Comic News And Reviews

By: Eric Wallace (writer), Fabrizio Fiorentino (art), Rex Ogle (editor)

The Story: Family Reunions, Part 2: There’s a whole lot of fighting by a lot of people in this book. Does any of it matter? No. The show-stealing action is the Dick Grayson-Wilson Slade fight. Slap down!

What’s Good: It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a Titans book and I’m glad I opened this one up. There’s a lot of history between Slade and Grayson. The wrinkle this timer is that Dick is in the Batman suit. Wallace and Fiorentino both draw out that history into awesomely bloody conflict. Could Robin have handled Slade in the old days? Nope. Can he now? Slade is certainly surprised by how Dick has grown. The fight shows us how much. He’s more flexible and adaptive now, despite having a base fighting style that Slade is still able to exploit. Fiorentino’s art is beautiful, evocative and clear, especially for all the action. The poses are dynamic without being too exaggerated. The camera angles are effective and the fight moves surprising. Check out Slade taking down Dick’s high-kick. The action elsewhere in the book was fun, but I really tuned in for Dick Grayson, who is really near the top of my list of favorite characters.

What’s Not So Good: I found the blood a bit gratuitous and not quite following the laws of physics or material sciences (it came through Wilson’s mask). Fiorentino also has a weird way of looking at light and shadows that makes some of his scenes look like the light source is omnidirectional. Check out the big double-splash page where Arsenal is in a gooey bind. The light is coming from everywhere. The shadows (the few that there are) don’t seem attached to anything. I think the art also suffered from a lack of backgrounds. A large proportion of the panels had the action happening in some sort of visual ether. So while the stuff that was drawn was pretty good, as a comic reader, I want more of a visual experience than I got from this book.

Conclusion: You only need one reason to tune into this book and it’s the Grayson-Slade slap-down. Sit back in your easy-boys and enjoy it!

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault

Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Batman, DC Comics, Reviews, comic books, Comic Book Reviews, Weekly Comic Book Review, comic reviews, Dick Grayson, DS Arsenault, Rex Ogle, Titans #29, Titans #29 review, Wilson Slade, EWric Wallace, Fabrizio Fiorentino

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