Teen Titans 2: The Culling the New 52

I've been a comic book fan my whole life and around the late 90's I stopped collecting. Many of my favorite artists from that era just wasn't drawing as frequently as they use to. For anyone who grew up in that time, the comic book industry was really experiencing a truly vibrant Renaissance during the late 80's to mid 90's. Artist like Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Michael Turner, and J. Scott Campbell all contributed to the rise in comic book sales at that time due to their wonderful talents. Brett Booth was also amongst one of my favorite artists at the time when he was drawing his own series for Image comics called The Kindred/Backlash. I had every issues of that series.Recently, I decided to follow up on some of my favorite artists from back in the day to see what they're up to these days. I was only interested in getting their trade paperback releases to have all their artwork in centralized in one place rather then separate issues. Glad I came across this issue after extensive browsing and research. It's hard to tell from the description on Amazon who the real artist is and who's doing the inks and coloring. Anyways, I brought this for Brett and his awesome drawing style. Sadly I have to give this 4 stars because he only draws 2 issues in the entire book. I was so disappointed. I wanted the entire book to be by Brett. I could sit there all day just being amazed by his artwork and drooling over his talent. Unfortunately, it won't be all day since he only drew 2 issues. I wanted to be upfront that my review is not about the story because I buy comics for the artwork. Definitely pick this up if you are a true Brett and Teen Titans fan.

The DC Comics "New 52" iteration of the young superheroes known as the Teen Titans continues with Teen Titans, Vol. 2: The Culling. I must start by stating how this is a very bad title. The first two issues of this collection are a part of the cross-over event known as "the Culling", but that is it. The issue seems to be split into three parts: the end of the Culling event, a weird adventure with Kid Flash that I can't possibly figure just where or how it fits into the Teen Titans comic or the larger DC Comics universe, and an adventure with Superboy, Red Robin and Wonder Girl that ends with what seems to be a lead-in to the Batman family cross-over, "Death of the Family".The best story was the Wonder Girl two-parter, which told her origin story, and made some movement on the attraction between her and Red Robin. In fact, the volume was enjoyable over all, but it still had some issues. The stories were so disjointed and were used to complete or contribute to story arcs for other titles. In other words, it had the same problems I identified in my review of Batgirl, Vol. 2: Knightfall Descends that that comic had, but without the same overall theme tying everything together. Well, maybe one could push it and say that it had the trust and feelings of the new team learning to work together as a theme, but that would be a stretch.What saved this volume was the artwork and the fact that, even slightly messed up due to editorial mandates, the writers of the comic know their craft. They can tell a terrific tale. They really establish these superhuman (and in the case of Red Robin, super-trained) characters as real people you just naturally find yourself wanting to root for. And as for the artwork, well, it is gorgeous, with the characters drawn beautifully.This book should have been a great volume of comics, but it's disjointed structure just made it a bit of a mess, and not nearly as good as it could have been.

I liked the first Teen Titans volume of the New 52. I thought there were some interesting possibilities in the reinvention of this team, with a foreshadowing of some interesting villains, in particular. This second volume, unfortunately, let me down. The primary threat in the first volume was the group N.O.W.H.E.R.E., which has been rounding up super-powered youths for their own, presumably nefarious purposes. In that book, the Titans had gone after NOWHERE in an attempt to rescue Superboy, who had defected from NOWHERE after a fight with the Titans. The book ended with a cliffhanger, as, after freeing Superboy, the Titans are held immobile by a new villain, Harvest, the apparent head of the secret organization.Unfortunately, due to a crossover, the action shifted to the Legion Lost title, a now-defunct and largely unlamented DC series. A lot must have happened in that book because a lot of what takes place in this followup Titans title doesn't make much sense without that prior knowledge.The book opens with Red Robin being tortured, apparently being turned into an actual bird at the hands of a new villain called Omen, who has the power to reshape reality. The other Titans look on in helpless horror as Robin is manipulated, until Omen frees him and picks a new victim, Wonder Girl. Robin wakes up in another part of the complex, unsure of just how much he was experiencing was real. In the next few sequences, Omen repeatedly puts the Titans through the wringer, shaking their confidence. Harvest then orders that they be taken to "the colony."The next chapter shows the Titans paired with the Legion Lost and five other unexplained youths (Terra, Thunder, Caitlin Fairchild, Lightning, and Ridge) in what's called "the crucible," where they are forced to fight one another, with the winners forced to serve Harvest as members of his elite corps, the Ravagers. Red Robin comes up with a strategy to throw everything his team has got at Harvest to buy the Legionnaires enough time to destroy the central power core of the complex, freeing everyone. What's left unexplained is why some of the youths are free and why Harvest just stands around while all of this plotting is going on under his very nose.There are clues that Harvest is likely to be someone from a future era but they don't go anywhere with this, at least not in this book. While Harvest takes on the Titans, the rest of the crew is helping everyone escape in the complex's escape pods. Harvest, still fighting the Titans, brags that this is by his design, that the release of the super-powered youths will create chaos, leading to public clamor for organizations like his to control those same youths.Harvest escapes and the Titans escape, as well, with a little help from their friends, but wake up to find themselves in a dinosaur infested island. After some interactions between the team members, a badly hurt Danny the Street gives his all to take the team back safely home.Frankly, this whole sequence was an unsatisfying mess. You never really do figure out just what the heck is going on. Some of the character interactions don't make sense, and neither do Harvest's actions and reactions. It's an unsatisfying ending to the story arc that began in the first volume.The next story arc isn't much better, as the Titans return home using Danny the Street's powers, only to find that some intelligent "dinosaurs" have returned with them from the mysterious island. One of them goes on a rampage, rapidly evolving some reptiles with a "mutagenic mist" in an exhibit and freeing them. Kid Flash takes care of the newly evolved reptiles, then goes after the originator of the trouble, who has escaped into the sewer system. There we find that his goal is to raise a reptilian army to take over the earth. That's where this sequence ends, in a cliffhanger.As with the previous arc, this was a mess. Kid Flash was the only member of the Titans involved and Lobdell couldn't quite decide if he was writing a horror/action sequence or a humor sequence. There are some writers who can successfully combine both. Lobdell really isn't one of them. And the story is so far-fetched and so overdone and cliched, that they lost me almost at once.The third story arc in this book is a bit better, as we learn more about Wonder Girl's back story. Wonder Girl's armor causes her to run amok, as she takes out Solstice, Kid Flash, and Bunker. Robin and Superboy find her amid her unconscious teammates and take her away to an isolated cabin. There, Cassie is taken over again by her armor until Robin and Superboy manage to pry it off of her. Just as they do so, a blast from Cassie's past shows up, a former boyfriend, Diesel. Diesel tells us that Cassie left him in Angkor Wat and that he had formerly worn the armor, which he now proceeds to take from Cassie, after which he flies off.Cassie gives her back story in the next sequence, as an acrobatic thief, a tomb raider. Diesel saves her from capture by the authorities on one of her expeditions and, as Cassie puts it, "it was pretty much lust at first sight." In an archaeological dig, Diesel had discovered and donned a gray mask. In an effort to pry it off of him, Cassie picks up a discarded pair of gauntlets, the armor that would give her her power and eventually consume her. The mask recognized her as the superior host, so it abandoned Diesel to join with Cassie. The armor needs enormous inner strength to keep it in check and Cassie knew that Diesel lacked that strength, so she donned the armor in part to protect him. As far as Diesel was concerned, though, the armor was his and Cassie had stolen it. Before she can explain the temple they're in falls apart and Diesel is buried.Robin, Superboy, and Wonder Girl return to the site of the temple, where Robin reveals that the markings on the temple are called "the mark of Trigon." Just as he reveals that, Diesel attacks the trio with an army of "blood warriors." While Robin and Superboy fight his army, Diesel takes Wonder Girl into the depths of the temple. In a pitched battle, Cassie and Diesel fight for control of the armor. I think you can guess who wins.Finally, the Titans return home, only to find that Red Robin has taken off and that the Joker has left a little present for them on their doorstep, setting up the next issue.Ale Garza took over the artwork on the last sequence and it wasn't really an improvement. Everything is oversimplified and Wonder Girl comes across as a blonde, big-eyed ... well ... bimbo is the only word that comes to mind. The others aren't much better and everything is much more cartoony, which just doesn't work with the storyline.I really wanted to like the Titans but after this mess of a book and the subsequent book, which wasn't much better, I won't be buying the fourth book in the series. Enough is enough.

I suspect that, from the review's title, you're either keen to see what I'm going to write next or you're already put off by the simple description.It collects two issues of Legion Lost, two issues of Superboy, and two issues of Teen Titan plus TT Annual 1. Basically the bad guy, who claims he's doing it in the best interests of humanity, is kidnapping young super-heroes and forcing them to fight to the death with only a few select survivors to join his massively powerful team for who knows what. So basically you get an enormous cast of characters, endless often confusing battles, a few character beats, and no real resolution. It will comes as no surprise that the Legion and Titan eventually become allies and that some characters change sides. I actually like kid super-hero teams, particularly the Titans, but this is just too much of a not particularly good thing. The 3-star rating is me being generous.

ah the teen titans vol 2 : the culling , i always still have the vol 1 with me , so i remember some of the tv series of teen titans and young justice for some time

As described and arrived in good time.

The Tie-in with The Culling confused me but otherwise I love the characters of this brilliant series.

A bit of a mess to start with but improves as it continues, starts to give background to the characters.