The Revolution found the last issue of Teen Titans and its obligatory Amazons Attack tie-in story was boring. Unfortunately, it appears that Teen Titans #49 is another Amazons Attack tie-in issue. That means that I’ll probably find Teen Titans #49 to be another average read. Lets’ do ahead and hit this review.
Creative Team
Writer: Adam Beechen
Penciler: Al Barrionuevo
Inker: Bit
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 2 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 4.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We begin with Colonel Nancy Wallace appearing on the scene and telling the Army soldiers to stand down and to not arrest the Titans. Colonel Wallace then orders the soldiers to pack up the internment camp and move it to a new location now that they have been compromised. Ravage yammers on how this is like when the Japanese-Americas were locked up during World War II. That the women are only guilty of being women. Colonel Wallace ignores Ravage.
We cut to a high speed train relocating the detained women with the Titans flying overhead keeping an eye out. Ravage blabs about how one of her father’s men that he trained was interned in 1943. That man was Mr. Yamagata and didn’t deserve interment and neither do those women. Robin agrees, but says that going against the government at this point won’t help the situation. Right now they just need to make sure nothing gets out of hand.
Suddenly, Artemis and a couple of other Amazons swoop in and attack the Army train and the Titans. We have a huge brawl on our hands. During the massive fight, the Army train gets de-railed. Miss Martian manages to save the train and all the women inside of it.
Superman, Supergirl and Wonder Girl then appear on the scene. Wonder Girl and Supergirl tell Artemis that they will not join the Amazons. Superman tells Colonel Wallace that continued detainment of the women is a violation of their civil rights. Colonel Wallace agrees and orders that the women be set free. The second in command immediately assumes command and tells the soldiers to not respond to that order and that Colonel Wallace is unfit for duty.
Superman then tells Robin that this is a military matter and that they can’t interfere. Some of the women run away and try to escape. The soldiers think that Wonder Girl’s mom is the ringleader of the escape and the soldiers begin shooting at Wonder Girl’s mom and the other women.
The Titans and Superman spring to action and save the women and then disarm the soldiers. Artemis then tells Wonder Girl that she will assume responsibility for not bringing Wonder Girl with her when she reports back to Hippolyta. The Amazons hug Wonder Girl and Supergirl and then leave.
Wonder Girl then thanks the Titans for saving her mother. Miss Martian responds that all Wonder Girl has to do is say she is a Titan and that she will never leave them again. Wonder Girl then looks at Robin and asks him if that is what he wants. Robin leans in and plants a massive kiss on Wonder Girl. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: Teen Titans #49 was a lousy read. However, I have to follow The Revolution’s Rule of Positivity and say something nice about this title. Let’s see, what is up with that kiss between Robin and Wonder Girl at the end of this issue? Is Robin going to end up nailing his dead best friend’s girlfriend? Bros before hos, Robin. That is just not cool. Having said that, I will admit that I’m interested to see where this little bit of drama between Tim and Cassie goes.
Al Barrionuevo gives us some solid artwork. It isn’t his best stuff, but it is pretty good compared to much of the artwork that you get on filler issues.
The Bad: Teen Titans #49 was pure filler and continues to be yet another example of how tie-in issues to large events usually suck. At no point have I even remotely cared about the Amazons Attack event and this tie-in issue did absolutely nothing to increase my interest in this incredibly boring event. Teen Titans #49 was pretty much a total waste of time and money.
Beechen pushes off some dialogue that is truly cheesy at some points and down right terrible at other points. I mean, since when does Superman get to tell the U.S. military how to conduct its business? And the scene where Colonel Wallace agrees with Superman that the women should be freed and orders them to be freed was truly laughable. Let’s see, a military officer is going to take the opinion of a vigilante over their superior officers? Yeah, I don’t think so. Sorry, that just isn’t remotely believable.
The ending of Teen Titans #49 felt rushed and sloppy. It seemed like Beechen had run out of space and was quickly trying to wrap everything up in a neat little conveniently happy ending. The entire final page just came across as rather campy and corny.
And what was with Beechen hammering away about the Japanese internment camps through out this entire issue. It seemed like Beechen had just read about this occurrence in American history and decided to show off his new knowledge by ramming it down the reader’s throat. I mean, seriously, are there people out there who actually support internment camps? I didn’t really see where this was such a hot button topic that it deserved so much repeated attention. Honestly, Beechen just pounded away at that theme like it was a dead horse until there was nothing left but a puddle of glue.
And why didn’t Beechen mention the fact that Italian-Americans were placed in internment camps? During World War II, the U.S. Government branded Italian-Americas as “enemy aliens.” Up to 600,000 Italian-Americas were placed under wartime restrictions which included random arrests and searches of their person and property, forced to carry identification cards, curfews, forced relocation, so-called “prohibited zones,” and internment camps. During World War II, Italians were the largest foreign-born group in the United States.
Hell, even German-Americans had their civil liberties stomped on and abused by the U.S. Government during World War II. So, if Beechen is interested in giving the reader a history lesson then why doesn’t he bother to give us a full and total history lesson?
Oh, I know why. Japanese-Americans aren’t white and Italian-Americans are white. And we all know that in the world of comics that all Germans are Nazis. We just can’t be sympathetic to German-Americans. The P.C. police that govern the world of comic books maintain the position that only white people are racist and that nothing racist has ever occurred against white people in America.
It is a strange way to view racism, but it seems fairly prevalent in America. I even have several cousins back in Miami who absolutely believe that the fact that they are Hispanic automatically means that they cannot be guilty of being racist toward white people. That racism is only a white person’s disease. It just makes no sense.
I don’t really have much else to say about Teen Titans #49 since nothing Titans related happened on this issue. Absolutely no Titans related plotlines were dealt with in any fashion other than Cassie and Tom resolving their differences.
Overall: Teen Titans #49 was a boring tie-in issue. Unless you are a Titans complete-ist or a huge fan of the Amazons Attack storyline then I wouldn’t bother wasting my money on this issue. I’d wait for Teen Titans #50 which looks to be a much more fun issue as we get a writing and art by committee issue that at least gives us a sneak peak at new Titans writer Sean McKeever and what he has planned for this title.
2 thoughts on “Comic Book Review: Teen Titans #49”
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While I agree that the internment stuff in Amazon Attacks was utterly tedious, you’re wrong to equate the Japanese and Italian internments.
The Italian internment relied on the traditional legal understanding of “enemy alien.” It applied to *Italian citizens* on the territory of the United States. Once war was declared, “enemy aliens” was the correct legal descriptor. The numbers were unusually high because of immigration patterns, but the principle was a standard one. Internship was an overreaction and overinclusive, but it wasn’t an act of simple bigotry. The demarcation was based on citizenship.
The Japanese internment applied to enemy aliens, naturalized U.S. citizens, and native-born U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. *That* was a racial rule, not one derived from the traditional rules of war and diplomatic status. It was unprecedented in the U.S., and plausibly a violation of the 14th Amendment (which doesn’t apply to non-citizens).
Sounds like this was just another attempt to criticize the Bush administration via allegory, i.e. putting all women associated with the Amazons in detention camps equals enemy combatants being held indefinitely and without charges filed against them at Guantanamo Bay & elsewhere.
Now, trust me, I do NOT like Bush. Not at all. But these apples & oranges straw man arguments that first Marvel and now DC have been shoving down readers’ throats in their crossovers are annoying, unsubtle, and overly simplistic. They do not do justice to any of the issues faced in the real world, and they rely on an appeal to emotion rather than logic and reason. Which makes them just as much propaganda as anything being shoveled by Bush supporters, except in this case it’s left wing diatribes instead of right wing.