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czamorad's review against another edition
3.0
Ever since "No Justice", the Titans book lost its direction and, sooner than later, it marked its cancellation. Too bad, because we lost the original Titans again.
As much as I love Dan Abnett's writing, I think he did never get what the Titans were about. The ties that bound them together and the complexity in their relationship as friends and teammates. It wasn't about letting them hug every other minute, it was way beyond that, it was about a shared history, a common goal and ideals, about love and some bits of jealousy here and there, you know, as with real friends.
When the team got stranded in a another planet, they got this huge opportunity to explore who they were, but odd as it was, they all had this crazy guilt trip... Talk about missed opportunities.
Too bad the book closed when there was so much energy put into it when it was launched after Titans Hunt. And the timing couldn't be worse. I mean, the Titans TV series was powerful enough to deserve its comic book counterpart.
When the original cast of the Titans got dropped after "No Justice", they tried to copy the Wolfman/Pérez formula once again. They had Nightwing and Donna Troy, then the "second-generation" Titans with Beast Boy and Raven, and they added Steel (as Cyborg's counterpart) and Miss Martian (as Starfire's). Well, it just doesn't work that way. Some characters may look the part, but they aren't the same and can't be replaced that easily.
I guess the deadly wound came when Nightwing left the book and got replaced with Kyle Rayner (yeah, they look similar, too-- that just made me roll my eyes). This is not how things work.
Pretending an odd pack of characters with no history together care about each other this much never worked in a book that was based precisely on long-lasting friendship. They never had the chance to hang around a bit other than saving the world. They needed to have some pizza, swim in the pool, fool around a bit. You know, they needed to bond. A book about close friends doesn't work without close friends. It's that simple. And thus, this new direction basically killed the vibe and in time, the book as well.
It's a shame, because the last story at Unearth was quite charming.
*Read as single issues.*
As much as I love Dan Abnett's writing, I think he did never get what the Titans were about. The ties that bound them together and the complexity in their relationship as friends and teammates. It wasn't about letting them hug every other minute, it was way beyond that, it was about a shared history, a common goal and ideals, about love and some bits of jealousy here and there, you know, as with real friends.
When the team got stranded in a another planet, they got this huge opportunity to explore who they were, but odd as it was, they all had this crazy guilt trip... Talk about missed opportunities.
Too bad the book closed when there was so much energy put into it when it was launched after Titans Hunt. And the timing couldn't be worse. I mean, the Titans TV series was powerful enough to deserve its comic book counterpart.
When the original cast of the Titans got dropped after "No Justice", they tried to copy the Wolfman/Pérez formula once again. They had Nightwing and Donna Troy, then the "second-generation" Titans with Beast Boy and Raven, and they added Steel (as Cyborg's counterpart) and Miss Martian (as Starfire's). Well, it just doesn't work that way. Some characters may look the part, but they aren't the same and can't be replaced that easily.
I guess the deadly wound came when Nightwing left the book and got replaced with Kyle Rayner (yeah, they look similar, too-- that just made me roll my eyes). This is not how things work.
Pretending an odd pack of characters with no history together care about each other this much never worked in a book that was based precisely on long-lasting friendship. They never had the chance to hang around a bit other than saving the world. They needed to have some pizza, swim in the pool, fool around a bit. You know, they needed to bond. A book about close friends doesn't work without close friends. It's that simple. And thus, this new direction basically killed the vibe and in time, the book as well.
It's a shame, because the last story at Unearth was quite charming.
*Read as single issues.*
josetinocoperez's review against another edition
3.0
68/100.
Después de un quinto volumen que me hizo abandonar la serie, decidí leer el último ya por terminarla. No me arrepiento: me ha gustado, pero dudo que me vaya a cambiar la vida. El volumen comienza por los Titanes encerrados en un planeta sin habitantes. Ahora que no está Nightwing, tienen que aprender a convivir entre ellos, a conocerse y a ser amigos. En medio de las peleas, encontrarán un punto medio.
Acto seguido, una villana (Mother Blood) les pone contra aprietos. Este final de la etapa me ha gustado más porque se centra en Raven, uno de mis personajes favoritos. En especial, el último número del volumen me ha dejado con muy buen sabor de boca.
Después de un quinto volumen que me hizo abandonar la serie, decidí leer el último ya por terminarla. No me arrepiento: me ha gustado, pero dudo que me vaya a cambiar la vida. El volumen comienza por los Titanes encerrados en un planeta sin habitantes. Ahora que no está Nightwing, tienen que aprender a convivir entre ellos, a conocerse y a ser amigos. En medio de las peleas, encontrarán un punto medio.
Acto seguido, una villana (Mother Blood) les pone contra aprietos. Este final de la etapa me ha gustado más porque se centra en Raven, uno de mis personajes favoritos. En especial, el último número del volumen me ha dejado con muy buen sabor de boca.
toloveisdestroy's review against another edition
2.0
Yes, you're right, I should've read vol. 1-5 going into this. Honestly, the art was pretty good up till the end and it felt a bit choppy. The character styles were really cool, but their personalities were so different from what I'm used to so it was simply jarring. Little to state, the comic probably is good for someone, but it was not the one for me.
roxcollector's review against another edition
3.0
Synopsis: The Titans end up on an unknown planet after Steel boomtubes them off earth in a panic during the events in Drowned Earth. The team spends a bit there until they eventually get a beacon up and going. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner shows up and takes them back to earth. While running some tests on Beast Boy, these gnarly flesh-like, blood vines burst out of his body. This thing that claims to be the Parliament of the Red and tells the Titans that the Cult of Blood is close and if the Titans want to defeat them, they have to go back to Unearth, that place from that writer's mind last volume.
They do just that, but we get a backstory of a woman named Sonya who was a member of the Cult of Blood. Due to her education background, Blood himself assigns her to investigate the Red. She does that while looking for a way out of the cult for her and her friends. However, when the Source Wall breaks she happens upon the actual Parliament of Red and is exposed. She intends to lure the Titans to Unearth to use their abilities to open a direct line into the Red to infect the entire universe with.
The Titans enter Unearth and are immediately attacked by hordes of creatures. Kyle and Steel are captured while the rest are left to fight. With the help of the trickster character the creator made, Kyle and Steel are able to get free and free Raven's soul-self. With her soulself returned, Raven takes on Mother Blood and the Titans trap her in the Bleed. The exposure to the Bleed, which negates Source Wall energy, turns Beast Boy back to normal (yes, he's still green).
Nightwing approaches Raven about joining the Teen Titans again and the fate of the rest of the Titans is left unsaid.
Review: I'm bummed this was the send off for Titans since it was cancelled. There's a couple of things it does well and others it completely ignores. This could be that maybe Dan Abnett didn't have enough notice to wrap the story up in a better way or I could be wrong and this was the ending chosen. Let's start with the bad and end with the good.
First off, what the hell happens to the Titans? Seriously, what happened? We only get what happened to Raven, but what about the rest of the team? It seemed sloppy and like it was only setting up another book which would only involve Raven of the current team. I want to know what's going to happen to Donna, Steel, Beast Boy and the rest. Are they just done being the Titans? What's going on?
Second, I envisioned the finale to be more epic than it turned out to be. The solution seemed really simple when the build up to it was better than the reveal. Raven takes care of Mother Blood in like two pages. It's ridiculous. I don't even want to go into the Unearth stuff because I didn't hate it, I guess I wish the subplot with the creator and his creation wasn't a thing.
The good stuff is basically that I love the characters and their dynamics and Beast Boy got returned to normal so that pretty much brings the story objectively full circle. I enjoyed the Mother Blood stuff to an extent. I am more interested in the Cult of Blood more than I was before, however. I did like the addition of Kyle Rayner and I thought he fit nicely; I wish we could have read more stories with him as part of the team Again, such a random group that works so well. The art is good throughout the volume even if Donna's forehead is a big as fuck in some panels.
Last thing I want to say is my thoughts on the series as a whole. The series is disjointed between volumes 4 and 5 due to larger events in the DC universe, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. I have enjoyed every book in this series, even this one despite its flaws. I grew to love Donna Troy more than I thought I would, as well as Steel, Omen and Miss Martian. I love these characters and I hate saying goodbye because I don't know where most of them are ending up, but mostly you, Donna. Give the series a chance. I think it's a good time and solid throughout.
They do just that, but we get a backstory of a woman named Sonya who was a member of the Cult of Blood. Due to her education background, Blood himself assigns her to investigate the Red. She does that while looking for a way out of the cult for her and her friends. However, when the Source Wall breaks she happens upon the actual Parliament of Red and is exposed. She intends to lure the Titans to Unearth to use their abilities to open a direct line into the Red to infect the entire universe with.
The Titans enter Unearth and are immediately attacked by hordes of creatures. Kyle and Steel are captured while the rest are left to fight. With the help of the trickster character the creator made, Kyle and Steel are able to get free and free Raven's soul-self. With her soulself returned, Raven takes on Mother Blood and the Titans trap her in the Bleed. The exposure to the Bleed, which negates Source Wall energy, turns Beast Boy back to normal (yes, he's still green).
Nightwing approaches Raven about joining the Teen Titans again and the fate of the rest of the Titans is left unsaid.
Review: I'm bummed this was the send off for Titans since it was cancelled. There's a couple of things it does well and others it completely ignores. This could be that maybe Dan Abnett didn't have enough notice to wrap the story up in a better way or I could be wrong and this was the ending chosen. Let's start with the bad and end with the good.
First off, what the hell happens to the Titans? Seriously, what happened? We only get what happened to Raven, but what about the rest of the team? It seemed sloppy and like it was only setting up another book which would only involve Raven of the current team. I want to know what's going to happen to Donna, Steel, Beast Boy and the rest. Are they just done being the Titans? What's going on?
Second, I envisioned the finale to be more epic than it turned out to be. The solution seemed really simple when the build up to it was better than the reveal. Raven takes care of Mother Blood in like two pages. It's ridiculous. I don't even want to go into the Unearth stuff because I didn't hate it, I guess I wish the subplot with the creator and his creation wasn't a thing.
The good stuff is basically that I love the characters and their dynamics and Beast Boy got returned to normal so that pretty much brings the story objectively full circle. I enjoyed the Mother Blood stuff to an extent. I am more interested in the Cult of Blood more than I was before, however. I did like the addition of Kyle Rayner and I thought he fit nicely; I wish we could have read more stories with him as part of the team Again, such a random group that works so well. The art is good throughout the volume even if Donna's forehead is a big as fuck in some panels.
Last thing I want to say is my thoughts on the series as a whole. The series is disjointed between volumes 4 and 5 due to larger events in the DC universe, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. I have enjoyed every book in this series, even this one despite its flaws. I grew to love Donna Troy more than I thought I would, as well as Steel, Omen and Miss Martian. I love these characters and I hate saying goodbye because I don't know where most of them are ending up, but mostly you, Donna. Give the series a chance. I think it's a good time and solid throughout.