Saved by the Belle Reve #1

Finally! After several over-sized duds, DC puts out a themed special that focuses on FUN- mostly! The past couple of years, the majority of DC's seasonal specials had shorts that were more political than enjoyable. There's nothing wrong with comic books being educational or topical. But if they're not entertaining then it's more like reading a text book than a comic. 

With it being the start of a new school year, I took a chance on plopping down a ten-spot on this. I know it's not a holiday comic. But it's close enough for me.

There are 8 short stories in this special. Let's take a brief look at them all:

• The Suicide Squad are tasked with protecting the son of a generalissimo who is friendly to American interests. To do this, the Squad must pose as teachers. But as hordes of demon soldiers keep attacking the school on a daily basis, Task Force X must get creative. That means Killer Shark is now teaching English and Weasel is the new lunch lady!
• In a story from the past, Oliver Queen learns an important lesson in parenthood. While Speedy's grades aren't up to snuff, Ollie becomes a tyrant. Now things with Roy Harper are worse than ever before and the Emerald Archer must learn a balance between being an inspiration to an eager sidekick and a caring guardian to a lonely young boy.
• In a surprise return, the students of Gotham Academy return! School is about to return to session but some of the students will not. With Olive Silverlock still missing from something that happened at the end of Sophomore year, Maps is putting her classmates things away in storage. However, when it's discovered that Olive's journal is also missing, Maps and her classmates will go on one last mission to find it.
• Also returning in this issue- the Tiny Titans! Thanks to Art Baltazar and Franco, the pint-sized heroes take a literal wrong turn at Albuquerque and pop up in Belle Reve prison!
• Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne, the Super Sons, join forces to help the new kid in school deal with a pair of bullies- in their own super ways.
• Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson run afoul of Mister Freeze on the way to their Senior Prom. 
• John Paul Valley is led by his Azrael personality to the very school that trained him to become a trained killer for God. While at the abandoned institution, Valley's memories of the Brotherhood of the Order of St. Dumas come to the surface. 
• Finally, get it straight from the source, Jefferson Pierce, as to just why did Black Lightning decided to become a part of President Lex Luthor's cabinet. The answer itself probably won't surprise you. But it's nice to finally get a concrete answer to one of DC's most enduring mysteries of the past 2 decades.

The Suicide Squad story was the best. It was 100% insane! And I loved it. With the inclusion of Weasel and Peacemaker, you can tell that 2021's The Suicide Squad movie and director James Gunn was a direct influence on this story. Tim Seeley was the writer and the artist was Scott Kolins. I did a quick search online and it doesn't seem that this team is the crew behind the current Suicide Squad title. But if DC was to do a run with the two of them at the helm, I'd subscribe to it at my LCS! (BTW- Seeley and Kolins were behind a King Shark mini so I'll be adding that to my wish list!)

I loved having the Tiny Titans back. I miss their hi-jinks and you can't go wrong with Baltazar and Franco! The classic style Green Arrow story and the return to Gotham Academy were also really good reads. I liked the Azrael story. But the level of abuse that poor kid had to endure and how those supposed 'men of God' turn young Valley into a ruthless killer is just really disturbing. 

I had a little bit of trouble with the Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson story. For one thing, Dick is in high school. Yet, in this story, he's also Nightwing. And Barbara is Batgirl. Now, I think I remember somewhere that they retconned that part for Barbara. But wasn't that part of the New 52? Plus, the end was so ambiguous and I hate ambiguous endings!

The remaining two stories were the least entertaining but at least one of them was inspiring. I had long been wondering why did Jefferson Pierce decide to accept Lex Luthor's appointment to the Secretary of Education. I had also wondered why in the pages of Superman/Batman that Black Lightning went toe-to-toe with the World's Finest when clearly Lex Luthor was going insane with power. Well, I got my first question answered with this special. Having lived through January 6th, I still don't have my answer to that last one.

And then there's the Super Sons story. It starts off as a fun little read in which 2 secretly powered pre-teens help a bullied new classmate to tap into his own special powers. But that last panel got really preachy and I don't think it was necessary to the story. Peter J. Tomasi's (Nightwing) story had written an amazing story about acceptance. But for one brief moment, DC decided it hadn't done enough to anger some fans. The panel didn't anger me. But it did ruin what was an otherwise fine 'Afterschool Special' type story.

I had a Lit professor who talked about some theory. I don't remember the name of the philosophy. But I do remember that he talked about how there are moments in works where things go in a different direction than what has been built up in the mind of the consumer and it ruins the enjoyability of the work. I had just finished up the Suicide Squad story before going on next to the Super Sons tale. With the Suicide Squad being completely off-the-wall, I was expecting the rest of this special to be just as wacky. The Super Sons story started off kinda silly with Damian taking a Sikorsky to his first day of school. So I wasn't expecting things to take such a dramatic turn. But I think if it wasn't for the ending of the Super Sons story, I probably wouldn't have been on guard for that tragic Azrael story.

Oh! I loved the title of this special! What a great throwback pun to a 1990s classic kids show!

Please DC, PLEASE! Put Seeley and Brendan Kolins behind the helm of the Suicide Squad! And bring Tiny Titans back!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Tiny Titans #5

The Tiny Titans meet the Tiny Titans from the East Side of the playground. I'm a bit confused. I know that the TT East are supposed to represent their adult counterparts, Titans East, a slightly less law abiding version of the Teen Titans. But if they're from the other side of the playground don't they also go to Sidekick's Elementary? So, why wouldn't these two junior crime fighting teams already know each other during say a school assembly or lunch time?

  Okay- I'm being too analytical. But hey, that's part of being a comic book collector!

  It's another great issue by Franco and Baltazar. It was very fun and very funny. The best story involved Robin, Batgirl, and a penguin filling in for an absent Dark Knight when Commissioner Gordon lights the Bat-signal.

    The only thing I did not like about this issue was a knock-knock joke segment between Duela Dent (the Joker's possible daughter) and Speedy. It was predictable and it ran about two pages too long.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Tiny Titans #2

   Being such a fan of the Tiny Titans, I can't believe I haven't read this one yet. Looking back on the series, I've discovered a lot of issues in this series I've not explored yet. So, I guess one day I'm going to have to break down and buy the entire run of this fantastic series and give it another go. Repeats or not!

   In this issue, the girls of the Tiny Titan Treehouse decide to make a cake and use Cyborg as their oven. Meanwhile, the boys of the team face their greatest enemy- the Fearsome Five. Their battleground: Sidekick's Elementary's playground. The contest: a variety of schoolyard games. The prize: rights to use the swings! Let the battle begin.

   Included in this issue are several 1-2 page gags that involve puppy love, dressing up like the Man of Steel, and much, much more. It's another winner by the creative duo of Baltazar & Franco.

   Worth Consuming.

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Tiny Titans, Volume 4: The First Rule of Pet Club...

 

I often mention in my reviews of the many volumes of Tiny Titans I’ve read how the use of the phrase “The First Rule of Pet Club is that you don’t talk about Pet Club” is why the series has something for all ages. The title of this volume just proves my point. Here, the Tiny Titans have a ton of adventures involving their Pet Club meetings, very rambunctious penguins, and some rascally rabbits- not to mention a very perturbed Wayne Manor butler.

 

I was so excited when I found this library book hiding in the back of my cabinet. I thought I had checked out and read all of the Tiny Titans books there were that my library had to offer. This little surprise was well worth the wait.

 

Filled with lots of laughs, lots of sight gags, and tons of inside jokes that older readers like myself would only get, this volume is proof that it’s the perfect book for future DC readers and parents/ older brothers/ cool uncles (or aunts)/ or awesome babysitters to enjoy together!

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Tiny Titans, Volume 8: Aw Yeah Titans! (A Review and a Look at the Current State of Kid Friendly Comics)

 

Sadly, we say good bye to the Tiny Titans in this volume as it collects the final issues of the award winning series. Some important questions are finally answered, such as will Bumblebee win her babysitting badge, will Beast Boy win the love of Terra finally, and what do the heroes look like without their masks? Also, Superman’s face is finally revealed for the first time in the final issue. (Most adults are show from the neck down- there are some exceptions, such as Alfred, Trigon, and Lobo.)

 

I liked this series. I hate to see it go. I hate it particularly when a quality comic for kids comes around and it lasts about as long as this sentence. Tiny Titans lasted for 50 issues, about 4 years. However, that’s a testament to how lousy DC and Marvel are at marketing their comic books to kids. Sure, they give out the occasional all-ages book during Free Comic Book day. But, the majority of books offered the first Saturday in May are not kid friendly and most comic book stores don’t take the time to tell parents what is and isn’t appropriate for a 10 year old to read. I once saw a parent grab a copy of Eastman and Laird’s TMNT and give it to a kid who could not have been older than 7. That’s an R-rated book- not the kid friendly stuff you see on TV.


Parents just don’t know what’s out there for their kids to read and what’s available only for moms and dads. There are books for toddlers, elementary age, high school, and adults. Sadly, other than a very tiny rating over the bar code, most adults don’t have a clue what book is for what age group. And don’t think that the covers will help in that decision. Recently, Marvel had variant covers of some of their biggest stars as babies- yet all of those books were geared for at minimum, the middle to high school crowd.

 Plus, have you ever seen Marvel do a commercial for their comics? No- but I bet you can describe the trailer to their latest film or cartoon! Yet, based on these films, parents don’t realize that most of those films are rated PG-13 and the cartoons are often Y-10 (for ages 10 and up.) Do you know about Super Hero Squad or Go Teen Titans- two excellent all ages cartoons that have comics to boot? Probably not. Sadly, thanks to Marvel and DC’s focus on the now, the next generation is being overlooked and parents are being misinformed about the all-ages arena.

What’s needed in comic books in order for the next generation to latch on to them and for parents to be open to their kids reading comics is for people in the know help educate parents so they know what is and isn’t kid friendly. Here’s a hint: Watchmen is not kid friendly! One character walks around with his doodle out the whole book while in another section of the comic; a couple graphically does the nasty in a flying car. That’s one reason I do this blog. Tiny Titans may be gone, but that doesn’t mean parents can’t find this amazing series at their local library or for pennies on the dollar online or in a dollar box at a local comics shop.

 

If you are an avid comic reader like me, I encourage you if you see a parent at a store stressing over what to buy their little tyke to read- please take the copy of Vampirella out of their hand and show them the all-ages section. The future of the comic’s industry is in your hands and that parent will thank you!

 

Worth Consuming!

 

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Tiny Titans, Volume 6: the Tree House and Beyond

 

The duo of Art Baltazar and Franco prove once again that Tiny Titans is just for little kids. In this issue, Talon, an Earth-3 version of Robin unleashes a plethora of alternate universe versions of the Titans. Now, I must ask how many kids are going to understand the concept of the multiverse? Okay, maybe someone about ages 12 and up. But, Tiny Titans is supposedly for kids under 10. Maybe I’m just too naïve about today’s youth.

 

OKAY- now that I think about it, I was 6 or 7 when I read the first ever crossover of the JLA and JSA from the 1960s and I understood it. So, maybe I am an old fuddy duddy.

 

In this volume are Robin’s galore and I’m not talking about birds. Every version of Robin, including Cassie from The Dark Knight Returns teams up with every version of Batgirl for an all-out Batgirl/ Robin party. (How they added Damian to the mix was hilarious)

 

 Funny enough, the character of Stephanie dresses as both characters as she does in the adult version of Batman. If anything, Tiny Titans is a good primer for when young DC readers get ready to graduate to the grown-up books. I wish I had this as a kid.

 

I guess I’m trying to make excuses for loving a kid’s comic. Well, I’m done with that. Tiny Titans is an award winning series and I think it’s just a blast to read. I recommend this series highly and parents you can rest assured that this series is appropriate for your aspiring comic collector.

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Tiny Titans, Volume 3: Sidekickin’ It

I love this series. Yes, it’s for kids. But, like any good Disney/ Pixar movie there’s stuff in this series that are clever Easter eggs just for the grown-ups. For example, (PE) Coach Lobo tells the Tiny Titans that life on his home planet was full of dolphins. Kids might think that’s funny. Adults in the know (like me) would understand that despite as tough as Lobo is, he’s got a soft spot for space dolphins.

Art Baltazar and Franco are comic geniuses that truly love the DC Universe. Their stories reflect the rich history of DC’s past and present. No wonder these guys have won tons of Eisner awards for this series.

It’s pure joy for everyone and I am so glad my library got 3 new volumes of this awesome series.

AWWWWWW, Yeah!

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.