Titans #18 - DC Comics

TITANS No. 18, February 2025

Initially focusing upon Roy Harper’s numerous complaints about Donna Troy’s decision to house the titular characters three hundred feet underground in New York City, as well as the gripes and groans of the archer’s fellow team-mates, a fair few readers of “All In The Family” probably felt John Layman’s narrative made the comic somewhat difficult to ‘get into.’ Sure, the dialogue-driven sequence only lasts six pages. But it also makes Arsenal appear extremely disagreeable, and doubtless there were plenty in this book’s audience who cheered when he’s succinctly told to shut up by Starfire at the end of the scene.

Sadly however, this doesn’t seem to be the end of the American author’s obsession to portray the former sidekicks as a group of grumpy protagonists who appear to barely get along, rather than be a warm, caring collection of experienced crime-fighters who have been together since they were teenagers. Indeed, Nightwing’s sudden spate with Wonder Girl when he well intentionally addresses the Amazonian’s somewhat confrontational leadership style, strongly suggests that Batman’s former Robin may well already be questioning whether he should have stood down as team leader in her favour; “Before ruling that out, shouldn’t we find out who or what we’re up against?”

What does work though is the Titan’s subsequent battle against Mammoth and Shimmer, with the powerful pair providing an intriguing moral predicament for Troy concerning the Justice League’s current stance to simply “toss enemies into the Phantom Zone and leave them.” In addition, it eventually becomes clear that the Clock King and Deathstroke are playing a seriously long game when it comes to taking their revenge against the constantly bickering heroes – with Slade Wilson’s sudden announcement of a “newly re-formed Crime Syndicate” providing a promising cliff-hanger. 

Similarly as solid as this book’s bout of fisticuffs are the layouts (and colours) of Pete Woods, whose ability to capture all the facial expressions a bibliophile would expect of an emotionally-charged group of meta-humans battling both their own self-doubts, as well as a villain who can quite literally “transmute anything into what I want it to be -- even the air around” her. Of particular note has to be the way the artist blurs parts of his panels to denote movement, and how well this technique sells the notion of Raven’s spell attack or a shower of ice shards lashing out towards the startled do-gooders.

The regular cover art of "TITANS" #18 by Pete Woods

Titans #17 - DC Comics

TITANS No. 17, January 2025

Having rather unconvincingly incapacitated the titular characters' entire roster due to suddenly suffering some “bizarre growth” in the centre of his brain, it probably came as quite a surprise to many of this comic’s readers that the Clock King would subsequently be so easily outwitted just twenty pages later. In fact, William Tockman’s defeat occurs so abruptly at the hands of Donna Troy, that much of John Layman’s storytelling in Issue Seventeen of “Titans” has to heavily rely upon artist Pete Woods padding the book out with a series of lengthy flashback sequences, rather than depict the protagonists making some complicated counter-attack; “No. I- -I didn’t plan for this. I - -I should have anticipated this.”

In addition, just how the former Suicide Squad member is even able to utilise Arsenal’s memories in order to mentally overwhelm the rest of the archer’s team-mates is never explained or explored. Instead, the American author expects his audience to simply accept that the villain has inexplicably gained some sort of extra-sensory, time-manipulation ability following his explosive exposure to Amanda Waller’s stolen super-powers, and is able to almost immediately use it to seek his revenge.

Similarly as unfathomable is debatably Troy’s ability to resist her fears and turn the tables upon Clock King using a shared memory. All the other Titans, including Nightwing, are subconsciously thrown back in time to repeatedly face their greatest nightmares over and over again. Yet somehow Wonder Girl manages to return to a moment “just a few hours old”, and subsequently relive it long enough for the likes of Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire to cross over into the recollection too.

Far more successful at entertaining any perusing bibliophiles, though just as bemusing as this publication’s penmanship, are Woods’ aforementioned layouts. The illustrator is very good at bringing some much sought after dynamic energy to Tockman’s dialogue-heavy scenes whenever the criminal is lecturing his helplessly bound prisoners. Furthermore, his splash pages showing the heroes getting beaten up by their most ferocious foes from the past are prodigiously pencilled – such as the horror on Dick Grayson’s face when he witnesses the android Failsafe mercilessly murder Batman with a giant bat-a-rang.

The regular cover art of "TITANS" #17 by Pete Woods

Titans #16 - DC Comics

TITANS No. 16, December 2024

Set during the aftermath of DC Comics’ “Absolute Power” major storyline in which “Amanda Waller seized power and launched a worldwide crackdown on superheroes”, John Layman’s script for “Stitches In Time” doesn’t waste much sheet space in bringing any readers ignorant of the four-issue mini-series up to speed with its consequences. Indeed, for those within this nineteen-page periodical’s audience who never even encountered one of the 2024 event’s numerous tie-in titles, the sheer sense of disorientation with the super-team’s sudden roster changes must have been incredibly disconcerting at best; “You’re okay with this, Donna? Me coming back onboard the Titans?”

Foremost of these ‘swaps’ is debatably Arsenal’s unexpected decision to re-join the group, and then immediately begin to become upset when he realises that the Flash isn’t staying on, or that Nightwing will be leading him. Whether intentional or not, this discontent, coupled with Roy Harper’s arrogantly brazen attitude towards an extra-terrestrial incident aboard the Justice League’s Watchtower marks his character out as being particularly disagreeable, and simply doesn’t bode well for those bibliophiles who buy this book for its ‘family feeling’.

Furthermore, the American author doesn’t portray poor Garfield Logan in much of a good light either, with the hapless shape-shifter being depicted as a bit of a well-meaning buffoon who inadvertently puts his team-mates in jeopardy when he enrages a massively-fanged Tamaranean Carcaline. Admittedly, this mix-up is perhaps penned for laughs by the former editor for “Wildstorm” – or at least to inject a predominantly dialogue-driven comic with a bit of action. But any sense of humour is soon dispelled by the Question’s seething response to Beast Boy’s behaviour, and her all-too quick retort that it's not the first “sloppy mistake that could easily have ended in disaster” that he’s made recently.

Disappointingly, even Pete Woods’ pencils and colours arguably don’t help sell the word-heavy narrative either, with the Harvey Award-nominee’s clean lined figures appearing a little stiff-looking during some of the action sequences. Having said that though, the artist’s use of blurred figures to emphasize a sense of depth to his panels is absolutely first-rate, with the Clock King kicking Arsenal unconscious being one of the visual highlights of this entire publication.

The regular cover art of "TITANS" #16 by Pete Woods

DC Vs. Vampires: World War V #8 - DC Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES: WORLD WAR V No. 8, June 2025

Having apparently decided to stop providing any explanation as to what is occurring within this mini-series’ tortuously tiring tale, and simply throw an absolute bucketload more B-string characters into the mix for good luck, Matthew Rosenberg’s narrative for this particular twenty-four page periodical must surely have completely deflated any reader hoping to understand just what was going on. Indeed, like the last human survivors battling against a blizzard-ravaged Sante Fe in New Mexico, many within this comic’s audience will almost certainly feel like they’re having to wade through waist-high snowdrifts as they painfully navigate the American author’s ‘storyscape’ of unrelated set-pieces and word-weary conversations.

Easily this publication’s largest problem however, is just how utterly disconnected everything feels. One moment the action is revolving around Miss Martian trying to hold off Darkseid’s forces in a desolate-looking church, and then suddenly the spotlight lurches to The House of Mystery where a dead John Constantine is informed that he’s been 'saved' simply so he can impotently watch the Lord of Apokolips’ unexpected invasion of a vampire-infested Earth through a mansion window.!?! Furthermore, any perusing bibliophile will doubtless find it incredibly difficult to keep up with the movements of Lashina, Mad Harriet, Caitlin Fairchild, Hank Henshaw, F.E.L.I.X., G.I. Robot, and Kilg&re, not to mention Jack Kirby’s roster of the New Gods and the Metal Men, when the writing doesn’t supply any rhyme or reason as to where they’ve suddenly come from, or what their motivations are; “I can still eat someone’s bones though, right Gilotina.?”

Admittedly, that doesn’t mean that Issue Eight of “DC Vs Vampires: World War V” isn’t completely devoid of pulse-pounding action. Far from it in fact, as Ra's al Ghul’s Batman and Alfred Pennyworth’s Green Lantern are prodigiously pencilled by Otto Schmidt getting into a right scrap against an army of Parademons. But as with so much of this comic’s content, the bickering pair’s appearance appears to follow no overall plot, and comes completely out of the blue.

Intriguingly though, what does prove a far more satisfying yarn is this book’s sadly short-lived back-up feature entitled “Wildcat: Going The Distance”. Penned by Shane McCarthy and drawn by Fabio Veras this disconcertingly dark insight into what happened to Wildcat when the vampire’s first took control of the world is wonderfully atmospheric, and remarkably manages to pull upon the emotional heartstrings of any onlooker as Ted Grant desperately searches for his missing son amidst a land ravaged by blood-sucking killers.

The regular cover art of "DC VS. VAMPIRES: WORLD WAR V" #8 by Otto Schmidt

DC Vs. Vampires #3 - DC Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES No. 3, February 2022

Considering just how many different super-heroes, despicable villains and pulse-pounding plots James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg manage to cram into Issue Three of “DC Vs. Vampires”, it’s arguably a credit to the collaborative pair’s penmanship that this periodical is only twenty-two pages in length. Yet whilst such a ‘tight squeeze’ might have caused other lesser-skilled authors to take a few short-cuts with their storytelling, the narrative to “Trust No One” seemingly does no such thing, and simply moves from scene to scene in an enthrallingly comprehensive manner; “We were meant to stay away from you Bat-people. But I can just lie and say this was self-defence.”

Indeed, the comic’s pacing is spot on, with even some of the more dialogue heavy sequences, such as “Batman’s investigation into the disappearance of Andrew Bennett” beneath the Hall of Justice sewers, and Black Canary’s visit to Oliver Queen’s Truck Stop hideout to discuss whether Damian could be one of the “undead plague”, doing little to slow down the speed of the vampires’ lightning fast attacks upon the hapless inhabitants of Gotham City’s streets. Naturally though, it is this book’s central thread of Green Lantern slowly increasing his hold over the Justice League which probably holds the most interest, even when Hal Jordan himself isn’t even actually present.

The fanged infiltrator’s fake anguish at the demise of the Flash is cringeworthy enough to make any bibliophile’s skin crawl at his murderous hypocrisy, especially when John Broome's co-creation instantly takes charge of the group’s investigation into Barry Allen’s cold-blooded killing and clearly directs the likes of Aquaman and Superman away from anything which would possibly link him to the crime. But the inter-galactic policeman's presence is still enthrallingly palpable during the Dark Knight and Jayna's subsequent grim discovery of Zan's light-shredded mortal remains.

Likewise, there’s a lot to enjoy with the tense patrols taking place throughout the dark, suddenly all-too deadly thoroughfares of Bruce Wayne’s home metropolis. Otto Schmidt does a first-rate job of pencilling just how dangerous even a low-life vampire can be when one surprises Bat-girl and Nightwing during one of their routine patrols. However, it is most likely Oswald Cobblepot’s shockingly brutal death beneath the pointy-teeth of an infected Zatanna which is going to haunt this comic’s readers for some time to come, due to the blood-sucking magic user’s callous desire to simply “eat some junk food” for a change.

The regular cover art of "DC VS. VAMPIRES" #3 by Otto Schmidt