Teen Titans: Life And Death (Trade Paperback, DC Comics, 2006)

Teen Titans #5: Life and Death trade paperback cover

Teen Titans #5: Life and Death (Trade Paperback)
Published by DC Comics
Cover Price $14.99
Pages: 208
Collects: Teen Titans, Volume 3, #29-33, Annual #1, Robin #146-147, Infinite Crisis #5-6
Writers: Geoff Johns, Bill Willingham, Bill Williams and Marv Wolfman
Pencilers: Tony S. Daniel, Todd Nauck, Scott McDaniel, Ed Benes, Dale Eaglesham, Tom Grindberg, Elton Ramalho and Phil Jimenez

Well the good news is that I really enjoyed this trade paperback of Teen Titans, the bad news is I haven't read books two through four. I was at Media Underground Comics in Metairie, LA and I was thinking about picking up a Teen Titans trade since I liked the first one but I only saw book five when I looked through the shelves and normally I wouldn't buy trades out of order but I did and it was a good choice for me.

This trade covers a lot of different comics which does make it a bit confusing although it's all one story and it does fit together pretty well. Actually my only problem with the book is that they did not include any indication of what issues or title you are reading or who the creative teams were throughout the book. It's a little odd to me that they would include four issues of comics that fall outside the Teen Titans title but I think they needed to do so to complete the story being told here.

So what's it all about? The simple version is that Superboy from Earth-Prime is trying to get back home and he blames the Titans of Earth-Two and Conner Kent the resident Superboy for ruining things. This alternate Superboy aims to destroy Conner and the Teen Titans at any cost. Conner is beaten to the point of death and the Teen Titans have to find a cure for him that only Lex Luthor will have.

One of my favorite parts of the book happens at the beginning when Robin (Tim Drake) meets original Robin  Jason Todd and they have a battle that leads Tim Drake on the path to becoming the leader of the Teen Titans. The book also has plenty of subplots that I found interesting and have solidified me as a fan of this team. Oddly enough the love story between Wonder Girl and Superboy stood out to me most because it seemed genuine and I think it had potential to be a nice long story for the characters but at the end of the book things seem to end up badly (trying not to spoil it). Tim Drake becoming the better Robin and better leader of the team also proved to be a nice turning point for the character. 

I think the only character that I'm undecided on as to if I like them or not is Beastboy. He seems to be the comic relief and I'm good with that but I just don't know if I like him yet or not. Maybe once I read more about him I will be able to decide how I fell but at this point he's just kind of there and I don't really care too much for or against him. I think his power of changing into different kinds of animals isn't really my thing.

The book has a lot going on in it especially when the Infinite Crisis parts kick in adding more characters to the mix and I did find a few pages of it a bit confusing and had to read over it a time or two but that's just because I'm not familiar with DC's characters as much as those of Marvel Comics. There are a lot of fights between superheroes and super villains, monsters and robots and a solid background story to keep it interesting. I think this is a solid comic book series that really captures the essence of coming of age characters trying to become great heroes.

I definitely need to find books 2-4 and all the others in this series which I believe is a total of 18 trade paperbacks including the two Teen Titans/Outsiders books. 

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Image ia copyright © 2005-2006 DC Comics and are used as Fair Use Review images only. Image will be removed upon the request of DC Comics. 

Teen Titans: A Kid's Game (Trade Paperback) - DC Comics

Teen Titans . . . can't say that I have ever read anything about the team besides the Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans crossover from 1982 . . . and I read that probably in the late 1980's . . . and I can't say that I have any memory as to what happened in that comic (maybe I'll have to read it again) but it is the only connection I can think of that I have to the Teen Titans.

I bought this trade because the Boarders bookstore in my town was closing and there were great discounts to be had and I tried to get as many trades as I could afford before they shut the doors. I got A Kid's Game for $4.99 which is a great price but when I got home I found that the cover is detached from the spine so I'm pretending that it is a slipcase edition and it's cooler than everyone else's copy (yes I know I need help.)

So the reason for buying this besides the super sale price was to try to get to know a little more about the characters in the DC Universe. And maybe get introduced to a few that I had never heard of or never read about very much about in my brief knowledge of DC Comics.

The book is set up where a new team of Teen Titan's is forming and most of the young heroes are being sent to be part of the team by a mentor hero like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The group is set up as a weekend warrior type thing for these kids and they will go back to their regular lives after the weekend is over. So the young heroes are brought together and almost instantly they are confronted with an attack by Deathstroke who is bound and determined to kill one of the Titans so that their will be no more groups of children brought together as a super team.

The speedster Impulse is shot in the knee by Deathstroke and the Justice League shows up with fighting amongst friends quickly ensuing over mixed beliefs on how things are to be with the team. Starfire and Wonder Woman clash, Impulse full of angst goes a little tantrum-ish and becomes Kid Flash no matter what anyone says.

The book set's up friendships between Robin and Superboy, Impulse and Wondergirl and a blooming romance between Superboy and Wondergirl and gives lots of room to grow. My favorite line in many years of reading comics has to be when Wondergirl states to Robin ". . . wait a second. You just lied to Starfire?!" and he responds with "I lie to Batman." To me that is how you know Robin is the real deal.

By the end of this book the terms of the team are settled the JLA and Teen Titans are in agreement how things will work, but I think Wonder Woman isn't happy about it, a twist in Deathstroke's character is revealed and Superboy gets a dog.

I really enjoyed this book and will try to find more of the trades in the future. Another small note Deathstroke has one of my favorite costumes of all times and was the sole reason I bought many issues of the Deathstroke: The Terminator series back in the early 1990's . . . he's also an awesome villain.

This book also includes Cover pages and sketch cover art, Mike McKone's sketches, and a character description pages of all the Teen Titans and Deathstroke.

192 pages Trade paperback
Geoff Johns - writer
Mike McKone - pencils
Marlo Alquiza - inks
Jeromy Cox - colors
Comicraft - colors
Covers and backup art by Michael Turner
Other artist featured on backup section.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson
Copyright © 2010 Kevin P. Johnson

Images are copyright © 2011 DC and Marvel Comics are used as Fair Use Review images only. Images will be removed upon the request of DC or Marvel Comics.