Books written by Kami Garcia with artwork by Gabriel Picolo, published 2019-2021.
Being a teenager is hard enough. School, social life, acne—it’s challenging to feel normal on a day-to-day basis. Things get infinitely tougher when you add in superpowers you have no clue how to control. For Raven, an empath with no memory of who she was before the car accident that killed her foster mother, senior year is nothing like anyone else expects. Forming relationships with her foster sister, Max, and the cute guy in her English class, Tommy, helps Raven feel some semblance of normal, but something else plagues her dreams. Something Raven still doesn’t remember—or may not even want to—is still looking to make her life difficult.
Garfield Logan is tired of feeling like the joke of his class. Even though he’s seventeen years old, his physique makes him look fifteen, which does nothing for Gar’s confidence. No matter how much his best friends, Stella and Tank, try to convince him that what other people think doesn’t matter, Gar is still determined to prove himself. But as Gar begins to take risks, secrets rise to the surface, and it starts to seem as though there’s more to Garfield Logan than meets the eye.
I found these graphic novels through Gabriel Picolo. I’d been an admirer of his fan art for the Teen Titans franchise for a long time, and I was super excited when I saw that there were whole books filled with his art. I love the bold style of Picolo’s work. It’s eye-grabbing and engaging without being too overwhelming in terms of color or movement. Garcia wrote a story that complimented Picolo’s artwork with equally bold characters. The characters are blatantly honest and wholly themselves, but Raven and Gar each have their own striking personalities that make them stand apart from the rest.
I really enjoyed these novels. They’re super short and easy to get through, but they’re a good escape when I don’t have a lot of time to read. And, the best part! There’s more to come! Garcia and Picolo have another graphic novel coming this year featuring Damian Wayne as Robin. They get a winning recommendation from me; I hope you guys will like these as much as I do.
Minor swearing in this one, but no blood or overly intimate stuff. Good for readers fourteen years and older.
This is your official spoiler warning! I'd recommend reading the graphic novels before reading on!
The Teen Titans cartoon is one of my favorite shows, but I liked the things that these graphic novels did differently. I liked that the characters are a little bit older. They may be closer to adults, but I appreciated that they had a level of maturity that was better suited to a darker storyline. The fact that Raven and Beast Boy are seniors in high school in this story also made the characters more relevant to today’s teenagers. The characters of the beloved cartoon didn’t go to school. They were clearly teenagers, but they lived like college graduates, so they didn’t really live a relatable life. Garcia and Picolo gave Raven and Beast Boy actual teenage lives, with parents and homework and dates. It was fun to watch Raven struggle to do something as basic as texting her crush because I do that too. I guess in short, the Teen Titans cartoon made me fall in love with the general vibe of each character, but the graphic novels made me fall in love with the secret identities behind the capes and masks.
I also liked the more modern style of the clothing and fashion of the characters. I like that the style was more athletic but also very reminiscent of the clothes I see in my community. It really seems like these characters could be from our world, which makes their personalities and problems more relatable as well.
Surprisingly, I kind of liked the Raven and Beast Boy ship in this version of Teen Titans. I never could get behind that ship while I watched the cartoon because Raven and Beast Boy were total opposites, and it always seemed clear to me that opposition would stand in their way rather than inspire attraction. But Garcia and Picolo’s adaptation gives the characters more in common with each other. They’re both just starting to figure out their powers, and they both worry that their dark truths will scare others away. Garfield is still an extroverted sneakerhead (like Picolo himself) and Raven is still an edgy introvert, but there’s no mistaking the bond they’ve formed and I’m excited to read more about them.
The real burning question is about Starfire and Cyborg. We catch a glimpse of Starfire at the end of Beast Boy Loves Raven. She’s wandering around California, and we know that Slade has her next on his list. I really want to know how Starfire plays into this story, and since she’s canonically paired with Dick Grayson, and he’s supposed to be in the next novel, Robin, I really hope we get another glimpse of her. There’s been no official sign of Cyborg, but he’s a common occurrence in Picolo’s fan art, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing him soon as well.
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