It was hard for me coming to terms with Dan Abnett leaving Aquaman. It was truly one of the more epic runs in recent comic history in my humble opinion. But we all must move on. I must find the strength. It will be okay... mainly because Dan is writing so many other comics for DC right now, including Titans.

Honestly this is exactly the comic where I want a world builder like Abnett to be in right now. After the events of Metal, braking a hole in the "Source Wall" and allowing all sorts of weird and wonderful things leak into the DCU, I can only imagine what warp fiend will crawl out from the tip of Abnett's pen. We are also beginning to see how Dan Abnett will deal with some of the current narratives introduced by Brian Michael Bendis... But I jump a head. This is a superhero comic review, right? So I give you  Unicorn Fights!

 

Major Spoilers Ahead

 

 

The Titans are once again being lead by buns of steel personified: Dick Grayson. Nightwing may be calling the shots, but it seems that Martian Manhunter decided that a Justice League liaison was needed as well... so Miss Martian is running ops (until she isn't). Grayson doesn't seem to like the idea, but he is going along with it for now. Beast Boy, Raven, Steel (the young one), and Donna Troy (I forgot about her) are following the former Robin's orders and investigating the Source Energy Incursions.

Turns out when weird looking aliens invade your dimension, it might not always be their fault. It might simply be some ol' Source Energy found its way into the head of a retired English teacher who wrote a bunch of fantasy novels decades ago when Heavy Metal was in theaters. When the characters of his imagination come to life, they play the roles they were meant to play. 

It's honestly all quite entertaining with top notch dialogue and a good amount of authors self deprecation thrown in. The end result is Miss Martian intervening and asking Raven to help by closing the door that the "Source Enegry" made in the authors head. He doesn't like the prospect if this at all. He protests the fact, even. Miss Martian disregards his request and shuts the door. Everyone is accounted for at the end of it... almost.

aYou see, it seems that one of the clever creatures from the other realm made a switcheroo with one of the Titans. Its really odd that it would be able to do such a thing. Miss Martian and Raven are the two strongest team members. If one of them were to be left derelict in another realm it would probably mean that the other allowed it to happen. But neither of them would do such a thing would they?

What Abnett has done here is nothing short of brilliant. Taking one of the more powerful heroes off the table so soon shows how brilliant the up coming comics wide event is going to be. If you read Superman #1, which I reviewed, then you know Martian Manhunter made a rather odd proposal to Superman: requesting that he essentially take over the world. It seems Manhunter's little protégé M'Gann is in on the secret power struggle and will end up subverting the team one by one. 

But that's just speculation on my part.

What sends this book over the top is the amazing work by the art team. Brent Peeples and Brandon Peterson's pencil are magnificent. Drama pours out of the pages, even when Beat Boy starts talking about DnD. While the wallpaper moments might be interrupted by dialogue (which is amazing) from time to time, it doesn't take away from the graphic impact.

In short, you have a brilliant creative team building on a story which has it's origins back in White Lantern days, using the story arc laid out by Bendis, and turning it into something truly interesting. Buy this book... and keep buying. You won't regret it. 

 

Rating: 9.5/10 Cockney Accents