Written by: Dan Abnett
Art by: Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund
Publisher: DC Comics
Both Teen Titans and Titans have improved on a Titans mythos from the new 52 era, and even though most of those stories were not bad per say, the issue with Titans back then, were constant reboots, and just a lack of continuity. That all brought up the fact that there was no lack of direction in those books, especially with still to this day unexplained Beast Boy being red. Yes I am still bitter about that!
Dan Abnett however continues the story here that he has set up back in Titans Hunt with Paolo Siqueira, in which team finally comes together as a whole. Even though this is not a first arc of Titans Rebirth, in a sense it kind of feels like one, as Abnett finally has freedom to expand on both the relationships of existing team, but also be able to expand on some of the fan favorite characters that were not a part of the main team and therefore did not have a spot in the first arc of the story. And this particular issue concentrates quite a bit on the relationship of Bumblebee and Mal. The cool thing about this particular arc, is that Titans might have finally found a villain, that could be ongoing threat in the series, and that’s always fun to see. Having a threat continue through multiple arcs adds to the depth of the series as a whole, but mostly it brings the sense of continuity.
Dan Abnett here is joined by Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund, who were artists on the Teen Titans and Titans books for a while now, and having someone that understands these characters and really doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel with the designs. This particular was always gone to be an older version of the 66 Titans, with some additions. Having someone that already has had experience with this team, is also good, and Booth/Rapmund are Teen Titans veterans, and they understand the dynamic of the team, and how action should be portrayed in a book like this.
Made in Manhattan is a new beginning, after the first arc of Titans, was basically a reformation of the Titans team, and amply called Return of Wally West, this chapter is focusing to how Titans are going to deal with threats and other situations going forward, and even though they just rediscovered their friendship, there is still some conflict going on there.
Overall, Titans has been a stellar book even though it did suffer some of the “Origin Story” problems. Now that that portion of it is taken care of it’s nice to see the team that a lot of people have grown up with, even though some of the other team members are part of the younger Teen Titans book. What does work is that the characters and relationships between them are well balanced, and everyone serves a purpose in a book. If you were disappointed by Teen Titans of 52 eras, you should be rejoicing as Titans are back!
