Teen Titans Spotlight: Raven

The artwork was abysmal. The storytelling was okay. But as it was from the legendary scribe of CRISIS, Marv Wolfman, it was a tale that was kinda disappointing. The opening segment, which involves a school shooting, honestly never should have got past the planning stages. But I understand the nature behind it. 

Teen Titans Spotlight: Raven, originally published over 5 issues as DC Special: Raven takes place after the most recent crisis to have occurred in the DC Universe. As the death of the Conner Kent Superboy is mentioned, I can place this as happening right after Infinite Crisis. Yet, in another scene, characters discuss how Darkseid tried to control the minds of the populace in the past Crisis and that would make this occur after Final Crisis. So which is it? 

What I was able to glean is that after having died at the hands of her father, the demon Trigon, Raven was reincarnated into another body. This time as a teenage girl named Rachel Roth. While dad is dead, that doesn't mean that Raven is completely free to use her emotions. Should she ever get out of control, Raven's powers very much could unleash hell on earth, resulting in Armageddon. 

Have to be in control of your emotions, so you become a teenage girl navigating high school? Yes, that was smart...

Anyway, on Rachel's first day of school, she has a vision of that school shooting mentioned earlier. From what Raven can discern, the tragedy will happen on Friday; giving Rachel Roth 5 days to track down the killer and protect whomever was being murdered. This mystery will not be easy as over the next few days, Rachel and her classmates are savagely attacked mentally by a powerful entity. Raven thinks it's her fault. Especially after one of her new friends dies in the assault. But what Raven doesn't know is that in a nearby research facility, a prominent neurosurgeon has gotten his hands on the Psycho Pirate's Medusa Mask and is using it in experiments with coma patients. But just what the Medusa Mask has to do with Raven and that terrible vision she foresees remains to be seen...

I did like the ending. And I thought the epilogue was perfect. But that was really about it for this story. I understand Marv Wolfman is trying to give Raven the childhood she was forbidden from having in her first life as a child. Unable to laugh, smile or cry, lest you allow your father unlimited demonic power on Earth has got to be a tough set of rules to follow. But did they have to use Damion Scott as the series artist?

Scott's artwork would be amazing if used in something like Miles Morales: Spider-Man or Luke Cage, Power Man. Damion Scott's artwork looks like a cross between Manga and graffiti style urban. There's nothing wrong with it if it was used in the proper setting or story. But here, it's just too busy. Scott likes to use splash pages. Sometimes the artist goes from left to right, top to bottom. But more often than not, he doesn't and it's really confusing. I understand that Raven is supposed to be experiencing a lot of chaos in her new life as a teenager. But this is just too much. And it looks rather comical. Imagine Bratz if you throw the entire franchise into a paint mixer.

It really could have been better, especially considering the writer behind it. A real lack of cohesion. And sub-par art, especially with framing. Alas, it just wasn't my kind of thing. 

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.