Looking beyond the basics.
Creative Staff:
Story: Phil Hester
Art: Scott Koblish
Colors: John Kalisz
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
What They Say:
When Wonder Girl, Starfire, and Raven give a presentation at a local high school, they’re confronted by a student with an ax to grind against the Titans. Raven is compelled to investigate, and they learn this teenager’s grievances might run deeper than they thought…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Phil Hester gets a whole issue to himself here with the Titans and it’s definitely an interesting one, though a story we’ve seen before in different forms over the years. Hester’s always been good with character material and this story lets us get into the HIVE mind just a bit more so we understand how it works, which is pretty important. Scott Koblish has been solid in the various works I’ve seen him in recently from the various DC Giant books and this one is no exception as we get a good look at familiar characters that are easy to identify but with his own style attached. The original characters for this are welcome as well as they’re not the usual standards and that’s something that’s played well and not for laughs, thankfully.
The initial focus is on a career day event at Raven’s school where she’s got Donna and Starfire showing off what they can do while the teacher goes through various scientific aspects of it and how it works, while Raven’s minor involvement has the whole magic thing coming to the surface for a moment before Donna shuts that down. What we do get is one student, Sofia, who has no love for superheroes and the damage they cause and you know it has to be for a reason. But she’s shut down hard by the teacher for disrespect an even puts Donna in her place briefly. This is all that Raven needs to follow Sofia home as she’s dismissed early and that has her discover that Sofia’s mother is actually a HIVE member, albeit one that was wounded in a very recent fight with HIVE. It serves to reinforce her dislike for the way heroes operate without thinking about the grunt soldiers of various organizations, not that she’s thrilled her mother is a criminal.
Interestingly, her mother’s a technical whiz in her home country but struggles here and is just trying to give her daughter a better life, hence falling in with HIVE and the way they prey and “subcontract” on the desperate. It’s an interesting part of the larger story here as it turns because Raven gets taken out by her as something that she can use to buy her way out of what she owes HIVE, maybe even get a promotion. It’s not that she’s a bad person but she’s just so focused on trying to get Sofia to be a better place she’s making more and more bad choices. Which, naturally, has Sofia trying to stop her and that forces herself to align and work with the Titans in order to save her mother. It’s an effective story that digs into Sofia and her mother better than I expected and really does provide for an interesting avenue to explore more.
In Summary:
Hester provides for a lot of good character material here but we also get a number of fight sequences. The sparring at the top is fun with Donna and Starfire and we get some time between the HIVE folks themselves as they rough it up a bit. But as the Titans arrive and the big weapons come out, it lets Gar do his thing and runs with some fun HIVE-tech. But it never loses sight of the fact that this story is about Sofia and her mother and it delivers on it through and through. Their story is the kind that you want to check in on and would be a part of an enjoyable subplot in ongoing issues back in the 80s where the team would see them from time to time. This, again, is why these digital-first books make me reminisce as much as they do about the old days while being pretty modern and current.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology & Amazon
Release Date: July 16th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
