers. And Power Girl's grotesque knuckles demonstrate Van Sciver's inability to know when to not go hyper-detailed. Also, I'm a bit upset that Red Robin and Wonder Girl were included on this cover, completely removing any tension of them returning to the big prison brawl from Harvest's ... uh ... lair? Yeah, this series sucks.

Our variant cover goes old-school with the master storyteller Cain. And the jack-o-lantern reminds me of Tim Sale's Batman work. Sadly, none of the Titans look particularly good, and it's not fair that Superboy made the cover but Kid Flash didn't.

We pick up with Bar, Cassie and Tim in what is described as "the Chamber of Harvest: Location unknown." Bar recaps last issue, and he and Cassie argue about Tim's ability to help them escape after losing his boyfriend, I mean best friend. But Tim proves he's up to the task and begins playing with Harvest's computer, promising to not only save the Titans from the prison riot, but make the team respectable again. Bar and Cassie instantly come on board with this plan, with neither of them breathing a word about the Elite.

Before too long, Red Robin is able to teleport himself, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash back to the Metropolis Armory Ward. But the riot they expected to return to turned out to be nothing more than an elaborate illusion created by Dr. Psycho, who has already been defeated by Beast Boy and Raven. Well, mostly Raven, but who cares at this point?

Red Robin takes off to find Chimera, and Kid Flash demonstrates his loyalty by ... uh ... stealing? destroying? all the guards' guns to protect Tim's back. Anyway, turns out Manchester Black was trying to get Despero to help him destroy the Titans, but Chimera posed as Despero to get him to admit this. Power Girl became enraged to learn this most predictable and lackluster truth. When she attacks her boss, she suddenly grows into a giant. Manchester Black explains that he's been drugging her food to give her this ability, and he implies that the other members of the Elite will start manifesting new powers as well, but that's never going to happen.

So Power Girl beats up Manchester Black, who never once demonstrates any of his psychic abilities that he's so associated with. Tim and Cassie calms Power Girl down, but then Alpha Centurion appears out of nowhere and immediately knocks out the Teen Titans, claiming he's bringing them to justice.




This series has the uncanny ability of finding new lows to sink to. I highly suspect that this issue in particular underwent major, last-minute rewrites. The last of the pages simply looked unfinished. The art was some of the worst I've seen in a long time. So what did this issue accomplish? It thoroughly negated the first four parts of what was initially promised to be a four-part story. It admitted that Power Girl was too boring with a super power merely of super strength. It conceded that Manchester Black actually had no grand scheme at all — just a desperate and sloppy plea to get a more powerful villain to join him. This comic also made it clear that nobody ever really cared about Superboy being a murderer. And we were reminded that Scott Lobdell's shadow will never leave this series by randomly bringing in a character he featured prominently in his Doomed series.

And Kid Flash is just ... there. He has no motivation, no goals or ideals. And he has nothing interesting to do in this schizophrenic story. Let's look at the house ads and get out of here.

In battle, boys die easier than men! Robin War.

Batman: The Dark Knight Saga deluxe hardcover collection.

The creator spotlight is on Max Landis, who never should be supported because he's a scumbag. To put it mildly.

Next time is actually our last comic of 2015. You sure plow through a year quickly when you don't have any versions of Bart to review for half of it.