Where Do We Even Go From Here? — Reviewing ‘Titans’ #18

What’s old is new again as the Titans go (literally) underground at the same time a familiar old foe returns.

Nostalgia and character head-butting find themselves in the forefront of Titans #18 by John Layman, Pete Woods, and Wes Abbott.

Generally, I tend to give comic series a certain amount of issues to decide whether or not they are for me. While I would like to say there is a hard and fast rule focused on a specific number of issues, the honest truth is it changes. Depends on how much the first issues disappoint or don’t connect. Some series get way more leeway while others get the snip much faster.

Titans is definitely the latter more than the former.

DC All-In was about new fresh starts for books. New directions, creative teams, and even status quos for many. Unfortunately for the Titans, the new status quo is just the old one.

Gone is the team that was replacing the Justice League (though they never actually achieved that) and back is the angst ridden team of young adult former sidekicks. Everyone is messed up, sniping at each other, pushing at leadership roles, and just fitting right into the cliché niche they used to fill.  Even the villains of the piece, Mammoth and Shimmer of the former Fearsome Five, feel like they stepped right out of time.

I’m not even sure what Layman’s mission statement for this team is other than nostalgia. Which, these days is the mission statement for a lot of comics (here’s looking at you Marvel). Characters feel needlessly childish, people are spending precious dialogue (mountains of it) to explain to each other what their powers are (despite the long relationships), and just so much verbosity. Even the end stuff with Deathstroke and Clock King had me groaning so loudly.

Really, Deathstroke is all cackling supervillain again wanting to build a “Crime Syndicate” to take on the new every hero who is on-deck for the Justice League? Okay, sure, whatever.

At least the book is really slick and gorgeous to look at.

Take all the words away and Woods artwork is dynamic. It tells a story on its own and really gives the characters some huge presence. Emotions (there sure are a lot of them) are dense and realistic upon the faces and features of every character. There is weight to the movement, especially the really dynamic and (appropriately) chaotic action sequences that make up a big chunk of the story.

Colors are soft and often muted, so that the far more vibrant streaks really stand out. Tons of brightness fills the pages, because this is a hero story and it is mostly meant to be hopeful. Even if said heroes are bickering like a couple that needs serious counseling.

Taking mountains of words and making them fit on the page is surely no easy feat. Abbott makes it work as well as possible, spacing things out and still letting the words feel personalized and unique. Tone and emotion baked into each letter that falls onto the page. Only so much can be done though, and the overflow of words really hampers some of the pages. It’s just so much, and there is a slight stilted nature to some of the dialogue.

Kind of like when actors do purposeful bad acting, really stretching things out and pushing too hard.

Unfortunately, if one hadn’t put 2 and 2 together at the start, this is going to be my last issue of Titans as a reviewer. While I’ll probably still check the book out as a reader, there is no reason to keep being a downer review-wise. Especially since there might be someone out there who has thoughts to vocalize that are deeper or less negative.

Titans #18 is now available from DC Comics.