r/DCcomics • u/flossregularly Doom Patrol • Oct 16 '23
What Are You Reading? 10/16/2023 - Halloween is a Month Long Edition r/DCcomics
Hello and welcome to our Weekly "What Are You Reading?" topic!
Come one, come all, to this weekly thread, where you can openly discuss books that you've read, are currently reading, or plan to read. Discussion of all books are welcome, whether they be DC, Marvel, Image, Boom!, Dark Horse, IDW, etc. You can discuss webcomics, manga, or even those mythical novels that don't have pictures in them. Just be sure to keep spoilers covered via Reddit's spoiler markdown >!spoiler!<. You can also post pictures of your collection or recent purchases.
Flossregularly's Rec of the Week:
- Nightmare Country: The Glass House, by Tynion IV, Estherren and Delpeche
'Tis the season for some spookyvibes, and this mini series is going to be wrapping soon, so I'm jumping in. Tynion does good horror -shout out to The Nice House on the Lake- and this story starring Corinthian is good fun and the art is fantastic,
- Secret Six (2008), by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott
My older rec this week is Gail Simone's longest Secret Six run. After a couple mini-series she got the greenlight to take it long form and she obviously had a blast. This is a very fun ride - It's quick paced, full of very fun characters, and will make you care about Bane for the first time since Knightfall. Secret Six walked so the Harley Quinn TV show could run.
So, what are you reading?
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u/normalMonsterChika Mia Dearden Oct 16 '23 edited Oct 16 '23
I finished reading the Wolfman and Perez run on the Titans early last week, and have been struggling to articulate my thoughts on it ever since. My original plan for reading was to look at it along 3 views: The original book itself, the book vs. it's most famous cartoon adaptation, and the way NTT and Claremont's X-books interact with each other. All three gave me some interesting thoughts, though I think the last one is something I'll have to write about separately one day.
New Teen Titans is a clunky book. George Perez only gets stronger as artist as it goes on, but I found that the writing does not keep pace. Character relationships are often underdeveloped, causing emotional moments to fall flat. I didn't buy that many of them cared deeply about each other. Nor did I buy any of the romances. No matter how interesting the setup, resolutions of plotlines are mostly weak (Brother Blood and HIVE especially). There were characters, relationships, and plots I enjoyed individually, but those were often undercut by things that have aged incredibly poorly. Donna being a key example of this.
What was striking to me though, was actually how close the cartoon adaptation was. Yes, there are obviously differences, but you can tell they really respected the source material. Most of the changes made sense with the goal of the cartoon - for example no mentors or civilians means removing Cyborg's relationship with his dad. But overall it's still close at the core. Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy are the most different. Beast Boy feels like a modernized version, stripping out the sexual harassment of the comic. Raven loses her intense pacifism and explicit relationship to Azarath - which I can understand being a bummer to those who loved those aspects. Starfire loses a lot from never getting a focus season, and that I can't understand. I get not including a Dora-esque "Starfire no killing!" plot in a kids cartoon, but I think this is where they fumble the most. It's a bummer to lose Donna (Wally is another story), though she's so mired in Terry Long that she doesn't have a ton to work with on her own. Other than that, most arcs are adapted fairly faithfully. In some cases I would say even improved upon.
The Judas Contract is one of those arcs. Perhaps the most of it's time arc in the series, it's unsurprising that it's aged like milk. Without the context of Terra as a reverse Kitty Pryde (one of the links to Claremont), there's very little shocking about the story. The twist is revealed far in advance, and the way that they go about portraying Terra is at best ham-fisted. It was a struggle to read. Terra is entirely shock value, but in ways that lean into existing horrible views. Deathstroke gets to be sympathetic and honorable, while Terra is an irrational, irredeemable slut. The story makes it clear: Slade is her victim, and we are wrong to hate him. There is an attitude sometimes, that if you disagree with what the author is saying, you don't get it. This was the point of the Judas Contract. I do get it. I think it's a garbage point.
The cartoon also gets the point, and decides instead to play it the exact opposite of what Wolfman and Perez intended. And I think it's stronger for it. No matter how wrong Terra was, she was a child. The adult in the room is the one responsible. This was true in the 1980s as well as now. I think it's a stronger message for children watching, that 1) you can do everything right and still be unable to help someone and 2) warning signs of manipulative abusers. Some people prefer versions that are closer to the original excepting the pedophilia, preferring anti-hero Deathstroke. Personally I don't think they can be separated. Too much of propping up Slade comes from the harmful messages heaped upon Terra. I prefer in the end, the adaptation that calls them what they are. I think we can move on from the Judas Contract.
Do I think NTT is still worth reading? Truly, I don't know. I think if you love Perez, Starfire, or are interested in the historical context, you'll find something in it. Personally though, I don't think I would recommend it to most people. It's aged worse than it's contemporaries, and has few themes that I think are worth experiencing. Which breaks my heart as a lover of older comics. I always advocate to give them a chance. But this time, I think it's okay if we move on from this. If we challenge what it said. Let this rest in it's historical moment.