Titans #6 - DC Comics

TITANS No. 6, February 2024

For those fans either unwilling to fork out for the “Titans: Beast World” multi-issue comic book mini-series and the event's numerous crossover titles, or simply just completely oblivious to the notion of “the people of Earth turning into animals after being exposed to the Beast Boy spores” storyline, Tom Taylor’s narrative for Issue Six of “Titans” may well have proved a bit hard going in places. Sure, some early dialogue from the likes of Starfire, Nightwing and Batgirl provides a little background information as to what is currently occurring inside the "DC Comics" universe. But what this twenty-page periodical arguably really needs is some sort of synopsis for any within its audience who haven’t read the six different tie-ins published before this one; “Detective Chimp and Doctor Clancy are examining Wolf-Batman now.”

Luckily, the “New York Times bestselling author” does still manage to pen an enthralling yarn for those bibliophiles ‘in the dark’, courtesy of Tempest and Brother Eternity penetrating the security of Titans Tower, and allowing the titular characters’ headquarters to be quite literally overrun by beasts. Indeed, this moment generates a palpable sense of urgency within the facility’s inhabitants, thanks largely to Clancy’s children innocently watching cartoons in the Lounge Room whilst a horde of bears, alligators and white-furry bunnies are just a whisker away from ensuring their “vital organs [are] gouged out.”

However, just as engaging is probably this comic’s opening, which focuses upon Princess Koriand’r’s final moments in the presence of her ill-fated mother, just minutes before an alien invasion leads to the destruction of her civilisation. This flashback sequence is both well-written and seemingly connects to the publication’s current main antagonist – Xand’r, providing the storytelling with an exciting pair of bookend-like scenes.

Frustratingly, the same praise probably cannot be directed towards Travis Moore’s illustrations though. The visual artist is clearly a proficient penciller, who does a fine job in helping Taylor deliver an exciting adventure. Yet the American’s style debatably lacks a lot of the detail which this title’s regular contributor, Nicola Scott, definitely delivered, and resultantly, every now and then a panel will potentially ‘jolt’ a reader out of the tale, such as when Garth of Atlantis bursts in upon Dick Grayson and flattens a flailing leopard-person with a small tidal wave.

The regular cover art of "TITANS" #6 by Clayton Henry & Marcelo Maiolo

Justice League Dark Annual #1 - DC Comics

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK ANNUAL No. 1, September 2019

Although Ram V was absolutely correct in his pre-publication publicity that this comic contains “a story about Swamp Thing and The King of Petals and the greater events of The Justice League Dark storyline”, the “award winning author” was arguably doing his narrative to the thirty-eight page long “A Carious Bloom” something of a distinct disservice. For whilst “this one-of-a-kind story” unquestionably features plenty of Alec Holland’s horrific-looking alter-ego, as the anthropomorphic mound of vegetable matter ponders the fall of the Parliament of Trees and exchanges barbed comments with a somewhat disconcertingly all-knowing John Constantine, it is undoubtedly this book’s fascination with the emotionally draining fate of Doctor Oleander Sorrel which provides it with a hook few perusing bibliophiles could surely resist..?

Indeed, rather than simply being a tale concerning the super-heroic exploits of a monstrously transformed swamp monster, an edgy "supernatural advisor", a member of the Bureau of Amplified Animals and an Amazonian Princess, this “Justice League Dark” Annual instead provides its audience with a completely compelling, yet equally chilling, literary journey involving an agonised parent’s worst nightmare. Certainly, it is hard not to feel overwhelmed with emotion for Natasha at the loss of her young son to cancer, or the grim fate of the woman’s distraught husband when “his walking grief” wants to spend time at her sisters and seemingly never returns to therapeutically mourn their dead child with him; “I poured myself into work after that. Hours spent planting strains into the ground. I did not eat. I did not sleep.”

Just as enthralling as this comic’s tearful plot is Guillem March’s beautiful storyboards, which go a long way to help pace out the despair-laden drama across such a sizeable, well-populated periodical. Frantically panelled one moment to depict the quick-fire banter between Swamp Thing and the Hall of Justice’s most recent addition, as well as infer the panic of Oleander’s beating heart as he races through his home looking for his upset wife, the professional illustrator from Spain also occasionally slows things down to a much more settling, sedentary pace courtesy of a lavishly-sketched flashback sequence showing a grim-faced, bespectacled Sorrel experimenting upon his blessed flowers all on his lonesome, or a fantastically-colourful and well-detailed drawing of the short-lived King of Petals, eerily stalking full of bloom through the undergrowth of his former life’s garden.

Story: James Tynion IV & Ram V, Art: Guillem March, and Colors: Arif Prianto

Batman Secret Files #1 - DC Comics

BATMAN SECRET FILES #1, DECEMBER 2018

Promoted as a one-shot opportunity to “delve into Batman’s case histories and discover brand-new stories by some of comics’ most exciting talents”, this thirty-five page anthology arguably must have both delighted and disappointed its readers due to the understandably disjointed nature of the publication’s content. Indeed, many within this somewhat choppy collection’s audience may well have believed that the book would probably have benefited from stories such as Jordie Bellaire’s “Enough” being entirely dropped so as to provide the likes of Tom Taylor more room with which to expand his excellently penned team-up of “the Dark Knight Detective with Detective Chimp.”

Nonetheless, as it stands there is still plenty for fans of the Caped Crusader to enjoy with Tom King’s thought-provoking opening ‘short’ “True Strength” setting a suitably high standard for the title. Incapacitated by some broken knuckles and haunted by his inability to thwart the Joker from murdering a hapless woman right before him, it is interesting to see the turmoil taking place behind Bruce Wayne’s eyes when Superman suddenly offers the 'playboy' an opportunity to be as powerful as the Kryptonian, simply by touching “a small, impossible rock.”

Similarly as successful is Ram V’s disconcerting mental assessment of Officer Fielding following the policeman’s recent exposure to Scarecrow’s infamous fear gas. This terrifying trip alongside Batman in "the warehouse district" is theatrically pencilled by Jorge Fornes, and provides a genuine ‘sting in its tail’ at the all-too brief adventure’s end when Gotham City’s leading billionaire philanthropist visits a local medical institution to establish just how essential his foundation grants are to the hospital and Henry’s wholly unstable condition is properly revealed; “He hasn’t made much progress. The gas still has him, I’m afraid.” 

Regrettably however, the quality of this comic’s “hand-picked teams of creators” debatably deteriorates at this point, with both Cheryl Lynn Eaton and Bellaire’s “look at Bat-mysteries past and present” proving bizarrely lack-lustre affairs in their depiction of Lucius Fox helping his caped employer stop a Wayne Enterprise’s drone from murdering a witness to a recent drug-influenced gang killing, and a perturbingly petrified Bruce shooting a harmless deer in the frozen wilderness because it spooked the lonely industrialist enough into believing the animal was the Man-Bat..? 

Fortunately, “DC Comics” would seem to have left the highlight of this “bevy of Batman villains” to the end with Brad Walker’s dynamically drawn "The World's Greatest Detective, and Batman" featuring the unlikely investigative pair of the Dark Knight and Bobo T. Chimpanzee tackling the Riddler in an effort to ‘rescue’ one of the insane criminal mastermind'’s latest recruited lackeys. Mistakenly shot by the adolescent he was trying to save, Taylor’s writing not only provides Detective Chimp with a heart-warming scene of forgiveness, but also shows a softer side to this book’s titular character as he rebukes his deerstalker hat-wearing wounded friend for believing he underestimates the ape or is ashamed to be seen with the "Magnificent Finder of Tasty Grubs".

Writer: Tom King, Artist: Mikel Janin, and Colorist by: Jordie Bellaire