Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Paul Pelletier, Andrew Hennessy
Colors: Andrew Lucas
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
“WHO IS TROIA?” The Titans attempt to regain their balance after their epic clash with Troia—Donna’s villainous future self—and look toward a brighter tomorrow. But the Justice League wants answers about Donna Troy’s true nature, and they’ll get them—even if it means shutting down the Titans for good!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Titans has a kind of down issue this time around that delivers a lot of what I was looking for even if it frustrates me to a large degree. The last several issues have been filled with action that was a lot of fun and went big in all the right ways but it’s here that Dan Abnett deals with the fallout while keeping the action minimal. We also get a guest artist with Paul Pelletier stepping in with Andrew Hennessy handling the inks and Andrew Lucas doing the color work. It may not be the kinds of layouts that we usually get but it’s completely appropriate for this kind of story where there’s just so much dialogue to it. I love what Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund do but this gives them a chance to get ahead a bit with issues that will be a lot more action-oriented.
After everything that happened with future Troia that the team defeated and are now on guard against becoming, the threat to the world caught the eyes of the main team as the Justice League has come for a visit. Or rather, to remind the “kids” here that they’re the adults in the room and are displeased by what’s been going on. It is comical to watch as it plays out with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman getting all superior in their own way while Flash kind of just nods from time to time and shows some concern. The general idea isn’t a bad one was the Titans have been running hard since Wally’s return and his arc has put him in a whole lot of danger. And that’s before even digging into the trouble that Lilith brings to the table and what we have to Donna Troy herself. The main idea, beyond the disappointment of the elders, is that they want to isolate Donna on the satellite to figure things out for a bit and for Wally to actually recover after everything he’s been through.
The problem is that it’s approached by Batman in his most dickish of ways and that just sets everyone off, particularly Roy and Garth but even Dick gets frustrated by it because it makes most of them feel like they’re teens again and being treated as amateurs even after all they’ve accomplished. The team does have some solid pushback in play, such as Diana’s lack of really dealing with Donna previously knowing what she knew, but there’s a lot of “parent/child” type dynamics here at play for several of them but not for the others, which really throws everything out of whack. It’s not an unfamiliar story but it plays very well here and seeing how everyone reacts and how it all shakes out with the team basically going on hiatus for a bit means we’ll have some interesting stories ahead until they get the gang back together.
In Summary:
I really enjoy issues like this even if I think the Justice League are basically being jerks. Batman in particular considering what he lets the Justice League of America get away with from the first dozen+ issues of that I read. He really has no leg to stand on here based on that series. That said, there’s some good fallout dealt with in all of this and while it is the predictable splitting up the team/shutting things down angle it’s the kind of thing the book needs right now because it hit the ground running with Wally’s return as part of the Rebirth banner and it hasn’t slowed down to really explore what it all means. I’m hopeful that it won’t jump hard and fast into action right away and dig into the characters a bit but I’m not sure that’s something this book can do for a few issues without losing the readers that just want pure action.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 10th, 2018
MSRP: $2.99