Teen Titans Go! #5 - Mobile Edition

DC Comics
Teen Titans Go! #5
By LJ Douresseaux
May 23, 2004 - 10:44

DC Comics
Writer(s): J. Torres
Penciller(s): Tim Smith, Larry Strucker
Cover Artist(s): Dave Bullock

This is a comic version of the popular cartoon based on the Teen Titans, but geared towards kids rather than young adults. In this issue, Raven gets a pimple but it is no ordinary pimple. It seems to have a life of its own, migrating across her face and growing into a horn before-- well, let's not spoil everything. The youthful cheerfulness of this issue is enjoyable but its reliance on gross-out gimmicks, like the pimple bulging and oozing on Raven's face are rather childish and make the humour seem forced. The art is in the manga-style but often overdoes it, going to the point of even looking like a parody of manga, complete with giant sweatdrops and huge heads. This comic shouldn't have to work so hard to get laughs.
Koppy McFad

Funniest issue to date of TEEN TITANS GO! is #5 - a hilarious tale of Raven's anxiety manifesting itself as her father Trigon, with him personified as a zit. It's just a flat out funny, well-paced, well-written script that just happens to call for the right panel every time. The secrets (there's more than one) of this tale's success are the timing, knowing what the readers expect of the characters, and how to take an obvious joke and adapt well it to this setting.

The pencils by Tim Smith 3 are excellent, better than his previous TTG effort. It's excellent cartooning based on caricature, exaggeration, and storytelling - something only manga-ka still seem capable of doing in this medium. Kinetic and expressive, Smith's pencils rival series regular Todd Nauck, which didn't seem possible after Nauck's opening salvo on this title.
[DRECK, DULL, READABLE, VERY GOOD, EXCELLENT]