Review: ‘Tales Of The Titans’ #3 — Thy Camera Is A Weapon Of Truth

Superheroes sometimes do more than bash supervillains in the face. Often, they tackle bigger real-world relevant types of issues. Other times they can do both at the same time.

This is where things stand when it comes to Tales Of The Titans #3, the penultimate issue of this miniseries from Steve Orlando, Kath Lobo, Bob Quinn, Adriano Lucas, and Rob Leigh.

First off, this is a gorgeous issue because Lobo has just such a slick emotional and detailed style. There is a bit of whimsical energy to it, as it still has a bit of superhero fun vibes to it even with the serious subject matter. It’s not overly grounded or pushing for full realism. It fits within the universe that is presented on the page.

Tons of kinetic energy vibrate off the page as the action moments, and the quiet moments, have weight and realness to them. I can believe in the moments and that the figures are moving, even though I know that they only exist on this page as drawn.

Oh, that iconic-looking page of Donna standing revealed in her costume with lasso in hand and fire behind, I need that framed on the wall.

Lucas’s colors have a lot of that same smooth nature to them and mix the heavier darks and brighter flashier colors easily. We get quite a few night scenes early on and they feel accurately dark but also beautiful but oppressive at the same time. Just like nighttime can often feel. As things get more colorful those colors do not overwhelm or take away from the overall darker/toned-down aesthetic. They complement one another.

We get a couple of pages from Quinn, making his DC Comics debut, to wrap the issue up. There are plenty of similarities to the styles of Lobo and Quinn, making it such a solid natural pairing. I have really loved Quinn’s work for a while now because of just how dynamic emotional and deep it is. That shot of Nightwing and Donna at Titans Tower with the city behind is almost picturesque without losing the grand nature of superhero comics.

Donna going against what the powers that be might say to do the right thing, freeing people from an oppressive force, is a solid idea. I think some of the execution leaned a bit more toward the hero running in to smash things to save the day. That’s not entirely a bad thing as this is a superhero comic at the end of the day. It just feels like there could be other deeper ways to go about it without simplifying things where if the hero comes in with fist swinging all will be well.

Orlando is a writer that I enjoy, and he often tackles bigger issues with stuff being written. How they land is a situation where the mileage will vary for the reader. For me, this one lands somewhere in the middle. It leans a bit too much one way as I noted, but it’s also enjoyable and we get to see a real jerk handed his own ass by Donna. So, there is that.

I really love some creative lettering and one of the things Leigh does here just worked so well. Often the default for characters speaking another language is to have different punctuation (such as <> or similar) around the words to denote it’s another language. That comes with a box that will tell you the language that is meant to be spoken there.

In this space, Leigh leaves all the punctuation marks behind and goes with color. When the words switch to the language of the prisoners, the dialogue takes on a purple color. Instantly it tells our eyes that they are speaking in their own language, which Donna also replies in, without having to fully make note of it. Just such a smooth way to do things, and creative.

It stands alongside all the other great work that is done with the lettering. Shifts in font sizes and types to denote volume or tone and plenty of big bold powerful in-the-moment SFX. Oh and can’t forget one of my favorite comic book things, characters declaring names in the shape of a comic book-style logo. I’ll never tire of things like that, gimmie more!

Tales Of The Titans #3  is now available from DC Comics.