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Teen Titans season 2 DVD: Reviewed

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Teen Titans season 2

Teen Titans is one of those shows that progressed in quality with each season, hardly fluctuating at all. The show started out rather kid-oriented but became darker and more complex with each passing season (though season 5 was mostly one big fangasm). Season 2 is one of the better seasons and also one of the most memorable, as it adapts possibly the most famous storyline from the New Teen Titans comic book series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.

Season 2 roughly adapts “the Judas Contract”, but as you can guess, only imports a few of the basic plot elements and does its own thing with the concept. The first episode of the season, “How Long is Forever”, features Starfire being transported 20 years into a desolate future by the villainous Warp. The episode works as a foreshadowing of the events to come, as Starfire fears what might happen if the Titans drift apart (the eventual arrival of Terra causing a potential rift between the team). The show’s version of Warp is a bit different from his comic book counterpart; he’s British instead of French and is now a time traveler, where before he could just teleport from location to location. The episode also features Robin growing up to become Nightwing, but thankfully without that stupid mullet from the New Batman Adventures.

“Every Dog has his Day” is my least favorite episode on the set; a Beast Boy spotlight where said character morphs into a dog and is forced to be the pet of a dimwitted alien. A bit childish, even for this show, and just doesn’t contain much rewatch-value. “Terra” introduces the main arc of this season, the title character Terra. Terra can command earth-itself and is immensely powerful, but has little control over her abilities. She is invited to join the Titans and makes fast friends with Beast Boy. However, a misunderstanding and her own unbalanced head causes her to secretly drift into Slade’s clutches. “Only Human” is one of the better Cyborg spotlight’s (though season 3 would be “his season”). It features the hyper-competative robot, Atlas, taking the Titans hostage and Cyborg having to overcome his cybernetic limitations to save his friends. A really good character piece enhanced by an awesome voice over from Keith David as Atlas.

“Fear Itself” was written by Dwayne MacDuffie, one of the writers of Justice League Unlimited, and is an excellent Raven spotlight. After battling the crazy fanboy, Control Freak, the Titans rent a horror movie and return home. Weird things start to happen all over Titans Tower as monsters pick the Titans off one-by-one, leaving Raven alone to cope with her fears. Control Freak is one of the more entertaining original villains to come out of the series, apparently originally intended to be a foe for Impulse back when MacDuffie was writing for that book. You’ll get to see more of him in later seasons.

“Date with Destiny” is my second least favorite episode on the set, though much funnier than “Every Dog has his Day”. Killer Moth, a villain with a horde of mutant moth monsters, forces Robin to take his bratty daughter, Kitten, to her Junior Prom. This causes Starfire to go mad with jealousy, as she has had a crush on Robin since the first episode. The episode is funny, though Kitten’s annoying antics can really grate on the nerves. Thomas Haden Church providing the voice of Killer Moth is one of the most “WTF” things I’ve seen in this show; I couldn’t believe it was him. Not one of my favorite episodes, but I don’t hate it. “Transformation” is Starfire’s spotlight episode, where she deals with Tamaranian puberty and begins changing into something she fears will be hideus. A sort of “meh” episode with a life lesson for the younger set that’s about as subtle as a steamroller. The storybook-style narration by the late Tony Jaye is a plus, though.

“Titan Rising” brings the return of Terra, who officially joins the team and becomes a Titan after helping to stop Slade from sinking Titan’s Tower into the ground. She has her own agenda, though. A good Terra episode and shows the Titans starting to really like her. Kind of depressing, too, as you know from the start that she’s only going to betray them. “Winner Take All” has the Master of Games summon Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Aqualad, Speedy, Gizmo, Hot Spot and Wildebeest to compete in a supposedly friendly tournament to see who the greatest young hero on Earth is. In reality, the Master of Games is absorbing the defeated warriors and stealing their powers. An awesome episode; I totally dig the video game gags within it. One of MacDuffie’s best episodes. Also introduces a bunch of characters from the comic. Speedy gets the big spotlight and will be one of the more recognizable expansion Titans. Hot Spot (called Joto in the comics) doesn’t do or say much, and neither does Wildebeest, I’m afraid. Aqualad puts up a good fight, though, and this is still easily the best interpretation of the character, as he’s closer to Tempest (the hero Aqualad became when he grew up in the comics) than the lame-o Aquaman sidekick with the curly hair.

“Betrayed” kicks Terra’s arc into high-gear, as she…betrays her fellow Titans to Slade. The cartoon portrays Terra in a much more sympathetic light than in the comics, where she was pure evil. Here she has legitimate feelings for Beast Boy and is more confused and frightened, leading to her partnership with Slade, rather than just being an evil mercenary. The ending with Beast Boy is quite sad, too. “Fractured” is the comic relief episode of the season. Teen Titans follows a formula of having a wacky comedy episode right before the season finale, and this one features the appearance of Larry, Robin’s “DNA buddy” from the 4.9th Dimension who can bend reality with his magic finger. At the same time, the bad guy Johnny Rancid has broken Robin’s arm, and every time Larry tries to help he only makes things worse. “Larry” is actually based on the character “Bat-Mite” from the Silver Age Batman comics, who was Batman’s biggest fan from the 5th Dimension and would try to use his powers to help, only to make things worse. It’s not my favorite of the “wacky” comedy relief episodes, not being as good as either Mad Mod episodes or the Mumbo episode, but nowhere near as bad as the Mother May-Eye episode.

The “Aftershock” two-parter is the big season finale. Terra attacks the Titans with full force, springing Plasmus, Cinderblock and Overload from prison. After going easy on her for an episode and trying to appeal to the Titan within her, the team eventually decides that she’s completely gone bad and choose to quit pulling their punches for their final showdown. A decent end for Terra, and a bit of a moving sequence, which makes use of the more sympathetic angle applied to this incarnation of the character. Some really good animation, too, in these episodes; some of Dong Woo’s best fight sequences and choreography.

Teen Titans season 2 is an overall improvement over season 1 and does an admirable job of adapting the most famous Teen Titans storyline for the medium. Great animation, splendid voice acting, and only a few weak links in the whole chain. Lots more characters from the comic, too. Definitely a recommendation.

Sonic the Hedgehog #170

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Considering the last story arc was so heavy, they decided to take a break from the angst and violence with this issue and give a few happy endings to some noteworthy people.

In “Comings and Goings”, Sonic and Tails head to the Zone to find a Chaos Emerald towake King Acorn from his coma.  Following that, Tails’ uncle Merlin uses the Emerald to rescue Tails’ parents from Argentum, the alien planet they’d been stranded on.  In the back-up story, the whimsicle “the Island of Lost Badniks”, Sonic dsicovers one of the original Dr. Robotnik’s secret islands where his Badniks would go for repair or retirement.  Sonic then faces Pseudo-Sonic, his very first evi doppleganger!

An upbeat issue to off-set all the depressing stuff that happened in the previous arc, though not ignoring those events (Sonic visits Tommy’s and Sir Connery’s graves).  Not any actual conflict in the whole issue, but it provides a breather.  The back-up story is the most fun, with Sonic finally facing off against Pseudo-Sonic who appeared waaaaayyyy back in issue #9 and was never seen again.  Done mostly for humor, but a fun story never-the-less.  We also get the return of the “Off Panel” comic strips, which they haven’t done in while.  Not the funniest stuff in the world, but it’s alright.

Ninja Scroll #4

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“Autumn Leaves”.  An excellent one-shot story, though it takes a few too many cues from the Ninja Scroll film.

Jubei happens across a woman working with the Tokugawa samurai.  They are trying to deliver a mysterious box to the Hoji Mountain temple when they are attakced by ninja.  Jubei saves the woman, only to learn that she is dying of a mysterious ailment, and agrees to help her complete her final mission.

The woman, Kaede, bears a few too many similarities with Kagero, the kunoichi from the Ninja Scroll film.  Still, what saves this story is Kelley Puckett’s perfect portrayal of Jubei.  Jubei’s just as witty as ever and gets in a surprising number of memorable lines for just 22 pages.  At least one good monstrous villain shows up at the end, though he is vanquished a bit too quickly. 

A really fun one-shot story, though I’d like to see a story arc, soon.

Spawn #163

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So the conclusion to the most epic arc of the entire Spawn run has come to pass.  Was the climax everything I had hoped for?  Yes and no, I’m afraid.

My one greatest fear was that the effects of Armageddon would be fixed with “the Big Reset Button”.  Sadly, yes, that partially is the case.  However, enough of the effects of Armageddon have remained to make things truly different.  The last pages also leave several naggign questions as to the future of this book (if there is any).

“Armageddon” has been the most ambitious storyline in the entire series and, honestly, more than what I’d hoped it would be.  While I’m not 100% satisfied with the conclusion, I remain impressed.  The epilogue next issue should be impressive.

Astonishing X-Men (2nd series) #19

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“Unstoppable part 1”.  Finally, everything is really coming together.  All that stuff about Colossus and the Breakworld mentioned way back in the first arc of the series is at long last coming to fruition.  We finally get to see the Breakworld-itself and get an idea of the trouble it’s in.

Basically, the X-Men and their enemies, Ord and Danger, have been “kidnapped” by S.W.O.R.D. (an off-shoot of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and are being taken to the Breakworld.  Colossus is supposedly destined to destroy the Breakworld, and their ruthless military forces are willing to destroy Earth if anything bad happens.  Then everything explodes.

More of Joss Whedon’s snappy dialogue and plenty of Claremont-era nostalgia (only written well this time around).  Astonishing remains the essential X-Men title on the racks.