The Call’s Coming From Inside The House: Reviewing ‘Titans’ #14

Either you die a hero, or at some point you’ll be possessed, altered, or shifted to become a world-ending threat. Except for the characters that are mostly destined to fill the background or find a semi-permanent residence in character limbo.

Right now, it’s Raven of the Titans turn to do the super-villain dance of doom, as Titans #14 brings the series one step closer to concluding the current run. A penultimate tale from Tom Taylor, Lucas Meyer, Adriano Lucas, and Wes Abbott.

Holy crap, this is the seventh part of the Dark-Winged Queen story arc. That’s an almost exhaustive amount of chapters for a monthly releasing series. Especially when so many of those chapters ended up just spinning wheels and a couple of fake outs.

This has a bunch of stuff that on paper, I’m digging big time. From the Spectre, to “God’s Wrath,” to various demons and big giant fights, this finally gives the Titans another large Justice League level threat to face. Something they’ve lacked since getting their, extremely, short-term promotion as a team.

Except, just like Titans: Beast World, the threat is coming from inside the house with a dose of nostalgia.

Trigon is like many classic villains at this point: washed out. Nothing about him or those like him feels really threatening. Because the Titans and others have kicked his giant butt time and time again since they regularly had the word Teen attached to their team name. Taylor gives it a new coat of paint but at this point (thanks to solicits) we already know the outcome (of sorts) and that the Titans time as the top-tier team is now over.

Knowing doesn’t lessen a story, it just dulls the impact just a bit.

In the end, I think this was a mostly fun action-packed issue that fell a bit flat because of dialogue choices but also how long it took to get here. Curious to see how the final issue of this run, before a new team takes over for DC All-In, works out.

My opinion has not changed, no matter the rest of the issue, Meyer is a perfect artist for this book and these characters. Hell, just heroes in general.

Hits every single note needed to really scream “superheroes” while just being so dynamic in its own right. It’s slick, smooth, and energized through and through. Plenty of weight is felt on first glance as the characters and their world feels fleshed out and cared for. Whimsical meets realism in a solid middle ground where every character has life-life qualities while also being larger-than-life.

Mixing that with the light but hefty color palette of Lucas creates something special.

Everything has its own really unique tone, from the very natural setting/background colors to the very out-of-this-world vibrant beats. None of it feels out of place or like it will clash in any way. We’re presented with a world that resembles our own with more fantastical elements at play and it never feels ‘wrong’ or ‘weird’ in any way.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I see why Abbott and Taylor work together so well. A writer with a unique way of writing dialogue and other elements paired with a letterer who can take that and weave something with it. Even though some of the quips or beats didn’t land for me, the presentation of them works. The emotions that are meant to be there and the personality quirks are felt through the words as they are presented.

Titans #14 is now available from DC Comics.