DC Comics reviews 8/21/19 – Batman #77, Superman Year One #2

Teen Titans #33

This iteration of the Teen Titans has always been about pushing the limits of a superhero, but this latest issue takes it to a new level.

Despite the cover tease there’s not a huge Year of the Villain tie-in this issue. That’s fine since the adversary the team is going to face is Lobo, the same villain who’s been battling the team over the last few issues.

Writer Adam Glass does throw in an obligatory couple of pages addressing YOTV, but most of the issue is seeing how the team has picked up the pieces after Lobo’s assault and Red Arrow killing Deathstroke.

Glass also has the team facing off against a pair of longtime Teen Titans villains. The big twist though is the strain the team is under despite settling on a new means of dealing with captured villains. It’s a bold strategy and one that attempts to find a happy medium between the Justice League and Suicide Squad’s approach.

Sean Chen stepped in as fill-in artist for Bernard Chang. Chen has been an under appreciated artist for years and it was nice seeing his more straightforward take on the team. Chang has a more unique exaggerated style while Chen uses a clean, realistic spin on the characters and action sequences. Chang has been very consistent since joining Glass on the book, but if he needs future breaks, Chen would make an excellent fill-in.

Glass will definitely need to tackle the ethics of this solution whether from one of the team or the Justice League. There’s a lot of storytelling opportunities with this development and it’ll be interesting to see how Glass approaches it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10