Comics Fondle

What’s really depressing about the New Teen Titans and Outsiders crossover is how bad both parts turn out. It’s a beautiful example of how having two different writers write two different parts can turn out terribly wrong. It’s also an example of how having two different artists can show off just how good the first artist is drawing the other artist’s characters (Perez’s rendition of the Outsiders in his realistic style versus Aparo’s stylized realism? There’s no contest–Perez beats Aparo with a heavy stick).

In his half, Wolfman introduces the situation… the Fearsome Five versus the Teen Titans and the Outsiders. He really does get a lot in to his issue, but most of it is his setup with the Fearsome Five, followed by a stupid fight scene between the Titans and the Outsiders. There’s not much going on in the issue besides the Fearsome Five stuff, so it’s a shock it turns out better than the Outsiders issue.

The problem with the second half is real simple–about half of it is a fight scene. Maybe more than half. But the half I was thinking of was the big fight scene with the Outsiders doing things and the Titans doing things. It’s just a big fight scene… like if someone did a bunch of covers (old school covers, not modern ones, obviously). It’s real lame.

I do like how Barr makes Changeling an opportunist pervert though. It’s kind of funny in a disturbed way.

In Barr’s issue, the whole Batman as leader versus Robin as leader (Robin has more experience with a team) element plays out–really badly, but it does happen (Batman essentially accepts Robin’s chastisement and shuts up). There’s some mildly interesting character stuff at the beginning of the issue between the two of them, evidence Barr thought about it before writing it, just didn’t get any considered conclusions in to the text.

Perez’s clean style make the Outsiders look a little silly, but he’s so much better than Aparo, it’s a real shame he couldn’t have just done both issues. Wolfman could have written them too–I think the real problem, exemplified by Wolfman’s reliance on the Fearsome Five and Barr’s lengthy fight scene–is the crossover was undercooked and missing a lot of ingredients (a story for one). At no point does the two teams joining forces make any sense, something Batman should have known.

It’s mildly painful even.

C-

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