Note: This review contains mild spoilers for Teen Titans Earth One Vol 1 (obviously)
Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Andy McDdonald
Publisher: DC Comics
When last we saw our teenage friends, they were unsure of their futures. Starfire had left them feeling abandoned and they had no idea what they should do next. The reader was left feeling like something big was on the horizon, and boy was that right.
Volume 2 picks up almost immediately after the previous. Some time has passed, but it’s very close to when we last saw them. The not-yet-Teen Titans are in hiding, at the same time that they are trying to find some answers. Tempest and Garfield are even seeming to become good friends. Things aren’t going well when Volume 2 starts, but they are at least moving along.
Across the country, Deathstroke infiltrates a secure base to find the man behind the entire Titan Project. Deathstroke is still possessed by his son, Jericho at this time, which is necessary, as Jericho’s throat was cut at the end of Volume 1. Jeri-stroke says that he knows where Starfire is hiding thanks to Slade’s exceptional tracking skills. They also have found where the teens are in hiding. It’s decided then to send more Titans after the teens to recover them.
All of this is just the setup to this Volume, and it continues to escalate from here. New characters to the Earth One series show up to fill out the roster. Like almost every Earth One entry so far, this one changes some minor details about the origins of this team to focus on telling a semi-original story. And there is the main draw to Earth One. Story.
Lemire weaves action and emotion into this issue. He tells a story that gets you excited and wanting more. Yet, this volume seems a little lackluster compared to the first, or compared to the other Earth One books. While the story is wonderful, the art is just a tad underwhelming. Most people have been interested in the Earth One series because it combines awesome storytelling with exceptional art. McDonald does a good job here, but when all is said and done, it feels more like it was done with colored pencils than the digital art most have become used to. In some panels I even found myself questioning whether the features on a characters face were the same as they were three pages back. I found the art to be a disappointment, but not enough to stop me from reading the whole issue. McDonald does do a good job here, and is by all means a great artist, but by comparison to the rest of Earth One, it falls just a bit short.
The first volume ended on a true cliffhanger; we knew that someone else had to come to wrap the story. With Volume 2, you will be left feeling like a full story has been told, although there is so much more for these Teen Titans to be doing. We can only hope that there will be a third volume to start showing how these powered kids can be real heroes, instead of just living on the run.
Does anyone else think a team-up story with all the Earth One characters should be in the works at this point? Because I do!
