Titans Turmoil
It's the year 2027 and like the Flash issue from last week, it looks like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are going to be the main focus of this year in DC's future..... Which honestly makes sense because the Horsemen shouldn't just be shlubs that can be brushed off all easy-peasy. So let's jump into this future and see what's up with our Teen Titans and what problems they have to overcome. Let's check it out.
Throughout my reviews, I'm going to be talking about the frustration of being dropped into the middle of something and having to play catchup to understand what our heroes are going through, and other times I'm just going to go with it because this is obviously what DC wants to do with Future State. It depends on the type of story I guess and this one is just riddled with frustrations for me because on top of trying to play catchup and learn what the status quo of the Teen Titans in 2027 is, I'm also trying to decipher mysteries within the team, using flashbacks to things that are also mysterious and odd dialog to fill in the blanks and it drove me crazy this issue because I don't know what's going on beyond the idea that our heroes want to stop the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse... and maybe that should be enough but that seems to be the smallest aspect of this story.
On top of introducing the Teen Titans cartoon persona of Robin and then later a character himself, Red X into the main continuity, we have Nightwing acting really weird in ways that I don't fully understand because everyone is playing coy about everything in this book, not to mention in Robin Eternal which takes place two years before this Tim Drake said that Dick Grayson was ranting and raving in Arkham. So what I'm left with is Red X and whoever is behind the mask talking about what the Titans used to stand for and what they aren't now, while Nightwing may be someone other than Dick Grayson even though they call him that throughout the book and it's just stacking mystery on top of mystery with no clues to lead you in any direction. We do get some cool new, young members of the Teen Titans, but they aren't featured much and my big takeaway from this book is...... it totally could have been written more coherently, especially if they wanted to put Red X into the continuity.
All in all, the structure of this story feels so loose that it's about to crumble because for the most part this just seems like random scenes strung together with little to no substance and connective tissue behind them and that's a shame because there seems to be a whole ton of things that have happened to our heroes since our present-day but beyond for Titans Tower being destroyed and Cyborg and Beast Boy being fused at some point, there's no clear cut look at anything. I love the art in this book and think that everyone and everything looks great, I just wish that I was able to follow this story better because this was one of the books I was looking forward to the most in Future State and there's a lot of possibly interesting things going on here it just seems like everyone is going out of their way to not talk about anything going on in this book.
Bits and Pieces:
While I loved the art in this book and the designs of the characters, new and old, the story to me was a bit of a mess to follow. Yeah, we're going to be thrown into a situation with little to no knowledge because of the Future State storytelling model, but this issue seems to want to be tight-lipped about everything it can and ultimately leaves a confusing mess that's really disappointing.
Thanks for the review. Rafa Sandoval's art continues to be great and the colorist and inker make it shine. But the story....needs work. Like you said, the biggest problem is the storytelling model of "don't give it away, explain it later" Future State is using. They try to keep the big calamities secret, but make it a chore to follow and understand what's going on. Plus, I'm just tired of seeing the Titans broken again and again by DC writers. They can have dark stories, but they need to be able to counterbalance that with the Titans' youthful energy and heroism.
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