New Titans #33 – Tate Brombal, Writer; Sami Basri, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This title isn’t getting a new #1, but it is getting a new creative team and a new set of lead characters. Which makes it all the more surprising that…almost none of them are in this issue. Instead, we pick up this issue with the iconic New Teen Titans crew, reunited after the events of DC KO and ready to get back to doing what they do best. They quickly fall into a routine at Titans Tower again. Nightwing is back leading the team, and they all enjoy each other’s company. None of the interpersonal conflicts cause too much trouble. Villains show up and they push them back. Terra attacks, but sees the error of her ways before too long. And of course, they all enjoy plenty of coffee. It’s all very comfortable and familiar – maybe a little too comfortable and familiar, and something starts to haunt Nightwing. And he soon discovers that it’s coming from the coffee machine itself.
It takes a while for this issue to get going, but once it does, there’s a pretty haunting effect to it. The idea of this lotus-eater machine creating the perfect world for the Titans – but also essentially keeping them in a limbo, never changing and never evolving – is something that has been talked about on a meta level for a while. It’s been so long since there’s been a Teen Titans run that caught on with the fans, so it’s no surprise that DC keeps going back to this original team time and time again. But others have said that this keeps those heroes from reaching their full potential. As Nightwing starts ripping at the seams surrounding this fake world, the other heroes start reacting in unpredictable ways and the world around him starts unraveling. That leads to the cliffhanger, introducing our new team – but for what purpose? I don’t think this is how many people were expecting this run to begin, but it’s an intriguing start.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
