Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Oh Yeah, That Forum: The Titans TITANS EAST! leading by.....

So, I just read 'Titans East' by Judd Winick. Isn't he special! He truly is a special, special writer.

He has so got his finger on the pulse of what Titans readers want these days. More dead members! God knows we haven't seen enough of that lately.

Correct me if I'm wrong but he has now written a grand total of two Titans stories and between them has killed off 9 heroes. Yay for him! That's more characters than most writers have invented for this team but as the wonderful Judd Winick knows - there are no bad writers, only bad characters... or something like that.

But hey - killing Titans is his trick and when Winick finds a trick he rides it. Some might say "into the ground" but I'm sure the great Judd Winick doesn't let silly things like loud and frequent opposition to his work get in the way of his vision.

Just like he doesn't let silly things like characterisation or history get in the way of his stories either. And by "stories" I just mean "fighting". That's all that comics are good for these days anyway, right? Thank God for Judd Winick for realising that. 'Graduation Day' was 3 issues of non-stop fighting and look how great that book was. Why wouldn't he make 'Titans East' just one long issue of the same thing?

Only someone as talented as Judd Winick could release a book as long as 'Titans East' is and give readers the impression that it was written in 10 minutes!

Only someone as caring as Judd Winick could write respectful and character-building stories about his favourite Titans characters (and screw anyone who's not one of his favourite characters)!

Only someone with the proven track-record of Judd Winick should be entrusted with the authorship of probably one of the most requested and anticipated ongoing books in Titans history!

Only Judd Winick for President of DC Comics and then the world!

Paraphrasing from what Judd Winick wrote so wonderfully and un-cheesily in this most recent issue!

"Titans and Judd Winick!
Together Nev--- er... Forever!"

TITANS/YJ: GRADUATION DAY is the reason I didn't order the TTE special, even though it was a 50% off special from my online sub service.

Fool me once, Judd, shame on you. Fool me twice, well... I wasn't buying it. Now, I'm glad.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I am not sure about the others death...I am sure that many of them will be resurrected or come back by another writer (not Judd!!! - he never brought anyone back alive to my best recall memory) Too bad for Power Boy - he was killed by the God Killer who killed Big Barda, Lightray, Fastbak, Deep Six, Black Racer, Knockout, etc. As for others, I am sure that they will be back - badder and better. *finger crossing*

I will not buy any books written by Judd Winick! at all (including the Trails of Shazam!)

also Judd is a bad writer - Raven should never have said "god..." - she should have said "Azar..."! BAd BAd BAd BADDD!

I'm not for random senseless slaughter ala Titans East. That seemed pointless, doesn't drive a story. However, I thought Gradutation Day was a worthy story, it set up for TT and Outsiders.

These characters throw themselves into battle with villains. A few of them should fall now and again. It's getting harder and harder to enjoy an adventure when I KNOW Batman won't die. I was reading Ollie's book when Dixon offed him the first time. While I was sad, I accepted his replacement and became a fan. If characters didn't die, you wouldn't have the new Hawk & Dove, Cobie.

If Quis' idea came to fruition, I'd be all over it. Space the heroes out, give them room and purpose.

So, as someone who will never otherwise learn about this, who is/was Anima? I presume that this is the flying blonde in lavender studded leather?

And who was the dude with the pouches, flaming sword and 'V' motif?

I recognize Lagoon Boy, Hawk v4, Dove v3, Cyborg and Power Boy, but those other two I've never seen before. I was gonna get the book, because the art looked really good, and I always enjoy new teams, but obviously this isn't gonna be one...

anima is straight up 1990s at it's finest. she came out of the Bloodlines Annuals and got her own series after Zero Hour. She has animal powers? or is the spirit of animals? or something. when she debuted, she was like a punk rock chick with weird green eyes. basically she was put on the team b/c she hasn't been used in about 12 years...

the other guy is Son of Vulcan. i don't know anything about him

I read it this morning and did not like it at all. The art was pretty and the dumb man in me really liked the half naked chicks. But the angel on my right shoulder (or is it left?) said these poor girls were getting taken advantage of.

Is this DCU New Earth or another earth? I hated all those kids dying.

Against my better judgement, I picked it up. I'm kinda wondering why Churchill decided to redesign the Titans' costumes in the flashback. I mean, it's not like their costumes ever looked like that back then (Wonder Girl and Kid Flash, mostly).

I'm also wondering if Hawk has nipples, because if she does they must be tiny, considering her hair placement in the shower scene. Sadly, wondering about that was as close to interested as I felt reading this book.

I'm not feeling very optimistic for the relaunch. I fear it's going to feel more like the Grayson/Faerber Titans than the Wolfman/Perez Titans

Like many others before me, despite warnings... I skimmed. I only skimmed (but not more) because my boy Wally was in it and I am nothing if not a fangirl. Now, I may no longer be a fangirl. Only time will tell.

Seriously though. That was the most pointless massacre of characters to force characters into a series that are no longer in places in their evolution where they really belong together. It's like the frigging Titans series all over again but worse. So much worse.

Honestly, if people are so obsessed with throwing this same team together time and time again-- and it's fine if they are, everyone's got their thing, right?-- they may as well do something like (excuse the Marvel references) X-Men: First Class or the Marvel Adventures titles.

Seriously. There is just no reason. I mean, the man even went to lengths to point out how the old Titans do not want to get together on a team. I just... I... gah!! As Homer S. would say, "Urge... to kill... rising..."

Oh, wait. They already did that.

Absolutely agree with you on this Spellbinder! But I fear the Grayson/Faerber run will outshine whatever Winick intends to do...

One point of order - if you look closely at the art Dove was only hit in the shoulder by the beam, so it's very likely that she survives.

Also as tight as Winnick and Johns seem to be, I would be surprised if Winnick would knock off Dove after all of the hard work Johns did in JSA a few years ago to bring her back.

Despite my rantings of a page ago I don't actually think any of those Titans are really dead. (Other than Power Boy, obviously.)

No, I haven't drunk the Judd Winick Kool-Aid...

It's just that IMO there is no way, when given the opportunity to kill some heroes, that Judd Winick and Dan (impale Phantom Lady, punch out Terra's heart, decapitate Pantha, bi-sect Bushido, stick two fingers through Psycho Pirate's face) Didio would ever kill them off as cleanly and unmessily as they did here. Instead of the quick zap! zap! zap! we got they would've had their brains and blood flying all over the place.

The other reason is that Judd Winick just ended his Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special on the exact same sort of cliff-hanger and well, we've already seen that this man just doesn't have that many stories in his bag of tricks - so since Green Arrow popped up alive before the end of his first issue, don't be surprised if these Titans do too.

Hmmm... if that *is* the case, I might end up regretting putting the TITANS EAST 1-shot back on the shelf after I picked up my pull last week...

I really do expect TITANS to become sort of the JSA for younger heroes.

It really is fun passing this book on to others and watching their reactions. Give Winnick credit- he has readers excited by the team right up until the slaughter. I've recruited 2 new comic book readers using the book.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6727665.stm