Cutting Ties
Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Paul Pelletier, Andrew Hennessy, Adriano Lucas, Josh Reed, Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 14, 2018
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
With the Titans disbanded, Roy Harper has taken it upon himself to rid New York of a new designer drug, but along the way he's been duped by his ex and at the end of the previous issue, we saw Cheshire dope Roy up with the drug, causing him to have serious doubts about overcoming his addiction, but we also saw that Cheshire was working for The Brain and Mallah, who are the real masterminds behind this drug. It's time to find out what this drug is all about and why these two villains would have anything to do with it. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with Roy trying to apologize to Donna Troy about him being a dick in the previous issue and cutting ties with her while she's stuck up on the Justice League Watchtower, but mostly I think he's looking for a little forgiveness for letting Cheshire back in his life and fucking it all up again. Not to mention, he wants to warn her of an attack that's coming from what he saw while he was under the drug's affects. Too bad that everyone thinks he's just using again and don't take him seriously. It doesn't help either that we find out that The Brain is actually becoming smarter with every person who uses his drug and with his added intelligence, he's able to create a new energy dampener that hides all of his and Mallah's work............ which just makes Roy look crazy when the Justice League actually try to look into the threat that he was talking about and find nothing.
With the Justice League thinking that Roy's just strung out, Donna asks Nightwing and Wally West to check in on their friend, but since they arrived at his apartment just looking to help him with his drug problem and not the threat that he knows is coming, Roy goes after them and from a little bit of planning and because he was hoping on his friends holding back a bit, he's actually able to take out the two Titans and go back to trying to figure out what threat his coming to Manhattan. It just looks like he's going to have to go through Cheshire to find out what he needs to know.
That's it for this issue of Titans and while I'm actually digging Roy being out on his own here, even though he goes about things the wrong way with his friends and it's killing me, the overall exposition with The Brain and Mallah that gets us in the know about what they're up to is a bit boring and drawn out. Overall, it's a dramatic turn from what we've been getting from this title, actually splitting the Titans more than they've already been split and while I hate to see my heroes fighting, it's an interesting development to the story and I only wish that the villains of this were as interesting. As for the art, it's a little rough at times but because of the grittiness that I get from Roy in this story, it actually works really well here and while I think this issue was a little down from what we've been getting, I find myself really into this story overall and can't wait to see what we get down the line.
Bits and Pieces:
The story takes a dark turn this issue and while it adds dramatic tension between our heroes, the reveal of the villains and their plot comes off a little boring here and a little too drawn out, which sadly kills the momentum of the rest of the story we're getting. With that, I enjoyed the art and can't wait to see where we go from here.
6.5/10
I felt this issue was filler, nothing was achieved by Roy other than the fact that he like Catwoman can takedown a flash with ease.
ReplyDeleteVery middle of the road issue, I hope it picks up next issue with Roy fight Cheshire.
6/10
It is filler until Snyder publishes whatever he wants to achieve with No Justice and the subsequent JL and Teen Titans relaunch cause they sucked hard so far. Until then Titans will feel the collateral damage as part of the SFPA (silver fandom punishing act). How dare the Titans overshadow the Justice League and Twink Titans! Amirite?
DeleteI don't think Roy making a calculated move with those arrows is the same thing as Catwoman taking out 3 Flash's. One is believable the other is just ridiculous .
DeleteYeah, same here. I wouldve dropped this book, but I'll finish the run. Still can't stand Harper's backwards baseball cap. I do like the motivations of tbe Brain and Mallah, however. But somehow, the story isn't flowing well for me.
ReplyDeletei like the backwards cap!!! The entire run has been very slow paced
DeleteThe fact your reason behind dropping this book is because of a cap shows how shallow you are. Titans have been awesome. Clearly you deserve Damian and his Twink Titans go read that!
DeleteBoth this book and teen titans are cancelled - next month is the last issue of both for now.
DeleteThe Justice League, let alone Batman of all leaguers, have no right to disband the Titans. As I recall Tim Drake and his alternate future self weren't persecuted by Batman with extreme prejudice. Bruce seemed to have no issue whatsoever. When it comes to the Titans, they act dangerously because they have been friends forever and have no objective judgement over the
ReplyDeletegiven situation. JL is the worst and has made a chronal mess more than once. JL's decision would be warranted only if they were federal or spy agency organisation i.e. D.E.O., C.B.I., X Task Force, A.R.G.U.S., Checkmate and S.H.A.D.E. Since when has the League jurisdiction over every meta human? If so Injustice hits home in prime earth and JL is a group of dictators already. The hypocrisy in this story is unreal and for a whole team to disband for another reality's crime is surreal. If JL had to break up every time they made a mistake or their counterparts did it for them, JL would have been redundant decades ago. Bruce you are the reason for creating the dark knights with your regrets in dark multiverse and letting Barbatos and Apocalypse loose on the multiverse. So shut up for once and chill the hell out!
That's all true, Batman is a giant hypocrite lol.
Delete