DC Comics reviews 9/18/19 – Justice League #32, Batman #79

Teen Titans #34

The cover of Teen Titans 34 promises to reveal the traitor, but DC has fallen into this habit where the cover doesn’t really deliver what’s actually inside the issue. Besides there’s that cliffhanger with Lobo and the Year of the Villain crossover to deal with so addressing this big subplot didn’t seem that pressing.

Here was a nice instance of a tremendous surprise as writer Adam Glass makes good on the promise with one of this run’s strongest issues yet.

After Djinn’s Ring comes up missing, Robin puts the tower on lock down until he figures out the traitor. One by one he interrogates his teammates allowing Glass to spend more time developing the characters particularly their response to being the suspect.

This incarnation of the Teen Titans has been an unusual one with Glass quickly establishing the newcomers while writing the established characters (Robin and Red Arrow specifically) somewhat out of character. That’s played up again this issue during the interrogation sequences, which raise more questions than answers.

Bernard Chang’s unique art style gives the book such a strong visual identity. It’s nice to see a creative team so consistently locked in as Chang is with Glass. In this issue, Chang focuses on perspectives to make the interactions more dramatic. It’s done beautifully and really ramps up the tension. Marcelo Maiolo’s colors are some of the most striking of any DC book each month and the boldness of the colors helps give the title an extra oomph.

I wasn’t expecting this issue at all and the twist at the end should leave plenty of readers shocked and anxious to see what happens next. This was a very strong outing from the Titans creative team.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: DC Comics