Teen Titans "Homecoming, Part 2" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Stepping in for Bird Boy!

Episode #54 - Homecoming, Part 2
Original Airdate - October 1st, 2005

The Doom Patrol has been saved, but the sinister Brotherhood of Evil is still on the loose. It's just like old times for Beast Boy when he finds himself back on the team for one last mission - to stop the Brotherhood once and for all... no matter what the cost.

Comments?

[Eji]

I'm typing this during the commercial break, but how come Negative Man only had about a minute this time around in his shadow form, and then COULDN'T return to his body because he was out if it for too long... but when he had been separated from it for a much longer time in the previous episode he was able to jump back into it...?

[peacebyanymeans]

Sorry. I voted early because I had to turn it off before it was over, but from what I saw (first 22 minutes) it was good. 4 1/2 out of 5.

[MJC]

LOL, they used BB's real name.

Anyways, good episode, better than part 1.

[CyberCubed]

I'm sorry, but this is NOT Teen Titans. This is Justice League, and I don't want to watch a JLU clone.

Where are the jokes? Where is the humour? Where are the crazy anime expressions?

Why is Teen Titans Season 5 turning into the blandness that JL had?

Despite the actual episode full of cliche's, I knew exactly what was going to happen as I watched it.

Good god.

[Temple Fugate]

I didn't expect The Brain to become a regular villain, just a one-time thing along with the Doom Patrol. This is good, though, because I'm really digging the villain. He has a nice voice. Guess this season of Titans is going to be similar to what JLU is doing. Ought to be interesting.

[silverwings]

Teen Titans Unlimited? Heh, it could work by fixing the 'staleness' that this season seems to have so far by introducing new faces. I'm game.

[Xerroo]

I'm gonna laugh so hard when it turns out Slade's behind the whole thing and was using the BOE as puppets.

[CyberCubed]

I'm gonna laugh so hard when it turns out Slade's behind the whole thing and was using the BOE as puppets.

You know, you're probably right.

[Timmay]

I'm gonna laugh so hard when it turns out Slade's behind the whole thing and was using the BOE as puppets.

Then you're not going to laugh at all.

[Nekoris]

I can't believe this! OMG!!

Cyborg: "Garfield?"
Raven: "Garfield. I'm going to get a lot of milage out of this."

I LOVE this episode so much! It took The Titans a long time. This episode so rocked very much. I saw Slade's son: Jericho! I said it so loud. I can't wait to see him in action. I saw the members of Titans East too. But I didn't see the other people. I give it a 9/10.

[MuscaDomestica]

I'm gonna laugh so hard when it turns out Slade's behind the whole thing and was using the BOE as puppets.

Well at least one of his kids was there...

(I still think Red X is Judas...)

Anyone have a screencap of the final group?

[Tea]

A whole episode without overly exaggerated anime expressions? A TT first?

The Doom Patrol's "self sacrifice" policy is the complete opposite of the Teen Titans. I liked this episode more than part one, but there still hasn't been any characterization I've been hoping to see. The only Doom Patrol members that came close to showing any emotion is Elastic Girl and Negative Man.

I gotta give props to the foreshadowing scene at the end. They captured all the honorary titans (and some we've never even seen before?) and every villain (Kitten? BBD man?). And a Jinx cameo..! She's my favorite villain.

4/5.

[Killtacular]

I kind of agree with CyberCubed. Let JL be JL and let TT be TT. I'm all for TT having more interesting stories but they should be stories heavily dependent on character, not filled out with generic tank battles and schemes that can be easily defeated simply by walking up to a console and pressing some buttons. Two episodes into the season and the show seems now petrified to even try to be artistic anymore. We saw a couple of fun drawings at the very beginning of the season premiere and since then it's all been business and no pleasure. But TT is supposed to be fun, even when it's heavy. However this episode wasn't even heavy like Haunted. It was just generic. Mento's quick turnaround to trusting the Titans could not have been more jarring, based on his already overexaggerated stubbornness. When he said "You think I didn't want to save them too?" I couldn't have been less convinced. No sign of hesitation every time someone fell, even when Elastigirl got crushed. If he had started to show conflict towards the matter, then maybe we could have made a smooth transition from gruff to friendly friend. And it sure was great and convenient of the Titans to come smashing in without having any communication with Beast Boy or knowing there was trouble. I know they were obviously following the group, but there seriously needed to be a scene SHOWING this where we could see how one family of superheroes feels about one of their members torn between them and another family. Noone really gets to express any opinion about the situation at all. So for an episode that was supposed to be characteristic, it didn't really accomplish anything. Not that it's going to matter because Beast Boy will turn back into wacky comedy relief in future episodes, only to turn back into "super serious shonen superhero" for the season finale, like a lightswitch. I just bet it will happen. Because it kind of happened the last time, in season 2. And season 3 when Beast Boy immediately forgot about Terra.

The villains don't have the kind of quirks that make for fun fight ideas, because their powers are no more out of the ordinary than Justice League characters. When you have villains like Control Freak where TVs and cardboard standup movie promotions can become monsters, that's where creativity can really kick in. But these villains aren't interesting at all. Why even bother having a gorilla who is intelligent and brute if you: a) have someone intelligent already, and b) have s omeone with enough military power to win World War 3?

Show still not doing anything to convince me it's not trying to emulate JLU.

[Caswin]

It's Aftershock all over again, except other than the plotholes, Aftershock was really good. The team is soundly defeated, only to return with no real reason as to why. The Titans returning to save the day I can live with, Robot Man didn't seem in too much peril, but how in the world did Negative Man (However cool he may otherwise be) recover from that? Okay, fine, it's a plothole. I liked Aftershock in spite of such a plothole, maybe I can like this... 'cept for more problems.

No clear reason given why Beast Boy had to go without the Titans. The giant robot fight was okay, though I don't see why it didn't just freeze Beast Boy, and everything else was annoyingly one-sided. The end was anticlimactic, it never really looked like The Brain's final attempt to stop the Titans would work - speaking of which, the supposed awesome intelligence of The Brain and Mallah came to moot, ultimately outwitted by... Beast Boy, who didn't even seem to really have a plan. He just broke some stuff and won.

I could go on, but let's look at what was good here. Negative Man was all the cooler this time around, annoying unexplained resurrection notwithstanding. 'Garfield', 'nuff said. And that last shot of the villains... I wouldn't call it a JLU ripoff. Massive villain teamups are done all the time. And they are cool. I'm just kind of at a loss as to how they'll beat Mother Mae-Eye again. But who cares, Slade's butler is back! :anime:

3/5 - but with promise to get better.

"Gahr-field?" - Me, right before Cyborg said it. In exactly the same tone of voice and everything.
"This is going to be awesome... I hope." - As the final pan wound down.

[MJC]

Hey, how did that alien tofu thing that Cyborg ate come back?

Then again...nevermind...

[Alpha Man]

I admit it, I had my doubts. After the debacle that was Part 1, I wasn't even sure if I should watch this episode. However, this one proved to be much better as a whole. Yes, the plot is not spectacular, and there were a lot of questions that went unanswered...

The action was very good. It still did not stand up to previous TT episodes, but it was good enough to stand out. I really like Negative Man's powers, as an example. The artistry seems very well done when I watch it.

Of course, the major drawback was that this, like Part 1, seemed way too similar to other stuff. Robotman is The Thing from Marvel, Elastigirl looks exactly like young Ms. Incredible (the hair), and the music... well, I won't state the obvious.

The "climax" wasn't too climactic, I guess because it's been done countless times over. The "reset the destroyer thing to this location" thing was predictable. Although it was very funny when BB smacked The Brain upside the head and over the ledge.

I liked how Mento had a change of heart, it wasn't too expected. He finally saw BB's way about 2/3 through the ep. I also liked how the other Doom Patrol members have already been hardened by Mento's philosophy, like when Elastigirl tells BB to not look back. I'm betting she's used to Mento's "let's keep moving, leave him" thing. Plus, that explains why there's only four Doom Patrol members left (excluding BB).

"Garfield?" That rocked. It shows that the Titans don't know everything about each other (and still leaves open that Robin might be Dick or Tim). Raven's remark to it was priceless, and she was hot as ever. And, since BB's name has been officially stated in the show, I will now acknowledge him as so whenever I hear it. (No more "I refuse to believe his name is Garfield Logan because I appall the comics!" attitude, at least to BB's name. )

One last comment... The ending with The Brain, WTF?!?! How can all those dudes be there! Especially Malchior!!!! Wh-- How-- Grrrrrmrf! My brain hurt!!

KidFlashisBartAllen!

[Fone Bone]

A REALLY boring episode saved by a kickass third act. I was SOOOO bored when Mentos was onscreen. He's the Lana Lang of Teen Titans who sucks all of the energy out of the room. But dang, did this episode have a cool-turnaround. I finally recognized Glen Shadix as the voice of Mala and the Brain and that automatically made the episode coolsville. When the Titans showed up with the rest of the Doom Patrol at the end I gave out a Howard Dean type "Eayagh!"

Some notes:

I agree that the show needs to be funnier and crazier. While I'm not sure Teen Titans Unlimited is the best direction for this show I will say that if they keep the craziness (and Mumbo, Control Freak, and Mad Mod's appearances at the end suggest they might) I will be a happy camper.

I liked the Legion of Doom ending which even more than last week let us know that the Titans universe IS a huge one after all. All we need are more civilians and I'll be happy. I also want to see Slade this year, even if he isn't in the Brain's little club.

Seriously, the last five minutes of this episode made me forget how bored I was for the first seventeen. Score: ****.

[Metallo]

4 stars (out of 5)

It was neat having all the assorted heroes on the view screen (along with the assorted assembled villains). And great moment seeing Beast Boy's real name come into the picture!

Definitely looking forward to seeing all the new junior heroes and heroines in action!

[Batman Fan]

Wow, that ending looked pretty familiar, can't wait to see what they do with all these heroes and villans. But, about this episode, slightly better than part 1, but it still could use some work.

First off, I found the beginning to be informative, a very brief introduction of the masterminds behind the Brotherhood, but pointless. Why would Mento tell the Titans this if he refused to let them go with them on the mission? Plus, it felt rushed and just tacked on to tell us who they were, when it should've been explained in part 1.

Beast Boy shined again in this episode, and he was the best part. He not only provided the Doom Patrol with the heart and compassion they lacked, but he was also able to act serious, think on his feet, and stand up to Mento. This is something we've never seen from BB before, he stood up for what he believed in and he managed to prove very useful and resourceful in this episod, and had the best scene which is when he knocked over that little trash can body, and The Brain popped out.

The Doom Patrol wasn't much better in this episode. That whole trek throught the jungle and mountains was incredibly boring, and it just felt so wrong seeing each one of them being taken down so quickly and easily. They were still very shallow in this episode, and I still didn't get a feel for who they are, so they came off bland and predictable, and still we got almost no interaction between them and BB. Other than, don't worry about me, go after the BOE, none of them barely talked to him. Elastigirl was the only sympathetic one, and while Negative Man is really cool, he doesn't change my overall opinion on the Doom Patrol. Mento's change of heart was predictable and seemed forced, so that added nothing to the story. They are not structured well at all, and if we never see them again, that's fine with me.

The actions scenes at the end were great though. Seeing BB and Mento working together was great, Mento had a few good moments, and was a bit more likeable here. When the rest of the DP and TT came in, that provided some great action sequences, and some nice animation. The music was great, just like the last part, the dialogue was kinda corny, and it really didn't have that TT humor until the very end with BB being called Garfield, and Raven and Cyborg making fun of him. The final scene with all those villans lined up was great foreshadowing, and I can't wait to see what the writers have cooked up for them, I just hope they use more of those villans than the Brain.

****