It’s always best to not ask about the how.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
“THE RISE OF TROIA!” Wally West is dead, the Titans are all but beaten and Donna Troy must go toe to toe with her worst nightmare—Troia—a twisted version of herself from the not-so-distant future, bent on destroying her friends and pushing Donna toward her own dark fate. Don’t miss the stunning issue that’s destined to change the Titans forever!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Titans continues to move through a lot of material in a classic kind of way where most of what happens tends to be amid fighting and movement. Admittedly, that’s not my favorite thing and it’s an area I sort of “outgrew” years ago in comics. That said, in limited exposure and with the right kind of book it can still be fun. Dan Abnett’s doing some fun stuff with this series even if there’s an air of repetition about it but this is the kind of series where with artists like Booth and Rapmund that it can work. I talk about how it has a kind of 90’s aesthetic in a way, which normally isn’t a compliment elsewhere, but it works very well here in giving it a dynamic look thanks to it being a team book and including speedsters. It just has a different set of rules.
A book like Titans also has a lot of built in predictability which is what makes its more wild turns all the more enjoyable because they do feel like they come out of nowhere. With Donna facing a powerful future version of herself as the ultimate weapon of the multiverse, the death of Wally West as the trigger isn’t a surprise – nor is it a surprise that it’s just not final as there are no reverberations for it. When Wally suddenly returns mid fight much to everyone’s surprise, he brushes it off with Kid Flash essentially giving him a jump start after being frozen in place and now he’s firing on all cylinders again. And when Nightwing asks how, well, don’t ask. Just accept it, which is what the readers are being asked of as well. Titans doesn’t have a huge emotional investment for me at this point so it’s easy to do as I like the characters and just want more character stories, which I know I’m not really going to get in the way that I want. But I want to spend more time with them.
The bulk of this issue is very much in Booth and Rapmund’s wheelhouse as Troia from the future knows everything about her friends even after all that time and easily dispatches them with quips. It’s very fun to watch as they go through it and more so once we get Donna doing her best to push back against the things Troia says about her and her weaknesses. It really isn’t a surprise that Donna overcomes all of this to assert herself and stand strong and tall to take control of her destiny, but it’s a kind of wonky time travel/multiverse issue with the way she ends up putting an end to things. But it leads to some really good character stuff that I want to see more of in a bigger way afterward as what was said in the heat of battle is revisited, notably with Roy. The rest of the gang coming back to their senses is welcome as well since they’ve been kind of sidelined for a bit but I’ve struggled when it comes to Karen and Mal in particular since the beginning of this run.
In Summary:
Titans does what Titans does best here with the main creative team in full force and it works well. It’s not what I’m looking for in a big way in a lot of books and I’ll easily admit that this series tickles a kind of particular nostalgia fetish that I don’t indulge in often. But what they’re doing here is just a hell of a lot of fun even if it’s pretty compressed by working through the story amid all the action as opposed to it building to a burst of action. I like what we got from Donna here and am curious to see what her future holds all while knowing that, like every other iteration of her, it’s pretty malleable as need be. Still, I liked what the team did here and especially with Roy if they actually work that side of it instead of just a superficial piece.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 13th, 2017
MSRP: $2.99
