Teen Titans

After seven episodes of touting a lineup of Starfire, Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven, we are finally treated to an expansion in the team roster with Aqualad. Seeing a founding Titan from the comics join in on the animated fun is a delight for fanboys, but Beast Boy doesn’t seem too happy.

Considering that Marv Wolfman lent his pen to scribe this adventure, Beast Boy had best keep any complaints he has to himself. Wolfman is co-responsible for roughly sixteen years' worth of work on the team, and his work has been a huge influence on the animated series.

Fortunately for fanboys, Beast Boy’s powers do not include restraint, which of course leads to comic hilarity before too long.

A cargo ship transporting barrels of toxic waste is hijacked and sunk by Trident, a mysterious figure wielding, you guessed it, a trident. The Titans have no idea what Trident plans to do with the stolen toxic waste, but they do know it can’t be good.

Luckily the team has picked up a discount spacecraft hull leftover from Transformers: The Movie and converted it into the “T-Sub,” a five-seater submarine designed specifically for this occasion.

As the Titans dive into action, Beast Boy gets set to prove himself once and for all as a valuable asset to the team by scoring a victory over Trident. After all, he can change into any water dwelling creature known to man and thus breathe underwater, so naturally he should be a shoe-in to lead the team.

What better way to impress the ladies and earn Cyborg and Robin’s respect? Right? Of course, that is until Aqualad shows up. He’s the guy every other guy loves to hate. All the girls go all doe-eyed over him whenever he comes around, and his powers allow him to swim at great speeds and even communicate telepathically with other sea creatures. Even my wife thought he was a “hottie.”

So naturally Aqualad crimps Beast Boy’s style, and the two spend the majority of the episode trying to “one up” one another to little success. Meanwhile, Trident attacks the T-Sub and the rest of the team nearly ends up shipwrecked on the bottom of the sea floor.

As the sub careens toward the bottom of a dark chasm, Beast Boy quickly changes into a giant squid in an effort to both rescue his teammates and pay homage to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, Aqualad swoops in and disrupts the reference before it could fully take shape, but oh well, nice try, Beast Boy.

I was actually quite shocked that Beast Boy and Aqualad didn’t hit it off immediately considering that it appears that Aqualad has a soft spot for goofy sidekick types. His associate, Tramm, is basically a bad Jar-Jar Binks clone who just happens to be mechanically inclined and helps repair the damaged T-Sub.

For those of you wondering what Dave Coulier has been up to since Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos have all but disappeared from the airwaves of syndication, well, here is the news.

Tramm is none other than Uncle Joey himself, but don’t expect any Popeye or Three Stooges impersonations here. Tramm strickly speaks his own language that only Mama Coulier could be proud of.

Wil Weaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame lends his voice to the orphaned Atlantean and he does a great job. Unlike Tramm, Aqualad is a welcomed addition to the Titan lineup. Although this is undoubtedly a cameo appearance rather than a weekly addition to the show, the chemistry between Beast Boy and Aqualad is priceless.

Trident, however, has had some liberties taken with his character. Who else has the right to tamper with a villain or heroes background, origin, or characterization than one of the people responsible, in part, to shaping said character in their original medium, the comic book?

Marv makes some pretty big shifts here, and they work in a roundabout way in capturing the essence of the character. Originally, in the comics, Trident was actually comprised of three different people, each donning the same costume and trident while committing a series of robberies throughout New York City.

Wolfman keeps this theme alive, in a way, by centering Trident’s designs on using the stolen toxic waste to produce clones of himself. Instead of consisting of three separate human identities, Trident is actually a formerly exiled Atlantean in the animated series, possessing similar skills in the water as Aqualad, minus the telepathy, of course.

This, of course, works in capturing some of the spirit of the original while also establishing a means to allow Beast Boy his own “growth” episode. I would still like to see some background to Beast Boy developed in some way.

Raven’s tussle with Trigon in "Nevermore" provided a snippet of insight to her troubled upbringing. Sisters let us peer into Starfire’s emotional issues regarding her sibling Blackfire, and Sum of his Parts gave us a peek at Cyborg’s human conflict. What about Beast Boy?

Sure, he’s competitive and thinks a little too highly of himself, but what lies underneath all of that? I’m not asking for character development on par with Mamet or anything, but a little bit does go a long way.

On to the episode, as one could guess Aqualad and Beast Boy learn to work together to defeat Trident and his clones, and ultimately save the team in the end.

In a nutshell, “Deep Six” excels in further enhancing the Titan universe and allows Beast Boy his day in the sun, even if he spends it at the bottom of the ocean. I would love to see more from Aqualad in the future, and who knows, maybe a Kid Flash cameo is somewhere in the pipes. One can only hope.

Next Week: One of the Titans earliest villains, The Mad Mod (voiced by Malcolm McDowell), makes his animated series debut in an episode aptly titled, “Mad Mod.” That’s right, gather your droogs and join me back here next week for a glass of Moloko Plus with knives in it. Until then, viddy well, my brothers, viddy well.

Mario Anima