Warning: the comments below contain spoilers.
How can a title with “teen” in it be this gruesome? In the space of an issue, we have the antagonist vomiting up part of a Titan that he’d recently bit off, and a brainwashed girl gouging out her own eye to prove to daddy that she’s worthy of his scumbag legacy. Beyond being visually revolting, both are nakedly misogynistic.
This title must be aimed at least partly at the audience of the animated series. You know, the one that airs as part of Cartoon Network’s after-school programming block and as part of the WB’s Saturday morning line-up? The casts of both are largely the same, as is the setting, but the similarities end there.
Most different, obviously, is tone. Despite the purported premise of the comic – young heroes hanging out and training on the weekends – the book is rarely lighthearted. Titans are injured brutally and often, and adolescent identity issues have life-threatening consequences. While the cartoon can address some dark subject matter and there’s genuine peril in the threats the Titans face, it’s anything but grim.
Not to go all Helen Lovejoy from “The Simpsons,” but I think DC should be a bit more careful with this title. I can understand their desire to capitalize on television success, but that seems destined to backfire if the comic is so much darker and more brutal than the cartoon.