I wasn’t originally going to pick this up. Then came Superboy, and I knew that even though the art really turned me off, I’d have to see where Teen Titans (TT) would lead me. I’ve wanted to like TT for a long time. I love the concept, and can’t really get enough teen books in my life. I passed on Red Hood and the Outlaws last week (also written by Scott Lobdell) since I don’t care about any of those characters, but the combination of Superboy’s quality combined with really liking Tim Drake – Red Robin as a character meant I was willing to give this a chance.

So that’s the long sordid history of my relationship with the book building up to its release. This being the first book I read this week, I’m starting to realize that #1 fatigue is finally setting in for me. I love team books, I love covert/conspiracy books, and I really like teen superheroes, and all of that still didn’t save me from starting to realize that I’m actually starting to get sick of reading the very beginning of a story. I don’t think I would have noticed this as much if TT wasn’t just incredibly mediocre and quick to read, but it just wasn’t that great.

I still haven’t warmed up to Brett Booth’s decidedly 90’s Image-influenced style. Everyone’s bulging with muscles and the style, rather than doing something interesting with Jim Lee’s redesign of the costumes, seems to enhance all the bad parts of the redesigns. I will say this about the art though. There are moments where Booth really nails a character’s facial expression that were refreshing. I also enjoyed his rendition of Superboy’s costume almost as much as R.B. Silva’s from Superboy #1. The black and red capeless design is really badass and menacing. I have no idea why the cover shows pretty much the worst Superboy design ever, because I don’t think it’s going to show up anywhere in the new version of the DC Universe.

The story felt slight in a way that wasn’t still satisfying. What I mean is that with Supergirl #1 last week, it was an incredibly quick read, but it felt like a very tantalizing tease. I wanted to know more about the main character and how she would interact with the world. In TT #1, we get a faceless clandestine group messing with teen heroes named “N.O.W.H.E.R.E.” that, in a post-Nextwave world feels like a parody of itself. I don’t care about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. even A.L.I.T.T.L.E. The group is so generic, and I feel like Lobdell missed the boat on throwing us a bone or any hook at all that would make me care about this story line. Alas, we got nothing, and that’s kind of how I feel about the book overall – just a whole lotta nothing.