The Four Color Media Monitor

Let's see, Newsarama has interviewed Adam Beechen, one of the writers of the cartoon-based DC Titans on the Cartoon Network, and also writer of the main Robin title, and now soon to write the main Teen Titans as well. And, first what's M. Brady saying here:

While Robin definitely gives Beechen the cred to handle at least one teen character, skeptical Titans fans will breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Beechen has handled the team before – writing three episodes of the animated Teen Titans series that ran on Cartoon Network: “Mad Mod,” “Only Human” and “Haunted” – the last being a particularly intense episode pitting Robin against Slade in a battle of wits – and sanity.

Hmm, I thought that was the other way around - that Beechen was supposed to prove himself capable of writing the book well and engagingly. Not so, according to some of the earlier stuff I compiled.

Then, what's Beechen himself say in response to Brady:

NRAMA: Going back a little - pull the curtain back a touch if you can - you're a writer who's got several things gong with DC. How does the offer to write Teen Titans happen? A phone call? An e-mail?

AB: As I remember it, in the late summer of 2006, I got a phone message from Geoff: “Call me when you get a chance.” I left him a return message, then it was a day or two before I heard back from Geoff again, and I was in a blind panic...I thought he’d maybe read one of my Robin plots, and I’d inadvertently ruined the DC Universe or something. But that wasn’t it, and when he finally reached me, it was to tell me he was thinking of leaving Titans, date unknown, and to ask me if I had any interest in taking over for him. I told him I’d be honored to even be in the discussion, and he told me to sit tight, and he’d get back to me. Then, a few weeks later, I got a call from Titans Editor Eddie Berganza, asking me basically the same question. Yes, yes, I’m interested! He, too, told me to sit tight until Geoff’s schedule crystallized and he had something definite to tell me. More time passed. Finally, as I was on my way home for Thanksgiving, I got a flurry of phone calls, from Eddie and Geoff, saying it was on, it was happening, and the offer was a concrete, definite thing. I said yes immediately.

Maybe Beechen didn't ruin the whole DCU, and maybe he didn't ruin Robin; that's actually more Bill Willingham's fault, but he sure didn't make it any better with the way he stooped to racial stereotyping in his writing from yesteryear. I guess I can be disappointed in Johns and Berganza for turning to him when he's otherwise undeserving of the job.

And now, here's something involving Deathstroke that's puzzled me, since I thought that the following was something that Slade Wilson had come to terms with years ago:

NRAMA: On the other side of the coin, heroes are defined by his enemies, so - why does Slade have such a mad-on for the Titans? It's been a constant for decades now...

AB: Consider how much of his family life has been entwined with the Titans...He lost his first son, Grant, as a result of combat with the Titans. He “lost” his second son, Joseph, when Joseph chose them over his father. And now he’s lost his third child, Rose, who’s recently become a member of the team. The Titans are more than the one contract he’s never been able to satisfactorily complete — they’re the one set of adversaries who have regularly taken things from him.

I thought he'd accepted that Jericho had chosen good over evil (until he'd gone crazy in 1991, and his own father had to kill him then), and come to think of it, I thought he'd actually accepted that Rose decided to become a reformed Titans member too. The profile available at Titans Tower certainly tells that, while he may not have reformed, he is better than what he's being made out to look like now:

Months later, Slade became involved with a Titans' case involving a dangerous plague. He became active again as Deathstroke, and eventually resumed his mercenary activities, with a stricter code of ethics. Shortly after this, current and former members of the Titans were hunted and captured by the Wildebeest Society. Deathstroke was instrumental in tracking down the captured Titans (with the help of allies Nightwing, Troia, Pantha, Phantasm, Arella and Red Star).

So, what exactly is it that's led DC to wreck almost two decades worth of development for Slade Wilson, and turn him into an exploiter again: he drugs Cassie Cain into being a criminal. That's not exactly keeping a firm moral code of ethics. It contradicts the self-searching he did after the death of Terra. Also, it looked to me like he was shocked at how Rose bludgeoned her own eye in the 2nd Teen Titans trade of Johns, so, why should he feel bothered then that Rose returned to sanity and decided to return to the good side again?

We could assume that Slade himself is a pawn, but that's not saying that Beechen deserves an audience when the time comes to find out.

Update: hey, look at this! Titans Tower Monitor reports that come May, a Titan dies! Just what the comics world needs, more deaths! Another reason why I'm not wasting my time on Beechen's run.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, Titans