I am not a big fan of the New 52 Teen Titans series because I think they changed the characters I loved way too much. So, I have been trying to avoid this series for a while. But every once in awhile I like to pick up an issue to see where the series has been going. So, I thought the Death of the Family tie-in of the series would be a great way to pick up Teen Titans again. I also wanted to see if Batgirl guest starring would make this series any better.
The cover is like all the other first issue tie-ins with Death of the Family. I don’t love the tacky Joker mask connected to the book, but I love the cover that the Joker mask is hiding. I love the simplicity of it. It has great art showing half of Tim Drake’s face.
Tim Drake is kidnapped by the Joker. The Joker tells him that he is going to target all of the Teen Titans, and there is nothing that Tim can do about it. The only person that has experience that is helping out the Teen Titan’s is Batgirl. But will Batgirl be enough to save the inexperienced Titans from the Joker?
I thought this was weaker than the other tie-ins that I have read from Death of the Family. It didn’t have anything special to bring to the table like the other tie-ins. The Batgirl tie in had the encounter of Barbara and the Joker after the events of the Killing Joker. The Nightwing tie-in had two supporting characters killed. But with this I didn’t feel like anything special happened. It felt very generic and bland, especially compared to the other tie-ins that have come out from the event.
The reason I pick this series up sometimes is to see if it got any better. To see if there is a glimmer of the old characters I use to love in the New 52 starting to return, but there was no such luck with this issue. I feel like it didn’t skip a beat, but I haven’t read this series in months. Shouldn’t something have changed? Shouldn’t the series seem more developed?
The guest appearance of Batgirl was somewhat interesting, but was also not needed. She didn’t add anything to the issue. It might have been better to see her in this series after the events of Death of the Family. It would of felt less forced.
The art is not the best. It is very abstract, but if you have been reading this series for a while you are probably use to it by now. Some people are going to like this style and some people aren’t. It just depends what type of taste you have.
This issue is worth skipping. It is very generic and far from the best tie in. If you are reading Teen Titans than you might want to pick this up. But if you are only picking this up because of Death of the Family than I don’t think this is necessary for the story arc. Don’t pick this issue up!
