Lewis Lovhaug: Linkara, The Sniper

Quotes 

• Linkara : We continue our look at the four-part Teen Titans/Superboy/"Legion Lost" crossover, "The Culling", although, to be fair, can it really count as a Superboy crossover, considering he's already a member of the Titans?

• Linkara : Now, the problem with collecting a crossover between two or more different series is how you're supposed to label it. Here's the trade collection for the first of the New 52 Teen Titans. It says "Teen Titans" in bright white letters on the side to indicate the series; the title of the trade - in this case, a made-up phrase, because the first seven issues of the book each had their own title; the creative team; and finally, the trade number. That way, when you put it on your bookshelf, everything's arranged in a nice, easy order. But then you've got "The Culling". Since it contains issues of "Teen Titans", "Superboy" and "Legion Lost", obviously, a number doesn't really qualify for it, since the trade collections don't necessarily reflect the numbering for the others. But the marketing and packaging for this are just bizarre. Remember how I mentioned last time that nowhere on the cover did they mention that it was a crossover? Well, it's the same thing here. Oh, sure, on the back of the trade, in the print at the bottom, they mention the crossover, but on the front, it says that "The Culling" is "From the pages of TEEN TITANS!" Collecting it as "The Culling" makes perfect sense, I suppose, but why not label it with the team names and then have "The Culling" as the subtitle. And what did they put as the subtitle instead? "Rise of the Ravagers"! Yeah, in the wake of the crossover, another team book was launched based on Harvest's little minions who broke away and was called the Ravagers. We won't get into the Ravagers thing just yet, but I'd like to point out that DC thought that putting "The Ravagers" on the cover and the spine would be a better way to attract customers THAN THE FRIGGIN' TEEN TITANS! Hey, how many TV shows have the Titans had or been featured in? And how many TV shows has Superboy appeared in? And hell, even members of the Legion of Superheroes, how many shows have they had or appeared in one way or another in other mediums? I dunno, maybe I just don't get it. After all, according to DC, at the mere infant age of 26... Happy birthday to me, by the way... I am almost twenty years too young to be reading their comics! And yet it often feels like I'm too mature to be reading this stuff.