Teen Titans #61 ( DC / McKeever / Rodriguez / McKenna )
“Kid Devil’s out to prove himself, but that won’t stop the latest object of his contempt from getting in the way! In the tradition of Tango and Cash, Starsky and Hutch, and Turner and Hooch comes this instant buddy classic! You’ve already read “The Blue and The Gold” — Is the world ready for — “The Red and the Blue?”
I’ve been waiting for this issue ever since I had a conversation with Sean McKeever back in April at The Oconocon. Sean had just finished the story arc with the future Titans where Eddie was a hulking demon with more powers and huge hatred for the current Blue Beetle. Plus, the current So, you can imagine the hype I had waiting or this issue. What in the world would possess these two people to team-up against a common foe? The answer came in a villain I have never heard of, or cared about but both Kid Devil and Blue Beetle were trying to crack the case and prove themselves. When I started to read, I was impressed on how Kid Devil and Blue Beetle are brought together and how there dislike for each other was felt in every panel, both in dialog and art.
My favorite piece of this issue was the further development of Kid Devil into a character that I actually care about. I’ve kept it no secret on this site that I loathed Kid Devil when he joined the Teen Titans. Even through the issues we got his back story ( Blue Devil fall out, deal with the devil), I just didn’t care. To me, Eddie seemed like a stupid kid who just never got the clue. I put him in the same category at Buddy/Syndrome from the movie The Incredibles. Eddie practically stalked Blue Devil to be his sidekick and when he was fired, he made some extremely stupid choices. I thought this kid was a useless edition to the story. Then something happened, I read Teen Titans #50 (and up through #61) and Kid Devil started to evolve into a character I really like. Now he’s made a huge leap in his character in both his powers and taking on a new moniker. Now I’m really looking forward to the further development of Red Devil!
Grade: A
