Titans #27 – Dan Abnett, Writer; Brent Peeples, Penciller; Matt Santorelli, Inker; Ivan Plascencia, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 3/10
Corrina: Drunk Donna :hick:
Ray: Titans #27 is an issue drowned in tragedy in which almost nothing connects with the reader, due to the poor work done with these characters previously.
Hanging over this story are dual blows suffered by the team in recent months. First, we see Donna Troy visiting Roy Harper’s grave like we saw in Green Arrow last week, but shortly after that the team gets word that Nightwing’s been shot. While he’s still clinging to life, they hear that even if he lives, he won’t be the same mentally. Donna Troy, drunk and losing interest in everything, tells the team not to care because Roy and Dick will be back soon anyway. A sentiment like this – how people grieve in a superhero world – has potential, but here it feels more like a drunk woman’s cynical ramblings. The rest of the team is hit equally hard, but none more so than Beast Boy. The youngest member and the one who’s been affected adversely by the Source energy, he feels helpless than is desperate for some, any way to feel like he’s helping.
That hope for salvation comes in the form of Tyler Baines, the first emergent metahuman the team encountered in the beginning of this arc. He’s dying as the mysterious energy in his veins starts to burn him out, and the team wants to save him. Beast Boy wants to experiment on him and use an overload of the same energy to try to stabilize his power, but Miss Martian refuses – saying it would be unethical to experiment on humans. She’s right, but is there really anything to lose? The issue doesn’t particularly have a good grasp on what drives Miss Martian, as she veers from cold and calculating to almost overly emotional at times. The issue tries to put everyone through some sort of emotional crucible, but few of them lands. The ending, which has Tyler dying, just feels like an overly sadistic capper on an issue that doesn’t work at all. And I’m still not sure when Donna Troy’s defining character trait became “alcoholic”.
Corrina: I think drunk Donna should go off on a road trip with edgy, gritty Rick Grayson, sort of like their generation’s Hard Traveling Heroes.
What, you say, that Green Arrow/Green Lantern storyline was so two different kinds of heroes could understand America and each other? But Donna and Rick are simply angry, shallow versions of the characters they used to be because, well, no one knows the reasons except editorial edict and so you don’t care?
Me too.
I have no idea why Donna was resurrected to get this version of her. I guess Wonder Woman’s adopted sister wasn’t enough of an origin for her, so she had to come back as a soulless creature meant to kill Diana, and, hey, she’s kinda devolved from there, as she’s added drunkenness to her angry, angsty personality. (I can’t say alcoholism because that would mean this story treats Donna’s drinking with realism and depth.) This Donna belongs with the version of Arsenal that had one arm and swung a dead cat during hallucinations.
There also doesn’t seem to be much grief for Wally but perhaps that’s because his death won’t stick, she muses, cynically, and Roy’s will.
In any case, this version of the Titans is a mess that is also squandering the potential of Natasha Irons and Miss Martian.
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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
