Customer Reviews

Teen Titans Vol. 4: The Future is Now

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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This is the fourth volume reprinting Geoff Johns' version of Teen Titans, and it may very well be the strongest trade release to date.

Two outstanding stories are reprinted here, "Titans of Tomorrow" and "Lights Out". T-o-T (as its become affectionately known) sees the current Teen Titans winding up ten years into their future, a dark and grim one where they have nearly all turned evil. Not only is this a cracking good story, but it also lays a large number of hints as to both the Titans possible futures and the current mega-crossover event series, Infinite Crisis. So if you want to know where the DC universe is heading in the next few years, this story offers some very big clues.

The other major story, "Lights Out", will be a major eye opener for fans of the animated series. The main villain is perrenial favorite Dr. Light -- except, he's no longer a "moron" (Green Arrow's description in Identity Crisis), but a major league super villain who can quite easily take on even the best the superhero world can throw at him. It's an awesome story, as a number of current and former Titans band together to try to stop him, and quite nearly get their behinds handed to them by the villain they've all dismissed for so long.

If you've had your doubts about Geoff Johns' run, this is the volume that should erase them. Johns has truly brought the Titans into the 21st century with these stories. Barely a year old, both of these tales are already being hailed by long time Teen Titans fans as classics. Buy this collection. You won't regret it.

This fourth volume of Geoff Johns' Teen Titans is easily the best to date. The writing, while not Mr. Johns' best, is quite good and the pencils are also rather good. This volume collects Teen Titans 15-23 and Teen Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes Special.

The plot has probably been explained well enough, so I'll just make a few comments about the book and be on my way. We start out with a story that involves Superboy being taken to the 31st century to aid the Legion of Super Heroes. This story is honestly not that great but it does serve as a lead in to the next story, The "Titans of Tomorrow."

This story is just an all around classic. It's excellently written and very well paced in the action. Basically, the Titans meet up with their future selves and the future my friends, ain't so bright. This story ranks up their with Mr. Johns' best work and, i dare say, is one of the best stories to come out of comic-dom in some time. I'm not saying that this is "The Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight Returns," but it's very good none the less. The ambiguity of the events surrounding why things turned out the way they did is enough to leave you salivating and definately serves the hype for "Infinite Crisis" quite well. In short, and I can't stress this enough, this story is pure gold.

The other highpoint of the TPB is the "Hiding" story. It's a heart-felt story dealing with the fall out from "Identity Crisis" and the ending gives us the feeling that despite the way things were in "Titans of Tomorrow," the kids may indeed turn out alright. For those who did read "Identity Crisis," we find out what exactly becomes of Luthor's armor.

"The Lights Out" arc spins straight from
"Identity Crisis," and while not required reading to enjoy this story, it certianly helps. It's not great, but it's not bad either.

All in all, this is a very solid collection and I highly recommend it

This is such a terrific read! The stories are spectacular, the countless characters are all fascinating, the dialogue is totally believable, the fights are epic, the thought-balloons are gone, the pace is greased, the art is like a bag of your favourite Halloween candies spilled out on the carpet when you were seven--all magic colours and hidden treats, and Raven is still hot. Teen Titans: The Future Is Now is a must, a rare must.

I say "Raven is STILL hot" because this graphic novel represented my return to the Teen Titans, after many years, just to see what was going on in the new era. In fact, I hadn't been reading many comics at all. Even when I read comics regularly, I never really got to know the DC Universe as well as the Marvel Universe. One of my biggest blind-spots, for example, would be The Legion Of Superheroes. But that didn't stop me from enjoying the first part of this graphic novel, where said Legion yanks first Superboy, and then ultimately the rest of the Titans, into the 31st century to battle five hundred foes.

The battle is a grand and terrifying affair, with a big piece of Legion World exploding and plummeting towards Earth, where the main event is taking place: The entire Legion (I met a lot of Legionnaires really fast as they were busy trying not to be beheaded, fried, stomped, etc.), alongside the Teen Titans fighting The Fatal Five Hundred...formerly The Fatal Five, but the whole crux of their plan was to transport so many of their parallel selves from parallel universes that they became five hundred. I love time-travel stories with a dash of parallel-reality, and Superboy's dilemma over which team he owes more allegiance to--new Legion pals or the Titans--is gripping, especially when he may have to sacrifice one team to temporal non-existence so the other can get home.

Part two of this collection is the best part: on their way home from the far future, the Teen Titans take a wrong turn and end up ten years in their own future. They encounter their own future selves and don't like what they've become. Robin has become a heartless Batman with a gun, who leads a bitter, ruthless, militant group of Titans who use their power to control and dominate parts of the United States. But then the younger, timelost Titans learn about the Titans East, future Titans who didn't get corrupted by paranoia and anger, and who still fight for good. They also formulate a plan to return to their proper time, but don't know how to avoid the fate they've seen, even if they get home.

The rest of The Future Is Now is somewhat connected to the events of Identity Crisis. I hadn't read Identity Crisis when I first read this Teen Titans graphic novel, and I still enjoyed it immensely; now I've re-read Future Is Now after experiencing Identity Crisis (another fine product from the folks who brought you Arm Fall Off Boy), and it's that much better.

An enraged Doctor Light snatches the man he hates perhaps most of all--Green Arrow--and demands that the Teen Titans confront him, or bye bye Green Arrow. He especially wants to kill Green Arrow's "daughter" of sorts, Speedy, who has just joined the Titans. Once just about every hero who has ever been a member of the Titans shows up, it looks pretty grim for Doctor Light, except that he's a changed man since the events of Identity Crisis. Sometimes it seems like the Titans, now a small army, are fighting Darkseid, as they fall, and fall, and fall. Doctor Light really comes into his own here, looking unbeatable until one particular Titan decides enough's enough, and fights on despite being blasted full of holes.

So that's it. Except that I haven't done it justice. Oh, and there's an appearance by an old fave of mine the Electrocutioner. And a future Deathstroke the Terminator, missing an arm. And Speedy looks like a cool addition. While sometimes Wonder Girl takes my mind off Raven.

Masterfully conceived and executed, these stories fit nicely into one amazing graphic novel.

"The Future is Now", is the Fourth book in the Teen Titans Series, which began with; "A Kid's Game", "Family Lost", and Beastboys and Girls".

*Spoilers*

This story begins with Superboy and wondergirl, out on a date, when suddenly, Connor (Superboy) Is sucked into the 31st century, and returns back to the 21st century to gather the Titans, Then ther off, as the Titans Team up with the Legion of Super Heroes to defeat an extremly dangerous threat known as the "Fearsome Five Hundred"

In part two of the story, the Teen Titans atempt to come back to the present, but arrive ten years in the future, where the Teen Titans, now called the Titans have become cruel and harsh... For example, Wonder Girl and Superboy, Now called Superman and Wonderwoman, are somewhat in love, Robin has taken over the roll of Batman, Kid Flash II has become The Flash who has fallen desperatley in love with the Titans East's The Ravanger, Beastboy is more taken over by his animal instincts, Raven has become "Dark Raven", and the Titans have a new Member, a telepath named Lorena. Starfire has gone off, and lives with Nightwing. Cyborg has taken over as leader of another Super-Hero Team, the Titans East, which includes Terra, Bumblebee, The Ravenger, Batwoman, and Captin Marvel Jr., now known as Captain Marvel. The Teen Titans join forces with them and finally they get back home. (I am not going to tell you how though mwhahahhaha)

And the book comes to and end with the series, "Lights Out" which tells the story the Titans (who recruit a new member, Speedy II, who is a female) having to face another old criminal, Dr. Light, who is much more powerful then he used to be... In this, the Tians Reveal some pretty dark secrets to the others, which draws them closer together...

This was probably the best Teen Titans Book that I have ever read, and I'm sure you will love it as much as I did...

As a kid, I used to love Marvel's first "What If" series that presented alternate versions of favorite heroes.

As the series progressed, the scenarios got stretched to the point of "Who Cares?".

Here, some 20+ years later, DC gets the "What If" idea right and presents us with a dark vision of the future of the DCU.

There are many surprised and while for me, the newest Teen Titans series of TPBs and comics have been hit-or-miss, this one was the best of the best!

Even if you have only marginal interest in the characters, pick this TPB up. You'll be glad you did. (or else the new Batman will stalk you down, and that's a fate worse than the Batman you may know stalking you!)

Well this is two different stories and both of them are fantastic and are worth getting your hands on.

In the first story, the Titans are thrown to the future and almost the whole team has turned evil but, Some of them are still on the side of good. As the story goes on you get little tidbits of how this happened and why. A very good story and worth the purchase by itself alone.

The second story stars the villan Doctor Light who has recently gained back all of his powers thanks to the events of Idenity Crisis and he is going after the Titans for what the JLA did to him. In this story, every person who has been a Titan comes to the rescue including Nightwing, the Flash, and Tempest.

The artwork is very nice and Johns really finally connects with the characters for the first time in the series in this volume.

This book gives readers a preview of what the titans may turn out to be in the future, and the consequences of their actions. It's worth it to see how their present and future selves interact with each other.

I liked the whole dark future scenario in this book. What I didn't like was that my copy literally fell apart (to be fair I bought it used). I will be replacing it, so that should tell you that I did like it.

This book is damn good!!!!!.

I loved to find the aftermath regarding a few issues set on Identity Crisis. Imagine my surprise when I saw the two guys that shot Bolt at the begining of Identity Crisis here.

Tim have a lot on his chest. You really get the feeling how great is to have friends. Because of this, now I know the meaning of the DC heroe groups:

JSA: Make better heroes
JLA: The Front Line
Teen Titans: Family

There's also tie-ins for Infinite Crisis. The chapter of the future Titans is dark!. I hope that continues in future books because I don't know a lot of stuff that happened there.

Anyway, this is by far one of the coolest runs Geoff Jones has made and I'm sorry I just found it out.

I know later this year (2011) it'll be published on "omnibus" for this run, but I won't get it. I got the trades and stick with them. There's important tie-ins writen by other people like Mark Waid that is in these books, and for sure they won't bee in the new collection.

I'm happy with this!.

I'm not sure where the Titans fall in my pantheon of heroes. First, I loved the Cartoon Network series. That's what got me interested in the Titans. And I love Nightwing, who founded it. Robin is there, and the current incarnation is a fascinating one. And now Superboy (Connor) is a part of the team, and I find him very fascinating. Plus I really like the cartoon version of Beast Boy, Raven and Starfire, though they are a little different in the comics.

Basically this volume is two major stories in one. In one, they travel to the future. It's an okay story. But the second one, involving the return of a newly dangerous Dr. Light is very, very good. You have to read it to appreciate it.