By: Eddie Berganza (writer), Scott Clark and Adrian Syaf (pencillers), Dave Beatty and Vicente Cifuentes (inkers)
What’s Good: This is the first time I’ve seen Eddie Berganza in the writer’s chair. He’s been editing Blackest Night, Cry for Justice, Wednesday Comics, and others up to now, but I think he did a fine job as a writer. I don’t know if this is a new direction for him or if he’s just pinch-hitting while they find a replacement for the excellent J.T. Krul who has taken over as writer of Green Arrow. Berganza takes us through the perspectives of three characters (Dick Grayson (now Batman), Wally West (now the third Flash) and Donna Troy) as they reminisce about their early adventures in the 1960 and how Speedy (now maimed and fighting for his life under medical care) touched their lives. Berganza has skillfully made all the narrators unreliable, because although they remember the same events, their individual regrets and bitterness tinge the narrative. It’s very hard to write a character that is fooling themselves or not seeing the big picture and Berganza did a good job. There’s a lot more bitterness and regret in the Titans’ history than I knew about. But, all this would be nothing if Berganza couldn’t tie this to the present and the struggles of now. Berganza does this by showing Dick, Wally and Donna struggling in their new roles (especially Dick) as some of the heavy-hitters in the DCU. Lastly, I really like how Berganza made Speedy/Red Arrow both a sympathetic and unsympathetic by showing his errors and his core humanity as a father, with the added tension that he still doesn’t know his daughter is dead. All in all, Berganza has shown that he is every bit the character writer that Krul is.
Clark, Syaf, Beatty and Cifuentes did some fine work too on the art chores. They separated the past from the present with the shadows and tones of the inking. The scenes set in the past had almost no inking on the characters, even in the dark, which made the scenes effectively moody and even a bit ghostly, which underscored the unreliability of some of the narrators.
What’s Not So Good: I didn’t enjoy parts of the artwork (the stuff that happened in the past). The art team sought to show real teenagers, in all their gangly disproportions (skinny, prior to muscling up as adults), but often, the characters ended up looking unnaturally stretched. This was not a minor point, but one that didn’t hurt my reading experience too badly.
Conclusion: Ever since the end of the god-awful Deathtrap storyline, the Titans have produced a sequence of well-told character stories. This issue does honor to that trend and ties the emotions and the conflict not only to the present, but to the future. This issue is well worth picking up, as a stand-alone Titans story that now includes some of the major players in the DCU.
Grade: B-
-DS Arsenault
Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Adrian Syaf, Aqualad, Batman, Batman, Blackest Night, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, Comics, Cry for Justice, Dave Beatty, DC, DC Comics, Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, DS Arsenault, Eddie Berganza, editorial, Flash, Red Arrow, Reviews, Scott Clark, Speedy, Tempest, Titans #23, Titans #23 review, Vicente Cifuentes, Wally West, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review
Hey comicbookheretic! The Titans always has a lot of promise. I think they just need to find the right feel. The whole DCU is being shaken up right now, so I think that has to finish so that we get a solid roster and then start dealing with the characters who are actually going to be on the team.
DSA
I have only bought 2 issues of this series. The Blackest Night Tempest issue and this one. I can say both were awesome.