Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Titans #8 Review and *SPOILERS*



The Buzz Around Town


Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse, Corey Breen
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 8, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Now that the Titans are in New York, they have a whole new state of mind........... Well, I guess they don't, I just really wanted to make that reference.  Really though, we've got the Titans in Manhattan, they've got themselves a whole new Titans Tower and it looks like they're going to be staying together as a team for a good long time, you know, now that they're setting up roots and all that.  In our previous issue, besides for the Tower being built and the legality of it all, we also saw Mal Duncan taking his wife Karen to a company that specializes in meta-human powers so that they can figure out what's going on with Karen's new abilities, but as the issue ended it looked like Psimon was running the show so you know that can't be good.  Let's jump into this issue and see how our Titans deal with Meta Solutions and if Mal and Karen become a part of the team.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Wally being a sad sack about how slow things are going between Linda and him because while he wants to build a relationship with her, he also knows everything that they previously did together and taking it slow is killing him.  Elsewhere in Titans Tower, Donna Troy is reconnecting with her photography past that doesn't make sense in this continuity and Garth is training Lilith to fight.......... that's the majority of what we get from our heroes this issue, but we do get to explore what's going on with Herald and Bumblebee over at Meta Solutions.


While Herald is all about giving up the superhero thing......... because it turns out he's terribly traumatized from the events of Titans Hunt, he's still willing to let Karen keep her powers if that's what she wants......... He almost pulls a guilt trip though because without her knowing about it, Mal already went and had his powers removed by this company when he originally checked them out and that's how he knows they are on the up and up.......... but that's a bit of a dick move to go ahead and do something because as he puts it, "It's right for their family" and then go and tell Karen "Oh yeah, I don't care.  Keep 'em, lose 'em, whatever".  Guilt trip.  Karen goes and meets with the company's director though, who we all saw in the previous issue was Psimon and for the most part, things actually do seem on the up and up.


In the end, out in the waiting room, Mal goes and has himself a goddamn heart attack when he sees Mammoth walk up to the counter all nonchalant, like he belongs there and because of the trauma Mal received by his hands, our once hero takes off into the streets, where he's met by his hero friends because Lilith felt his terror.  As our issue closes, our team storms the company and find Karen........ perfectly fine and with the Fatal Five........ who actually might be helping her.......... Weird.


That's it for this issue of Titans and even though we've had Herald and Bumblebee waiting in the wings ever since Titans Hunt....... because they were the focus of this issue and our heroes were really put on the back burner, I felt a little bored reading this issue.  There really wasn't anything for the Titans to do until the end and the rest of the issue was just us hearing about how Meta-Human powers aren't for everyone and that Meta Solutions can take them away when they're a hindrance to life.  Yeah, it was decent setup to get everyone caught up on who Herald and Bumblebee are, but the story itself was just a little boring overall.  Luckily, the art was as good as it always is in this title and the cliffhanger was actually pretty decent to the point where I immediately wanted to know what happens next....... So yeah, at least it has that going for it.

Bits and Pieces:

While we do get more of heroes who were featured in Titans Hunt here, overall I found this issue a little boring because there really wasn't anything for our Titans to do.  The art was great as always and we did get a pretty decent cliffhanger, but besides for that, there really isn't much going on in this issue that I found all that interesting.

6/10

2 comments:

  1. A slow issue although it sets the foundation of this arc. Loved the part where Garth is tutoring Lilith and the Karen/Mal couple moment. Mal was the only out of character, his old self strove for super powers and now he gives them away like that? Doesn't make sense in spite of his new secret trauma. Sonic manipulation powers are cool and I hope Mal gets them back as Herald.

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  2. The character Mal Duncan never could get any respect from DC, despite being one of its first African-American heroes. Although he has been around a couple of decades we still know so little about his origins; background or family. Now we find out he's a meta but he gives up these powers before we get to see him in action but somehow everyone is ok with his wife, Karen, the mother of his newborn, throwing the occasional electricity ball. The fact that she is a marketing goldmine being the first black heroine is just coincidence. Wink, wink.

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