Teen Titans S05E11 Review: All Out War

Teen Titans, Season 5, Episode 11: Calling All Titans

The big confrontation between the Teen Titans and the Brotherhood of Evil is, if nothing else, a huge treat in the animation department, with huge beat-them-ups between the army of heroes and the army of villains. I just really wished that a lot of these Titans have been introduced earlier... both in earlier seasons and earlier in season five. Maybe if we had less filler, or had some of the more interesting Titans like Argent or Jericho be stars of episodes instead of the horrible Control Freak/Titans East episode, or having one of them co-star alongside Raven in the babysitting one... the episode is absolutely entertaining enough on its own, but I have to admit that when I was a kid watching this I thought I missed a huge chunk of episodes that introduced Argent, Jericho, Bushido, Herald, Pantha and the rest. Instead what we got in this episode -- short scenes of the five main Titans splitting up and contacting these dudes we've never seen before -- are all the introduction we got for them. I mean, yeah, Pantha is a friend of Wildebeest's, but it's not like Wildebeest actually got a scene where he's developed as a character.

Again, it's the huge switch from having a limited cast in the first four seasons to shoehorning in a huge chunk of new superheroes in the final season, and it's something that... well, wasn't done all that elegantly, I'm afraid. There are way too many characters involved, and while I'm a big fan of the comics and greedily devour all the delicious cameos, there's such a thing as too much. It does deliver the sheer scale that the show is attempting to convey, but it's really hard to care about Kilowatt or Herald when we've only met them for a single scene before the Brotherhood attacks them.

That said, posh British Argent and mute guitar-playing Jericho are two of my favourite characters and I'm mad that we got a Gnarrk episode but these two are relegated to short cameos.

Still, the action scenes are fun enough even if the plot is a bit dumb... The Titans deliver communicators to every single superpowered child in the world, only for the communicators to become homing beacons for the Brotherhood's agents to attack. Really, the T-Communicator plotline could've been given some exploration over the season, even if it's just one scene or two of Brain or Mallah or Rogue talking about how they're hunting down the Titans or whatever, or having 'Teen Titans recruit Argent/Herald/Jericho' taking place as the B-plot on some of the 'Teen Titans are absent on a mission' episodes. The last time the communicator bit was brought up was, what, the Hot Spot/Madame Rogue episode?

The action scenes in the episode really make up for the lack of season-wide planning, though -- it's easily one of my favourite episodes to just play back and see the villains do battle against the Titans. Robin being absolutely overwhelmed as he realizes that, hey, splitting the Titans up when the Brotherhood finally makes their move with a crapton of villains is kind of a dumb move. And it's credit to the show when the split-up manages to make chronic losers like Gizmo and Mammoth threatening by having them gang up on a single Titan or two.

Herald's dimension is very cool-looking and it's a shame we spend so little time there. Psimon and Kyd Wykkyd fighting Raven is also very cool, and their team-up to take down Raven is a pretty awesome scene. Those two are two villains that I really wished had gotten more exposure instead of idiots like Control Freak. Speaking of which, Kilowatt absolutely fucking over Control Freak's TV constructs is hilarious. Also did anyone expect Tramm to have giantification powers? That bit where he fought... uh... XL Terrestrial, I think he's called? That was hilarious. Trident riding fish-Plasmus... Puppet King being full-on creepy with just being this clattering thing... Johnny Rancid going full-on Ghost Rider on Mas y Menos... and my favourite, the airborne battle as Bumblebee gets attacked by a guitar-surfing Punk Rocket and Angel is another very cool scene that just highlights how disorganized the Titans ended up being.

Gnarrk is still shit, by the way. You're a caveman with a friend who can turn into an indestructible bludgeon for you to wield, and you're afraid of... Gizmo of all people? Jeez. Look at Herald and Jericho. They defeat their foes off-screen. They're awesome. Herald like leaves See-More and five dozen eyeballs floating around in the twisting void. That's awesome.

Speaking about the characters themselves, we don't... really get to see much. The newcomers are mostly silent (Kilowatt has no lines, and Jericho is mute) or have a quick line or two to encapsulate their personalities (Pantha is a hammy wrestling lady, Argent is posh, Herald is mysterious), we get short scenes to show some old friends, but the majority of the heroes have mostly generic lines, with only Robin being confused and overwhelmed, and Beast Boy panicking and finding himself alone without help being pretty cool.

The ending shows that a good chunk of the Titans, including Robin, are captured and... flash-frozen by the Brain, because this is a kid's show and death isn't allowed to be shown on-screen to happen for the good guys. Hot Spot and Wildebeest, who we saw getting taken out in a previous episode, had been trophies. That bit is a bit of a letdown, because it's obvious that next episode will feature the survivors undoing the process... maybe, I dunno, imprison them in an alternate dimension or something, awaiting execution? I dunno.

Still, can't complain. It's a pretty cool 'everyone is in trouble and the villains are moving very quickly to eliminate all our heroes globally' thing. The action scenews and the sheer amount of characters make this a very entertaining and well-paced episode, if not a particularly well-written one.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Featured Titans: Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Hot Spot, Wildebeest, Argent, Bushido, Pantha, Jericho, Herald, Kole, Gnarrk, Mas y Menos, Speedy, Kilowatt, Thunder, Lightning, Bumblebee, Aqualad, Tramm
• Notable absentees include Kid Flash and Red Star, who actually shows up in Beast Boy's flashback-photographs, as well as the three little babysat kids.
• Featured Villains: Brain, Monsieur Mallah, General Immortus, Trident, Plasmus, Billy Numerous, Gizmo, Kardiak, Johnny Rancid, Punk Rocket, Angel, Mammoth, Kyd Wykkyd, Psimon, Kitten, Killer Moth, XL Terrestrial, Cinderblock, Katarou, Chesire, Atlas, Private HIVE, Fang, See-More, Warp, Control Freak, Puppet King, Adonis, Overload, Steamroller, INSTIGATOR, Madame Rogue
• Quick newcomer lores:
• Jericho: Joseph Wilson is the son of Slade Wilson (yes, that Slade). While young, Joseph was kidnapped by one of Slade's enemies, and while you don't mess with Slade Wilson, his overconfidence in his fighting abilities caused one of his enemies to start to cut into Joseph's throat and render the child mute. Joseph was born with the mutant ability to possess anyone he makes eye contact with, and joined the Titans in opposition of his father briefly after the whole incident with Terra. Tragically he was possessed by Trigon and was mercy-killed by his father. Nevermind the death scenes, really, why didn't the Son of Slade get any focus in the series? Jeez.
• Argent: Toni Monetti (who isn't a little lolita in the comics) is a half-alien with a H'san Natall parent, one of several children that had a parent from the H'san Natall race (others include Hot Spot, Risk, Prism and Fringe, who didn't make it into the show). Argent refused to be a sleeper agent for the aliens and became a hero instead. She had the ability to create silver energy projections. 
• Pantha: Known as Rosabella Mendez as well as Subject X-24, Pantha's origins are enigmatic due to her amnesia, only that she was mutated to having the strength of a panther by the mysterious Wildebeest Society. Pantha eventually grew to become the surrogate mother of Baby Wildebeest, but was mostly hostile to the rest of the Titans.
• Herald: Malcolm Duncan (also known as Guardian, Vox and Hornblower) created the Gabriel Horn, a highly advanced (sometimes mystical) horn able to creating spatial portals after he accidentally released Gargoyle, a villain, from his imprisonment, and went on to join the Titans in taking him down. He would later marry Bumblebee and retire from superheroics.
• Bushido: Ryuku Orsono's mother was murdered by the demonic entity Tengu, and swearing revenge, he donned the magically-enchanted armour and sword passed down through his family. He came into conflict with the Titans, and after an altercation with the Tengu, ended up joining them briefly.
• Killowat: Charlie Watkins is sent from a post-apocalyptic future into the past. Augmented with electrical powers, Killowat briefly joined the Teen Titans before being sent back to the future. He's actually a pretty minor Titan, even compared to the others.
• Psimon: Psimon (Simon Jones) is one of the members of the Fearsome Five, one of the Teen Titans' constant adversaries in the comics -- a group that traditionally encompassed Psimon, Mammoth, Gizmo, Jinx and Shimmer. Transformed by Trigon into a powerful psychic, Psimon is a powerful psychic and telepath that menaced the Titans on various occasions. He was actually slated to appear in the show's first season, but was replaced by original character Fixit.
• Cheshire: Jade Nguyen is one of the world's deadliest assassins, and a frequent adversary of the Teen Titans. She entered a relationship with Roy Harper (Speedy) when he infiltrated her organization, and the union resulted in a daughter, Lian. Cheshire cared for her daughter, but could not leave behind her career and left Lian in the care of her father. As her name implies, she often uses cat masks and cat-claw-blades in combat.
• This is the first time we really see the HIVE students Angel, INSTIGATOR and XL Terrestrial in action. Most of the other HIVE students (bar Wrestling Star) have already participated as part of the HIVE Five. All of them are, of course, original characters to the show.
• When Robin summons all the Titans, Wonder Girl appears as a mugshot among the many Titans assembled, but does not show up in any scenes in this episode and the next. Despite being a very prominent member of the Teen Titans in the comics (and one of the five founding members -- and the only one not to show up earlier in the series) the showmakers never got the chance to use Wonder Girl, possibly due to some stupid embargo that was common during that period.
• Herald's dimension reuses some artwork from the Justice League Unlimited episode Kid Stuff, specifically the weird trippy magical dimension that Mordred sends all adults to. Considering Herald's powers, regardless of whether Teen Titans or JLU takes place in the same universe or not, this may very well be the same dimension. 
• Speedy fighting Chesire is probably an allusion to their relationship in the comics -- the two fell in love and had a daughter together, despite Chesire still technically being a villain.