1 out of 5

Woof, rough stuff.

I know Bob Rozakis can write. His ‘Mazing Man and Hero Hotline are proven oddballs in the DC-Verse, and were why I wanted to track down other Rozakis efforts. Even in this batch of relative whiffs, the final issue suddenly turns into a book of tight plotting and sharp characterizations, packing an immense amount of story into a single issue – this is the Bob for whom I showed up! But it would seem that no one much knew what to do with the Teen Titans from this era, leading to this reboot (after a long pause post-issue #43) never once finding its feet, rotating in cast members and swapping in and out powers for a couple of the crew in a fashion that speaks to trying to find something that clicked, not to mention the constantly changing art teams for most of the run who, arguably, were just doing the house style and not much more. You can see it in the letters (and since editorial was likely using those plus sales as guidance, further proof of there being no focus), as the audience is as fickle as ever, asking for conflicting “make it the same” / “make it different” changes, sometimes within the same missive. And just the quality of writing, which finds Bob resorting to trying on different classic writer guises – very bad puns, very bad villains; very golden age – and thus only guaranteeing that only a very narrow fanbase will latch on to any given issue. There are points where it feels like editor Julius Schwarz and Rozakis are maybe trying to lean into the inherent camp, but that’s where the art kind of lets things down – the artists (as mentioned, often changing per book) are not in sync, and can’t keep up with the comedic capers or zaniness, giving us a broken read that’s partial “classic” comic calamity and partial attempted parody, and ultimately rather cringe.

Don Heck becomes the stable penciller towards the end, and while Heck is also doing a house style, at least having a dedicated team equals an immediate uptick in quality, assisted by a three-part tale that requires team members to act a bit less cartoonishly, while still supplying plenty of goofball stuff. It’s not good, but it starts to get much better… and then the book was canceled, and Bob could maybe just write actual characters and story for a “how the Titans got together” origin, really wonderfully penciled by Juan Ortiz and inked with cinematic flair by John Fuller.

What could’ve been.

But otherwise, I really don’t know if this has any value for even Titans fans, as it seems like a very short-lived moment that only provides some blips of history – a new hero identity for some folks; a reveal regarding “Joker’s Daughter;” and a new HQ – and is otherwise an unfortunately unfulfilling read.