Titans issue 32 is published by DC Comics, with writing credits attributed to John Layman, art and colors by Pete Woods, and lettering by Wes Abbot.
A DC/K.O Tie In And The Nature of Tie Ins
Titans #32 follows on from the last issue in which Nightwing and Raven confront the infamous Titan-turned-traitor. This marks the return of the character to the comic in a few decades. At the same time, Wonder Girl and Arsenal continue their assault on the Daughter of Darkseid, Grail, which ties into the greater DC event. Overall, I have been quite negative on this run of Titans so far. I feel that it has been largely uninteresting with very little to remember or stand out.
I also feel that the series being forced to take part in the larger K.O. event has really damaged any real creative enthusiasm the writer has had for the series. That is just my personal opinion on things. I want to start my review by stating how happy I am that we are finally seeing the end of DC K.O. and all its tie-ins. Overall, I had fun with the story and era of the event, but it started at the tail end of last summer and has gone on way too long in my opinion.
Speaking more directly to the Titans series, I think the K.O. tie-in has really made for a boring run of stories with a fairly damp end. I feel this would have been much more impactful had it not been tied to a greater event that has lasted way too long.
Terra in Their Hearts
In many ways, I found Titans issue #32 a very perplexing and much slower change of pace as opposed to the rest of the run so far. It slows down a lot of the action and casts in favor of exploring how to deal with the ex-Titan Terra. This then also becomes a meta-discussion on how superheroes deal with supervillains in general and if they are actually capable of redemption. I actually found this quite an interesting premise, and I would definitely love to read a comic book that explored this idea more in-depth. Unfortunately, I really do not think Titans #32 cares to actually explore this topic in any great or interesting way, as it only really presents the question to us.
Perhaps if this comic had not forced to tie up the DC K.O. side of things, it would have had more time to expand on the philosophy of supervillain justice. Unfortunately, it had to juggle two stories that often feel very disjointed, at least in this issue anyway. Up until the halfway point of this comic book, I had actually forgotten about the battle with Grail, the Daughter of Darkseid, which Wonder Girl and Roy Harper were tied up in. This happened simply because the two sections seem so opposed and tonally different.
I really do not think it helped the favor of the comic at all. Going in, the reader needs a lot of context on who Terra is, as well as the events of a comic storyline that happened over 40 years ago. Granted, it is probably the most famous story for the Titans, but I really do not think this is a good entry point for new readers at all. Despite reading the New Teen Titans and The Judas Contract by George Perez some years ago, I struggled quite a bit with understanding some of the references this comic makes. This was due to memory and a lack of context given to the reader.
A Tale of Two Stories
I also really do not like how this comic has very weird pacing, with a large portion of it switching between the past and present very randomly. It just came off as quite overwhelming and hard to follow. There was a strange juxtaposition of the Titans sitting around in their pajamas, talking, and then suddenly fighting Terra. I also did not think the idea of having quite a few pages dedicated to the cast sitting around talking in their pajamas made for a particularly thrilling read. This was made especially worse for me once I found out it was actually the end of this title, with it soon being redubbed the New Titans.
The way this comic ends and everything gets wrapped up was a bit of a mixed bag for me. For one, I think the way the Titans link up via the powers of Raven, despite being completely separated, and getting to say goodbye to each other, was a genuinely sweet and appropriate moment. Big kudos to that. However, the way we got to that moment was quite bizarre.
The way a big final battle against Grail was set up and then very quickly shut down felt poorly written. The cast of The Kids Are All Fight conveniently intervened, which felt far too convenient for me. The term Deus ex machina comes to mind. The way the last panel of Grail shows her floating in space felt extremely corny and reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon. I am really not sure if Grail is a character we will be seeing anytime soon, now that this event is done. She just felt really flat to me.
The Art of The Titans
The art of the book also did not really land for me. A lot of the faces of the characters, as well as the line work, looked incredibly ugly in my opinion. There are some close-ups of the face of Beast Boy that just do not look good at all from my point of view. Some of the core Titans cast, such as Starfire and Cyborg, do not even play a role. Starfire makes a minor cameo, and Cyborg loses in his Fight Month match against Swamp Thing. Because of this, I cannot judge how Pete Woods depicts all the Titans. However, I definitely think Raven and Nightwing look the strongest visually.
The backgrounds and sets of the issue look okay. I think this comes with the caveat that a lot of the book had the Titans sitting around talking. Because of this, I do not think Pete Woods is used to his full capacity. I also do not think that the comic is, in any way, artistically impressive for the most part.
The Final Verdict
In conclusion, Titans #32 sees an end to this latest volume from the Titans team. While the final moments are a little touching, the rest of the comic fails to impress or become compelling in any way. The narrative weight of the volume is lost in the shuffle of the DC K.O. event, and the technical execution of both the art and the script leaves much to be desired.
Read at your own discretion, but Titans #32 is easily one of the worst comics I have read in a while. It is a book that I was happy to see the end of.