Teen Titans: Raven with Keith Lehtinen
We’re back with another episode of Trade School! This time, we’re talking about Teen Titans: Raven! Our host this week is Keith Lehtinen!
SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • iHeartRADIO • RSS
Support us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/CertainPOVMedia
Edited by Case Aiken
Scored by Bret Eagleston
Certain Point Of View is a podcast network brining you all sorts of nerdy goodness! From Star Wars role playing, to Disney day dreaming, to video game love, we've got the show for you! Learn more on our website: https://www.certainpov.com
Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/wcHHer4
FOLLOW US: ▶ Instagram: @certainpovmedia
⏱️ YouTube Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Keith’s Story
00:49 Discovering a Fellow DC Fan
01:23 Introducing Teen Titans: Raven
02:13 The YA Teen Titans Series
03:04 Raven’s New Origin
03:49 Sharing the Books with Ella
04:27 Final Recommendation and Keith’s Plugs
05:20 We Have Issues Promo
Transcription
00:00
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it. Hello, I'm Keith Lettinen, host of Certain POV Comic book Review show. We have Issues and Certain POV music show, Jukebox Vertigo. I've done a couple Trade school episodes in the past, and for this one, I wanted to do something a little bit different. I wanted to kind of start with a personal story. So years ago, my niece Ella, were in a used bookstore, like multimedia store, record store and such. Shout out to Zia Records if anyone's from Phoenix. And she was about 10. And we walked over to, like, the book section and such, and there was a poster there of, like, a bunch of DC superheroes.
00:49
And she blew my mind by being like, you know, there's. There's a difference between Plastic man and the Elongated Man. And I looked at her like she was speaking Klingon. I don't even know how to explain it. I was like, what? I never expected that to come out of her mind. And she just proceeded to explain who they were. And I'm like, how do you know this? And it was kind of in that moment that I realized that my niece is just gonna be a mini me, and her mother's gonna have to deal with it. And so that's kind of setting up what I want to talk about today. A book that's kind of really important to me and my niece.
01:23
Because when I wanted to get her a comic book, when I wanted to get her actually reading comics, this was the first book I bought her. And I've bought her every book in the series since, which is Teen Titans Raven, the YA graphic novel series from Kemi Garcia and Gabriel Piccolo. I love these books. For those who don't know, it's a modern retelling of the origin of the Teen Titans, but done in a really interesting way. The characters are so much more like real teens. And, like, the art is incredible. Gabriel Piccolo is just an incredible artist. And the fact that they didn't have that much graphic novel experience when this started is kind of crazy to me because it feels really well traveled and well done. As I said, there's multiple books.
02:13
There's Raven, Beast Boy loves Raven, Robin, and Starfire, and they're all great. But we're going to talk about Raven because she is my niece's favorite character, which I felt really happy about because she, you know, she likes the goth girl. I love that. That bodes well, for her. She's 18 now, by the way. I'm old. Anyways. I love this book series. It's. It's so much fun. It's. It is meant for you know, ya audience, but it's totally. An adult can read this and get just as much out of it. I love the characterization of them. I love the colors. The colors are done really interestingly and not in a normal comic book style, but I think it really suits this style of storytelling and I just really like the composition of the team.
03:04
I love this version of Robin, for instance, that we get later on. But I think this version of Raven is so approachable and we completely tell her story differently and she gets a new origin with a new adopted family, I guess you could say, with a new like adopted sister that is actually really cool and contributes greatly to the storyline. I thoroughly love it and I think it's just like a really creative and interesting way to retell the story and to kind of like do it your own way, not just retread a few practice grounds. Obviously there's going to be some familiar characters. You know, the Teen Titans also. Deathstroke, of course is going to show up anytime the Teen Titans show up. But it's done in a really cool, fun way. And God, she can make these books forever.
03:49
I will keep reading them. I absolutely adore them. But yeah, make sure to check it out because again, I can't. I'm looking at my stack of them right there on the shelf and just like I might reread these because it's an easy read and enjoyable and yeah, and it's a really great book if, you know a kid, my niece was really into Teen Titans Go. I know a lot of grown men really didn't like Teen Titans Go, but I did. But she was really into Teen Titans Go. And that's kind of what led me to get this Raven book for her. And now every time there's one I just order myself a copy. Order her a copy and she gets to read it and we talk about it and it's just really nice to have that in common, to have something to talk about.
04:27
So yeah, highest of recommendations for me. I was always a Teen Titans fan, but these books just, they're kind of a game changer and I really appreciate them so much. Not just for the artistry, but for how they brought me and my niece together. So definitely want to check that out. That being said, thank you so much for listening as always. You can find me on Bluesky at KeithHasissues BSky Social. You can find we have Issues at we have Issues Bsky Social and jukebox vertigo@jukeboxvertigo. Bsky social. Also check me out on Instagram at We have Issues pod since someone took my username there. Other than that, you always want to check me out on the Certain Puv discord as well. But thank you so much. Make sure to check this out. I promise you will not regret it. And happy reading.
05:20
Alright, Josue, let's go through our new Comic Day stack. We have a lot to review. I know. Maybe we've gone too far. Let's see. Marvel, of course, dc. I got Image, Dark Horse, Black Mask, Boom. Idw, Aftershock, Vault, of course, Mad Cave, Ony, Valiant, Scout, Magma, Behemoth. Wow, that's a lot. Well, all we need now is a name for our show. We need a name for a show about reviewing comic books every week. Something clever, but not too clever. Like a pun. It's kind of cheesy. Yeah, something that seems funny at first, but we might regret later on as an impulsive decision. A few dozen episodes in. Yeah, we'll think of something.
06:03
Join Keith and Osway for we have Issues, a weekly show reviewing almost every new comic released each week available on Geek Elite Media and wherever you listen to your podcasts, cpov, Certain POV combined.