Review: Terror Titans #2

Because we’ve already read Countdown: Arena

Wow.  If DC gets any more screwed up with its timeline, we’re going to need some kind of crisis to fix…it… all… well crap.  Here then is another title that is set in the current fiasco of the DC Universe, that attempts to expand the timeline, but only succeeds in causing the continuity junkies to freak out.  For those into villains, this issue delivers as Sean McKeever returns  us to the Dark Side Club.

So about that Dark Side Club, bet you didn’t expect to see that place still operating after the events of Final Crisis #3 (released way back in August) .  But here it is, placing this series sometime between issue #2 and #3 of the series.  The Clock King, along with his Terror Titans are attempting to take over the club and bring in as much money as possible by kidnapping legacies and forcing them to fight.

The legacies are the off-spring of heroes and villains in the DCU.  In many montages, readers see Hardrock taking on Gypsy, Pristine putting the smack down on  Offspring, and Zatara getting his butt handed to him by Terra.  Yes, the same Terra who just had her first issue debut last week.  So, if you are playing along at home, not only does this issue take place between Final Crisis issues, it also takes place after Terra #1.

DC seems dead set on slapping the Final Crisis logo on everything that has a mere passing on the events in Morrison’s book, yet it doesn’t try to capitalize on Terror Titans – a book that is soundly in that Morrison tale to the point it even features the deaths of more new New Gods.  Why then isn’t this title given a Final Crisis banner, with that that god awful column art treatment?

For those of you who are not all OCD over timelines and tie-ins, don’t worry, pretty much everything is self-contained, and aside from the two deaths at the beginning of the issue, this tale could be set at anytime (or any world) in the DCU.  There’s plenty of fighting going on, both in the arena, and interpersonally between the members of the team.  It’s a lot of petty bitchiness, that feels wedged into the bigger story, but it serves its purpose of pounding it in to the reader’s heads that even though they are on the same team, they aren’t necessarily a team.

While all the members of the team are legacies, only Dreadbolt doesn’t share his father’s name because his father, the Bolt isn’t dead yet.  I like how McKeever gives the reader a one page summary of Terry Bolatinsky’s life that is so perfect that you understand immediately that his father, the Bolt is a villain to the Blue Devil.  It’s also no surprise when readers get to see the father and son reunion.

This is a pretty typical second issue for a six issue mini that is being written for the trade. Sure there is that mysterious moment where the Clock King tells us he’s going to cause all sorts of chaos while down in the jungle room workshop, but we won’t see that until issue 4 or 5 when this team of misfits has to band together to make everything work out to the satisfaction of whoever is in charge.

DC is setting us up to continue from where Final Crisis ends with the Faces of Evil crossover event.  By setting us up to see evil winning, it does sow the seeds of despair, making us wonder when the heroes will return to shining form.  This is an okay second issue, but I can’t give Terror Titans #2 more than 3 out of 5 Stars.

32/32