A big bowl of relationships.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Minkyu Jung
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
What They Say:
When Dick, Wally, Donna and Garth awaken in an unfamiliar place, they find themselves face-to-face with their mentors: Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman! Allied together against a common foe, the mentors and protégés must race against the clock to unlock the secret of their current predicament and save the planet from an alien invasion!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Oh, do I hate annuals. I partially hate them on the digital front because you can’t separate them from a subscription. I’ve had a mixed relationship at best with annuals for many years simply because starting in the 80’s we had some good ones and some bad ones and then we had event annuals. I like them as a way to bring on new talent but we were often saddled with second or third tier stories. With this annual, regular Titans writer Dan Abnett crafts the tale with artist Minku Jung and colorist Adriano Lucas that definitely fits in tone and overall style with the main book. That’s a big plus and that it feels like just an extended side story, one that will factor into what’s to come. Taking it purely as setup means you might not get as much out of it since it only scratches the surface of that and you end up feeling obligated to get it to get the whole story. At the same time, we do get some good character material here.
The premise is straightforward enough in that we get the core team members of Dick, Wally, Donna and Garth dropped into a seemingly isolated bunker of sorts with some decent size to it. There’s no reaching anyone on the outside and to to those on the outside it seems like they simply vanished. This happens along with the group’s mentor counterparts from the Justice League with Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. The setting and uncertainty means there’s no trust as to who is who and that factors into how they almost grudgingly work together, at least from the Justice League’s point of view. Both teams have very different ways they operate and Dick calls it out easily enough in that the Titans function on friendship and really knowing who they are as friends while the League operates as people who respect each other and their power. It’s an old dynamic but one that’s still very true.
While the villain in this is largely off to the right in a way, orchestrating things to get the various configurations of characters to break (friends, teams, mentor/protoge), it’s something that in the final pages speaks to something bigger and has me wondering what it’ll tie into. But for the bulk of the book the enjoyment is in watching the way the lack of trust operates and how the dynamics play out, such as Barry being frustrated by the lack of respect that Wally gets, the subservient aspects of Garth toward Arthur, and the very complicated relationship between Diana and Donna the leads to the truth of Donna’s origins being revealed. I’ve not read Titans for years prior to this book during the New 52 phase so I don’t know how new it is but it’s well played here and it works to reinforce the friends aspect of the Titans in a very good way. Combined with some solid action throughout from some false opponents to deal with and you end up with a pretty fun book.
In Summary:
The question I come down to with a book like this at the end is was it worth the five bucks. I hate the price of annuals, even with the extended pages, because it’s such a crapshoot as to the quality of the story and the connected and importance of it. With Titans, having the regular series writer is a big boost and the artwork is pretty solid even if it’s work with bland backgrounds. There are some really fun character dynamics here and that makes for some good if minor reveals along the way for long time readers and some good stuff for newer readers to understand the way these characters connect with their mentors. I’m curious about the tease at the end and that could make this worthwhile in the long run. But in the here and now it’s kind of middling at best.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 29th, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
