Wally’s facing his biggest challenge yet since returning.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
What They Say:
“The return of Wally West” part four! Wally receives an impossible choice from Linda’s kidnapper: save the Titans…or lose the love of his life forever!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having come of age in the eighties when it comes to comics, I got involved when things like panel layouts, exposition, and narration were quite different from time. There’s an appeal to that period for me in how it felt like we got a lot more out of a book in terms of character and dialogue, but books like Titans remind me why I love the work being done today. Yes, Abnett’s stretching this out more than it needs to be at this point with Kadabra. But this whole issue is just so fantastic with what Brett Booth does with panel layouts that I can’t help but to be drawn in by it. The close-up focus on characters, the shape and positioning of the panels, it’s just filled with a kinetic energy that makes this Wally-centric story come alive beautifully.
What we get here is Kadabra basically setting things up more now that he has Linda Park in his possession. The time with him and Linda, as well as his copy-flunkies, at least reinforces why he’s doing all of this. The two have had an adversarial relationship for a long time and with Kadabra knowing how his own story plays out there’s that belief that he can outrun Wally in his own way. Setting things up so that Wally loses his anchor in this world and that he’d run right out of existence trying to save her makes the most sense, but it once again puts everything on Wally himself and his abilities rather than what Kadabra can do to him himself. It’s something that feels like the traditional villain setting himself up angle once again. But he does make some good minor reveals here with motivations that at least feels in character.
What the bulk of this is, however, involves action. While we get some decent character moments early on as Dick talks Wally and Lilith down so they can focus on saving Linda, it shifts quickly to Kadabra boosting up his fakes to split into teams of two and drawn the Titans to them. Though the team obviously knows they’re together even while apart, it does put Wally in that real bind where he’s separated and has to try and save them all. The saving grace to all of this is that we get a lot of pages with great action sequences for everyone with Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund essentially killing it. It’s just so dynamic and full of great little moments with the layouts that it’s a blast to read through it fast and slow a couple of times just to get the different feeling from it.
In Summary:
Titans still feels a bit drawn out in terms of story, especially since we’ve got a Flash running around here, and I’m feeling like the book really needs to start delivering on something concrete soon. Right now, it’s the characters and the artwork that’s keeping me around. I know these characters can be so much and the designs and action is top-notch, but I really want to feel invested in this and to have some time without action to dig into more character material. And, well, something with what the larger story is involving Wally and all the changes that have been going on with Rebirth and the like. This is a solid issue and one that’s both a quick read and one you can dig into if you engage with the fantastic artwork.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 26th, 2016
MSRP: $2.99