Teen Titans #34 Review

One Ring To Rule Them All

Written By: Adam Glass

Art By: Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 18, 2019

There's been some tension in the Teen Titans lately and I don't know how anyone is going to feel when they learn that Robin  and Djinn have been pulling the old Identity Crisis mind screw-job on villains and making them into responsible members of society.  Yeah.... somehow that feels worse than just keeping them locked up in a dungeon like they were doing, but all these questions we have about the morality of their actions is going to have to be put on hold to deal with the idea that someone has stolen Djinn's ring and whoever it may be has just taken the power of genie for themselves.  Let's jump into this issue and find out who's stolen the magic.  Let's check it out.

There's been a lot going on in the Teen Titans lately with Robin having a dungeon for villains, someone on the team releasing them and Red Arrow killing Deathstroke, not to mention that we're now dealing with putting whammies on villains minds.  So to deal with this we add something to the mix and that's someone stealing Djinn's ring off her finger, which gives the bearer the ability to control her and it's with this final plot point that we see Adam Glass using a clever way to bring recap to the story in Damian interrogating everyone on the team........ clever, but it also just continues to make Damian the biggest dick ever.

Yeah, there's a lot of recap for constant readers out there, but it's at least done in a way that gives you personal insights from the characters involved and while this aspect is the majority of the story, showcasing character relationships and allowing us to see the current status quo of the team, it's really the reveal at the end of the issue that makes this installment a stand out to a degree........ Well, it really makes you sit back and say "Wow" because for all the recap involved, I don't know if I can call this issue a standout, but it's certainly interesting, especially if it finally leads us to the "Other" plot line that constantly seems to show up, only to be put to the background to deal with some tie-in.  

All in all, the cliffhanger makes this book, while I still enjoyed the recap for how it was done, not to mention that I really enjoyed the art in this issue.  The biggest problems are the lack of progression in Damian's character, who constantly seems like he's just regressing back to the character he was when he first hit the scene and the idea that this is a recap issue for all intents and purposes.  But damn..... that cliffhanger is bad ass and I can't wait to see where it takes our Teen Titans in the future.  

Bits and Pieces:

I really enjoyed the art this issue and the way that Adam Glass gave us a recap issue in a interesting way, while moving the story into a crazy new direction that may or may not finally get us to that "Other" bad guy we keep hearing about, but never seeing.  There may not be a lot new to old readers, but you might learn old things from a new perspective that comes off at least clever in my mind.  Really though, read this issue for the cliffhanger alone because it's nuts.

7/10