Teen Titans Academy #6

Teen Titans Academy #6

DC Comics 2021

Written by Tim Sheridan

Pencilled by Rafa Sandoval

Inked by Jordi Tarragona

Coloured by Ulises Arreola

Lettered by Rob Leigh

When an entire town in upstate New York turns on the students of Teen Titans Academy, while the adult Titans are on a mission, Gorilla Greg, Chupacabra, and the other new students find themselves fighting for their lives against a chaotic mob. But is there something driving the town's madness more than just intolerance?

I still feel like this series is trying to find its footing. With such a large cast of characters it isn’t always easy to get stories in place that make sense to the book as a whole. For me it needs to follow the original Legion of Super-Heroes format which selects a group of characters and then they are those on the mission and this issue feels like we’re getting that. It feels right that this group is together and what is supposed to be one thing is interrupted and turns into something else entirely. It creates conflict and the kids have to work together as a team to figure out what is happening. This is the format that the book needs to follow moving forward. It doesn’t always have to be within their cliques but circumstance in how they end up together is key to seeing how they grow and evolve.

I’m really rather impressed with how this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. This does wonders in bringing their personalities to life. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we’re swept up through this like we’re caught in the rapids.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and evolve is magnificently rendered. What I like about this is that the layers open up different avenues to be explored and while not all avenues are explored, what these all do is add this nice depth, dimension and complexity to the story in a marvellous way. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are completely and utterly gorgeous. The linework is truly exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work we see throughout the book is phenomenal. We see backgrounds being utilised extremely well, though we could see more of them in use, to enhance and expand the moments. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story and it does this remarkably well. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a tremendously talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows this amazing master colourists eye is on display.

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This issue really does showcase the way that I would like to see this series move forward. Sure they should have some sort of “adult” supervision but hey it’s not always necessary because this shows the kids learning about how to utilise their powers and abilities as well as gives the reader a chance to get to know the kids better and form some sort of bond with them. With some seriously strong and inventive writing and amazing characterisation being brought to life by these bloody brilliant interiors is what fans have been waiting to see.