Teen Titans: Blinded by the Light by Will Pfeifer

Genre: Superhero Comics

Series: New 52 Teen Titans

Publisher: DC Comics (August 11, 2015)

Author Information:Website | Twitter

Length:176 pages

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Yet another reboot of Teen Titans has arrived!

Our New 52 team is: Red Robin (leader?), Raven (magic), Beast Boy (comedic ability), Wonder Girl (the muscle), and Bunker (projectile thrower).

Our creative team on this new journey: writer Will Pfeifer and artist Kenneth Rocafort.

Our destination: exciting and fun superhero teen action!

My opinion after reading it: It isn’t the worst comic collection I’ve ever read, but definitely isn’t the best.

What I Liked!

1) No boring introductions. Nope, the creative team drops you right into the action, giving you tidbits of info on our heroes as we go along.

2) Art was above average. It definitely fit the characters and the tone that the creative team was trying to establish.

3) Other than him having the Union Jack tattooed on his chest and not ever wearing shirts, Manchester Black was a decent character, who could be turned into a better one.

4) Not very much teen angst. At least not in this collection. Personally, I can understand some angst, but teen superheroes should be spending most of their non-fighting time having fun: they are superheroes after all with all the perks that come with that.

5) A few of the old Titans are back. Having Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy around makes it the Titans to me. I’m old school, I guess.

What I Did Not Like!

1) The storyline was pretty standard. Bad guy shows up; superheroes go fight and beat him. Not too much depth in the narrative.

2) Not enough characterization with our heroes. I really only know everyone by their powers, because the writer never lets me get to know them outside of fighting.

3) It is hard to tell that these guys are teenagers. No teen-type stuff happening – at all. Hell, in Geoff Johns run on Teen Titans, I remember Robin, Superboy, and the other guys in the group “borrowing” the Batmobile and taking it for a drive. Now, that was normal teen stuff.

4) Camaraderie is missing. Maybe that will come later, but it was fairly non-existent here.

5) Fun is missing. Teen Titans has always been about equal doses of suspense, action, and fun. It is just another comic series if the fun is left out.

Teen Titans: Blinded by the Light isn’t a bad book, but like he man said, it hasn’t done enough to convince me to take it seriously. Sure, the story and characters definitely have potential, but the creative team is going to have to make these “Teen Titans” people we all want to read about.

I received this book from DC Comics in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to inform everyone that the review you are about to read is my opinion alone.

Buy the book at Amazon.