Titans #19 Review and *SPOILERS*

Titans No More?

Written By: Dan Abnett

Art By: Paul Pelletier, Andrew Hennessy, Adriano Lucas, Josh Reed

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 10, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Our big arc that led up to the revelation that Donna Troy would become a tyrant known as Troia in the future is over and now....... The ramifications.  Yeah, I don't know what to say to catch you up at this point because we're going to deal with a lot of stuff in this issue that really doesn't make a lot of sense overall and never really made a lot of sense leading into the big Troia reveal so let's just jump into this issue of Titans and I'll try to do my best to make it all make sense.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins and really bookends with Roy Harper going throughout New York and trying to take down the manufacturer of a new drug called Bliss.  The thing is though, Arsenal is doing this on his own, while he's talking to Donna Troy because he misses her.  I'll get to why that is in a minute, I just want to get through the Roy Harper wrap around first.  Okay, so Roy is trying to take Bliss off the market, but only managed to take out a knock-off drug that is being made by Intergang and anyone who's anyone knows that you don't mess with Intergang.  Long story short, it looks like at the end of this issue that Arsenal goes and gets himself all shot up, but I'm pretty sure that he'll be okay.

Alright, so the story that led us there is all about the Justice League showing up at Titans Tower so that they can lay a big guilt trip on the Titans for how they functioned in the field when going up against Troia previously and at this point it's weird because Batman's throwing shade at everyone on the Titans team, but really it seems that he's more interested in Donna Troy and Wally West.  Wally for the idea that there's a time component to his abilities and I'm not sure if this has to deal with overall or the new ability since he got his heart problem in the Lazarus Contract........ or if he even has a heart problem anymore since last issue.  That's the biggest problem here is that we have a lot of stuff thrown at us and I'm not sure what everyone knows about or even what we're supposed to know at this moment because nothing is really spelled out.  So yeah, we need to run tests on Wally, lock Donna up on the Watchtower because she could one day become Troia........ even though I have no idea still how any of that has to do with Mister Twister, The Key or Psimon from last issue or how the doorway to the future is opened by bad memories........ I guess we'll never really find out.  So yeah, Batman gives Dick a talk about how he's running his team and at the end of it, Dick Grayson decides to shut down the Titans for awhile until everything is sorted out by the Justice League...... much to the rest of the team's chagrin.

That's it for this issue of Titans and while I love low key, talky issues like this one, especially when they're dealing with teams of characters I love, there's just too much out there that we don't know for me to really wrap my head around what's really going on here and I find myself just more frustrated at the idea that the Justice League knows more about what's going on here than I do, when I've read every damn issue.  Not to say that I wasn't having a decent enough time with the idea of the Titans disbanding or the wrap around with Roy, it's just that a lot of this issue was just going around and saying the same things over and over again, while not explaining the entire situation........ which like I said...... frustrating.  The art in this issue was awesome (especially Batman) and while I usually hate fill-in art teams when I've grown accustomed to a certain style, I was all about the way that this issue looked and wouldn't mind seeing more of this team in the future.  Overall though, there's a hell of story in here, it's just too bad that it's buried under uncertainties, repeating dialog and backstories that we'll never get.

Bits and Pieces:

While I didn't hate this issue and even love certain aspects of it, there's just a lot of filler here that doesn't use its time properly to try and fill in any of the blanks about what's going on with our heroes from the previous arc.  The art in this issue is great and I love where it looks like this book is heading, but overall, there wasn't much to this issue, which is disappointing as hell.

6/10