Review: Titans 03

I’m not sure anyone reviewed Titans #2 here at Major Spoilers (probably for the best), as there was a lot of ill-feeling towards the second issue in this, DC’s attempt to reunite its ’80’s classic. Subsequently, there is a certain measure of slack that can be cut considering that DC is starting off telling a new story from page one (for a given value of “new story”).

Titans #3
Written by Judd Winick
Art and cover by Joe Benitez and Victor Llamas

The main problem with the second issue was how the artwork influenced the behavior of the characters (and of course the fact that the artwork was, in and of itself, horrible).

Thankfully, in issue three, many of the flaws were wiped away, as the story continued to build towards the inevitable battle between the Titans and Trigon. This time, the artwork took a significant step up, with Beast Boy and Flash once again being returned to normality.

Readers were left at the end of issue two with the theory that Trigon had fathered another child other than Raven, the Titan who was emo long before the tag emo had been given to emotionally starved children (otherwise known as teenagers). This issue starts off with some very naked demons and humans, before getting in to the team banter/discussion.

Without wasting time, the Titans are soon on the trail of the three other brides that Raven managed to telepathically pull out of her father’s mind before she left. All are dead, naturally, and none of them had children, that the next-of-kin know about.

Last month’s issue saw the Flash, Beast Boy, and to a lesser extent, Starfire, turned in to horrible characture’s of themselves by artist Joe Benitez. Flash looked like he belonged in a comic strip in the Sunday newspaper, and I have no feasible analogy for what was going on with Beast Boy.

This month however, the characters return to normal. And apart from a trend towards drawing Beast Boy as if his obnoxious meter has been turned up to “Tom Cruise”, I was happy with what I saw. I was especially pleased with Flash’s return to the square jawed hero that I am used to. To mess with a character like the Flash, is to straddle possible disaster; I assume that Joe Benitez realized that.

Paired off in teams of two, each are affected by three fairly relevant feelings; envy, lust, and rage. Thankfully the middle pairing didn’t consist of Garth and Wally, and also explains the image on the cover which would, at first blush, paint Nightwing as a player, someone that I’m very certain he is not.

In either case, the Titans were close with their original theory that Trigon had sired another child; however they were just a tad off. Either way, issue #3 of Titans definitely made up for the lackluster performance of its predecessor, and showed off the Titans as they should be.

One interesting note, which lends itself to DC’s desire to paint this team as a team of friends, is towards the end of the book where the team is going over new information. A large splash page shows each of the Titans digesting the news, while simultaneously pointing to their friendships. Look for the mini-conversation between Nightwing and Red Arrow.

After last month’s tragesty (travesty and tragedy) of an issue, I was a lot happier with issue #3. I give it 3 out of 5, with room for improvement, but with a nod towards the fact that the creative team are aware of this and are improving as they go.

For those unsure about whether they want to jump in on this, I have two things to say; a) for the financially impaired, wait to see what people say about the first story arc, or b) pick up the first three issues for yourself, there are only three of them!