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TEENTITANSBYGARCIAPICOLOREVIEW

"From Fan Art To Best-Seller"

Title: Teen Titans

Author/Artist: Kami Garcia & Gabriel Picolo

Publisher: DC Comics

Category: Heroes, Young Adult

Review by Brayden (they/them)

Other Favourite Titles Include:

Spider-Verse, Young Avengers,

Gender Queer, Ms Marvel

My history with the Teen Titans has absolutely nothing to do with comics. I grew up on the absolutely awesome 2003-2006 animated series on Cartoon Network. It was my first introduction to Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire & Cyborg (I clearly already knew about Robin since Batman is one of the biggest pop culture properties ever), and I totally fell in love with the group. They were superheroes that were actually young! Following that was ‘Teen Titans GO!‘, which leaned to the younger audience so I dropped off then, mind you their film from 2018 is incredible, I highly recommend it! Then you get the 2018-2023 live action ‘Titans‘ series which… I just watched the highlights of on YouTube since I was burnt out and had dropped off the CW DC shows like ‘Arrow‘ & ‘The Flash‘ already.

Why do I start this review of a graphic novel series like this? Because if you read that and thought “Pfft what a child, my Teen Titans are the ‘New Teen Titans’ from Marv Wolfman & George Pérez’s excellent comic run in the 80’s!“… then this particular series isn’t exactly made for you. Let me elaborate…

This adaptation of the mostly super-powered teenagers is 100% a YA book at its core. It’s accessible in its writing and Kami Garcia manages to give us that level of mature that you would expect from a teenager who thinks they are a grown up. Which is a good thing! It’s power is in it’s ability for any young person to pick up this series and find a level of representation and enjoyment, tagging along for the adventures of some misfits who don’t quite fit in with society… which is exactly how you feel when you are a young adult!

The true star of this show however is the EXCELLENT artwork by Brazilian illustrator Gabriel Picolo. Basically going from making fan art online to getting published by one of the biggest-two comic book companies is the dream come true for a modern artist! You may have seen his gorgeous art on Instagram and Tumblr over the last decade with his work of the Teen Titans in casual wear, often depicted from the POV of a team members phone camera. It was relatable and the kind of friend group that you wished you were a part of. The EXACT thing that DC was needing in a Young Adult graphic novel series.

The art in each book of the series improves upon the last, with ‘Raven‘ on a limited colour palette that let’s be honest works super well for such a dark and struggling character, compared to the full colours of the more recent releases.

The series overall is enjoyable and quite an easy read for anyone to pick up. There is an overarching plot with Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke) working with HIVE for a yet unknown purpose that makes for an interesting mystery. I personally wish we got to see a bit more of that, but I guess an anime-esque beach episode in ‘Teen Titans: Robin‘ will have to do for now.

So far we have ‘Raven‘, ‘Beast Boy‘, ‘Beast Boy Loves Raven‘ & ‘Robin‘ with 2024 seeing the release of the upcoming ‘Starfire‘.

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