Teen Titans #41 – Adam Glass, Robbie Thompson, Writers; Eduardo Pansica, Penciller; Julio Ferreira, Inker; Marcelo Maiolo, Colorist
Ray – 4/10
Ray: The Adam Glass era on Teen Titans has been an odd and often frustrating run, going from serious lows to…well, mostly just the lows, honestly. It’s rarely been more than adequate, and that continues with this conclusion to the Djinn War storyline. When we last left off before the shutdown, the Titans had sent themselves into Hell via a near-death experience to rescue their friend Djinn, but things went wrong and they flatlined before returning, leaving new member Jakeem Thunder helpless. This issue, they’re eventually able to convince Djinn that she has the power to shrug off the evil Elias’ control, and she saves them and restores Jakeem’s powers just in time for them to storm heaven. Once again, Roundhouse’s horrible betrayal – trying to kill several members of the team and essentially condemning Djinn to an eternity of imprisonment – is just shrugged off with an apology.
The final battle is a mess, with the Titans going up against hundreds of Djinns and eventually convincing them to turn on their master. Defeating Elias takes a lot of trickery and a surprising amount of blood along the way, and the eventual resolution – trapping him in a ring – is oddly hypocritical given just how much was talked about what this did to Djinn. And all the Titans are fine with it despite their ongoing arguments with Damian. Speaking of which, this issue ends with Djinn deciding to leave the team to explore her new freedom, and the team seemingly disbanding because they can’t get past Damian’s past betrayals. Damian’s been horrible in this run, naturally, but it feels like all this team does is fight and attack each other. Twenty issues in, there’s still no sense of teamwork or friendship. We’ll see what Robbie Thompson does when he goes solo, but this book desperately needs a new dynamic.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
