[ad_1]
We’ve made it to the end! Like any uncomfortably long and rough road trip, all I want to do is get out and kiss the ground. Before Tom Taylor’s Beast World ends, the heroes must figure out how to stop Dr. Hate and Amanda Waller’s plans.
Show Your Work
I don’t know when or how, but sometime during Nightwing #104 Blaze warns Raven that part of her is missing. Now, we understand that missing piece became Dr. Hate. Although utilized every so often in animation, Raven’s gem being a prison for her demon side is a fairly inconsistent addition. I even re-read Raven: Daughter of Darkness to make sure that I didn’t miss any kind of set up. Regardless, this confusing new “Dark Raven” uses all their power to sabotage the heroes. Luckily, the real Raven whisks her wayward shadow self away to fight alone. As a result, much of the issue features both Ravens continuing their battle off panel for what may be hours.
In addition, Dr. Hate’s hatred for Raven appears to stem from an unclear place. In fact, the demon side may only hate Raven just because it’s a demon in general. Considering that Raven still has all of her emotions and abilities, nothing Dr. Hate has feels important enough to miss. On the other hand, Dr. Hate also believes that Raven is not living up to her potential. This includes regarding her relationships and attachments to Beast Boy and the Titans as weaknesses. Moreover, Dark Raven sees herself as far stronger for embracing power over friendship. Despite this, Raven proves that her friends are strong enough together to make Hate look stupid. There’s even a goofy moment where Wally snatches the helm saying “yoink!” then dropping it in a volcano.
Does Everyone Remember The Titans?
Meanwhile, Nightwing returns to the team to tell them about Dr. Hate’s identity and clean up the loose ends. First, Nightwing visits the President of the United States to smooth things over with the government. To convince the President to support them over Waller, he stupidly tries to reveal his identity. Unpredictably, the POTUS realizes that Nightwing giving up his identity to prove his trustworthiness is ridiculous. Instead, he brokers a deal to collaborate with the world’s leaders to handle this incident safely. Like similar choices before it, this move proves that The Titans alternative approach to crimefighting is far more transparent than the Justice League.
Next, the Titans use Nightwing’s method of luring out the spores with stronger metahumans to cure most of humanity and allies like Power Girl and Batman. Alongside Starfire, the Super Family, and other metas, Jon Kent uses his Electric Blue form to draw out then annihilate the Garro spores. Additionally, Nightwing distributes transparent contingency plans just in case their stronger heroes succumb to infection as well. One plan involves outfitting Donna Troy with a power suit to fight against the most powerful heroes who might transform. Her new super suit is basically a custom Darkstars uniform with chromium and kryptonite armor. Powering up Donna is particularly interesting because the Titans were once asked to disband because of her powers as Troia in Titans Vol. 3 #19.
Crisis Averted
Beast World’s epilogue is full of awkward conveniences. Imperceptibly, the Titans manage to counter every issue that arises. In contrast to the Justice League’s Tower of Babel, Nightwing’s choice to share his plans and identity sets him apart from Batman and his paranoia. Not to mention, when he frees Batman, he is able to convince Bruce to organize relief efforts with agencies and community organizations to deal with the trauma of the event. Unfortunately, other obstacles like trying to save the spores instead of killing them have very convenient solutions. For one, the Titans are able to gather all the spores left in Titans Tower and they reform into a husk of Beast Boy. Yet, the team averts this undesirable outcome by retrieving the severed conqueror arm from Beast World #1 to revive Beast Boy. While I always expected Taylor to use the arm, the method feels largely inorganic. Furthermore, the series ends on the exact same unoriginal cliffhanger DC used in Lazarus Island with The Devil Nezha and Batman. This twist also makes no sense after several panels of Raven crying and expressing care for Beast Boy. On top of that, Amanda Waller also inverts the ending of Justice League of America #29 by Steve Orlando. Despite the President knowing that she is behind everything, Waller and the Bureau of Sovereignty establish a new public headquarters in the old hall of Justice building. Compared to the bunker with two security guards they used to have, this is a slight upgrade. Regrettably, despite their propaganda and violent behavior, the bureau has yet to launch a successful campaign against the Titans nor Wonder Woman. In particular, Peacemaker seems to have inherited the same unserious personality as the John Cena version.
Recommended If…
Keeping up with Titans or Beast World.
You’ve always wanted to see the Titans handle a crisis.
You love the idea of Raven’s demon form as a separate entity.
Overall
With three artists at work, there are some moments of inconsistency, but otherwise it’s a good looking book. As per the story, Tom Taylor roughly justifies each story decision with loose logic and conveniences. All of the more interesting emotional and political ideas take a back seat to serving the Titans awkward contrivances. On a positive note, I love the subversion of classic stories like Tower of Babel to give the Titans a distinct identity apart from the Justice League. Even though much of the choices like Donna’s super suit reek of overcompensating to put the team on a higher tier. Overall, ignoring and handicapping the team for most of the event, then buffing the team at the end feels inorganic. Especially, the useless addition of antagonist’s identity feels like an unnecessary distraction from the key themes the event focuses on.
Score: 6.5/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review
COMMENTS
[ad_2]
Source link
