Teen Titans #74

Bryan Miller has only written a handful of comics that I know of, but he's already fitting in nicely at DC. He's already killed a Teen Titan (everyone is doing it!) This time it is Eddie Bloomberg, Kid Devil, who died saving San Francisco from a nuke-powered villain set up as a weapon of mass destruction. I will give Miller some props for at least featuring Eddie pretty strongly in this 3 part story. Eddie had good dialogue and some nice center-stage action, in addition to him actually having a heroic death. While this certainly adds to the general dead-ish ways of the DCU, at least Miller spent some time developing the character he was killing.

The new savage take on the Fearsome Five is pretty interesting. Shimmer is immensely popular, something I often forget. During the battle with the Titans, she transforms a building into water, dropping bystanders down to the street. I enjoyed seeing Wonder Girl and Aquagirl handle crowd control while Traci 13, Blue Beetle, Static, and Bombshell took on the villains. Miller did a nice job setting up the conflicts. The Five seemed like powerful foes, but I believed the Titans had the ability to beat them too. I'm not sure what's going on with Kid Eternity and the Calculator at the end, but it is spooky for certain.

Joe Bennett has really made this book his own. While Wonder Girl is the only headliner on the team, the rest of the lineup is pretty striking and inspiring looking. I'd love to see Bennett drawing Superboy or Robin again.

Fair