Teen Titans: Deathtrap
By Sean McKeever & Marv Wolfman; art by Fernando Dagnino, Joe Bennett, Rick Leonardi, others; Cover by Andrew Robinson
(reprints Teen Titans Annual 2009, Titans #12 & #13, Teen Titans #70, and Vigilante #5)
If you are a fan of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans era, you will hate this graphic novel. If you are a fan of the character of Jericho, you will curse the very existence of this graphic novel. If you are just a fan of the Teen Titans -- any version, any incarnation -- you will just want to sit down and cry. "Deathtrap" is, by far, the worst story in recent memory to bear the banner of the Teen Titans. It is a crying shame that a once great concept has come down, well, to THIS.
The plot is terrible. Basically, it can be summed up as "Former Titan Jericho goes on a killing spree". A bloody, cold blooded, completely irredeemable killing spree, with the Titans (both young and old) as the targets and many, many civilians slaughtered along the way in brutal, graphic ways. Honestly, this is just about the worst case of "character" assassination you'll ever encounter; anyone familiar with Jericho from the 1980s will find him almost unrecognizable here, and the way DC completely destroys his character is just staggering. I never even liked Joey to begin with, but even I thought the way he has been so completely demolished as a hero is just appalling.
The story is co-written by Marv Wolfman and Sean McKeever, but honestly, I think they did little more than flesh out a storyline already handed to them by editorial. The only good part I can think of comes at the very end, where Wolfman's new Vigilante character extracts a chilling (but appropriate) piece of vengeance. But those last two pages just cannot make up for the absolute dreck that precedes it.
Don't bother with this one. If you want a modern Titans fix, pick up Blackest Night: Titans instead. There is no good reason that I can think of to drop coin on this volume.
Rating: *
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