Review: Teen Titans Vol. 1: Blinded by the Light

Quick Summary

Pros: The opening chapters are fun and engaging. The artwork looks great and is full of detail.

Cons: The majority of the book is rather bland and predictable. Most of the story arcs end too suddenly, taking away from the excitement.

Overall: The beginning of this new Teen Titans series is off to a rather rough start. It features a lackluster narrative hampered by generic storytelling and some poor character moments. The artwork looks great, for the most part, but this positive is not enough to redeem the collection. This book might be passable for those who simply want to see more from the Teen Titans, but probably won’t be worth it for most readers.

Story

Teen Titans Vol. 1: Blinded by the Light, by Will Pfeifer, starts out with a great deal of promise but descends into mediocrity rather quickly. At first, it presents the Teen Titans on a fun and exciting mission while teasing a narrative ready to take on social issues. However, much of this excitement dissolves as the Titans enter the second act and the storyline becomes far more generic. A number of out of character moments, small gaps in logic, and lackluster story conclusions don’t help this issue and ensure this volume’s fall from grace. Overall, this is a volume that is exciting at the start but mediocre overall.

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The first few chapters of Blinded by the Light are easily the highlight of the collection. They introduce the Teen Titans by having them each use their unique skillset in dispatching a threat. This threat then goes on to form the basis of a larger narrative, one that shows a lot of early promise. In addition, throughout these opening chapters, quick references are made to various social issues, opening the door to even more future storylines. All of this makes the beginning of the volume feel very promising and builds a good deal of excitement.

Unfortunately, most of this excitement dissipates as the volume moves into the next storyline. The rest of the volume sees normally intelligent characters fall for obvious manipulations, a general lack of exciting battles, and a complete abandonment of the social themes that were promised in the beginning. All of this leads to a very generic narrative with few surprises to keep things interesting. The predictable storytelling hurts these portions of the book, especially since there are only a few positives to even things out.

The generic nature of the storytelling is then worsened by a few poor quality conclusions. The Teen Titan’s fight against the drug-enhanced teenagers takes a while to get going but then ends over the course of two pages; it happened so quickly that I didn’t even realize the Titans had won. The final arc ends in a similar way; it receives copious amounts of set-up but then ends in a quick battle. It’s hard to revel in the heroes’ victory when it passes by so quickly, which makes it hard to get excited in their adventures.

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Art

The artwork throughout Blinded by the Light is one of the volume’s best qualities. Kenneth Rocafort’s take on the Teen Titans is unique and proves to be very attractive. This is especially true when showing off their powers and abilities, as Rocafort’s work makes mystical energies and energetic battles look fantastic. It also helps that the book is highly detailed, making the world feel more realistic and giving readers plenty to look at on every page.

The downside is that the two chapters drawn by Scott Hepburn do not look quite as good. These chapters feature far less detail and a far more cartoonish take on the Teen Titans. This wouldn’t necessarily look that bad by itself, but when contrasted with the rest of the book, it ends up looking rather strange.

Continuity

Teen Titans Vol. 1: Blinded by the Light starts a brand new Teen Titans series. However, it somewhat continues the story from Teen Titans Vol. 5: The Trial of Kid Flash (Review).

The story here continues in Teen Titans Vol. 2: Rogue Targets (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The new Power Girl’s relationship with the old Power Girl is detailed throughout Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5: Homeward Bound.
• The new Power Girl also mentions the old Power Girl’s departure. This happened in Worlds’ Finest #26, which is collected in Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5: Homeward Bound.