A Tale of Two “Titans”

Titans vol. 2:  The Dark-Winged Queen may be listed as a “vol. 2” but it’s actually the third in writer Tom Taylor’s run following vol. 1 and  “Beast World.”  That event series is required reading here as not only are the Titans’ status, and Beast Boy’s in particular, addressed following that event, but the entire volume is driven by its final twist.  That being the revelation that Raven’s demonic self has been unleashed and is now in control of her body.  This is great news for her father, Trigon, who also sees it as a way to grant his now faithful daughter incredible power.  All she’ll have to do is bend her fellow teammates to her will.

Except, that proves more difficult than initially planned.  There’s actually a refreshing amount of struggle here as Raven’s dark half finds these pesky feelings she has getting in her way, and at least one Titan shows that they’ve got their way of dealing with an emotion and memory-warping empath (that doesn’t involve creating a berserk back-up personality).  Taylor also keeps this eight-issue storyline from feeling overlong by telling smaller stories within it, and the art from Lucas Meyer, with a pitch-perfect assist from Daniele Di Nicuolo, conveys the story and action well.  The climax doesn’t quite hit the epic scope it’s aiming for, however, but it at least delivers an emotionally satisfying finale that wraps up this run on a high note.

That leaves things clear for the new incoming creative team of writer John Layman and Pete Woods to take over with Titans vol. 3:  Hard Feelings.  We’re now in the post-”Absolute Power” DCU and the Titans are now also members of the Justice League in addition to being their own thing.  Which involves taking out a powered-up Clock King when he comes to their home, dealing with Mammoth and Shimmer wrecking stuff in the middle of New York, reining in a Killer Frost who’s just snapped, and facing the schemes of the DCU’s premiere villainous empath when someone directs his attention to them.

I hadn’t planned on following “Titans” after Taylor left, but I’ve always liked Layman’s work, particularly on his creator-owned titles – and yes, I’m still a little bitter that “Outer Darkness” never caught on the way it should’ve.  Part of what defines his work in that space is how weird and irreverent it can get, and I was expecting to see that in the pages of this series.  That’s not what we got in this volume as most of the stories here are just competently delivered superhero action tales.  There’s the occasional bit where I can see some of the Layman I was expecting to – usually involving Beast Boy, or the bit at the start of Killer Frost’s issue where she hears all the things she doesn’t want to from her fellow Leaguers – but it’s all just generally ok and nothing that’ll set your imagination on fire.

Woods fares a lot better here.  He’s sporting a simplified, but still very appealing, version of the style he demonstrated in his career-best work from “The Metabaron” and it works very well here.  There’s a good sense of action from the frequent fight scenes, and the character-driven ones also come off well too.  Compared to this, guest artist Serg Acuna acquits himself well in his Killer Frost-centric issue.  It’s all enough to make this a perfectly decent superhero read, but not one that makes me enthusiastic about following “Titans” much further.  I’m inclined to give it one more volume to see if things get more interesting once the team takes the fight to one of their oldest foes.