Teen Titans Season 5 (Double DVD; Disc 2)

Back to the review of Teen Titans Season 5 DVD. The first part covered how the Titans are assembling an army of honorary Titans to stand against the Brotherhood of Evil. Now on to the second disc…

The second half of the season opens with yet another episode that doesn’t feature the regular team. In “Lightspeed” the focus is on a team called the Hive Five – an evil version of the Titans crossed with the Fearsome Five – and the trouble they’re having with a new superhero. The setup is okay, but the episode is elevated by just who the new hero is. Michael Rosenbaum is drafted in from the Justice League for the first appearance of Kid Flash (one of the founders of the comic book Teen Titans). His voice is pitched up, but the character is almost identical to the League’s Flash. It’s great to see him run rings around the Hive Five. Can I also say that Billy Numerous is a work of genius!

“Revved Up” keeps up the speed, so to speak, with the Teen Titans engaged in a race with the Dig Dong Daddy. And, yes he is a real 1960s Teen Titan’s villain. With the Titan’s art style and tone there is only one way this can go. So it’s Wacky Races all the way once Gizmo, Red-X, and a hand full of other badguys get involved (they’re only missing the narrator). I wasn’t a fan of the mellow tunes, but then I’m more of an Easy Rider fan (is that a comics writer in the duck outfit).

Special attention has to be paid to “Go!” as it’s the Teen Titan’s origin episode. When the series first launched the Titans were up and running and already tight as a team so we never got to see how the group formed, at least until now. This episode quite closely follows the origin of the Wolfman/Perez group (watch our for their cameo and Perez’s shirt). Robin has recently moved on from his (still unnamed) mentor and is very much in Batman mode. Beast Boy has just been kicked out of the Doom Patrol. Even Cyborg is in the grey hooded jersey that he wore in his first comics appearance. It is Starfire’s flight from the Gordanians that brings them together, a little differently than in the comics admittedly, but the major beats are there. I really liked this episode and its a refreshing change to have a story completely focused on the core team.

“Calling All Titans” was the “who’s left to include” episode and is the first of the two-part final confrontation with the Brotherhood. It’s also the final leg of the Titan’s global odyssey to warn other teen heroes of the Brotherhood of Evil’s threat. This time the Titan’s split up and each meet up with a new hero each before heading home. Someone on the writing team must like Battle of the Planets as the T-Ship splitting into pods felt like a great rift on the Phoenix. Argent was an interesting take, Bushido was an excuse to have Robin fight Ninjas (never a bad thing), Pantha as a masked Mexican wrestler was just strange, and they sell the Herald as well as anybody has ever done. But I liked Beast Boy’s mountain quest to find Jericho best.

Once the all the Titan’s have been located the Brotherhood of Evil springs their trap and things get really serious. When the alliance of honorary Titans is at its largest the Brotherhood strikes, capturing several heroes in early stikes – they even manage to capture Robin by isolating him from the other Titans. “Titans Together” sees Beast Boy leading an unlikely group of b-list Titans in a counterstrike against the Brotherhood. His experience from the Doom Patrol serves him well and its interesting to see Beast Boy as the confident leader for a change. The action gets very hectic and there were more characters than I could count, but even then the founding five don’t get completely squeezed out.

After the two-part confrontation with the Brotherhood comes “Things Change” – the real final episode. The Titan’s have been away from the city for so long that they notice that its changed while they’ve been away. Redevelopment has erased their childhood landmarks, the city is growing, and the Titan’s need to face their own growth. The return of a particular old favourite really captures the spirit of the first few seasons. I won’t give any more spoilers about the ending, but its pretty fantastic and very nicely done.

Now I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like the expanded roster, but I have a definite preference for the original team. This season is really Teen Titans and friends and on that level it works pretty well. There isn’t the oppressive darkness that the Trigon storyline brought and while the Brotherhood of Evil are a credible threat they’re just a little too goofy to do true dark and moody. It’s only with “Calling All Titans” and “Titans Together” that the tone shifts into a more cinematic style and the Brotherhood really begins to look deadly. The season feels very cohesive in tone and story arc.

For all the new Titans and additional characters the ones that work best are those that have the richest comic background. For me Speedy, Aqualad and now Kid Flash are the most interesting of the non-core Titans. It’s just a pity that this series had to come to an end. Season Five is your final fix for the manga inspired Teen Titans. It was an unexpected direction to go and quite a bold one, but it produced five fantastic seasons of cartoon action.