Death of the Family Event: Teen Titans #16

Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, Brett Booth

Death of the Family Crossover

Spoiler alert! You have been warned!

This month, we get yet another issue guest written by Fabian Nicieza but still plotted by series writer Scott Lobdell. Brett Booth continues to supply the comic with some great art. There are quite a few equally great action sequences within these pages. But this is still essentially just another of the same thing we’ve been getting all along in both Red Hood and the Outlaws and Teen Titans for the last few issues of each title. Not a lot happens, but it still remains a fun and quick read nonetheless.

We’ve got Red Robin and Red Hood reluctantly teaming up to escape the Joker’s ruthless and seemingly endless array of traps and games and riddles, testing them both physically and mentally (and in some cases, emotionally). We are also treated to the continuation of the impromptu and fun team-up between the two leaders’ teams of allies. But even though there is a lot of cool fighting and witty back and forth dialogue, this is still at its core very much a fill-in issue. We are treated with a few other hints at stories to come, with a small cameo by both Trigon and his daughter, Raven, which is both equal amounts of awesome and out of nowhere. I’m excited to see more of them as they show up in the next storyline while the two teams try to deal with the inevitable fallout from the Joker’s sinister machinations, but that teaser was just further reason why I enjoy the writing styles of comic scribes like Lobdell and Nicieza. And why I miss the 90s.

We get the same ending we’ve got in all of the tie-ins this month. That’s right, but rest assured knowing that this will most likely be the last of the Joker’s platter teaser images as a final page. But there is one minor (or possibly major, depending on the outcome) difference in this particular title. He is holding two surprise dishes, which could mean double the trouble for Jason Todd and Tim Drake and their respective team of young heroes. Even though I was slightly irritated with the lack of Scott Lobdell’s complete writer control of this crossover within a crossover, it still remained a fast and fun read. And even though that’s all it was, I’m still a firm believer that there is nothing wrong with a little fluff here and there. This is essentially the popcorn movie or summer blockbuster leading up to what I hope will be the Academy Awards season. See you all for the finale. And yes, I’ll be back again in the weeks (and possibly months) to come to report on the damage left by the Clown Prince of Crime.