Tales of the Titans Starring Raven #2 variant cover, via DC Comics.
Tales of the Titans Starring Raven #2 — Tini Howard, Writer; Eleonora Carlini, Artist; Lee Loughridge, Colorist
Ray — 8.5/10
Ray: Last month, Starfire’s spotlight issue took her to another planet for a solo adventure and a chance to exorcise her demons regarding her sister. Raven, of course, has an even darker origin story and her demons are much more literal. Combined with her occasional deaths and returns and her sometimes-perpetual teenagerhood, it’s been hard for her to get any traction in terms of character growth. Tini Howard takes these issues on first-hand with a story that focuses rather heavily on Raven’s anxiety about growing up — and her fears that she’ll never be truly free of her father. The plot device for this is Pantha’s baby shower, which brings the Titans together. I like that we’re seeing this character again, but it’s kind of funny that she seems to be wearing her mask while eight months pregnant at her own baby shower. Raven has trouble getting into the revelry, though, as she finds parts of it rather triggering.
Fathers and sons. Via DC Comics.
I like the focus on the Raven/Starfire friendship throughout this issue, which has shades of the beloved animated version. But soon, Raven’s on her own — working with a member of Azarath’s guard to protect a young pregnant woman who has found herself in a similar situation as Raven’s mother. This time, the culprit isn’t Trigon but his youngest son, Trilogy, who is taking on a human form and seems to have more complexities to his character. While the evil cult shepherding the whole thing is sort of generic and the plot moves too fast for Raven’s new allies and enemies to really develop at all, the story has a great focus on Raven’s character development that seems to set her on a new path, and I like its notes of hope for Trilogy, who didn’t ask to be born into a family of a monster and seems to slowly be carving his own path. So far, these are two-for-two in terms of strong character development.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
