Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: art baltazar, Comics, dc comics, entertainment, franco, Green Team: Teen Trillionaires, Ig Guara, new 52

Green Team: Teen Trillionaires Ends…Finally

Published Wed, 29 Jan 2014 16:00:00 -0600

by Hannah Means Shannon

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By Alexander Webb

Well, that's finally over.

DC's attempt at an intriguing idea-turned-intriguing mess has come to its conclusion, as Green Team: Teen Trillionaires wraps up its storyline in the Issue # 8 finale. Like the majority of the series, it wasn't very impressive.

[*Spoilers for Issue #8 below!]

Commodore Murphy, the leader of the Green Team, had narration duties this time as he tried to get his friends out of big trouble with evil trillionaire Bellachek Temple and Commodore's father-turned-supervillan, Riot.

The super discs that Bellachek's company created had transformed the team into superheroes, giving them whatever powers they wanted. For example, Mohammed, our initial narrator at the beginning of the series, could now transport people to any place in the world that he could think of and J.P., the Southern boy with a penchant for his friends' girlfriends, could morph into a large, havoc-wreaking beast. This all sounds great, but let's dive a little deeper.

First, the good: The art by Ig Guara is great. The action scenes are vivid, the detail in J.P.'s beast form pops to the last hair follicle, and villain Riot is made to look as menacing as some of the best in the New 52. His blend of realism and stylization is the highlight of this series. I'm a big fan of great art, so I'll chalk that up to a big victory. Unfortunately, that's the only one it gets. Which brings us to…

The bad: The writing, plot and wrap-up is just not there. Don't get me wrong, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani have had some slam-dunks in the past with Tiny Titans, a comic for which they jointly won the 2011 Eisner for Best Publication for Kids. Green Team: Teen Trillionaires, however, feels more like an air ball, and quite honestly, a missed opportunity.

The emotional connection between Commodore and his father is never fleshed out; what could have been a heart-wrenching scene was turned into a head-scratcher and left me apathetic to Commodore's situation. We see a shy Mohammed, the most likable character of the series by far, come into his own and gain a disc-load of confidence..in one page. Wait, what? It's as if our authors contemplated the idea of character development, then fervently shook their heads at the very notion.

The super discs that turned the Team into superheroes were a great idea, but we never got an explanation as to how they worked or why they were created. Was it along the lines of WayneTech? Did Tony Stark decide to do a brand crossover? The world may never know.

The final scenes were a nice respite from the main cast, with a cameo that leaves the series on a humorous note, and reminds us that the Green Team was only a bunch of teenagers with a lot of money and time, trying to buy their way to Batman heights.

This installment, as was the case with the series brief run, was starkly black and white, with the good guys on one side and the bad guys on the other. Standard issue, lacking, and not surprisingly, cancelled.

Alex Webb is a fitness trainer by day, Batman-enthusiast by night. Ask him about fitness, comics, RPGs, and answering life's mysteries via Twitter and Instagram @officiallywebb

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