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[...] for the DC universe. Now, Bryan Miller is cleaning up Dan Didio’s mess from two years ago. In Teen Titans #62, Didio directed the fanboy in-joke of returning Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog to continuity only to [...]

[...] by a profane version of the friendly pooch on the cover.  I won’t argue with those who are tired of gruesome spectacles, because in the end, that was the point of issue #62. It set up the [...]

Wonder Twins get slaughtered by Wonder Dog

In the latest sign that the current Teen Titans volume was a huge mistake, the Wonder Twins, who were recently reintro’d…get massacred by Wonder Dog. Brought to you by Sean McKeever, writer, and Dan DiDio, who’s been the title’s very own editor of…

My thoughts exactly…maybe it’s just because I met Jason Yungbluth at DragonCon this weekend, but my reaction to the scene was “This is the sort of thing Yungbluth would do, only he’d make it funny.”

I’m going to read the Blue Beetle run this weekend.

Johanna, I confess to shooting from the hip a bit on Kid Devil–I haven’t read many of the current stories with him, but I just hate the look and the overall “serious” take on a character that was fundamentally, charmingly goofy. I miss the chunky, smart kid who put together a super-suit to help out a fun, cool father-figure guy he idolized, with no angst in sight.

The only young character DC’s putting out these days that I have any interest in is the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle, and I’m dubious as to how long that take will survive Rogers’ absence.

Do you think Kid Devil is that bad? I kind of like where he’s settled down as a character.

Well, in an age of Dark Mary Marvel and Psycho!Bitch!Sue Dibny, we really shouldn’t expect anything else, eh?

Too bad Wonderdog didn’t perform a mercy killing on Kid Devil, too–as long as there was such mayhem going on…

I also agree with Rooksx, it’s hard to enjoy a team book with such rapid comings and goings. The most creative new characters are gone, which not only makes this title less enjoyable, but makes it less likely for me to believe in anything new later. Why bother when there’s such a revolving door?

Thanks, Dave, for the reference. So sad, though, that a comic needs an interview to put it in the proper context.

Jeff, I too like genius stories — I hadn’t realized that that was the promise of the characters. Now I miss them even more. But many people don’t like writing “smarties” because it can be very hard.

Tim, “bait and switch” is considered a crime in retail for a reason. :) And shock for its own sake… that’s a really cheap technique.

It was a great bait-and-switch, with the innocuous cover, and since Teen Titans has a history of doing these little “around Titans Tower” character pieces in between big arcs, I just settled in for some harmless banter written by Sean McKeever and I didn’t expect the horror at all. And I thought it worked great. It was genuinely shocking (and of course there was a girl running from a monster–wouldn’t you run?), and in an issue where the team is barely hanging together, this tragedy just amps up the conflict and gives the remaining gang a reason to be very afraid.

And I had no clue who that guy at the end was, either, but instead of being disappointed, I just thought, “wow. And who’s this guy? Can’t wait to find out.”

As part of the last year or two of Teen Titans comics, this issue was really effective. Maybe taken out of context, it seems a lot less.

According to an article at Newsarama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080829-McKeeverTitans.html) –

NRAMA: What can you tell us about the owner of the dog, this new villain named King Lycus?

SM: He’s the son of Ares. He’s actually a footnote character in Greek mythology who was the king of Libya. And he sacrificed strangers in his fathers name. He shows up in the tales of Diomedes around the time of the Trojan War. So I just took that footnote and expanded him into a character, bringing him into the modern day as a foil for Wonder Girl. He wants to be Ares’ champion, not Wonder Girl, his aunt. So he’s come to wreak a little havoc in Cassie’s life.

One of the biggest problems has been the constantly changing line-up. Ravager was one of the more interesting characters and she’s gone. M’Gann seems to be taking a holiday as well. And now we hit rock bottom as Marvin and Wendy, two characters whom we barely got to know get bumped off. It’s hard to get attached to a team book when the cast is in constant flux. Really quite bad and I for one am not coming back to Teen Titans for a while.

We’re not getting too old for comics. Comics are outgrowing us (if “growing” is even the right word).

I’m not sure I phrased that correctly, but I think my meaning is there.

Can anyone else say it better for me?