New Titans #36 – Tate Brombal, Writer; Marcus To, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: After a few issues that were mostly setting up the new status quo, we’re finally getting our first idea of how this new team will operate – and it’s a lot of fun. It seems like the POV character of this series is going to be Eva, the mysterious new android who was key to Cyborg escaping from his cybernetic self. She’s incredibly advanced, essentially mimicking human physiology through nanites, and is also mysteriously haunted by visions of her own death. She covers up that terror with a bubbly personality that resembles Miss Martian quite a bit, and she just wants to make friends through the power of Pickleball. Unfortunately, the rest of the team isn’t quite so eager. Jon is stressed, Stephanie is distracted, Yara is bored, Eddie is standoffish, and Terra is only here for the villain amnesty paycheck. This doesn’t seem so much to be a team right now as a vague group of associates.
However, they eventually all agree to head out and check out the team’s new home base – Happy Harbor, a location that was home to both the Justice League and Young Justice over the years. The town is usually a happy place – a little too happy, as it seems like the whole place has been transformed into an odd Stepford Town. No one even bats an eyelash when Red Devil walks through town looking like Hellboy. As they trace the strange phenomenon in town, there’s time for a surprisingly emotional conversation between Nightwing and Starfire that sets her on a new path and addresses just how screwed up he’s been by the events in his own book. This issue resets the status quo a lot and changes genre pretty rapidly, but it’s the first issue of the run that really feels like it has its own identity as a team book, rather than just setting up the pieces for a story. Definitely looking forward to more, especially with that cliffhanger!
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