Titans Hunt #1 (2015)

Titans Hunt #1 (December, 2015)
“Titans Hunt, Chapter One: The Brave and the Bold”
Writer – Dan Abnett
Penciller – Paulo Siquiera
Inker – Geraldo Borges
Colors – Hi-Fi
Letterer – Carlos M. Mangual
Editors – Paul Kaminski & Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $3.99


It’s been kinduva Convergency week here, hasn’t it?  Now… believe it or not, I really don’t like to say the same thing over and over (and over) again… so, instead of, ya know… doing that, I’ll just link to yesterday’s discussion and the event.


And to avoid droning on about the other big release I was excited for, I’ll just link to our discussion on Superman: Lois and Clark from the other day.  All I will say is… when the news broke, I was overjoyed that two of my favorite DC properties were being given attention… and were being “fixed”.


Today’s subject… Titans Hunt.


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We open in Cline, Oklahoma… a small town which Roy Harper has found himself drawn to, but he hasn’t the foggiest idea why.  Well, while he’s there he might as well get a bottle of rye whiskey and enjoy the incoming tornado!  He heads into a convenience store, where he is tended to by a fella named… Gnarrk.  As he’s paying, Roy accidentally knocks the bottle off the counter, but catches it before it hits the floor.  To which, Gnarrk comments that Roy… is Speedy.  Bottle bought, Roy heads back to his pickup to tie one on.

We shift scenes to see the smilin’ face of Agent-37… otherwise known as Dick Grayson.  He’s on the trail of a group called Harvest, who are in the black market business of selling metahuman organs.  Word on the street is they’ve got some Atlantean goods at the moment.  Grayson works his way inside, and listens in.

Before he can act, however, a familiar-looking Atlantean busts in… and busts heads, killing the entire Harvest “inner circle”.

Dick rushes in to try and gain control of the situation… and only gets beaten up for his efforts.  Their fight leads to the waterside… and, when the moment is right… Garth gives in.  In his wake, Dick notices a whirlpool… which catches his attention, and almost stirs up a memory.

Next stop… I wanna say Hatton Corners, where a brunette is looking at a dilapidated clubhouse.  She is approached by a fisherman… and it’s soon clear that we’re looking at Donna Troy.  She wasn’t a Titan (or even created yet) when the boys first assembled at Hatton Corners… but we’ll allow it.

We next attend the Golden Star Awards Ceremony where we see composer Mal Duncan winning the Best Original Score award for his work on “Trouble Always Finds You”.  He is joined by his pregnant wife, Karen.  Worth mentioning, the award is presented by Buddy Baker!  As Mal goes to collect his award… things get wonky, but just for a moment.

We rejoin Dick, who is hanging out in his hotel room and checking in with Matron.  He’s watching “Crash Site” on pay-per-view… because he loves the soundtrack.  Weird reasoning, but we’ll allow it.  After hanging up, he gets another “call”… from someone who knows his real name.

This is Lilith Clay… and she implores him to find “them”… and then to find “her”.

We scoot back over to check in with drunken Roy… who is splayed out in the back of his pickup truck.  He literally falls off the wagon… and decides to call his addiction counselor to check in.

His counselor?  Lilith Clay.  They chat for a bit… and then she heads into her waiting room, where she sees two young girls playing… Twister.  Oi… bit on the nose there.

She tells her next patient that she’ll be right with them before returning to her office… where we get a good look at her filing cabinet.

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I’m not sure what I was expecting from this series… but I was happy with what we got.


I remember all the speculation from the cover… “Here Lies the Forgotten Titan”, I think all of our minds went to Wally.  Of course, that’s sorta how it all winds up… but I haven’t the foggiest if that was the original intention.  Keeping with the cover… it’s pretty cool to have Cyborg here… even if he’s standing on the wrong side.


Now… this group isn’t necessarily the gang I associate with the Titans… or at least “my” Titans.  To me characters like Gnarrk, Lilith, and Hornblower were just relics of the Bronze Age… worthy of a guest-spot, but I never really think of them as “full-timers”.  Hell, same with Roy… I guess.


Even with that said… I couldn’t be happier that the Titans once again had history.  Early on in The New-52!, it was mentioned that there were previous Titans teams… of course, that was “corrected” when the issues were collected in trade.  It was yet another thing I/we, as seasoned fan(s) lost.  It already felt as though we were getting pelted with garbage from DC… now, suddenly the garbage was wet.


In giving the Titans their history back… no matter how close to the “real one” it might be, DC took one giant leap in the right direction.  For far too long they’d played fast and loose with what did and didn’t happen in their ridiculous “five-year timeline”… With books like this, we kinda break away from that… and, like I already said, I couldn’t have been happier.


Gotta also say, this is a very pretty book.  When this was announced, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a “serious” book… or if it was going to be like an X-Men Forever sort of afterthought.  Was very pleased with this book… pretty much the entire thing from cover to cover.


Overall… if you’re a Titans fan, you really ought to give this a look.  Then again, if you’re a Titans fan, this miniseries was the oasis in the desert you’ve been crawling through for five years… and you’ve probably already read it!  Definitely worth checking out… and is (duh) available digitally.


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