Written by: Benjamin Percy, Christopher Priest, and Dan Abnett
Art by: Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund
Publisher: DC Comics
Titans #11 ever so subtly adds another layer to the Rebirth story as Deathstroke tries to correct his wrongs.
This was one of the events when I read about it, I was both mortified and excited about. I was mortified that they are going to try to take Judas Contract and basically spin it just to cash in due to that book’s popularity, and excited because well Deathstroke was coming back to the world of the Titans again!
What Percy and Abnett wrote here should alleviate everyone’s fears straight off the bat. This is not a retelling or retooling of the Judas Contract at all, it is actually a story of Deathstroke trying to get something out of Rebirth events that saw Wally West return from the dead.
The story is handled with good pace, with events of both Deathstroke and Titans books being referenced here, and the memory of the Titans is still coming back, which is evident in some of the interactions they had with a character at the beginning of the book. But one of the biggest surprises come at the end of the book, which could very well have implications throughout the team.
Percy and Abnett have weaved a careful web here, and the first issue is a very good introductory issue in this event, with quite a bit of twists and turns to keep us excited for the next issue.
They are joined here by the still artists Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund who have started this journey back in Rebirth and have been mainstays on the Titans books for years now. It is always nice to see a main artist that have been doing a book not bail during an event. Their art fits perfectly with the event with Booth’s style really brings Deathstroke to a forefront.
Its always nice when the writer/artist combo know the characters as well as both Percy and Abnett and Booth/Rapmund as there is no need for a warm up period. They know what they want to do with an event and they can just go straight to it, which is evident here in Booth’s handling both more dramatic moments in a book as well as the action packed sequences.
Titans continues to be a very solid book even though it does not falter from some of the normal faults of a brand new story, it can be slow at parts, and hopefully some events will be explained in the coming issues as they did not make much sense here.
Overall this issue was very enjoyable and a great read. It is great to see Deathstroke torment Titans again and will be interesting to see how this will effect all three of the books going forward.