Teen Titans 2: The Culling

Comic Info

Teen Titans (4) #10

Reprints Teen Titans (4) #8-14 and DC Universe Presents #12 (June 2012-January 2013).  Trapped by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. with members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Teen Titans find they must become a team or die.  Escaping N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is only the beginning as the Teen Titans try to find their new way in the world…and when Wonder Girl reveals the origin of her powers, she could become the Titans’ biggest threat!

Written by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, and Tom DeFalco, Teen Titans Volume 2:  The Culling is the second collection of the New 52 relaunch of the series.  Following Teen Titans Volume 1:  It’s Our Right to Fight, the volume contains issues also printed in DC Universe Presents Volume 2:  Savage and the Teen Titan issues of The Culling:  Rise of the Ravagers.

I loved the original New Teen Titans.  The original Teen Titans series was ok in a ’60s/’70s comic book title, but New Teen Titans cranked up the melodrama, made the stakes higher, and helped make DC closer to Marvel’s titles at the time…unfortunately, the years haven’t been kind to the Teen Titans.

Teen Titans (4) #11

While the first volume of Teen Titans was a mess, it contained a storyline.  This volume doesn’t even have a complete storyline or at least anything that feels like one.  It is composed of three stories and very choppy.  The first part of the story demonstrates a real problem in graphic novels.  The publisher wants to produce volume aka Teen Titans 1, Teen Titans 2, Teen Titans 3, etc., but the series includes a massive crossover call “The Culling”.  Instead of putting the parts of “The Culling” in the collection, you miss a number of chapters with weak summaries (you have to get The Culling:  Rise of the Ravagers)…it isn’t fair to the reader or collector.

The second part of the story also has a really poor storyline involving the origin of Wonder Girl.  It is clunky and not fun or dramatic.  It feels like Lobdell’s ’90s comics that were…clunky and not fun.  It is real shame since Teen Titans has been so good in the past…the dinosaur story in this volume isn’t even mentionable.

Teen Titans has huge potential.  It is the voice of a generation, but the writers keep missing this.  They either make the characters more adult than they should be or vapidly uninterested Millennials that are focused on social media and non-issues…this is a disservice to all generations for a series that could be a real mouthpiece for discussion.  Teen Titans 2:  The Culling is followed by Teen Titans 3:  Death of the Family.

Related Links:

Teen Titans 1:  It’s Our Right to Fight