DCU Comic Book Reviews

TITANS #8

No Egress

February 2009

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Julian Lopez

Inks by Bit

Covers by Howard Porter

Synopsis

After freeing Jericho from within the body of Match, the Titans soon realize that Jericho has jumped into one of them.  But they don’t know which one.  Cyborg locks the team inside the building and tries to determine who it might be.  As they go through the process, they soon realize that Jericho is not inside anyone.  They attack Jericho, who fights back displaying superior powers to rival the powers of the team.  Jericho is able to beat them all, blowing up the building and nearly killing everyone.  However, Jericho reveals none of it is real.  Everything that happened is all inside Nightwing’s mind.  Jericho has possessed Nightwing.  And Jericho is in control.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Didn’t this book just have a big ‘ol fight scene that ate up a chunk of one particular issue?  And in that fight scene didn’t we see each member of the Titans show off their abilities?  Or am I just not quite remembering things correctly.  I got such a feeling of déjà vu reading this issue and it was not a good thing.  I suppose it doesn’t matter, because the fight scene in the book didn’t really happen, so why should I care.  Really.  Honest.  I thought it was an interesting concept to have Jericho assimilate the powers of the Titans and I was curious to see how that happened, but that was only part of the big fake out.  I realize that this is a superhero comic and the fight scene is a staple of the genre, but I think they are immensely better ways to show Jericho subtly taking over Nightwing’s mind than a whacked out fight.  A not-real battle doesn’t seem to cut it for me.  I think the comic would have been more effective if Winick wrote convincing characterizations of the Titans, showing the team interacting with each other, unsure who is possessed until we reach the point where the team is willing to allow itself to get shot with a cannon.  I suppose I am being overly harsh, but Winick is operating with a number of characters with a long, rich history and rather than explore the friendships, he feels like he needs to indulge in fights and rehashing old plots (Trigon, Jericho).  At first this book was just bad, bit lately it has become frustrating.