Teen Titans Academy, Vol. 2: Exit Wounds

Teen Titans Academy #2

by Tim Sheridan, Tom Derenick (Illustrator), Rafa Sandoval (Illustrator)

The original New Teen Titans have reteamed and formed the Titans Academy to teach the next generation of superpowered teens…if the students can survive the training.

When an entire town in upstate New York turns on the students of Teen Titans Academy, while the adult Titans are on a mission, Gorilla Greg, Chupacabra, and the other new students find themselves fighting for their lives against a chaotic mob. But is there something driving the town's madness more than just intolerance?

This is just the beginning of trouble for the new Teen Titans Academy students...follow this adventure and more in Teen Titans Academy Vol. 2, collecting Teen Titans Academy #6-15!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Thriller, Mystery

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2022

Reviews

[A.J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know I said in my review of Volume 1 that I wasn’t going to read this book, but that was a lie, as I just did. And holy shit, I wish I had not. But hey, at least we have 50 new Titans that can be used as cannon fodder in DC’s next crisis/mega-whateverthefuck.

Tim Sheridan’s Titans Academy comes to a clunky ass climax after a year of buildup, finally revealing who is under the Red X mask. Is it worth it? No! Will anyone be satisfied? No! Does it somehow manage to set up another Red X mystery which is especially dumb since this series got cancelled? Yes! Oh my god I genuinely fucking hate this.

Also this says it collects issues 7-12, but it only has 2 issues left with it ending at 14. So I don’t know if it will include those last two issues in this trade, but I will update this review if it does and when those issues drop.

But yeah, don’t read this book. I don’t hate Tim Sheridan, he’s written some stuff I have enjoyed in the past, but this dude genuinely wasted one of the coolest Titans concepts in years. Not enough Titans or Academy, and too much random Future State bullshit makes this volume one of the worse Titans runs I have read in awhile. I’m convinced I will die of old age before we get a decent Teen Titans run again, and I’m in my 20s.

[Bradley]

Oh man...Judge a book by its cover and this comic might have a glimmer of hope at attaining something, anything 'okay'

I skimmed. No point in bothering with what everyone else clearly sees. Didn't realize I picked up the second installment, yet that doesn't seem to matter. I'm pulling a lot from my fellow reviewers. It's pretty evident to see why and how this comes poorly rated. Probably a piece of work that felt like 'work' if I had to guess, or poor cohesion amongst a team or individual. C'est la via.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The superb first volume of TTA really flailed out of control in this second volume. The biggest problem is that the cast is just too big, and Sheridan doesn't know how to deal with it. So we get a big revelation and some deaths here, and so many of the characters have been offscreen since V1 that none of it makes much of an impression. The stories are similarly all over the place.

There'a lot of characters to love here, and the setup is just great, but Sheridan really loses control of his story, probably in part due to a too-soon cancellation.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read these as individual isses..

Still a cringe comic IMHO. Gorilla Gregg, nephew of Gorilla Grodd has an adventure. Yea? Stitch is given too much screen time. They do take the role of 'fun loving outsider' in the series, so a lot of the seriousness they try and delve into gets tempered with more scenes of Stitch bumbling around.

We also keep inching towards the events shown to us in 'Future State' Teen Titans and Shazam. I do mean inching. It's taken so long to get here and we're DONE within one issue? A couple portal jumps and whatever they needed to save, they saved? GO TEEN TITANS DARK, I guess...

Bonus: Fearsome Five reboot...kinda?
Bonus Bonus: R.I.P. Red X #4?3? The youngest one. That kid.

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve read all of the Teen Titans incarnations. And I mean it. All of them. From the original 60’s run up to this current Academy version. I enjoyed the Wolfman/Pérez run, Dan Jurgen’s, Devin Grayson’s, Geoff Johns’, and more. I saw all the iterations, from the classic sidekick team, to entirely new rosters, reimaginations and reboots. Some runs were so impressive, some others had potential. They all added something to the big picture, all but this one… Teen Titans Academy was overrun by saturation, lack of focus, and an unbelievable inability to make its new characters matter in any level. Everything was off from beginning to end. This time it wasn’t as if it went downhill from certain point, it just never landed. Too bad.

[Parker J · Rating 2 out of 5]

What was Tim Sheridan smoking when he wrote this series lmfao. Honestly, I can't say I ever hated reading this series and it had really fun moments but in the end the story just was not very well executed. Like what the hell was going on.

On a side note, this volume doesn't collect issues 13-15, which will be the last issues of the series since it got axed, and let me just say...if it did..this might've been a one star because the war for earth-3 tie in was a flop, the fact that they actually did the cyborg beast boy fusion hybrid monstrosity story line from Raven's visions, and things do not get to really fully wrap up because of its cancellation.

[Owen · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are some many things wrong with this comic that it actually hurts.
Let’s start with what brought me here - the dangling thread from volume 1 regarding Red X’s identity made me excited to dive into this one - how badly misplaced this feeling was.
Time to rant.
Red X gets unmasked to reveal some random kid who’s has like 2 minutes screen time and I’m supposed to care? Then Nightwing says he’s going after the OG Red X and just doesn’t? He completely forget about his single purpose this entire volume or something?
The bloke the academy is named in memory of magically revives and nobody questions it? He’s just like “I don’t know how I’m alive” and everyone’s just like “haha classic Roy what a jokester”?
An alternate world Suicide Squad show up for a single issue, setting a bunch of plot points in motion, just for them to never be referenced again? Then Chupacabra follows them for an adventure just to be sat chilling in a cafe the next issue as if it never happened? They really traded a spaceship for Starbucks in the space of a single page? We literally got an official statement that it would continue in then next issue and it never does.
The only somewhat redeeming factors (and I’m really clutching at straws here) were the Gorilla Greg x Grodd issues right at the start and Lucas/Megabat talking for the first and only time - the fact that I’m even mentioning this one shows the lows this comic has taken me to. Welcome to the Carl Chinn club.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Teen Titans Academy's first class reaches their graduation, but the mystery of Red X continues to haunt them right up onto the podium.

Dear lord, this was painful. I want to say that the earlier issues in the volume are better, but the Gorilla Grodd story is a mess, and it only gets worse from there. The ultimate resolution of the Red X mystery is extremely unsatisfying and out of left field, and the rushed conclusion of the book itself isn't great either.

The only thing I did enjoy about this series was the new characters introduced. Like the characters from the latest Teen Titans run have been, I hope we see these characters incorporated in the Titans mythos going forward, since they're pretty interesting, and could be breakout characters under a different writer.

The artwork also suffers as the series goes on, because Rafa Sandoval (the only reason this book doesn't get one star) heads off and we're left with Tom Derenick, who seems about as interested in drawing this book as I was in reading it as it got to the end.

Honestly, the best Teen Titans thing Tim Sheridan wrote was the Shazam! mini-series. Just...skip all of this, and save yourself the bother.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main problem I had with volume 1 becomes, if anything, more obvious in this second part: the cast is too large. It's the sort of thing that might be fine in a different medium, or if the characters are already familiar to the reader (as might be the case with, say, The X-Men) but here it means that we can't really explore all the characters fully. For instance, the Bat Pack, who were so strong in volume 1, hardly get anything to do here, being pushed into the background. Bolt suffers a similar problem.

Now, that's to make way, initially, for Summer and Gregg, exactly the characters I wanted to see more of, so one can't complain too much. Once they're done, it's the turn of Dane in the Halloween issue and then we get to wrap up the Red X plotline. Individually, the stories are good (hence the four stars) but, with the exception of Stitch, we don't see most of the characters for long enough to build up much about them. And there are other characters who flit about here and there and who we don't get much on at all - Tress being a case in point, as she's present enough to seem interesting, but not enough to be developed.

Having said that, it's generally fun, there's a good sense of drama when it's needed, and we get a sense of the school year passing and the characters growing from their time together. If the intention was to throw out ideas and see what stuck, it's successful from my point of view, but even just keeping the characters I liked the most leaves enough for two different superhero teams...

[Adam Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars.
I'm not sure what happened here, or what has been happening with Teen Titans in general. It's almost like they don't have any clear vision on what is supposed to happen with this team to prepare them for the future of the DC Universe. The writing, on an individual issue basis, and for characters, isn't bad, and the art is fine... it's just bad focus, cohesion, and planning. (But then again, I'm just a reader and have no idea what the plans are.
Still.... some important things happened here:
- Gregg teams up with Grodd briefly
- Miguel's Dial somehow resurrects Roy Harper (I guess we just accept this and move on with very little explanation?)
- Red X teams up with Psymon to get a handle on some of the students, then kills him when he seems to go too far
- Dane (Nevermore) and Shazam get caught up in a whole separate adventure in Hell, which is covered in a different book
- Red X helps destroy Titans Tower, gets revealed as newer student Brick, then gets betrayed and killed by the real Red X.
- (Not discussed how) but Beast Boy (now apparently called Changeling) and and Cyborg get fused into the same body, but then via magic are separated.
- Chupacabra meets his uncle and it is implied that he is an artist we should know.
- Titans Tower is rebuilt stronger than ever.

I guess we'll see where the Titans end up next. I know "Dark Crisis" is coming soon, and that will probably change everything.

[Vin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, I read this series only because I wanted to see Roy getting back with the titans. But overall, the whole thing just felt disappointing.

The first part was okay , building the mystery of the new red X , introducing new characters with a new theme, and seeing the og titans trying to work as Not only mentors but teachers was an interesting premise; which was just trown away by a bad history cosntruction and really dumb thing happening like 6 of them running around toying to teach hundreds of children just like that? The gotham pack just trusting the identity of red X and telling nobody? The gorillas subplot that didn't contribute anything? Everyone accepting Roy came back just like that and Wally just going around the installation without any restrictions and the parent dissappearing after they let us know clearly that most of the public sees him as a murderer?? The final plot twist that didn't felt significant at all because we were running with lots of subplots we didn't even had time to emphasize with the "main antagonist" which wasn't even that.

There were a lot of ideas and thing that could've been good , only if well executed.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75

It’s reached Legion level on cast. And the volume has multiple storylines tossed together for trade…likely so DC could just get it out, which includes a story started and finished elsewhere.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

So there is suddenly a whole lore of Red X with 3 or 4 taking the mask but that is actually all made up because it never happened in the comics and there is no flash back.

The Red X reveal is flat too, I mean we barely saw the character at all in early issues with zero character development beside a short origin story.

Why Brick would think that Nightwing is his father, is Nightwing 40 years old or something in this?

Then the true Red X escapes and there is no actual end to that intringue (and he is never again seen after as far as I know as of September 2024).

And the whole apocalypse / Shazam thing is gibberish, even after reading the Shazam mini-series! It never really explains what may happen and how Dane is the cause of it.
And how did Red X even destroy the Tower?
Do we ever see those four riders of the apocalypse they need to lock the in the rock of eternity? Why is Shazam all of sudden prisoner on Apokolips shortly after? Isn't he supposed to be trapped in the rock to protect the universe? This all makes zero sense, they do not even try.

And we never know who Matt is?? What was that??

And who the hell is Addison who suddenly appears to operate Cyborg and Beast Boy? Did we ever see that student before?

And what is this Diego's uncle storyline that takes half of the last two issues? It is so random.

All together this is really awful storytelling.

[Gbolahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want to give this a 2.5

It was just all over the place. Writers didn't care if you knew TT before or not. They just assumed you did and wrote away. Folks back from the dead and no one even blinks (ok, yeah that part's fine, it's superhero comics), powers just because convenience, power scaling all out of wack, people just pulling weapons out of thin air just because.

And, yeah, the apocalypse. 🤦🏿‍♂️

And the art, oh my God. Do people even care to tell us what we're looking at any longer?? There was this bit where these 5 Shazam kids from the Shazam movie shouted their magic word together to transform...and artist couldn't be half-assed to show them in hero form doing squat. Seriously. They just shout "SHAZAM!". And that was all about them.
Why were they there in the first place??

The only person I liked seeing was Stitch, an animated rag doll with a fun personality. That's the only reason this is 3, not 2 stars.

[thedailyflannel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good god, this one was just as rough as the last.

Pros? Uhhh. I liked Stitch, even if they were just Gwenpool vibes.

Cons? It was nearly impossible to follow as a stand-alone, which was the case with the last as well. Billy somehow has his powers back here, but don’t ask questions. Dane, an interesting character, seems to have developed some major trauma between volumes but there’s no time to stick around and think about that. No worries on how any of this is impacting any of the characters, that kind of interpersonal drama is clearly not what we’re here for.

What ARE we here for? An excellent question and one that never feels answered satisfactorily. Red X is a problem created for this comic, solved in this comic, and feels unimportant outside this comic.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

read the first 30 pages and skimmed the rest. a school for mutants, such an original idea, instead of a wise old man to lead and teach them we'll have the sidekicks as the teachers. or maybe its the avengers initiative, a bunch of heroes lead and teach a bunch of people w/weird powers that cause them to dress up as mutants.
i know the book was a put-on, (Mr. Nightwing, Mr. Beast) of marvel or maybe the legion of substitute heroes and supposed to be funny, but it didn't work for me.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, this was mostly a mess. I wanted to give it more stars for Roy and Wally, but nothing can make me feel anything for these new kids. Stitch is such a Deadpool ripoff they make me want to scream, but at least I remember their name after closing the book. The rest are as forgettable as Red X's real identities.

[Jamie Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

More 3.5 instead of 3

Better than the first volume, but again it feels like a partially half baked concept.
A good base idea with some nice individual story ideas and characters but it feels like something is missing. It feels underdeveloped as a series.

I did enjoy this more than I was expecting too

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is alright, I mostly hung on because I love Stitch and their vibes, but I'd recommend passing on this one. The story isn't strong enough to support itself and there's an entire plot arc just missing in the middle that they spun off into another issue set. Not all that interesting.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I have not read the last issue (it is within or after Dark Crisis), the rest of it still centered around X's identity (who cares) and the Suicide Squad trying to grab different heroes and villains.

[AChristianNerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was good, but didn’t keep my attention as well as the first volume. It was cool to see how the students’ powers continued to grow and change, but the major plot-line’s felt rushed. Still a very enjoyable story though!

[Worm_on_the_books · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 5

This isn't my favourite comic, but it also isn't the worst one I've read. I guess some of it is because there are soooo many characters, you don't get a lot of time to get to know them and actually like any of them.

[Lilian · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the queer subplot we almost got💔

[Trevor Kidd · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real mess, too many characters and plotlines and a rush to cancelation. Vol 2 is a real step down from volume 1.

[Jenna Alcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story doesn't really go very far, which is unfortunate, it just seems like back peddling the while time.

[Sebastián · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the highest potential/worst written books I've read in my entire life

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope.

[Kalynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

[Kristin ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a hot mess.

Too many characters and complete lack of direction. Felt like nothing mattered. Makes me understand the cancellation. The first one was fine but this was bad.