4 issue test #31 - Titans

It’s DC Rebirth time again!

The return of Wally West, the ginger haired one not the black one which was introduced in the New52, was one of the most celebrated parts of the rebirth special, but where does he go from here, the one place he will always be welcomed, the Titans.

This story is written by Will Abnett, who had written Titans Hunt, a mini-series coming from the wake of Convergence which shows the group coming back together to fight a threat they’d left behind, it’s a good story and worth the trade in my opinion. The artwork is done by Brett Booth, who tends to be hit and miss but there’s no denying it’s more attune to my taste than someone like Frazer Irving, god his art sucks.

Anyway, but how does this new Titans book stack up? Let’s dig into the Rebirth special and #1-4 and find out.

We open with Wally, now in his Flash costume, looking at an old photo that he remembers being in, it’s gone now. Nightwing confronts him but when he makes contact he remembers who Wally is. But it doesn’t matter, the other Titans have him surrounded. Those other Titans are Donna Troy, Tempest, Roy Harper and Omen.

Omen senses that Nightwing’s memories have been altered and Tempest makes contact and begins to remember but not fully. Nightwing tries to get them to stand down but in the heat of it, no-one’s listening. Omen uses a psychic attack to try and slow Wally down whilst Roy punches him. The contact restores his memories too. Including a particular memory of Roy showing Wally his run-down apartment.

Donna makes contact next and sees a memory of Wally and her playing a water balloon prank. Tempest and Omen grab Wally, he decides to let the sparks fly to help them remember. Omen remembers and intimate moment with Wally whilst Tempest remembers Wally helping him feel more at home.

With everyone now remembering Wally stops, the speed force shocked their memories back. We find out that Nightwing remembered the time he and Wally took the batmobile for a joyride. I definitely remember this scene from Geoff Johns’ run. Different Robin and Flash but same prospect, except there Batman chewed him out.

Wally explains he’s been outside of time, meanwhile the others all knew something was missing, it was Wally. Wally explains that someone has stolen 10 years of their lives, specifically the times they were together and bonded. Nightwing assumes it was Mr Twister, the villain from Titans Hunt. Wally thinks it’ll happen again but they’re friendship is strong and they will figure this out.

Issue 1 opens with Omen and Wally making psychic contact for reasons but she finds that the strongest thought in his head is that of Linda Park, his former wife and mother of his children before time was rewritten and his children no longer exist. In Rebirth he tried to contact her but succeeded only in scaring her.

Linda Park thinks about that encounter, it’s the key to her big story so she plans to investigate. Besides, she doesn’t like being scared. Meanwhile the Titans think over their encounter with Mr Twister, Mammoth was working for him and maybe he could have some leads. He once worked as muscle for some local drug gangs and Roy knows where to look for them.

He and Donna head out together and find out Mammoth now works for Psimon. As a few dealers are taken away, Roy confesses he was once one of them, that’s how he knew where to find them, Donna asks if having the past stolen from him hurt him in the same way it hurt her. Roy says he’s responsible for his own actions. Besides, he’s in a much better place now than he was then, then he was taking china cat and listening to zombie ghosts.

Omen continues to probe Wally’s mind to find more information about what stole that time, but in doing so she senses that she’s awoken something and they need to head to keystone city.

In keystone city, a magician named Mr Hocus Pocus (Worst. Magician. Name. Ever.) fails to impress some kids at a birthday party. The birthday boy wanted to go to space world, but his memories return and it’s none other than recurring Flash villain Abra Kadabra. They wanted to go space world so he teleports (I presume since Abra Kadabra’s shtick is future tech to emulate magic) them to the moon and back again. He claims he was the one to make Wally West disappear.

Issue 2 opens in Keystone City. Abra Kadabra has somehow created replicas of the Titans and using them as his puppets. Linda recognises Wally and goes to talk to him but they head off to have some fun and go crazy (their words) meanwhile Abra Kadabra monologues to himself for no reason about how Wally turned him into a nobody and he wants revenge.

Meanwhile the fake Titans and the real Titans do battle and my eyes are so drawn to preNew52 designs that sometimes I can hardly them apart. I’m guessing they’re robots but how the heck does robo-Wally have speed force access. Flash defeats his robo counterpart. I’m only assuming they’re robots but if they’re anything else I’m calling bullsh*t because of what I explained earlier about Abra Kadabra, which will be verified in the next issue by the way. Robo-donna has Roy in her lasso and he confesses to loving her, although this might be a ploy to make robo-Donna let her guard down.

Omen tends to Linda but is soon attacked to robo-Omen. Omen finds that Linda is special to Wally and informs Kadabra, who’s confused it should be years before they even meet apparently. Tempest works out they have a 6^th player and points it out to the others. He attacks Kadabra and gets his identity out. Nightwing warns him not to engage but he does so anyway. Tempest is attacked and Wally comes to his defence.

Issue 3 opens with Garth having survived the attack, if a little dazed in the process, we get a rehash of the motivation of the last issue, making the monologue even more pointless. Nightwing helps out but Kadabra teleports to the next building. He promises a finale to the people of Keystone and disappears, with his robo-titans.

Flash explains what I’ve explained previously about Kadabra using technology to emulate magic. Roy and Donna discuss the ‘I love you bit’ and Roy lies his way out in the most obvious way possible, annoying Donna. Mean Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher, see what’s going on and decide not to help. Mal recommends a place called meta solutions and so ends a potential tease for the next arc which is otherwise entirely pointless.

The titans meet up at a café, but before anything worthwhile is said we cut to the keystone theatre district. The robo-titans evaluate the titans, they’re strong and unified but Wally is a weak link. He explains that he made Wally vanish but the act took so much of him he forgot who he was. He remembers Linda Park and realises history has been knocked askew. It’s not his doing and it isn’t Wally’s either, it can only be one man, he says looking at his pocket watch.

Tempest broke his nose and a drop of blood spills onto the watch, if you know watchmen or DC Rebirth the image should be familiar to you. Wally heads back out after Linda and reveals his identity but promises to leave her alone should that be her wish. Just as she asks for a story Kadabra kidnaps her.

After goading Wally for a bit, Kadabra disappears, leaving Wally to feel guilty about bringing himself to life again and what it’s done. Back in the theatre district, Linda is tied up, Kadabra changes her clothes… somehow and tells her he plans to use her as a pawn to exact his revenge on Wally.

The Titans return to Wally and Nightwing reassures him that they will find her, Omen’s confidence is shaken but Nightwing reassures her. So glad that was there. Omen uses her powers to track Kadabra down but thanks to robo-Omen I think Kadabra is traced to 3 different places. So the team split up to track each location.

Kadabra doubles the powers of his robo-counterparts so they’re more than a match for the Titans. They’re sent on their way as Kadabra tells Linda that he’s from the future and knows that he’ll be beaten in a few years, he can change that now though.

Wally and Roy arrive in a high school gym where Roy uses a flare arrow to keep it light up. Sure there’s a light switch somewhere. But robo-Wally and robo-Robin are there. They fight and we cut back to the theatre where Kadabra sort of explains the relationship between Wally and Linda. Because she no longer cares for him, he doesn’t have a lightning rod to ground him if he goes too fast.

Omen and Tempest arrive in a Gallery of Art, and are attacked by Robo-Donna and robo-Speedy. Omen forces Donna back with a brain blast but robo-speedy is unaffected. Nightwing and Donna are facing Robo-Tempest and Robo-Omen in a supermarket. Donna manages to knock robo-Omen back but Nightwing is knocked back by Robo-Tempest. Donna fights Robo-Tempest. Flash defeats Robo-Kid Flash again but robo-Robin has Roy with a batarang to the neck.

Kadabra comes in and tells Wally that his friends have failed and are all about to die and so is Linda, with a wave of his wand, he’s teleported them so they’re now a 7000 mile trip. Can Wally rescue them all in time? Will he survive the process? Find out in #5

So that was Titans #1-4, what did I like, what didn’t I? Let’s take a closer look.

First off I’m glad there isn’t any work to do to get the team together again, Titans Hunt did the legwork there for them. Issue 1 and Rebirth are my favourite issues of the run, they’re a tad slower and give more time for character development, such as Roy acknowledging his own mistakes and owning them, I’m honestly more interested in where they’re going with Psimon and Mammoth than I am with Kadabra.

Each of the Titans has a voice, which is good for a team book and missed out often. Brett Booth’s art is very good for the most part.

OK, I’m done with positives, but I have my share of negatives too.

First off Kadabra, he’s a very loud, showy villain, I suppose that’s fitting to his character but he’s so over the top it’s distracting. I also felt he didn’t need to be the one who removed Wally from the timeline, I felt the Watchmen connection should’ve handled all of that. His power levels are another issue. As I’ve stressed throughout this issue, he’s not a magician, he’s a guy who uses future tech but we really should see some of it in action rather than it seeming like it’s actual magic. I don’t know, some equipment in the theatre or some indication that my theory about the robo-titans being, well, robots, would’ve been nice is what I’m saying.

Design wise I wish Omen’s design wasn’t as closed off as it is, Roy’s design is slightly better than the old one but only slightly, I must admit I’m not a huge fan of Wally’s redesign. Red is an overused colour in the DC universe, I would’ve liked to see something a little different, even though I suppose it makes sense since he’s the Flash too now. What bothers me more is this lightning stuff. We didn’t need to see lightning every time a Flash character used speed before the New 52, what is the insistence with it? It’s not visually pleasing and I reckon the TV show could save on special effects by removing it.

There are a few scenes I wish had been cut out since they add nothing and ultimately serve no purpose. Also I have issues with regards to character work. Whilst there are moments dedicated to it, there’s not a lot for another whose name isn’t Wally West. Whilst I understand him getting the bulk of the focus, seeing as he’s a relative newcomer to the new DC Universe, I wish more time was dedicated the others, Nightwing particularly has nothing to work with here.

Then there’s some of the dialogue, it’s cheesy in places in a kind of “what human being talks like that” kind of way.

Ratings

Rebirth 8/10

#1 7/10

#2 6/10

#3 6/10

#4 6/10

Overall: 6.8/10

Recommendation: I am going to continue to pick this up, but I hope the next arc provides something more to keep me interested

Images/clips used are from Titans. All images in this review are subject to fair use