Review by Isaac Magaña

"Home Alone”

Writer: Felicia D. Henderson
Penciller: Joe Bennet
Inker: Jack Jadson
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Rachel Gluckstern
Published by DC Comics

It’s time for another character story in Teen Titans. For this story arc Static is getting the spotlight. Static joined the team way back in issue #69 after his escape as a forced gladiator in tournaments to the death in the “Terror Titans” mini-series. He was reluctant to go home until he fully recovered from that experience. It appears Virgil, aka Static, is ready to go home.

The story opens with the Teen Titans exercising and Virgil announcing that the city of Dakota is having problems with a virus outbreak. With no support from his team members he leaves on his own to help but fails to mention that Dakota is also his hometown. Around this time Cassie visits Cyborg to discuss her role as leader of the Teen Titans. While in Dakota Virgil speaks with his family but keeps his past a secret telling his parents he ‘forgot’ where he has been. Static gets close to unraveling the secret behind the virus outbreak but is stopped by an old foe.

This is Felicia’s return back to writing Teen Titans. This time around her focus is on Static’s return home which has been a subplot since issue #69. Her dialog was good but nothing particularly outstanding happens. The plot seemed to take a very predictable path. The only surprise came at the ending of the book and that was due to my complete lack of familiarity with Static’s past. Joe Bennet has done some impressive art in the past but there was no ‘wow’ factor in this issue. It all seemed like very simple average work. As for Marcelo, I’m not familiar with any of his colors but found a lot of his coloring to be washed out or faded. That may be due to my copy of the book, it may have been one of the rare bad prints.

Overall I found this issue to be very generic. Nothing was really amazing or impressive and it just seemed to be very predictable. I’m looking to be impressed and amazed with these characters but finding myself being just going through the motions with this story. Felicia was able to surprise me and if she can keep doing that, I may stick around. Otherwise I may just stick this book at the bottom of my pile.

Rating:  5 out of 10 (Average)