Sunday, January 5, 2014

Not Really Off-Topic: Comic Book Review of Teen Titans #26

My featured comic this week will be Teen Titans #26. A few issues back, the Titans faced Johnny Quick of the Criminal Syndicate, and he used his speed force powers to manipulate the speed force of Kid Flash, sending the entire team into the future, where Kid Flash (Bart Allen) grew up. In this future time, we find out that Bart is a fugitive from justice, who turned the equivalent of "state's evidence" and was sent back in time as a part of a futuristic witness protection program, his memories erased as a part of that process. We've spent the last few issues piecing together Bart's life and the nature of his crimes, now in issue #26 the entire story is really laid bare.

On the aesthetic level, the level of the 'pure comic book', this book was pretty good. It is in some ways a classic origin story, with all the elements that great DC characters are usually possessed of. Bart grows up as an orphan under the boot heel of an oppressive government. He rebels against that government only to find that his rebellion is as bad or worse than the forces it was aimed against. He reforms and tries to set things right in a world of moral ambiguity, where redemption seems a difficult treasure to dig up. These kinds of back stories make for great, complex characters that help clarify motivations and draw up new material for more stories in the future. Scott Lobdell, the writer, did a great job here.

The dialogue is also quite good. While much of it is rote and forced, as most comic book dialogue is, some is truly elevating. I loved the way Bart's parents exemplified martyrdom (more on that in a moment). And the art by Tyler Kirkham is damn good as well. Not as good as the stuff I'm seeing in books like SUPERMAN: UNCHAINED, but still better than your average comic book offering. He captures the individual scenes very well.

This whole book is a flashback, and so there is a dreamlike quality to it. This hurts pacing but that is no big deal in an issue like this.

The reason I chose this book for my deep review this week is that the entire issue really centered on three theological issues: martyrdom, faith, and redemption. Bart's parents are killed for their religious beliefs, and Lobdell treats this issue of being willing to die for a higher power respectfully and with admirable depth. Their sacrifice comes off as neither empty nor stupid, though it is clear the state and its agents cannot see as anything other than empty and stupid. The way this willingness to sacrifice for faith affects the rest of Bart's life and his reflection upon it is similarly interesting. I love the part when Bart realizes at the end what it means to believe in something you can't physically sense, and to be willing to live and die for another.

I identified strongly with the way Bart, while trying to do the right things in life, constantly seems to be going off on the wrong path, until his memory is erased and he gets a real chance to start again with the Teen Titans. He admits fully the sinfulness of what he has done in the past, but he is convinced that his life in the 21st century has really put him on the path to being a new person. In the end, redemption is as much about 'recreation' as anything else. We have to become something wholly new, if forgiveness is to be real. Mercy must be transformative, or it cannot really be salvific. Bart cries out to his friends at the end, pleading with them to tell him that he is not the person he once was, and that his redemption is real. Their pause is both frightening and poignant. I loved this scene. I am this scene.

And so this comic book accomplishes everything I want a comic book to accomplish. It entertains and it touches on real mythic and even theological depth. The art adds to this, as Kirkham effectively captures in the looks of the characters the feelings the writing evokes in the reader's heart. I liked this issue, and I hope we see more like it in the future.

4 Stars

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