Titans Hunt #3 Review and *SPOILERS*

Getting The Band Back Together

Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Paulo Siqueira, Geraldo Borges, Jackson Herbert, Hi-Fi, Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 26, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Our Titans of a previous continuity are all being haunted by memories of things that should have never been and these memories are getting them all back together....... slowly, but surely.  Yeah, I know that we're only three issues into this series, but not a lot has gone on to show me what the outcome is supposed to be.  Maybe I need to calm down a bit and work on my patience, but besides for seeing a shadow of Mister Twister and having our heroes doing and saying things that even they find odd, there isn't too much to this series yet.  Hell, I don't even know if we're actually dealing with something that happened to these heroes in this timeline that was then erased or if this has something to do Convergence.  It's all very mysterious, but hopefully we begin to get some answers in this issue and with me normally digging the majority of these characters, I hope they can pull off being a half way decent Titans team because that's been something that's hard to find lately.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

Explain It!:

It's not easy forcing those pesky repressed memories to the forefront of your mind and I'm not a doctor even though I play one on podcasts, but I'd say beating the hell out of one another is a hell of a solution and seeing that Dick Grayson, Donna Troy and Garth are doing just that, maybe I should go for my doctorate.  Yes, Dick Grayson lured Garth to the beach they're now fighting on and conveniently Donna Troy just happened to be staring out onto the ocean there as well.  Even though Dick is a huge fan of the idea of them talking about their differences, the fight finally winds down after Donna is thrown through an old...... club house?  dock shanty?  Some run down structure that I can't seem to find the words for and the three of them see a banner reading Hatton Corners Teen Club House with Titans written in between Teen and Club.  So yeah, I guess this is where the Teen Titans of yesteryear....... or from a previous continuity hung out, but I didn't read that run of Titans so I'm just talking for the sake of talking.  What I'm positive of though is that we get some really cool moments during this fight, where our three heroes realize that they know each other's names even though it's impossible and Garth even goes as far as calling Dick Robin.  Up until this point to me all the times that these characters have stopped because something reminded them of something just felt like Escape From Witch Mountain, where the little girl kept staring off and her brother would ask if she's remembering something.  It all came off odd, but here....... how do I write that sound you make when you put your fingers to your mouth and then kiss while pulling your hand away?........ because that's what I'm doing because of this.  

Elsewhere, we see that Lilith is doing more than we originally thought she was when she's interrupted from thinking about Roy calling her by Mister Twister haunting her in proper horror movie fashion.  He's tapping at the door, the window, talking to her from nowhere and even coming in through the phone.  It's all about how Lilith has done some magic to keep him at bay, but it won't last much longer and if she won't bring the Titans together for him, he'll just have to do it himself.  That leads us to Mal doing nothing as usual and Gnarrk breaking Roy out of prison........ but only after he fires an arrow at his face so Roy can catch it, which besides for being really irresponsible is Gnarrk's way in proving that Roy's Speedy.  So yeah, not quite the awesomeness we got out of Dick, Donna and Garth, but the parts with Lilith were actually really haunting and it was pulled off really well, as was the callback to Gnarrk calling Roy Speedy....... Now if only we can make Mal interesting we'd have ourselves a solid book.

In the end, a sound goes out that pierces the former Titan's ears, which apparently only they can hear and we see that Mister Twister wasn't fucking around with his threats to Lilith about doing it.  The coolest part about all of this though is at the end when we see Hawk and Dove because Hank hears the sound, while Dawn has no idea what he's talking about.  The reason this is so cool to me is because Dawn wasn't a part of the continuity where all these characters fought together and if she's not hearing the sound, then that means that this is almost definitely something dealing with some kind of other timeline forcing it's way through to this Universe.  

That's it for this issue of Titans Hunt and while I've been down on this series for not being on front street about what's going on, we definitely get some great clues in this issue and besides for Dick Grayson coming off like a cowering rookie, the rest of the characters in this book were great........ Even with that cowering rookie bit though, Dan Abnett does a great job in explaining it with Dick's inner thoughts.  Now only if we could get Mal and Bumble Bee to be interesting we'd have the full package.  Issue after issue showing me how Mal composes music for movies does nothing for me and as much as I can tell so far, it does nothing for the story either.  So far this is the best issue of Titans Hunt in my opinion and it makes me really excited for what's to come....... and I'm happy as hell because I was about to write off this series.  Great art all the way through and the colors just popped off the page......... Yeah, that's my go to for talking about colors, but just know that when I use it, I really mean it.  Go on and give Titans Hunt a second look because I have a good feeling about this title and we've been good boys and girls all year and maybe we've finally been rewarded for our good behavior with a decent Titans book.

Bits and Pieces:

While I was on the verge of giving up completely on this book, this issue really changed my mind by throwing out some decent clues in what's affecting our former Titans, while really making the shadowy villain pretty scary.  What's a bunch of clues and decent villainy without some good looking art though?  Well, thankfully we have that here as well.  Just an all around enjoyable experience that gets me excited for what's to come.  Go and give Titans Hunt another look if you've fallen off it's trolley because you might just be pleasantly surprised.

8/10