Titans: Beast World #3 Review

    

    
    

Written by: Tom Taylor
Art by: Luca Meyer
Colors by: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters by: Wes Abbott
Cover art by: Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, Brad Anderson
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: December 26, 2023

Titans: Beast World #3 finds Amanda Waller taking her next steps in her master plan while Donna Troy and Nightwing enact solutions on two fronts.
Is Titans: Beast World #3 Good?

Uh oh. Titans: Beast World #3 is where the cracks in Tom Taylor's script start to show. Admittedly, readers get a fair bit of action and solid visuals from the art team, but the more you think about the plot, the more it starts to fall apart.

When last we left the Titans, Nightwing and Batman saved a family, only for Batman to get infected by one of Garro's spores, turning Batman into a WolfBatman. Elsewhere, Oracle and Earth's Mightiest Heroes learn that the Garro spores are continually looking for more powerful hosts, which puts the most powerful heroes/villains at the top of the Garro spores' must-have list.

Now, Donna Troy and Starfire duke it out with Lion-Black Adam, Power Girl saves a falling plane but gets infected and becomes a phoenix(?), Donna Troy is called into orbit after Lion-Black Adam runs away so she can use her lasso of persuasion to temporarily restrain Garro, and Amanda Waller pays a visit to Stryker's to retrieve an important inmate for the next step of her plan.

Did you get all that? Good. It's a lot, but to Taylor's credit, he keeps the narrative moving quickly and smoothly to make it make sense in the moment. That said, this issue focuses more on filling in the blanks and moving certain players in place for whatever comes next instead of delivering wow moments.

What's great about Titans: Beast World #3? The positives from Tom Taylor's previous issues are still present. You get good pacing, good dialog, and a plot with direction and purpose. Admittedly, this issue is more setup and transition than the prior two, but there's still plenty of meat on the bone.

What's not so great about Titans: Beast World #3? The flaws in the premise are starting to show, particularly on two fronts.

First, why did Amanda Waller start a world-ending threat she can't stop and doesn't have the desired effect her narration claims? Nobody would look at this situation and think the world's greatest superheroes are monsters, but that appears to be the goal of Waller's plan. Either Waller grossly miscalculated, or Taylor doesn't understand what readers think is believable.

Second, this isn't the first time the Justice League has encountered a Starro, so there are at least one or two non-lethal options on the table that have proven to work in the past. If the heroes need to stop Garro in his tracks, why aren't they breaking out a few tons of quicklime? The entire crux of this crossover relies on treating Garro like a nigh unstoppable force, which is either a lack of understanding of Starro's history or a differentiator between Garro and Starro that Taylor neglected to think through.

How's the art? Ivan Reis took a break so Lucas Meyer could hop on the event. The differences between Reis and Meyer are noticeable if you're being picky but not big enough to present a problem. In short, Meyer is doing a fine job.


About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Disclaimer:  Weird Science DID NOT receive this comic for review purposes.  We are not trying to become besties with the creators of this comic.  We try our best to write honest reviews so if our scores don't match up with the rest of the "comic book press", it's might be because we are not shills looking for handouts and/or retweets. 

Bits and Pieces:

Titans: Beast World #3 shows Amanda Waller making moves in her grand plan, and things happen, but the fundamental flaws in Tom Taylor's setup are starting to show their cracks. You get plenty of big action, and the plot is moving toward some outcome, but the story only works if you ignore two things - the history of Starro and Waller's goals to have the world see heroes as monsters.

7/10