I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: May 20, 2023] Teen Titans: Raven

Kami Garcia has written (and Gabriel Picolo has illustrated) a trilogy of books about Raven and Beast Boy from the Teen Titans.

I only know about Teen Titans from teen Titans Go! which I think is hilarious and (which I realized years after watching it) has nothing really at all to do with the actual Teen Titans who are serious (and kind of dull in a DC comics way).

But these stories are interesting and seem to be breaking out of the darkness that DC is under with these lighter (but not nearly as light as Teen Titans Go!) origin stories.

As with all comic book characters, origin stories are canon.  Until they need to be modified for the new series. I don’t know what the actual origin stories of either of these characters are, but I enjoyed these quite a bit.  I also rather liked this book because on the cover Raven looks like Miss Calendar from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

At the end of each of their books, they were heading to Nashville to meet Slade, a mysterious figure who says he has answers.  They are in the same cafe and when their orders get mixed up (Beast Boy is vegetarian), they wind up talking.  Beast Boy falls for her instantly, but she is very suspicious and blows him off.

Later, after separate sightseeing days, they wind up in a coffee shop together.  But during the day Raven’s wallet was stolen.  So Beast Boy is chivalrous and buys her lunch.  They wind up spending a lot of time together hanging out in Nashville.  But neither one will reveal their supernatural secret to the other (which makes them both suspicious of each other).

They go off to meet Slade and Beast Boy is grabbed off the street and drugged.

While Raven is waiting for Slade, we see another boy who also had a note from Slade.  This boy’s name is Robin.  He is watching Raven from a rooftop.  But just as Raven is grabbed by the same van that got Beast Boy, Max sees her and yell for them to stop.

Both Robin and Max follow the van independently.  Robin says he knows that Raven had powers–he saw the bird shadow over the van.  They work together to try to break Raven and Beast Boy out.

Raven and Beast Boy are locked up and interrogated.  Raven sees Beast Boy change and he sees her Raven shadow.

The rescue is dramatic and exciting and the denouement is quite satisfying.

Turns out this creative dup has just released Teen Titans: Robin.  I’m looking forward to continuing this saga.