The last issue of Titans by writer Tom Taylor, joined by Lucas Meyer, wraps up the eight-part storyline “The Dark-Winged Queen”. Watching the Titans grow out of Taylor’s Nightwing series and fully launch into their own book after the Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths event was quite a journey. Within this series, we have seen the Titans rise to the legacy of the Justice League, but now they face another threat from within their ranks, as Raven has fully embraced her crown and title of evil. Can the Titans stop her, and at what cost?
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If this happens to be your first issue of Titans, I strongly recommend you go back to issue #8 of this series and check out the entire storyline, as there are some parallels to it being a Titans version of the Dark Phoenix Saga. Watching what has happened to Raven as her demonic half went rogue on its own has been quite an epic. That demonic half has caused havoc by becoming Doctor Hate and creating issues within the major DC Comics event Beast World. Then, in the Titans series, the demonic half has built up her crown and is ready to ascend.
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Art-wise, Lucas Meyer, joined by colorist Adriano Lucas, crafts pages that elevate the threats to a full-scale attack and showcase why the Titians have become the World’s Greatest Superheroes in the absence of the Justice League. At the very start, we see powerhouses like Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern (Alan Scott) swatted down by a wild Trigon in the presence of the anger-fueled Raven. The creative team sets up the seriousness of the threats; Tom Taylor’s script continues the drama and action on a different level as Beast Boy takes the battle to the evil-possessed Raven, an excellent role-reversal callback to Beast World.
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I don’t want to spoil the conclusion for you, but Tom Taylor does a great job of closing his time as a writer of this arc and how it will lead into the current event, Absolute Power. Some familiar tropes are used, but the way Taylor and Meyer present the Titans’ “togetherness” is very entertaining, and I would love to see it again by the team. What was great about this conclusion is that nothing was thrown away, and the story wraps in a conclusion that fits the mannerisms of this current volume. Taylor and Meyer wonderfully show the Titans as the premier team and give Waller another reason to hate super-powered beings, making this a fantastic prequel to Absolute Power. I’ll miss these two on this title, but I look forward to what’s next in DC’s All In initiative.
While it may be the swan song for Tom Taylor on Titans, how will the Dark-Winged Queen fare against the Titans? The saga of Raven possessed by hate and evil has been a journey that has fully spilled onto the DC Universe. Now, we get the full conclusion that will resolve Raven’s transformation. Taylor and Lucas Meyer give us quite the issue that shows why the Titans are Earth’s protectors and helps to justify Waller’s anger, leading her toward Absolute Power. Before we go All In, see how it ends for Raven.
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