Ben Percy's Rebirth Titles

[Grayson]

Anyone else extremely disappointed by the fact DC left him on Green Arrow, and is now going to write Teen Titans. Two titles that (for the most part) have been consistently bad throughout the N52. The way he writes his better suited for a dark book. Like Constantine. If it were up to me, I'd have Greg Pak on Green Arrow, and Tom Taylor on Teen Titans.

[Godlike13]

I have not read anything from him but i want TT to be good, so when i read post like these its rather disheartening. Is his stuff bad?

[Grayson]

I have not read anything from him but i want TT to be good, so when i read post like these its rather disheartening. Is his stuff bad?

Yes his latest run on Green Arrow is bad. I read about 3 issues before I dropped it. Somehow he made Ollie a werewolf, I didn't bother reading how or why because it sounded so dumb. He also did a two parter for one of the Batman titles on n52, it was my first exposure to him so the way the story was felt mysterious/dark. So I thought ok not too bad, but reading Green Arrow, it felt like he was using the same tone. Which makes me think this is the only way he knows how to write.

[ayanestar]

The guy is not bad but I was expecting more. I thought DC want to save the TT franchise therefore I was expecting a strong creative team and it doesn't look like Percy has any experience writing teens.
I haven't read Green Arrow so I can't say anything about that.

[Wally West]

Sounds like he's the new JT Krull. I don't know why they keep giving such bad writers books during a relaunch while letting decent writers like Chris Roberson, Bryan Q. Miller, Paul Cornell, etc. all walk. It's baffling.

[Atlanta96]

With all the mediocre writers assigned to Titans books since the reboot (except Greg Pak, who wrote 3-4 issues. Yay.) I'm starting to wonder if DC hates the title, and is only publishing it since it's a staple of the DCU and they feel obligated. Dan Didio seems like the kind of guy who doesn't give a damn about a series starring Teen superheroes that isn't gritty and serious, so making the Teen Titans series good probably isn't a priority for DC.

[GlennSimpson]

I don't think Ben Percy is bad, he's just a little wordy, and a little weird. He invented an AIDS-like disease in the DCU that gives the infected some werewolf-like attributes, which is a bit odd in that he is effectively creating something that ought to be showing up in a lot of other books. And sometimes the internal monologues get a little out of hand.

That said, the plots are fairly interesting, and his style does fit the "urban hunter" nature of Green Arrow that was present with the Grell stuff. I have no major complaints (it's better than Nocenti, at least).

I think it will be interesting to see what he does with Teen Titans, where the characters are very different than GA.

[John Ossie]

I think Percy's Green Arrow is ''alright'' but nothing more, I agree with those that don't like Oliver being a Vampire type nowadays but I expect that to get resolved sooner rather than later. I actually like that he now has a dog following him around everywhere personally. I liked it better when Jeff Parker was on it though. And I agree with Glenn that the internal monologues can get out of hand sometimes.

As far as Teen Titans, well I've never read a Teen Titans book (or just plain Titans) so it'll be a first for me.

[Thor2014]

Anyone else extremely disappointed by the fact DC left him on Green Arrow, and is now going to write Teen Titans. Two titles that (for the most part) have been consistently bad throughout the N52. The way he writes his better suited for a dark book. Like Constantine. If it were up to me, I'd have Green Pak on Green Arrow, and Tom Taylor on Teen Titans.

That Green Pak is a pretty good writer.

[GlennSimpson]

That Green Pak is a pretty good writer.

But watch out for Red Pak, his characters are always angry about stuff.

[manduck37]

That Green Pak is a pretty good writer.

He's a member of the Green Writers Corp. right? They have that glowing pen symbol.

Percy's Green Arrow is ok. It's not the worst book I've read and it's not the best. It's firmly in the middle. There are elements I like. The strange werewolf disease was a bizarre arc and doesn't do much for me. Though he has a lot of interesting ideas in there that could be explored. Where I give Percy real credit is in bringing back elements of Lemire's run and keeping them in the fold. After Lemire left the book, GA's supporting cast seemed to disappear. Many of us were a bit disappointed to see Emiko kind of cast into the void. Percy brought her back and uses her pretty prominently. Gradually other supporting cast members are making their way back too. Percy is building a kind of family for Oliver that I think has a lot of potential. I think of it like this, Percy has a lot of good ingredients but hasn't figured out the recipe just yet.

[John Ossie]

That Green Pak is a pretty good writer.

Sure is

But watch out for Red Pak, his characters are always angry about stuff.

LOL

[godisawesome]

With all the mediocre writers assigned to Titans books since the reboot (except Greg Pak, who wrote 3-4 issues. Yay.) I'm starting to wonder if DC hates the title, and is only publishing it since it's a staple of the DCU and they feel obligated. Dan Didio seems like the kind of guy who doesn't give a damn about a series starring Teen superheroes that isn't gritty and serious, so making the Teen Titans series good probably isn't a priority for DC.

I don't think they've ever hated Teen Titans, but I do think it's reasonable to assume that the book is still plagued by editors who think they have a better vision of the future of the book and what makes it sell than any writer would. A lot of old Titans runs were known to have editorial scrap new ideas or push others that varied from what the creators wanted to do (The DEO kids during the old Titans run being one example).

And one could make a good argument that Scott Lobdell's repeated appearances on the New 52 version of the book is directly tied to his known flexibility with editorial demands; Tim Drake's history got altered for no good reason out of the blue during his first run, the Culling got injected with every teen team under the sun, the Trigon arc was a predictable throwback interrupted by editorial demands to see Tim grieve over Damian and saw two or three crossover moments that no one cared for (I'm looking at you, Lance!), and Lobdell himself confirmed he came on during the middle of Pfeifer's run on the book because editorial wanted Superboy gone, thought Harvest was the character to do it, and figured that Lobdell would be the best man for the hatchet job.

I mean, I'm a Lobdell hater, but clearly the guy himself had no control over what was arguably his flagship book for the New 52.

I think the last guy who clearly set his own course and got to do what he wanted with Teen Titans was Geoff Johns.

[Tayswift]

With all the mediocre writers assigned to Titans books since the reboot (except Greg Pak, who wrote 3-4 issues. Yay.) I'm starting to wonder if DC hates the title, and is only publishing it since it's a staple of the DCU and they feel obligated. Dan Didio seems like the kind of guy who doesn't give a damn about a series starring Teen superheroes that isn't gritty and serious, so making the Teen Titans series good probably isn't a priority for DC.

DC just want OK writers to do the dirty job with TT.

Perrcy shouldn't be writing any DC book, guy is really bad

[Lee]

Lobdell himself confirmed he came on during the middle of Pfeifer's run on the book because editorial wanted Superboy gone, thought Harvest was the character to do it, and figured that Lobdell would be the best man for the hatchet job.

Yikes. Do you have a link to where he confirmed this?