Titans #28 – Dan Abnett, Writer; Clayton Henry, Artist; Marcelo Maiolo, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 6/10
Corrina: Hi Garth! Bye, Garth!
Ray: Taking a break from its own plots to tie into Drowned Earth, Titans #28 feels like it’s drowning in subplots. The Titans still have their own angst going on – a LOT of their own angst – but suddenly they’re plunged into the biggest crisis Earth has seen since last month and are reunited with their former teammate Tempest. Donna Troy takes the lead this issue, narrating the story as she’s still the only person who knows about Roy’s death. No one is still mentioning Wally’s death, so I’m assuming there’s more story to be told there, but there isn’t much time to reflect on things. The issue opens with the team charging headlong into an alien battleship, facing off against an army of fishmen. A flashback shows that after Garth showed up to brief his former team on the threat, Miss Martian tried to hold the team back from charging into battle. But she was then whisked away by the Justice League teleporter to deal with that end of the crisis, and Garth got to once again bash her behind her back for some reason.
From there, the issue is almost all action. Garth is basically characterized as Garth the Barbarian, yelling and bashing fishmen. This is just fine with Donna, who has also mainly been characterized as a warlord type since this run started. The previous arcs seemed to be pushing a Donna/Roy romance, but it never had any sort of chemistry. This pairing almost seems to make more sense, if on a very shallow level. But don’t look at this comic for any sort of development or good character development. Raven mostly lurks in the background complaining about losing her soul self, Beast Boy thinks he’s a pirate, and I’m still not sure why Steel is here. But the action is pretty good and fast-paced, and Clayton Henry’s art style makes this a readable issue for most of it. By the end, they have a close encounter with one of the evil Sea Gods, barely escape, and teleport into unknown territory. It’s a decent read, not as aggressively bad as the rest of the run, but far from essential reading.
Corrina: The art infuses the battle scenes with a great deal of energy. It also draws each Titan distinctly, which is nice given this fluid cast.
But the rest only proves that this version of Titans has little going for it. Garth’s appearance with his old teammates adds a shot of adrenaline but, by the end, he’s gone too, maybe dead, maybe not. But probably gone from the comic for now. It’s like someone said, “hey, it’s a water problem, we need Aqualad for an issue!”
The Titans seem to have no idea why they’re sticking together, no progress has been made on Beast Boy’s inability to always control his power, no one seems concerned about Raven’s missing soul self but Raven, and everyone charges into battle to…give them something to do?
This series remains a hot mess.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
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