Titans: Beast World #6
Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 30, 2024
Cover date: March 2024
“Titans: Beast World – Part 6”
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Ivan Reis, Lucas Meyer, Eduardo Pansica
Cover: Ivan Reis
Variant Covers: Bjorn Barends, Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo, Mike Deodato Jr. and Jao Canola
Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer
We pick up this issue with the conflict between Doctor Hate and Raven. Here it is revealed that Doctor Hate was a piece of Raven that broke off after fighting a demon in Nightwing 104. Raven then sends Nightwing away to better focus on her new enemy. Dick travels back to the tower where Detective Chimp asks him if he is ready to share his plan. Dick says they need to get Superman. Annoyingly, for me, it isn’t Superman that comes, its Jon. I think it is time that Jon received his own superhero name, given his relationship with Dick it would be cool for him to become Flamebird. Then they could have a team up book, Nightwing and Flamebird. When Jon arrives, Dick releases Batman towards him, the Garro spore leaves Batman to attack Jon, reverting the monster back to Bruce, Batman then grabs the spore and kills it. Bruce and Dick reconnect and discuss their new plan for saving the world. They gather the strongest heroes to act as bait to draw the spores out to destroy them and revert the victims back into humans. Cyborg points out that they may have become targets of the military themselves, to which Babs states that Dick and Donna have a plan.
Dick goes to the President and offers to reveal his secret identity as a sign of trust. The President stops him and during the conversation Dick reveals that Donna has saved the First Lady. The President then agrees to contact the other world leaders and give the Titans his support in aiding those that have been transformed. In Gotham City, Sergeant Steel is confronting beasts, when he learns that the drones were compromised, he orders his troops to fire on the beasts. Jon intercepts the fire and draws the spores to himself to kill them and free the people. As the supers are travelling the world acting as bait, Dick gives Donna a dossier on how to take down every super in the field and a chromium kryptonite armour to fight in, just in case they get turned. As the story changes Cyborg states that only Donna has the will to overcome anyone else… Every Green Lantern would like a word with Cyborg about that statement, not too mention Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and so many other heroes who routinely have shown that their iron will is their greatest asset. Hyperbolic statements like that really urk me, it is such an easy fix too, Vic could simply have said, “after all our time together Donna, there’s no one I would trust more…” Easy fix, no need to power scale will power.
Donna then beats Clark and Kara to Power Girl to save her. We then jump back to Raven where she is shown fighting Dark Raven. They discover that the spores still contain the essence of Gar’s mind in them, and as the supers destroy the spores they are slowly killing the last part of Gar himself. Raven contacts all the heroes with this new knowledge and they adjust their plans. Jon and the supers quickly lure the spores to containment within Titans Tower. Meanwhile the battle turns against Raven, as she is being defeated by Dark Raven, Starfire rips the Helm of Chaos off of her, and Wally sprints away with it, destroying it in a volcano. With the Helm off, Raven and Dark Raven face off again, this time in a fair fight. Meanwhile the supers gather outside Titans Tower, Raven returns, having recaptured Dark Raven in her gem, and the heroes watch as the remaining spores reunite into Gar. But, though he has physically reformed, his mind was splintered too heavily and too many spores were destroyed for him to have the consciousness of Gar. Waller then holds a press conference where she decries the Titans as too dangerous and christens the Hall of Justice as the new Hall of Order. In the wrap up, Bobo confides in Cyborg that their may be a way to save Gar. They gather the arm he lost pushing the initial invader across the universe and through this appendage, Gar is restored.
Story – 2: This is the lowest point of this series. I pointed out some criticisms in my overview of the issue, but those aren’t why I gave this such a low score. No, the reason for the low score is how easy everything gets resolved. It is so easy that it’s a wonder these beasts were ever a threat, and if it is so easy to draw the spores out… why didn’t Black Adam’s spore come out when he faced Donna and Kori at the beginning, or when Power Girl faced Jon earlier? It was a very disappointing solution to a very engaging story. Afterwards when they discover that Gar is in the spores, I thought it was a good wrinkle and could be a real problem for the heroes. But no, it too was easily solved. Then the spores morphed into Gar with no consciousness, maybe here there would at least be a long-lasting consequence for Gar. Again, an easy solution from Detective Chimp. Everything was resolved so easily that it cheapened the earlier scale of the threat the earth was facing, and because of that the story was a major let down. That being said, I am intrigued by Waller’s Hall of Order, and by the reveal in the last pages.
Art – 4: The art was hit or miss depending upon who was pencilling each panel. I’m not sure what the exact breakdowns were, but there were some noticeably weak panels. One thing I will note, Jon Kent has never looked better in his Superboy costume.
Cover Art – 5: I love this cover! Each Titan looks incredible, and each Beastial super looks incredible as well. We get to see Reis draw beast forms of Power Girl, Red Hood, Batman, Harley, and Black Adam, all together and facing off against the Titans. It is such a fun image!Variant Cover – 4: This is the last of the connecting covers showing the Titans facing off against Gar’s Garros. It is an improvement over the Starfire and Donna Troy covers in that the faces don’t look nearly as distracting. The colors of Jon’s suit add a nice contrasting focal point in the background. It would be nice to see Wally’s suit crackle with a similar amount of energy in the foreground too.Variant Cover – 4: This one is a fun cover showing the grotesqueness of Garro’s minions. It is very busy, but striking in a good way.
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