DC KO: The Kids Are All Fight Special #1 – Jeremy Adams, Writer; Travis Mercer, Artist; Andrew Dalhouse, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Jeremy Adams and Travis Mercer have been teasing that they’re cooking something with the younger heroes of the DCU for over a year now, and while I’m not sure this is that same project, this DC KO tie-in brings together a bunch of fan favorites from Adams’ runs and beyond for what might be the closest to a proper Teen Titans story we’ve had in years. Jon Kent has been deputized by Donna Troy to keep an eye on some of the kids on the watchtower – including Judy Garrick, Fairplay, Quiz Kid, and recent Watchtower heist participant Lian Harper. No one is happy about this, least of all Jon, who thinks his talents are much better-suited on the battlefield with the rest of the heroes.
The main plot kicks off when Fairplay’s savant-like mind picks up a mysterious signature linked to Granny Goodness, and convinces the other kids to sneak out with him. Jon comes back to find them gone, and the chase is on. As the kids find themselves facing the Female Furies – which now include a possessed Stargirl, Irey West, and Yara Flor – Jon recruits the best tracker he knows for help, and that happens to be a very annoyed Cassandra Cain. This weird, ragtag collection of characters shouldn’t work together at all, but it somehow does. The reveal of the possessed girls comes a little out of nowhere (unless it’s explained in another tie-in this week), but Adams does an amazing job of weaving in plotlines from so many of his past stories here.
There’s an amazing segment here where Jon, Cass, and Fairplay talk about their screwed-up childhoods and having their innocence taken away from them that really makes the whole team sync up much better, and then the final battle has a wild reveal that brings in one of the last characters I expected to see show up here. This oversized issue packs an arc’s worth of story into around 30 pages, and it’s some of the most fun I’ve had reading a DC comic in a while. The Teen Titans are one of the last franchises that has never quite recovered from the changes of the New 52, and this book might not be the start of a new run, but it’s the kind of model that the franchise needs for a breath of fresh air.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
