Check out Our Review [WITH SPOILERS] of Titans #1!
Writer: Dan Abnett
Penciller: Brett Booth
Inker: Norm Rapmund Color Artist: Andrew Dalhouse
The world fell in love with the DC Rebirth Special by Geoff Johns. Titans #1 continues that awesomeness with the next step in Wally West’s quest to find the truth regarding who stole memories and time from the DC Universe.
During the first act of Titans #1, I was worried that this was going to be a Wally West comic with the Titans along for the ride in a supporting role. But that’s just not the case as writer Dan Abnett gives each member of the extended cast a chance to shine. We haven’t seen Donna Troy or Tempest in so long, and it’s just sheer joy to see them on the comic page once again.
Really, the whole thing is very meta as the purpose of the Titans’ quest is to find out who was messing with their reality and to return things to the glory days of the time. And really, is there any property that was broken worse than Titans by the New 52? The team wants to restore the days of old, and dammit, so do we! Readers have an invested interest in this story on so many levels because the stakes of the tale is the restoration of the Titans’ glory days and who doesn’t want to see that?
Not as glorious is the art as I found everything to be too angular and Image circa 1992ish. Booth is a capable storyteller but some of his slapdash bits of anatomy- yikes. That’s not to say Booth doesn’t add certain flourishes to the proceedings. For example, Donna Troy is rendered with a constant grim on her face as if the character is saying, “Man, am I happy to back.”
As I said, Abnett does great work with his extended cast which comes as no surprise; after all, it was Abnett who co-created the modern age Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel. The difference between the guardians and the Titans is that the Guardians were the super-team no one knew that they wanted while Abnett’s Titans are the team that old school DC loyalists have been screaming for. Heck man, even Lilith, a lesser known classic Titan, gets her time to shine.
Plus, we get the return of a classic DC villain in a should-have-been-cheesy-but-isn’t sequence that will make old fans fist-pump. Of all the DC books I read this week, Titans #1 had the most classic DC feel, and after five years of putting the classic DC out to pasture, Titans #1 is a book to relish.
