Titans #23 – Review

By: Eddie Berganza (writer), Scott Clark and Adrian Syaf (pencillers), Dave Beatty and Vicente Cifuentes (inkers)

What’s Good: This is the first time I’ve seen Eddie Berganza in the writer’s chair. He’s been editing Blackest Night, Cry for Justice, Wednesday Comics, and others up to now, but I think he did a fine job as a writer. I don’t know if this is a new direction for him or if he’s just pinch-hitting while they find a replacement for the excellent J.T. Krul who has taken over as writer of Green Arrow. Berganza takes us through the perspectives of three characters (Dick Grayson (now Batman), Wally West (now the third Flash) and Donna Troy) as they reminisce about their early adventures in the 1960 and how Speedy (now maimed and fighting for his life under medical care) touched their lives. Berganza has skillfully made all the narrators unreliable, because although they remember the same events, their individual regrets and bitterness tinge the narrative. It’s very hard to write a character that is fooling themselves or not seeing the big picture and Berganza did a good job. There’s a lot more bitterness and regret in the Titans’ history than I knew about. But, all this would be nothing if Berganza couldn’t tie this to the present and the struggles of now. Berganza does this by showing Dick, Wally and Donna struggling in their new roles (especially Dick) as some of the heavy-hitters in the DCU. Lastly, I really like how Berganza made Speedy/Red Arrow both a sympathetic and unsympathetic by showing his errors and his core humanity as a father, with the added tension that he still doesn’t know his daughter is dead. All in all, Berganza has shown that he is every bit the character writer that Krul is.

Clark, Syaf, Beatty and Cifuentes did some fine work too on the art chores. They separated the past from the present with the shadows and tones of the inking. The scenes set in the past had almost no inking on the characters, even in the dark, which made the scenes effectively moody and even a bit ghostly, which underscored the unreliability of some of the narrators.

Titans #16 – Review

By Christopher Yost (writer), Angel Unzueta (artist), Wayne Faucher (inker), Edgar Delgado (colorist)

The Story: The Titans book continues to examine its characters one by one. This issue is about Starfire talking to a therapist. As uninspiring as that sounds, Yost and Unzueta carry us through the logical fallout of what Starfire has suffered not only in pitched war with Darkseid, Trigon, Jericho and others, but much farther back, right to the basics.

What’s Good: As I said in my last Titans review, if you wanted to get into the Titans, now is the time to do it. These self-contained stories are very forgiving to the new reader. As they did with Cyborg and Tempest, DC carries us through a complete arc with Starfire. This is a good character study, starting from denial and moving to acceptance. Yost does a good at storytelling, making us feel the difficulty that Starfire goes experiences.

Deeper than that arc, though, is a win that I think is not easy to do in comics. Many writers have penned Starfire over the years, from her start as a young alien visitor to Earth, through revelations of her tragic past, through love and breakup from Dick Grayson, to control by Jericho and Darkseid. When you add it all up, it’s a lot of disjointed, disconnected suffering. Too few writers take the time to pull those different experiences together and say, “What does it mean to the hero who has gone through all this?” Yost does that here, and in fact, what is more compelling is that he resists the temptation to knit the fabric back together again. Starfire is broken and this issue is about getting from denial to broken; leaving future writers with a lot of scope for this character.

What’s Not So Good: I’m going to take a swing at the art here. First, Unzueta and Faucher have a bit of a plastic style that is effective enough. However, given that this is really a character story, I don’t think the command of expressions and poses and emotions was subtle enough for what Yost was trying to do. That being said, it might just be a mispairing of artist to story. I get the impression that Unzueta would draw a dynamic slugfest.

Secondly, while I like to look at pretty girls as much as the next guy, I think there’s an element of overdoing it with Starfire that goes qualitatively beyond what artists do with Powergirl. For the most part, Starfire’s costume doesn’t do as much clothing duty as teasing duty. While this is nothing new for her (her costume hasn’t changed since 1980), given the depth of the story Yost was trying to tell, the T&A was a creative hindrance. I know this art team didn’t design her costume, and that Titan books must be sold to pre-pubescent boys, but Wolfman and Perez put her in a sweater and jeans when she wasn’t adventuring, especially when they were striving for meaningful stories.

Conclusion: A fair book. I like what Yost is doing and hope to see where the writers take Starfire next.

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault

Titans #15 – Review

By J.T. Krul (writer), Jose Luis (artist), J.P. Mayer (inker)

The Stories: The Titans are in a bit of a strange place right now. They finished the appallingly bad Deathstrike storyline too early to jump into Blackest Night right away, so they’re doing a bunch of 1-issue solo stories. In this issue, we see Tempest (formerly Aqualad), dealing with the fallout of the destruction of Atlantic and of the death of Aquaman and the power vacuum that has left in the undersea world. We see his past, watch him visit with Dick Grayson and ultimately, bring himself to a crossroads. There is also a very suspicious encounter with the villain, Slizzath, that I’m guessing ties this to the broader Blackest Night arc.

What’s Good: First of all, if you wanted to get into the Titans, now is the time to do it. These 1-issue stories are perfectly self-contained, giving you all the background you need to hop on board as a new reader. Also, this issue was a relatively satisfying arc fit between two covers, but it also left some tantalizing hints of doom and what is to come with Blackest Night. The parallel talk that Dick and Garth get into, both having lost their mentors and father figures, serve an interesting character studies. They have both reacted to their loses in different ways, but they themselves spot some parallels.

As for the art, it was also solid throughout the book. Luis and Mayer evoked the undersea world with the fall of Atlantis, giant fish on most pages, kelp and seagrass and the hint of currents in the aquatic world… I thought the art really hit its stride with the arrival of Slizzath. This villain was pretty revolting and had to be depicted well to get the full effect. The art team clearly succeeded in delivering the goods.

What’s Not So Good: Unfortunately, the plot was a bit of a straight line. I was able to guess the ending seven pages before the last page. That’s never good. Even the battle with Slizzath was a bit of a one-note affair. More could have been done with this plot. And as a nod to a small pet peeve, this is another one of those books where the cover has absolutely nothing to do with the story.

Conclusion: A pretty good offering by DC. Not a home run, but a respectable base hit, and maybe a double for Titans fans.

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault