The past 20 years have been rough for fans of the Titans, DC’s younger heroes (sometimes “Teen Titans”, sometimes just “Titans”). The mid 2000s run (starting in 2003) was a tonal mess between trying to be like the famous cartoon and telling dark stories like Wendy and Marvin from Super Friends being brutally attacked by the Wonder Dog. Then the New 52 happened, and the main lineup completely disappeared except for Beast Boy and Raven, who were practically different characters. DC Rebirth did bring promise to the team by bringing back the original lineup, only for the run to be cut short by an event. The Titans then turned into a team run by Damian Wayne, who turned the team into a black ops unit that was imprisoning criminals with no due process.

Needless to say, it’s been tough to be a Titans fan, however with the announcement of Tom Taylor’s run in 2023, there was an interesting premise on the horizon (as there was no Justice League book being published at the same time). A Titans team that is Earth’s last line of defense while the Justice League is on a break, this is an interesting premise, as it allows not only for the Titans to get the spotlight as Earth’s heroes, but having to put up with the spotlight involving the Justice League’s rogues gallery.

However, that’s not what happens. Instead, it falls into the same pattern all Titans books have come to for the last 20 years – Raven becoming evil and having to take on Trigon. It is a shame, because I think this could have worked. Trigon has always been in his own corner of the DC Universe with very few links to other pantheons. He has never even met Darkseid outside of a certain DC movie. Now we do see Amanda Waller interact with Trigon in a sort of “Deal with the Devil” type situation, however it is dropped an issue later as the focus shifts onto the Absolute Power event. Instead, it is yet another disappointing storyline involving Raven turning evil, which got old back in the 90’s when it made her change her outfit to electrical tape.

I think what worked about the original Trigon storyline was how horrifying it was, the demonic imagery, and with the detail George Perez had to make long pixels out of bodies, the series has never come close to that original story. In this run, most of the horror comes from the first arc, as the team deals with Brother Eternity, who is controlling people by having them swallow Starro whole. Meanwhile, the Trigon stuff is underwhelming, as we get the usual boring artwork of Hell and cut to a version of Raven trying to escape her gem.

I also don’t think it’s fair to call this a team book. There is so much focus on Beast Boy, who starts off the run with an eye patch – due to getting shot in the head by Deathstroke during Dark Crisis, and his recovering psychologically and his romantic relationship with Raven. Unfortunately, everyone else on the team is more or less empty space, Nightwing and Wally already have their own ongoing series, and yet we get more of a look into their personal lives then other members. 

I will say I am glad that at least Donna Troy and Starfire get one moment each. I loved the look of regret on Donna’s face overseeing the death of someone who idolized her. Starfire’s storyline was unfortunately not up to par though, with the reveal that Brother Eternity is a Tamaranian who was evil, which felt unnecessary, there are already plenty of evil Tamaranians. This aspect could have been anyone who had a relationship with Titans; it’s Starfire because she barely had anything to do this run.

I honestly feel like a majority of the time no one knows how to write Starfire unless she is dating Nightwing, but her relationship with him is never even touched on. Cyborg got the worst end of the stick overall, as he is regulated to being the team teleporter and not much else, a role he has been stuck with since the New 52. 

I think the book started out well. We have the team finding the dead body of a Future Wally West, with a note asking to find out who killed him. Even though this is pretty weird, as this is pretty similar to what he did in Heroes in Crisis, and I don’t think anyone wants to remember that book. We see the team taking care of natural disasters, but getting derailed when we learn an evil Tamaranian created the disaster. We get the usual stuff with the team fighting Brother Blood, and having to free Garth from the fact he is obviously under mind control.

Fortunately, this storyline does eventually wrap up with the Beast World event, which would see Beast Boy cope with even more trauma as he loses control of his powers and kills hundreds while turning people into furries. I do have to admit it was almost worth it to see Anthro Fox Nightwing. 

However despite the brilliant artwork of Nicola Scott, this run just isn’t what the Titans needed. I’d recommend it if you’re a fan of seeing Beast Boy and Raven as a couple though. If you want to read Tom Taylor’s far superior work, I recommend his Nightwing run, which is also wrapping up.

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