The plan begins to come together.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
What They Say:
Wally West has returned to the DC Universe! And now, the Titans set their sights on a dangerous enemy with the power to change reality itself! But the Titans have never faced a threat this massive before, and with so much on the line, will they be able to stand united as a team? Or will their past mistakes be their undoing?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Titans: Rebirth issue was one of those books that just connected for me in a lot of very good ways and made it very easy to put this series on the subscription list. While I haven’t read a Titans book in years and years, there are lots of fond memories of days gone by and with these characters. Abnett’s approach of having things being selectively edited and removed for them through the mysterious power that we’ve gotten nods from elsewhere also raised the profile of this book. Abnett works things in the same way here with quick dialogue, lots of quips, and familiar structure. And it’s all done in the same way visually with Booth and Rapmund on board, which gives it a strange mix of 90’s and present day feeling about it that adds to the almost disconnected from time but not quite feeling that the work has. Admittedly, we don’t get anything in the way of reveals here, but the foundations are unearthed a bit more.
Wally’s return is a big thing for a lot of fans and rightly so, which means I enjoy the quick recap we get here and how we get the reveal of his new costume and why, reinforcing that he is The Flash and that there simply are several of them out there in general. More amusing is when Omen does her work to try and suss out some clues from Wally’s subconscious in that all she really gets is material about Linda Park. I’m kind of disillusioned by the fact that several of the characters tell him to just go make new memories with her and start fresh considering what he’s been through and the scope of the life he lead with Linda previously as it’s kind of cruel just as much as I’m a little turned away from the way some of them are going on about how cute it is. Considering the nature of what’s going on and how their lives have been rewritten, you’d think more of them would be wondering what important parts of their lives have been cut away from them.
That the team splits to do some field work and figure out what’s going on is decent enough, though even here we get a kind of info dump of what’s going on as Roy talks about how many chunks of his past are pretty grim with the drug use and drug selling, something he says in such a casual way to Donna that it’s just weird. Some of it just feels like it’s more about establishing backgrounds so we know it exists than anything else but it’s just done kind of awkwardly. What I do like is the material with Omen as she works with Wally about things, particularly as I’m not familiar with the character for the most part and that means more of a blank slate for me to learn about. I also really like that in messing with Wally’s mind that it seems to be having a ripple effect in unlocking other people who’ve been rearranged in this world, such as the kids party magician who is suddenly revealed to be Abra Kadabra. Reviving some of these characters that have been gone for several years in this way has a lot of potential for fun.
In Summary:
Titans looks to be trying to find its balance here as we get past the initial Rebirth special and it’s the kind of tale that I’m willing to give some time for it to settle on what it wants to be. There’s a lot of little info dumps of character material here that just strikes me as odd but at the same time reminds me of books of old. It’s not my favorite way of doing things but it harkens back to a different time that there’s some appeal towards. The positives still outweigh the negatives so I’ll be sticking around for a while yet to be sure, especially as I’m enjoyed Brett booth’s work a lot with the dynamic designs and sense of energy about it, particularly with the color work that gives it some great pop. It’s a kind of disjointed start in some ways but it has me hopeful that this might be a book where some of the bigger reveals of what’s gone on will be made.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 27th, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
