The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers

Ravagers (2012) #0.5

by Scott Lobdell, Tom DeFalco, Various (Illustrator)

The Culling is upon us! The Teen Titans finally came together during their assault on Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s headquarters, but Superboy, Red Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Solstice and Skitter's newfound alliance is met with instant adversity. Finding themselves a mile underneath N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s Antarctic base, the forces behind this nefarious organization surface in the form of the monstrous Harvest.

Now trapped in a deadly arena where young teen metahumans must fight each other to the death for survival, also known as The Culling, the Titans and fellow teen superteam Legion Lost must find a way to escape. Will they be able to coexist long enough to survive? Or to defeat Harvest's teenage death squad known as The Ravagers? This massive New 52 crossover is a graphic novel collection not to be missed!

Collecting: Legion Lost 8-9, Superboy 8-9, Teen Titans 8-9, Teen Titans Annual 1

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Young Adult

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 2013

About the author

Scott Lobdell (born 1960) is an American comic book writer.

He is mostly known for his work throughout the 1990s on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles specifically Uncanny X-Men, the main title itself, and the spin-off series that he conceived with artist Chris Bachalo, Generation X. Generation X focused on a number of young mutant students who attempted to become superheroes in their own right at a separate school with the guidance of veteran X-related characters Banshee and Emma Frost. He also had writing stints on Marvel's Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series with artist Gene Ha. He wrote the script to Stan Lee's Mosaic and an upcoming film from POW Entertainment featuring Ringo Starr. He also participated in the Marvel Comics and Image Comics (from Jim Lee's WildStorm) crossover mini-series WildC.A.T.s/X-Men.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 1 out of 5]

(C+) 64% | Almost Satisfactory
Notes: Musty, monotonous slop, it’s asinine and slumbersome, blighted by the benumbing cud of incessant speech-fighting.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yep. Everybody's right. This one isn't anything to write home about.

There's not a whole lotta introduction to any previous storyline, and I guess I missed whatever happened to land both of these teams in this situation. Which isn't really surprising, because neither Teen Titans nor Legion of Super-Heroes are very popular titles.

Basically, both teams get captured by a villain named Harvest, and thrown into an underground...place?
Part prison, part war zone, it's supposed to push all the kids inside of it into survival mode.
Kill or be killed!
But before they get thrown into the pit, Harvest has some meta-human chick paw through their brains, pull out their worst fears, and screw with their minds. Then his lackey, Leash, grabs them with his 'leash-like' powers (clever, no?), and tosses them in with the rest of the rabble.

Harvest claims there's some big EVENT coming, and he needs to raise an army of Ravagers to fight it.
Ravagers are what the brainwashed psychopaths that survive the Culling are called, by the way.
And he thinks both the Titans and the Legionnaires have what it takes to make the cut.

Lots of problems with this one, unfortunately.
Not the least of which, is that there are too many unknown/unexplained things happening at once.
First, Lobdell is assuming that everyone has been keeping up with what's going on in both of these teams.
Now, I've read some about each of them, but not enough to make all the pieces click into place for me.
So, a bit more backstory would have been nice.
Second, you also need to know what's been happening in the Superboy title, to understand who the hell the red headed chick is, and why she wants to help.
However, even if you've been religiously keeping up with all of these titles, there's still a problem.
The premise is nothing more than an excuse to have a giant mash-up between these teams. There's no real heart to the story, and there's no real point to the plot.
They fight, they lose, they fight, they win, they fight, they escape.
Annnnnd?
The only thing I took away from this, was that Skitter goes missing towards the end.
WhoTheFuckIsSkitter?
Exactly.

Don't bother with this one. It's readable, but fairly pointless.

[Michael Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't want to believe this book was as bad as everyone kept saying but...it was. Due to the multiple books and creative teams there was no cohesive look and the visual style was a little all over the place. The dialogue was terrible, the concept was trite and played out, and the story just felt like a waste of time. There were no answers given, the teams didn't feel like a unit, everything was forced. At one point Solstice tells Red Robin that she'll "follow him to hell and back" for...no reason really. After getting pissed off in the last book over his methods and being ready to abounding the team it's just forced. The whole series has been rushed feeling like a bad tv show. If they would just be more deliberate with their pacing it would make all the difference. None of the characters are remotely fleshed out yet and the authors are rushing to throw in extra characters left and right! Not to mention that Beast Boy looks absolutely awful. The red change I get, but that doesn't mean he needs random tufts of hair and to look stupid. All I can say is the creative teams need to step it up.

That said, while the story has been very disappointing so far, it has set up a LOT of potential with Kid Flash, Cassie Sandsmark, and Skitter (who is my least favorite so far). Still keeping my fingers crossed.

[Sans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remember how underwhelmed I was at JLI? This is going right next to it on the Why Did I Bother shelf.

[Eric Klee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read "The Culling" storyline that ran through issues of Teen Titans, Superboy, and Legion Lost (although I didn't read the Legion Lost issues because I don't normally read that comic). At one point, I had to flip back to the cover of the comic I was reading to check out the credits and make sure it wasn't Felicia Henderson writing Teen Titans again. (We all know how that turned out the last time.) It felt rudimentary and written by a beginner who didn't care a whit about character development. It was like reading a script for a porn movie vs. reading the script for Schindler's List. That's how awful the story and dialogue was.

The concept of "The Culling" itself might have been better if it wasn't already so prevalent in everyone's minds as a little story called The Hunger Games. Worse, this story has already been done before in the last volume of Teen Titans, when it was called the Dark Side Club, pitting Titan against Titan in the ring for others' enjoyment. Only this time, instead of getting the Terror Titans series out of the story, we get The Ravagers. Worst, the name "The Culling" itself only brings to mind Edward Cullen from the God-awful Twilight series. They're trying to capitalize on the popularity of both Twilight and The Hunger Games in one fell swoop. [Insert barf here.]

The best part of the story came after all was said and done and the team was bathing half-naked in some spa pools in a mystical dinosaur-laden land. Here, we finally get some real character interaction that doesn't feel forced (or poorly written). We also get a bit of comedy as we see Bunker calling out Superboy's hotness, something we don't get to see anymore now that he's no longer in a tight-fitting T-shirt and jeans.

And speaking of costumes, where did the Teen Titans get theirs? At the estate sale for the latest Tron movie?

Now on to The Ravagers, their name taken from the former Ravager herself, Rose Wilson, daughter of Deathstroke, leaving the new Rose Wilson in DC's New 52 without a codename. She's just known as Rose Wilson. Not Rose, but Rose Wilson. This Rose Wilson still has both her eyes, though, having never lost one of them to her father's madness. In fact, I don't think we even know if she's related to the new Deathstroke. Who knows in the New 52? And, seriously, at this point, who cares? Please, please, please let this all just be happening on Earth-52 and eventually get back to Earth-1 where all of my favorite characters still reside pre-Flashpoint.

In The Ravagers, the team consists of Caitlin Fairchild, Terra, Beast Boy, Thunder and Lightning, Rose Wilson, Warblade, and Ridge. Fairchild has the ability to pump up her boobs. Terra, Beast Boy, Thunder, and Lightning aren't the characters we know (and love!) from Teen Titans past. Rose Wilson is...well, Rose Wilson. Or some cheap white-haired knock-off of her. Warblade is a character that might have (and did) come out of the 1990s when comic stories started to get as lame as the generic codenames that came along with them. (See: any 1990s X-title.) Ridge, a new character to DC Comics, seems to be the only decent character, and maybe that's because there is no former character or past history of his to fuck up.

To summarize, Marv Wolfman and George Perez's New Teen Titans is what made me seriously start reading and collecting comics in 1981. Geoff Johns' Teen Titans is what made me start reading comics again in 2007 after a 15-year absence. Unfortunately, DC's New 52 version of Teen Titans might make me stop reading comics again all together. Young Justice, the cartoon series and related comic from DC's kid-friendly all-ages line, does a better job of treating the legacy of Teen Titans (and its long-time readers) with respect.

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

A formulaic, half-baked storyline in which every character announces what they are doing as they are doing it stating what powers they can or cannot use against a generic and forgettable villain. It contains little to no character development and even less conflict and tension even though characters are in constant physical combat with one another seemingly for the sake of exhibiting their powers since there really is nothing at stake other than the need to "escape".

It reminded me of Secret Wars in that it reads like a "battle royale" script for children to follow when playing with their action figures in a sandbox.

1/5

[Taylor Vessel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too fast to feel coherent at all. TOO MANY characters to actually connect with. Too many random plot twists that are suddenly changed a page or too later. Yes, there is non stop action but sooooooo scattered. Skip this.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some times you really REALLY wish Zero was a possible rating.

[Daryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ick. This reads and (worse) looks like a crappy '90s Image book. The thin plot is lifted wholesale from The Hunger Games, and there's very little in the way of character development (what there is is left for the next volumes of the respective books to pick up). It's just one big fight scene. The art is gaudy, too bright, and crowded and confusing. I haven't read the revamped Superboy, and I didn't like the Teen Titans of the new 52. Legion Lost was okay and had potential, but then suffered greatly by bringing Tom DeFalco in as writer. This collection crosses over all three titles (one of the new 52's first crossovers) and doesn't do justice to any of them. Yuck.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Might be the worst thing that happened in the new 52. This really felt like a event just for the sake of an event.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers is a crossover event set in the New 52 Era. A clandestine organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has been collecting metahuman teens for nefarious reason, which caught the eye of Tim Drake, which formed his team called Teen Titans to combat this organization. While on a mission to save Superboy, the Titans are captured and forced underground. Elsewhere in New York City, a team of Ravagers subdues the members of the Legion and bring them back to headquarters. This trade paperback collects Legion Lost #8–9, Superboy #8–9, Teen Titans #8–9, and Teen Titans Annual #1.

I typically don't like crossovers events for many varied reasons, which I won't list here and yet, I am loathed not to read them, because it is usually during these events that the DC Universe is irrevocably changed or in this case the series that I was following Teen Titans. So, I went into reading them, hoping that The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers was the exception – it wasn't.

The premise of the event is rather straightforward, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's done right – one of my complaints that crossover series are too convoluted and complex that the plot is lost in the midst of reading the event. The event only crossed three titles, which wasn't too bad and was only seven issues in length. In fact, The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers seems to suffer from a lack of story – there just wasn't much of a story to encompass seven issues.

Harvest, the leader of N.O.W.H.E.R.E., sent out his teams of Ravagers to kidnap metahuman teenagers from across the globe to put them in an underground arena where teen metahumans must fight each other for survival, which is known as the Culling. Those who survive the Culling become a part Harvest's team – The Ravagers. When the Teen Titans, the teen superheroes from Legion Lost, and Superboy are captured they must find a way to escape, but in order to do that they have to get through The Ravagers and survive The Culling.

However, The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers suffers from another typical condition of crossover events – too many characters and not enough space to feature them all properly. With three teams of the teenage persuasion – the Teen Titans, The Legion, and The Ravagers plus the inclusion of Superboy, there were just too many characters with a very limited space.

The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers had two main writers: Scott Lobdell did the overall plot and writing most of the trade paperback and Tom DeFalco shared writing duties with Lobdell and was aided with one issue with Aaron Kuder for Legion Lost #8.

For the most part the writing was much to be desired – it was choppy and flowed rather badly with a simplistic premise the flow shouldn't poise much of a problem. However, the main problem was that the writers thought we went into this crossover knowing all three storylines that led into the series. However, with three preludes and avenues into the crossover event it is more than likely that people have read one or two series, for me it was just Teen Titans. This could have been avoided if a short recap was added, but there wasn't.

There were six pencilers for The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers: Brad Anderson (Legion Lost #8), Brett Booth (Teen Titans Annual #1), Iban Coello (Superboy #8), Ig Gukara (Teen Titans #8–9), R.B. Silva (Superboy #8–9), and Pete Woods (Legion Lost #9).

For the most part, like the writing, the penciling was much to be desired – it’s not that I hated the penciling, normally I wouldn't. Individually I like these pencilers – they are far from perfect, but they have their own strengths and weakness that I could latch onto. However, put them together into one trade paperback and the overall effect is disagreeable. The flow from one issue to the next felt rather jarring from the different pencilers and rather disrupted my joy in reading the trade paperback.

All in all, The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers wasn't the worst crossover event I ever read, but it was far from the best. The story and penciling was inconsistent at the best of times – at the worst – well, I rather not think about it. The point of the event was to introduce a new team for the second wave of the New 52 imprint – The Ravagers – a series I don't plan on reading.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this was pretty terrible. Scott Lobdell's complete dumpster fire of The New 52 work continues with a story about a mystery organization run by a mystery villain to get teenagers to fight each other to death for no reason. All the book does is set up multiple storylines in the existing books and set up another new book no one asked for. Lobdell's plot is ridiculously bad, completely without merit, does nothing but drop hints at stories to come without answering any questions, and is why readers drop a series. The dialogue for these teenagers is embarrassingly bad. There was some bright side, the art was mostly very good. Overall, this was a disaster.

[Ashe Catlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was confused about the reading order for this, as the first 2 issues take place before the last issue of Teen Titans, Volume 1: It's Our Right to Fight. The teaser for them fighting Harvest right after is kind of washed away in favour of some secondary villains, which messed up the continuity and flow. Being this is the same creative team you’d think that they knew how the left the last issue, aside from the confusion I actually quite liked it.

You get the full story with the Legion Lost, it even takes time to introduce them prior to the Culling. As for the Culling itself, it sets itself up as Battle Royale but is just a standard crossover. Companies love to do them to make money and I guess in some respects it works, nothing really happens in this aside from Harvest doing a massive villain’s monologue. There are some action sequences as well but it all kind of mangles itself together, the best bit was the teamwork.

[Eric Cone · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many characters...but they do a good job of giving us varying view points, without so many view points that you can't follow the story. The name of the game is teamwork and cooperation. None of the heroes are powerful enough to do it all, or even a major of it, on their own. They coordinate and learn to work together, slowly building trust as allies. Not a bad story.

[Jeremy Whetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story to bring characters from various DC and Wildstorm's tales together against a unique villan Harvest. Recommend picking it up and giving it a read!

[Trevor Kidd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Low stakes, confusing and pointless.

[Andrew Alvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good artwork though could be a bit chaotic. Fairchild had a very weird face in an early panel so THAT was offputting. Story itself was okay but a bit messy at times.

[Jason O'Hagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was helpful in that it filled in the massive gaps in teen titans volume two, but that didn’t help the fact that it was a stupid storyline to begin with.

[Corby H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so the dialogue is bad...like very bad at times, but I was still able to enjoy the story. I do understand some but not all the hate this crossover gets, its just a comic after all.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

See individual books.

Okay but felt disjointed and unfinshed.

[MC · Rating 3 out of 5]

In DC Comics' “New 52” reboot, there are several crossover brewing, from “The Court of Owls” and “Death of the Family” conflicts in the Batman family titles, to the “H'El on Earth” conflict in the Superman titles. For the teen heroes, there is “the Culling”.

At the end of Teen Titans: Vol. 1, the newly-organized group of teenage heroes had gone to the Arctic base of the sinister, shadowy group called “N.O.W.H.E.R.E.”, in an effort to rescue Superboy. The young clone of Superman, who had earlier aborted his mission to capture or kill the Titans after deciding he needed answers from his creators at N.O.W.H.E.R.E., was captured himself and was in the process of being tortured to death. Finding out about his plight, the Titans broke into the facility and saved Superboy, but then the head of this evil group, Harvest, captured them, and shipped them off underground.

Here, the Titans will be pitted against other young metahumans, teens infected with a weird virus that brings out weird powers in them, and skilled martial artists, in a fight to the death in order to decided who is most “worthy” of being in Harvest's army of warriors, his “Ravagers”. As the comic, The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers opens, the forces of the sinister Harvest are preparing the Titans for this sick eponymous fight to the death.

Our heroes, along with a group of Legionnaires from the 31st Century Legion of Super-Heroes, have other ideas, however. In a bold move, they intend to destroy N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and free themselves and the other captive teens.

This was a really good graphic novel, but with some problems. The action was not just action for the sake thereof. Each panel and scene had a point, and wasn't there just to “look cool” or be “action-packed”. Also, the solution didn't seem to be just pulled out of thin air, as often seems to be the case in comics. It all felt “organic”, if you will, because the writers managed to lead up to the final skirmish and the triumph of the kids in a slow, realistic manner.

The characters were also believable. They struggled, fought, mourned, died, and so on, in a way that made them seem more real somehow. They seemed like actual people you could care about and for whom you could root. That said, there were some issues with the story. For one thing, though the snippets of non-action scenes were quite good, and gave us a glimpse into the thoughts of the characters, there weren't enough of them. Some more scenes with just the characters interacting would have been better.

The non-action scenes that did occur were worth it, however. They established the dynamic of the team and the mindset and personality of certain key members. Superboy learns morality. Red Robin learns leadership, and the Titans learn to function as a team. Altogether, such scenes were the key to the comic not just because they carried the story forward, but also because they established the characters as “heroes” far more than any of the action scenes or fights did or could have done so.

The major problem with this graphic novel was the artwork. Sometimes the various heroes and villains were drawn in different ways, so that Wonder Girl looked like Rose Wilson, or some other hero looked like another character, or else completely different than they had previously, or both. It got to be kinda distracting, eventually.

Nonetheless, it was a fun read and a real page-turner. You don't need to read the lead-up comics to understand what is going on, though reading at least the first volume of Teen Titans helped me a bit. So for anyone who is a comics fan, or wants to get into them, give this one a try. I'm certain you'll enjoy it.

[Rick Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a used book store this past week in great condition for less than half of the cover price. This book contains a crossover story between the Teen Titans, The Legion of Superheroes, and Superboy set in the New 52 52 universe. I had already read the Superboy and Teen Titans portion of this story that were collected in the volumes of their respective series, but I'd never had the chance to read the issues from the Legion. I couldn't pass up the deal on this book to finally get to see the whole story.

Every issue in this story is either written by Scott Lobdell, Tom DeFalco, or the two of them together. Lobdell writes the Titans issues, DeFalco writes the Legions issues, and they work together on the Superboy issues. I don't have much experience with the Legion of Superheroes, but I think that the two writers handle the characters well and make the characters likable in the few pages we actually get to see them. As I have stated in other reviews, I loved Lobdell's work on Teen Titans. (I seem to be one of the few who actually did like that series.) I have been a fan of Lobdell's for a long time and he really handles teams well. He plays the characters off of each other nicely with their bantering back and forth.

The overall lot of this story may not be mind-blowing, but the character interactions make this worthwhile. Of course, it helps that I had read the issues that led up to this event in 2 out of the 3 series involved. I had already come to care about those characters by the time this event takes place. It's hard to separate just this story out of the bigger picture since I've seen a lot more than was depicted in this book. If you were to just pick this up and read it without having any clue how the characters got to this point, I don't know that it would be a very enjoyable story for you. Since I was privy to that extra info, I dug this story. It won't win any award, but it is a fun crossover event. The writing gets 3.5 stars.

The art in this book is all over the place. Imagine looking at a rollercoaster off in the distance. It has that great big first hill, drops down low, rises back up, but not quite as high as the first hill, and then low again. That is what this book feels like to me art-wise. Brett Booth's art is definitely the high point. His art in the one issue he does is easily the best thing about the entire book. Iban Coello's art in the opening issue is one of the lowest points of the book. The other artists fall somewhere in between these 2. The good art outweighs the bad in the end and the art score is 4 stars.

The writing and art scores average out to 3.75 stars. That is a good bit higher than the average score for this book on this site. It's easy to see that I enjoyed this more than most people did. This may not be for everyone, but if you like Scott Lobdell's writing, Brett Booth's art, and/or any of the main characters, it is worth picking up.

[Edward Landis · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife won this book in a first read giveaway. She has no intentions of reading it, so I am reviewing it in her stead.

The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers is a crossover event comic blending the story-lines of Teen Titans, Legion Lost, and Superboy. It features story and artwork from the creative teams behind those properties at the time.
The Plot
The story was nothing amazing, but it was certainly entertaining. The Teen Titans and Legion Lost work together in predictable fashion. Superboy exists to tie the two groups (and story-lines) together. He is the byproduct of the facility that both teams of super heroes end up at. Red Robin, being the leader, gets most of the interesting dialog.
The Artwork
The problems with this book are compounded by the varying art styles present throughout the book. Each different series has own different interpretation of how the characters look. The lack of uniformity becomes glaringly obvious. Fortunately, the writing at least remains fairly consistent throughout.
The X-Factor
This book suffers from its format. Being a crossover between three ongoing series handicaps this book right off. I was only familiar with some of the Teen Titans (Red Robin, Kid Flash) going in. After I got up to speed on the rest of the characters I dove in, but still ending up getting lost in unfamiliar waters.
The Verdict
Overall, this was not a good jumping-off point. The artwork had its moments in two-page splashes. Not enough to make up for the inconsistency, mind you. The story remains as the only redeemable quality, and even that never quite rose to a level of greatness. I would only recommend this to the most dedicated of comics readers already familiar with the back stories of these superhero teams.

[Cale · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is on the borderline between useful service and double-dipping. This is the collected issues from Superboy, Teen Titans, and Legion Lost, bringing them together and ordering them to tell the story of the Culling. It's nice to have them collected, but these issues are also collected in their own series books as well. Beyond that, how is the story? Honestly, not that impressive. A villain (Harvest) is collecting teens and children with super powers or who are fighting the good fight. He then turns them against each other in a battle royale and culls the best to be his ravagers. The question why is asked many times, and beyond some vague "I'm doing it to save the future," isn't answered. It's one of many questions raised that doesn't get resolved, and beyond some decent grand battle scenes between the teams and the other picks, there isn't much actual story here. And having the villain always saying 'I knew you'd do that; it's part of the plan' just gets really, really annoying. Whether it's true or not.

[Shamus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am even more confused about the placement of the Legion of Super-Heroes within 'the New 52' than ever. This book collects issues 8 and 9 of 'Superboy', 'Teen Titans' and 'Legion Lost', as well as 'Teen Titans Annual 1'. At first I found the dialog annoying, until I realized it was fitting for a bunch of teenagers dealing with new powers and talking too much to show false bravado. After that it was still annoying but easier to deal with. This series leaves you with more confusion and questions regarding the Legion, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, as well as as a few other characters. It isn't a horrible collection, and hopefully it is leading to some answers soon, but for the most part it makes for an even longer wait for some kind of understanding of NOWHERE. Teen Titans and Superboy have done a fantastic job of showing a fresh start away from the continuity of the old universe. Legion has not, and is more confusing for it. I really hope Legion's continuity is cleared up soon.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was pointless.

Too many characters, too many loose plot threads, too many bits that you need to read another comic book to have it explained to you, an annoying villain with an incomprehensible 'master plan', lots of crowded senseless art and ugly costume redesigns, waaay too much red used in the coloring and no interaction between the heroes that felt like it had any weight behind it.

Hard to tell if the heroes accomplished anything because the plot made little sense and this was used to introduce us to a new, third team of teen heroes, all of who got little screen time and so you don't feel terribly excited to run out and read their new comic.

Red Hood and the Outlaws is bad, but at least the plots make sense.
With this, it felt like the writers tried to do too much and then managed not to accomplish anything.
Really killed any interest I had in the New 52 teen books.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story but felt like it was too "Battle Royale" or "Hunger Games." Art was good at times but couldn't tell what issue I was on in trade paperback.

One thing that annoyed me was that I felt like there was too much spoken word when it should have been thought boxes. I get you're trying to explain to the reader what's happening but do the characters really have explain it out loud? Felt like some situations could have used inner dialog instead.

[sixthreezy · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF- Maybe I'll give this a shot another day, but I read the first two issues and I have no clue why I'm reading what I'm reading, no idea who anyone is other than first tier heroes, and I feel like I'm jumping right into the middle of something I have no clue about. I flipped through to see the artwork at least and it looks very pretty, but I really have no interest in reading more because I have a feeling if I kept on, this would go from 2 stars to 1.

[Damián Vives · Rating 1 out of 5]

Una idea que podría no ser tan penosa si no estuviera ejecutada de manera tan torpe.
The culling es un cruce entre las siguientes colecciones: Superboy, Teen Titans y Legion Lost.
Para empeorar el desatino narrativo, la edición del presente volumen constituye, para los lectores de la continuidad de estas series, una estafa editorial pués sólo agrega el anual 1 de Teen Titans, miserablemente excluído de los trade paperbacks de dicha colección.

[Andrew James Warden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shadow organization N.O.W.H.E.R.E has been secretly snatching up superpowered teenagers and forcing them deep, deep underground into a hidden Hellscape where it’s survival-of-the-fittest. There, everyone must participate in a yearly gladiator match known only as “The Culling” where the strong are separated from the weak. The winners graduate to become the “Ravagers” of a malicious mastermind named “Harvest” and the losers..well they die.