Second Season (Part 2) for TEEN TITANS GO! Comes to DVD

For my own part, if I'm going to watch the animated Teen Titans, I'm going to go with the YOUNG JUSTICE series. Following that, the Filmation shorts, and then the Cartoon Network's TEEN TITANS -- all of which I would forego for a DC Universe animated movie of THE JUDAS CONTRACT, but let's not go there while there's still another BATMAN adventure to make. Watching TINY TOON ADVENTURES acted out by cutesified versions of superheroes wouldn't really top my list.

The seven-year-old boy who has taken up (and taken over) residence with me has other ideas. He thinks they're hilarious. He loves the butt-jokes. He even has a little crush on Raven. (When he grows up and sees Tara Strong, who provides the character's voice, he'll still have it and we'll have something in common.)

So while I wouldn't choose to watch TEEN TITANS GO! I nonetheless have viewed it and...I survived. In fact, some of it was actually fun, and funny.

"Robin Backwards" borrows from the Bizarro world introduced in SUPERMAN comics, and gives us a Bizarro-Robin -- or Nibor, which is Robin spelled backwards. When the Titans choose the laid-back Nibor over drill-sergeant Robin, the Boy Wonder decides to take over the Bizarro Titans...only to find he can't lead them, either.

"Crazy Day" highlights the competition among the Titans to be the craziest, goofiest they can be. Raven chooses not to participate, but inadvertantly wins the competition when her body becomes possessed.

"Let's Get Serious" had the YOUNG JUSTICE fan community talking, when it introduced Superboy, Aqualad and Miss Martian, drawn nearly identical to the way they were in their cartoon series. When Robin sees how they handle things more easily because they're so serious, he convinces the other Titans that it's time they become serious as well, resulting in a bulked-up and grizzled team.

One of my favorite Teen Titans (and I'm going back to the Nick Cardy thru the Wolfman/Perez years) has always been Kid Flash. The junior speedster makes an appearance in "Multiple Trick Pony" when Robin challenges him to a series of competitions with leadership of the Titans up for grabs. He even thinks he can beat Kid Flash in a foot race if he just follows one simple rule: Believe in yourself.

An unlikely (and unofficial) universe crossover happens in "Truth, Justice and What?" when it's revealed that the reason the Titans have so much pizza is because Robin initially took recruitment advice from some green-skinned "heroes in a half shell." But now they've consumed so much that pizza is going scarce.

In "Cool School," we get to see Rose Wilson, the Ravager, escape from prison and take down the Titans with barbed insults. This actually earns her a friend in Raven, who ultimately has to see Rose for the criminal she is. Raven's always been a little mean -- or, as we learn in the episode "Nean," nicely mean. But when her father Trigon curses her to always being nice, it leaves the Titans without someone to restrict their madness.

My favorite episodes -- and yes, I ended up having favorites -- were "Kicking a Ball And Pretending To Be Hurt" which reveals the deep, dark secret behind the fascination with soccer, and "Beast Man" wherein Beast Boy transforms into a grown man (technically an animal) and falls in thrall to "The Man" who forces grownups to toil away for a living for a faceless corporation.