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Author Topic: TEEN TITANS  (Read 8038 times)
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« on: September 19, 2011, 12:54:58 AM »

Openly Gay Superhero To Join DC's Relaunched 'Teen Titans'



Miguel Jose Barragan, an openly gay superpowered teen from Mexico is joining DC Comics' flagship team of teenage heroes. As announced online by artist Brett Booth, the hero known as Bunker will debut in November's Teen Titans #3. Bunker will apparently come from an accepting background that's contributed to a slightly more flamboyant attitude than fans might have seen from other gay and lesbian characters in the DCU so far, including Batwoman, Apollo, Midnighter and more. According to writer Scott Lobdell, "He was born out of the closet and so he has a very refreshing outlook on life."

Bunker's powers, as described by Booth, include the ability to create small force fields that look like bricks. His costume is notably purple, though according to Booth that wasn't his first color choice given how that connotation might be perceived.

Working to positively portray a population that's as diverse as any in the world through just one character -- or even the growing, but still proportionately small number DC has -- is nearly impossible, but both Lobdell and Booth seem to be working to address issues of tokenism months before the character's reveal in comics. Fans might also note that Bunker's character reveal came from his creators rather than a corporate press release, which can sometimes come across as impersonal propaganda rather than a genuine outreach to readers.

From Booth's blog:

We wanted to show an interesting character whose homosexuality is part of him, not something that's hidden. Sure they are gay people who you wouldn't know are gay right off the bat, but there are others who are a more flamboyant, and we thought it would be nice to actually see them portrayed in comics. Did we go over the top, I don't think so. I wanted you to know he might be gay as soon as you see him. Our TT is partly about diversity of ANY kind, its about all kinds of teens getting together to help each other. It is a very difficult line to walk, will he be as I've read in some of the comments 'fruity'? Not that I'm aware of. Will he be more effeminate than what we've seen before, the 'typical' gay male comic character, yes. Does it scare the sh*t out of me that I might inadvertently piss off the group I want to reflect in a positive way, you're damn straight (pun intended!)

Booth also mentions that Bunker's currently pink shirt has since been changed to blue. He also caps his full blog post by writing "Seriously, I really wish [Bunker's sexuality] wasn't a big deal. It shouldn't be, but that would be in a perfect world."

By communicating a real desire to deliver a positively portrayed gay character, Lobdell and Booth have ensured that a lot of eyes will be on Bunker when he makes his debut in Teen Titans #3 on November 23. Under the already elevated scrutiny placed on DC's line-wide relaunch as a whole, the creative team has plenty to live up to.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2012, 12:21:14 PM by Perry » Logged
Gay Titan
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« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2011, 11:01:50 PM »

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Jeff
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« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2011, 11:42:29 PM »

The rebooted characters look interesting.  I'm looking forward to checking it out.
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“If I could go back in time and like tell 11 year old me that like not only do you get to go to Comic Con but you go every year.  So much so that you get greeted by Stan Lee when you show up.  And 11 year old me would be like - How did we get so fat?”- Kevin Smith
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« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2011, 09:25:55 PM »

The rebooted characters look interesting.  I'm looking forward to checking it out.

I picked this up on a whim after skimming thru it yesterday.

I always liked Brett Booth on Backlash, but couldn't get into the Vampire Hunter books he was doing for awhile.

Hoping Lobdell and Booth can tell a decent tale here cause the last page looked cool!
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Gay Titan
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« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2011, 09:40:51 PM »

The second issue is far more interesting than the first. I am loving everyone but Cassie/Wonder Girl! Her character just rubs me the wrong way. Solstice and Skitter have my attention!
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Perry
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« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2012, 12:26:30 PM »

T.T. issue #4

While I am just not a fan of how Lobdell writes, except on pure comedy books, I am finding myself interested in this team. I think once all the early stuff gets settled out, I may take another look at this title. Once the team is established, maybe.

I like, as I always have, the art of Brett Booth. I just wish he'd draw his eye just a little closer together. He does that, he slides up in my list.
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« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2012, 12:44:39 PM »

"The Culling" crossover in May will return some fan-favorite Teen Titans characters and concepts to the DCnU, including Beast Boy, Terra and the origin of Kid Flash.

The crossover officially begins on May 2nd with the 48-page issue Teen Titans Annual #1. Then the story continues through Superboy #9 and Legion Lost #9, with a conclusion in Teen Titans #9. The new "Second Wave" title The Ravagers, by writer Howard Mackie and artist Ian Churchill, will be released on May 30th, spinning out of the event.

Ravagers writer Howard Mackie confirmed that the new team — revealed on the first issue's cover — will include Caitlin Fairchild, a brother and sister named Thunder and Lightning, the "monstrous" Ridge, a red Beast Boy and a new version of Terra. While Mackie wouldn't share details about the cover's featured characters, he revealed that Beast Boy's color change has something to do with Animal Man.

"The Culling" crossover and the subsequent Ravagers title is the culmination of a plot that has been coursing through Superboy and Teen Titans since writer Scott Lobdell launched both comics in September. An organization named N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and its leader, Harvest, is capturing superpowered teens.

And in May, the Legion Lost heroes get involved when Harvest goes after them as well.

"So now you have two teams of teenagers meeting for the first time, under the very worst of circumstances," Lobdell said. "And it doesn't go very well."

 Writer Tom DeFalco said that because his team's from the future, they will not only recognize the "Teen Titans" name, but they'll also see a familiar face among its members. "There's a certain character in Teen Titans that people have been wondering about his origin," DeFalco told Newsarama. "And you know, one of our characters is going to recognize him... and this could lead to some very interesting twists and turns."

"And remember, this is the New 52," Lobdell added, "so Red Robin and the others are skeptical of the Legion's claim that they are from the 31st Century — 'Um, yeah.' And the Legion wonder why the Teen Titans is being formed some 20 years before their history books claim there was a team by that name — 'Teen Titans, huh?' So yeah, off to a rocky start!"

"Just imagine how Red Robin's going to react when he finds a bunch of teens who claim to come from the future," DeFalco said. "And just imagine how these guys are going to react when they look at a group that call themselves the Teen Titans, and they know something about the Teen Titans that the Titans don't even know."

Lobdell said the story will reveal many of the secrets behind the Teen Titans that readers have been asking since the DC relaunch. He said DC Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras was the one who decided it was time to "start spilling all the secrets about N.O.W.H.E.R.E., Kid Flash and the villain known as Harvest."

"I have to say, though, as people start to read the story, I think they are going to be very surprised by the tone of this crossover," Lobdell added. "Usually when fans think of Teen Titans, they think of superheroes, and when they think of the Legion, I think people expect elements of sci-fi. But instead, the 'Culling' has more of the tone of horror."
Many of the new and "revamped" characters that are being introduced during the crossover will emerge from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s "Colony," the horrific place where the teens are imprisoned.

"This is a sad and dirty place the Teen Titans and the Legion Lost and the all-new Ravagers are trapped in," Lobdell said. "So anyone that was thinking N.O.W.H.E.R.E. was little more than 'a shadowy government agency' is going to be in for a surprise."

"These kids [who are part of The Ravagers] have been living in hell for the past few years," Mackie said. "The Colony is basically a death camp combined with a boot camp. Every day was a battle for survival. Their youth was ripped from them. Their bodies where tortured, enhanced, tortured again, and they knew that they had two choices... survive or die."

Some of the horror also lies in the portrayal of crossover's villain, Harvest, whose dark, winged image was just revealed. According to DeFalco, Harvest's power levels will surprise readers, and the villain won't be stopped easily.

"Scott and I got the idea, you know what we'd really like to do? We'd like to introduce a new, top-drawer supervillain," DeFalco explained of Harvest's creation. "A real A-list guy who could go toe-to-toe with Superman. Somebody who whose spans are so monumental that he's got to know that at some point he's going to be dealing with the Justice League. And our feeling is, if you can't at least take Superman, you couldn't be thinking about the Justice League. So we're looking to shake up the whole DC Universe by introducing a major bad guy."

The story of "The Culling" begins when Red Robin and the rest of the Titans try to break into N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s Antarctic base. "The poor kids get their heads handed to them," Lobdell said.

While the Titans end up as captives there, Harvest dispatches Rose Wilson and the Ravagers to also capture the Legion Lost members. "And [Harvest has] a very special reason for why he wants the Legion, which readers will eventually learn," DeFalco said.

According to Lobdell, it appears that the Hypertaxis virus — which originally lured the Legion Lost team into the 21st Century — was a "carefully planned disaster to bring these very Legionnaires into the here and now in order to help — against their will — Harvest with his long term goals."

That battle will begin in April's crossover prelude, Legion Lost #8. "We get to meet a bunch of really cool, new supervillains, some of which will be playing parts in Legion Lost, Teen Titans and The Ravagers far into the future," DeFalco said of the issue.

Among the "new" characters that emerge from the crossover will be some that are familiar to readers of the former WildStorm universe, including Warblade. "He isn't much like the last Warblade," Lobdell warned. "Yes, he's still Reno Bryce, but this is a guy who isn't an homage to another famous character 'with claws' — this isn't the berserker or the ronin. This Warblade is a 'surgeon' of sorts, as cold and calculating as the razor sharp edge of a scalpel. Seriously, this is one scary dude."

The characters that star in The Ravagers escape from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. during the crossover, but they're pursued by Rose Wilson and Warblade, who become the team's antagonists. "Rose Wilson and Warblade will play a major role in future stories," the writer said. "In many ways the book is as much about them as it is about the [six characters on the cover]. I wouldn't come to this book expecting to see typical heroes and villains. The roles they all play in the book will remain fluid."

As the first issue of Ravagers begins, the group is on the run, but Mackie said the book is much more character-focused than that premise implies.

"We do not want this book to be strictly about the action — though there will be plenty of that — or about characters on the run from one of the most powerful and ruthless organizations on the planet," Mackie said. "This book is about our characters trying to wrestle with their fate — their destiny — and trying to figure out if they can control it. In order for the characters to figure out who they are going forward they will have to take a real hard look at who they now, and who they have been in the past."

 And while the mysterious line-up for The Ravagers may cause a lot of guessing about the characters, readers should be forewarned that DC is teasing that "no one's survival is certain each month" in the comic.

"Once you read the crossover, once you see what their day-to-day existence was, you will quickly realize that escape was long ago beaten from the deepest corners of their minds," Mackie said. "Needless to say, they all learned to cope in their own ways, but emerging into the 'real world' is going be a shock to their system. There is no one 'emotional state.' The elation of freedom does not immediately supplant fear, anxiety, and the need to survive at any cost."

After the events of the "Culling," DeFalco said three of the four series involved in the crossover will "spin off in weird directions," including Legion Lost.

"Things are going to fall into a deep chaos," DeFalco said of the Legion Lost's upcoming stories. "The team is going to have to be dealing with the fact that they were set up and sent on a mission that no one ever expected them to succeed in. And they've basically been hung out to dry. And like anybody else, they want to find out who set them up and why. And what really is their real mission? Who's been pulling all the strings?

"It's going to pay off big."
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Jeff
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« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2012, 01:20:25 PM »

Hmmm.  This gets me a lot more interested in Ravegers than the teaser cover did.  Ironically it is having the opposite affect on my interest in Legion Lost.
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“If I could go back in time and like tell 11 year old me that like not only do you get to go to Comic Con but you go every year.  So much so that you get greeted by Stan Lee when you show up.  And 11 year old me would be like - How did we get so fat?”- Kevin Smith
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« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2012, 10:30:09 PM »

Hmmm.  This gets me a lot more interested in Ravegers than the teaser cover did.  Ironically it is having the opposite affect on my interest in Legion Lost.

Same here. Now I have to see if I can get the first five issues of Superboy on eBay or my my LCS.
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Gay Titan
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« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2012, 11:52:49 AM »

More on "the Culling"...

When writer Howard Mackie introduces his new superpowered Ravagers team to the DCU, a few familiar names will be part of it. The new Ravagers team will include a red Beast Boy and a new version of the character Terra. Fairchild is also part of the team, along with a brother and sister named Thunder and Lightning, and the "monstrous" Ridge.

The new book spins out of a May event called "The Culling," which runs through an oversized Teen Titans Annual #1 and then continues in the ninth issues of Superboy, Legion Lost and Teen Titans. The Ravagers #1 will come out May 30th, with art by Ian Churchill.

"The Culling" crossover is the culmination of a plot that has been coursing through Superboy and Teen Titans since writer Scott Lobdell launched both comics in September. An organization named N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and its leader, Harvest, is capturing superpowered teens, including the Legion Lost.

Many of the new and "revamped" characters that are being introduced during the crossover will emerge from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s "Colony," the horrific place where the teens are imprisoned. And some of them will continue their adventures in the DCU within the pages of The Ravagers.

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