TV Talk - Teen Titans: "The Quest"

Well, I’m starting a little late, but better late than never!  Every January, I look at media that features martial arts in some capacity. You got movies, comics, video games, and TV shows that revolve around the art of butt-kicking. Today, I thought I’d look at a show I haven’t talked about here yet: Teen Titans… and I’m not talk about the “Go” variety either. No one wants that crap around here.

Anyway, this show was airing while I was in high school and college. It looked weird since we had DC characters in pretty weird anime world,but It was fun and especially funny. We had the overly serous Robin, the gothness of Raven, the macho-ness of Cyborg, the oddness of Starfire, and the hilarity of Beast Boy.  While it was pretty funny and quirky, it could get pretty dark at times. Today’s not one of them, but maybe I’ll talk about the show later this year. Today’s episode is “The Quest”, the second episode of Season 4.

Favorites – 12 Favorite Black Characters in Comic Books

You know, I really haven’t done much for Black History Month here. I tend not to do much in February anyway. Heck, I’d rather talk about us any other time. Why regulate blackness to one month anyway? Maybe I shouldn’t complain since a lot of history could and does get swept under the rug. It’s also possible that I’m just filling up space with this paragraph. After all, I’m usually a dude with few words.

Since it’s Black History Month and Black Panther is finally coming to theaters, it’s time to get to this post. I’ve wanted to do this for a while but never knew when to do it. While there aren’t many, there are some cool black characters in comics. While some of them aren’t necessarily my favorites, there are some I really like. I especially like when they’re actually well-written. I’d probably say that Marvel uses them better but DC has good ones too. So, here are some of my favorite Black characters from comic books. It’s also not in any order either. First, I have some honorable mentions:

• Bishop (Marvel) – Lucas Bishop’s up here mostly because he may be the second black superhero I ever ran across. For those who don’t know, he’s another X-Man from the future. I first saw him on the 90’s X-Men cartoon. I thought his power set (he can absorb energy and use that energy) was pretty cool. There’s also the fact that was one of the only X-Men who had sense to carry weapons. That being said, I was not a fan of what the writers did with the character around the late 2000’s. How can you turn one of the only black dudes on the X-Men into a villain? At least he’s not like that now.
• Falcon (Marvel) – Sam Wilson isn’t really one of my favorites. Guys who fly and can communicate with birds aren’t my thing. I also haven’t read much of anything with him in it. Still, I did like his turn as Captain America when he was written by Nick Spencer. Yeah, it’s the guy who made Steve Rogers into a fascist. We can’t all be perfect. Also, Anthony Mackie has been killing it in the MCU. Maybe he gets to wield a shield in a later movie?
• Black Lightning (DC) – Then, there’s DC’s first black superhero. As you can tell by the name, Black Lightning has power over electricity. I really didn’t see any of Jefferson Pierce until Infinite Crisis. He was pretty cool in Brad Meltzer’s run on JLA. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much from him since then. I haven’t even gotten to watch the CW show yet. I’ve heard that it’s good, so here’s hoping I can get some more Lightning goodness there.
• Bronze Tiger (DC) – Ben Turner, aka Bronze Tiger, is pretty much in the antihero side of things. While he has been a villain (especially on CW’s Arrow), he’s sometimes a good guy. I talked about him last month. While I haven’t read a lot on him, I like what I’ve read so far. He’s just a dude who’s awesome at martial arts. That’s cool to me. If you saw what I was posting last month, you’d see that.

TV Talk - Young Justice

Here's a little story. Originally, I was going to let this post be about unaired pilots like the Justice League of America pilot from the 90's and the somewhat recent Wonder Woman pilot from 2011. I've now decided not to view those potentially dreadful things (I also couldn't find a whole airing of them on YouTube) and have decided to look at a good show that sort of featured the Justice League: Young Justice.

Background

I watched Young Justice when it premiered on Cartoon Network back in 2011. I tried to stick with the show on TV, but I would miss some episodes because of work. So, I had to YouTube them after they aired. I had to do the same for all of Season 2 especially since our family basically got rid of cable. It was a pretty frustrated second season. CN would air episodes and then not air them. When I found out that the show wouldn't get renewed for a third season, I was (and in some ways still am) pretty annoyed about the treatment of that show.

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 7: Titans East

This installment of Graphic Novels is brought to you by Prestone, the best makers of anti-freeze ever! It'll cool your vehicle as well as you next door alien bounty hunter!

Well, this is it. It's the end of Geoff Johns' run on Teen Titans. We've seen the highs and the lows to his run on the book. We've also seen death and rebirth too. It took a while to do this post because... well, you'll find out below. Geoff Johns isn't the only writer in this trade. We have Adam Beechen, a writer who took over the series for a couple of issues. We also have a few artists this time around. There's Tony Daniel, Chris Batista, Al Barrinuevo, and Peter Snejbjerg. The issues contained in the trade are Teen Titans #42-47. This is going to be one of the long posts, so sit back and let's see if this volume lives up to what has come before it.

Teen Titans Volume 7: Titans East
Writers: Geoff Johns and Adam Beechen
Artists: Peter Snejbjerg, Tony Daniel, Al Barrinuevo, and
Chris Batista

Random Pics of the Month - August

Before I start my break from this place, here are three pics that have are a teaser for later...

Well, it's official...Deathstroke has the title for "Worst Surrogate Father" as well as the "Worst Father" award. 

Heat vision usually has three uses: Offense, Intimidation, and Shaving. Guess which one goes into "El Diablo!!!!" territory. 

I found these laying around the house, so I did this. I think they're still stuck in this position. 

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 6: Titans Around the World Part 2

Previously, on Graphic Novels……Stuff happened. Moving on!

Before I start with the second arc, I want to list the rest of the creative team for the tpb:

• Carlos Ferreria – does the art to the first part of the arc. Not too bad, though I have never heard of him till this day.
• Paco Diaz – does the art to the last part of the arc. His art’s okay, not too great though. I have never heard of him till now as well.
• Ryan Benjamin - Also does art on the last part of the arc. his art is okay as well.

So let’s finish this!

Titans Around the World

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 6: Titans Around the World Part 1

Graphic Novels is brought to you by THE MAN, who kicks all types of butt!

Well, it looks I’m back on the Geoff Johns train in going through these tpbs. This here is volume 6 of Teen Titans with issues 34 to 41 within it, so it looks like it’s going to be a long ride. I’m gonna hit the first four issues for this post though.

First, we kinda need some back story to what’s going on here or “Comic History You Don’t Care About But Need To Know In Order To Understand This” (and no I didn’t make that up):

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 5: Life and Death - Part Two

Sup guys. It’s arw1985 back with part 2 of Life and Death. At this moment, it’s the 22nd, I’m listening to my iTunes, and I’m thinking about someone from lunch yesterday (Who? None ya business! Ha!). I also got a new camera this weekend, and I like it. Anyway, let me get on to the creative team for these parts. By the way, it’s big.

• Geoff Johns - … ‘Nuff Said (lol).
• Marv Wolfman – Let’s see,... the man’s a legend! Because of this guy, Teen Titans (or should I say New Teen Titans) became a household name in the 80’s. This guy also wrote that other ‘Crisis’ (COIE) event too. He’s also written on countless books, so look him up.
• Bill Willingham – writer of the Robin issues.
• Bill Williams - ...I have no freaking clue what he does.
• Todd Nanuck – He does the artwork in TT #31 and #32.
• Ed Benes – Nice artist. He does some pencils in the Titans Annual.
• Phil Jimenez – The main penciller from the main crossover book. His artwork is from IC #6 (which won’t be talked about for a while because…_______ ______.
• Ivan Reis – Some of his work from IC is included.
• Scott McDaniel – the artist of the Robin issues.
• Dale Eaglesham – a good artist. He does some of the art in the Titans Annual.
• Tom Grindburg – He also does some art in the Annual.
• Elton Ramalho – He also does a little art in the Annual (wow! Those are a lot of pencilers).

Since I didn’t note it last time, I’ll note it here. This volume contains Teen Titans #29-33, Robin #146-147, Teen Titans Annual #1, and some stuff from Infinite Crisis #5 and 6. So let’s start to end this.

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 5: Life and Death - Part One

Hello and hello. It’s arw1985, and I’m back with another installment of our favorite teenage heroes: The Teen Titans. Today, I will be going over a part of Volume five of the Teen Titans series, Life and Death. Why? ‘Cause I felt like it. Plus, this volume kind of flowed along with Infinite Crisis, so I decided to split it up. Now the creative team for volume five is…kinda big, so I’ll just list the creative team for each part I come out with. The creative team for part Uno of vol. 5 is:

• Geoff Johns – I think I’m catching on to a trend here.
• Tony Daniel –He’s ends up becoming the new head penciler for the book after this volume.
• Todd Nanuck- I don’t know anything about this guy. He does a couple of pages here and there.

Now that I’ve have gotten that out of the way, let’s get on with it!

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Insiders

Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Insiders
Writers: Geoff Johns and Judd Winnick
Artists: Matthew Clark, Carlos D'anda, and Tony Daniel

This installment of Graphic Novels is brought to you by this dude.

Hey, all of you out there. I’m back and ready to nip this tpb in the bud. As I said above, this is a crossover between the Titans and the Outsiders (And no, not these guys. I do have to say though that any group with Patrick Swayze in it is an awesome group. WOLVERINES!!!!) . Anyway, a guide to this version of the Outsiders is HERE. This tpb contains Teen Titans #24-26 and Outsiders #24, 25, and 28. Let’s get on to the creative team:

• Geoff Johns – Johns! We meet again.
• Judd Winnick – The writer of the Outsiders. His writing credits include this book, Green Arrow, Justice League: Generation Lost, and Power Girl. This is also the same guy who brought back Jaso…Oh, I’ll spoil that later.
• Matthew Clark – Clark pencils the first two Titans issues and the last Outsiders issue. I don’t know much about this dude. All I know is that it looks good.
• Carlos D’anda – This guy pencils the first two Outsiders issues. I don’t know about this guy either.
• Tony Daniel – Daniel does the last Titans’ issue. His artwork is real good. His credits include Teen Titans, Batman, and others. He’s also a writer, writing and doing artwork on Batman.

In a way, this crossover can be seen as a sequel to Graduation Day, which Winnick also wrote. So let's get to it!

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 4: The Future is Now

Hello and hello! I’m back with another tpb, and it’s a good one. And yes, it’s another one of those Geoff Johns’ ones.

Teen Titans Vol. 4: The Future is Now
Writers: Geoff Johns
Artists: Mike McKone, Tom Grummett, and Ivan Reis

As stated above, the creative team is pretty much the same from before, with McKone doing the main stuff, Grummett doing filler, and Reis doing part 2 of the Legion Crossover. The volume has issues #16-23 including the Titans/Legion Special, so this is going to be a big one. So, let’s get to it.

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 3: Beast Boys and Girls

Greetings and salutations! I'm back with another installment of Graphic Novels, concentrating on the stuff by Geoff Johns. Today, I'll be doing volume 3 of Teen Titans: Beast Boys and Girls.

I found this tpb a few days ago at Rick's Comic City in Donelson. The price wasn't bad. I'd probably pay the same if I got it online. Anyway, the book itself is split into two different stories. The first is actually a Beast Boy miniseries that came out a few years prior, and the next story is an arc from Teen Titans #13-15.

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 2: Family Lost

Happy post-Thanksgiving! I hope all of you out there had a good Thanksgiving and that you are now exercising or doing something to get that turkey and dressing off ya. Here I am, sticking to what I said last time and going in order through this DC stuff. The next tpb on the list? Teen Titans Vol. 2: Family Lost.

Now I forgot to mention something in my last post and here it is: Volume 1 of the rebooted Teen titans book contain the first seven issue of the series. This volume contain issues 8 - 12, as well as Teen Titan 1/2. This volume pretty much takes off from where we left everyone in Volume 1. The TT are still looking for Raven and Joey (Jericho), and now Deathstroke and his daughter are also on the search. The creative team is pretty much the same as last time, but we have a new artist on board. Ivan Reis. I'll talk about him more later. So let's do it!

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 1: A Kid's Game

This installment of Graphic Novels is brought to you by Prestone.

I don't know what to do next. I started writing up one post for Flash: Rebirth, and suddenly it hit me: How about I go in order when dealing with Geoff Johns' stuff? So, now I going to hold off on Flash: Rebirth and try to go in order from Teen Titans to Blackest Night (something else I'll eventually cover). This means I have to go through that certain major crossover Infinite Crisis (ugh).

Now, it's not a bad story. It's what got me into the DC Universe as a whole. The problem is that it's just so all over the place, ya know? Many story lines, many characters, IC is just ........another DC crisis. Well, before I even cover that "thing", I will go over the rebooted Teen Titans, starting with the tpb A Kid's Game.