Titans #22

Fractured Part 2

Writer: J.T. Krul
Pencils: Angel Unzueta
Inks: Wayne Faucher
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Cover: Angel Unzueta
Letters: Travis Lanham
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Editor: Brian Cunningham

Our cover shows Starfire and Cyborg injured, but valiantly fighting back-to-back against an unseen enemy. This is a rough cover for me. I do not enjoy Unzueta's style, and I find this bland background rather lazy. I also hate the teaser: "Together ... for the last time?" Just last month we saw Starfire and Cyborg sharing the cover of Justice League of America #41. Besides, this issue takes place before Blackest Night (kind of wish the cover said that), and we know these two heroes will continue to fight together during and after that event.

Our story begins the day before that fateful Heroes Day when the dead began to rise. Cyborg and Starfire were ambushed at their East Coast headquarters by the villain named Phobia. She was among the large group of villains sent to another planet during Salvation Run, and although most of the villains eventually made their way back to Earth, some of them, including Phobia's best friends, never got off that planet. Embittered by this, Phobia decided to lash out at someone, and her victims just happened to be Cyborg and Starfire.

Phobia uses her psychic powers to make Cyborg see visions of some random Titans being killed before his eyes. Starfire's nightmares show her all alone, touring an empty Titans Tower, filled with monuments to all her deceased friends. Eventually, our heroes are able to break free of Phobia's illusions through sheer force of will. And the next day, they meet up in San Francisco for Heroes Day.

As our heroes gaze at the statues of their fallen comrades, Hawk decides to yell at Cyborg for letting Lagoon Boy be seriously injured and Power Boy actually be killed. As Hawk and Dove leave, Beast Boy questions Cyborg's decision to let Hawk be a Titan, but Cyborg defends her. He then asks Gar where the rest of his team is, noting that Cassie is the only actual member of the West Coast Titans in attendance (implying that Bart is not officially a member yet). Beast Boy says he told the team to go have some fun, since they're still mourning the death of Red Devil.

Starfire realizes this very room is her greatest fear, so she goes outside for a minute and spots Donna Troy returning from the hospital. Donna was visiting Roy Harper, who recently had his arm ripped off by the villain Prometheus. And our story ends with Starfire giving Donna a big hug about an hour before the Blackest Night begins.




Well, this issue did fill in a few gaps for me about a handful of characters I didn't pay attention to during Bart's death and return. But other than that, I find it kind of pointless. We didn't need to see Cyborg and Starfire attacked by psychic nightmares, because that already happened, or will soon happen, in Blackest Night: Titans. So everything here is rather redundant, with underwhelming art and a confusing timeline. Blackest Night is almost over. Many other series have already moved on. But J.T. Krul wants to keep going back to showing everyone sitting around feeling sorry about themselves before the zombie attacks begin.

Next time, we actually will return to Blackest Night (I swear!) in Adventure Comics #7.