A million beast men are raging across the world. The Titans want to save them. Amanda Waller, who finally steps out the shadows and onto global TV screens, has other ideas.
Among the viewers are the Titans, minus Beast Boy, seemingly killed by human black hole Chunk – tossed at him by Waller, who claims he willingly sacrificed himself. With so many transformed humans targeted for death, the Titans must act fast. And Cyborg has the technology.
Oh for goodness’ sake.
Nightwing decides to confront Waller at her new Bureau of Sovereignty and ask her to call off the strike, despite the Suicide Squad chief having long abandoned any semblance of being a reasonable person. Before he can talk to her Nightwing must get past her lackey, Peacemaker, who taunts his opponent about his lack of protective headwear. It’s safe to say Dick wins that argument.
Amanda Waller doesn’t care about Nightwing’s arguments.
Waller’s own argument is truly twisted.
Raven appears, angry that Waller has orchestrated the death of Beast Boy and wants to follow that with a million more murders.
And it’s at this point that the story connects to the cover, with Waller’s other super-powered crony, Dr Hate, showing their face… literally.
And it’s a good reveal, one that further connects Beast World to the Titans mythology.
So, Tom Taylor continues DC’s defamation of Amanda Waller, tossing out her nuanced characterisation in favour of moustache-twirling villain. At one point she even treats the President of the United States like something she’s scraped off the bottom of her sensible shoe.
Surely Waller is overplaying her hand? A million people to die? That’s an awful lot of friends, relatives and others who are far more likely to be devastated and angry at her than thrilled at the idea of having a despot to hate?
And still we see no heroes other than the Titans. Surely the second Waller made her TV address Superman would zoom to her side and underline the wrongness of her plan to viewers. Surely Superman Jr Jon Kent, if faithful to Taylor’s own characterisation of him, would get boyfriend Jay to use his The Truth media platform to denounce Waller? And I’d love to see what Ron Troupe, who we see is in the press pack, writes in the Daily Planet – editor Lois Lane would be all over this nonsense.
The reaction of Flash Wally West to Cyborg’s excellent suggestion he take control of killer drones targeted at innocents is ridiculous. The Titans are not state-sanctioned heroes, they’re costumed vigilantes who don’t worry about paperwork, they do what’s right. Wally is seriously mischaracterised here.
The best scene in the issue sees Donna standing by Raven as she tries to hold it together.
The relationship drama was part of what made New Teen Titans such an unmissable title in the Eighties, it’s good that Taylor is keeping it to the fore, even if I don’t get why Raven and Gar would ever be together.
A general point: it really does make little sense to have a Beast World spine series and devote it to the Titans, who already have a monthly book tying into the event. This is a worldwide crisis, all kinds of heroes should be looking for ways to end it, not just carrying out off-panel search and rescue. And that’s what we should see here. Show us why a new Justice League is not being put together.
The art assignment is shared between pencilers Ivan Reis and Eduardo Pansica, and inkers Danny Miki and Julio Ferreira, and thanks to the colours of the ever-excellent Brad Anderson I honestly can’t see the join. My favourite sequence is the scrap between Nightwing and Peacemaker, which is suitably in-yer-face. And the art is part of what makes the Donna/Raven chat stand out. Also, check out the spooky Raven colour effects near issue’s end. And it’s thanks to splendid letterer Wes Abbott that we know what’s being said.
The only thing I’d tweak would be a character on the final page, who, at first glance, I thought was the one, the only Miss Duela Dent.
I like the cover image by Reis, Miki and Anderson, it’s delightfully intense, with Dr Hate and a hairy horde looking pretty darn formidable.
So, another entertaining issue, I just hope Taylor moves any questioning of the heroes’ methods to characters other than the heroes themselves. A Titan’s gotta do what a Titan’s gotta do, surely.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Ugh. You made me read it. Worse, I enjoyed it. Doctor Hate is inspired and I hope they aren’t gone by the end. I also hope Dick had the brains to record what Bizarro Waller said to him.
Oh, and that reaction of Wally’s is classic Wally. Remember his unreasoning mistrust of Red Star? Wally might be Super Dad nowadays but he is rightfully the conservative side of any arguments the team has. He’s also not wrong about how people will react but I also didn’t see him at any point suggesting they not use Vic’s abilities to save lives. .
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In my mind Wally’s conservations was a shortlived character trait given him by Wolfman and Perez that was gone when he got his own mag. Am I misremembering?
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Maybe but Baron made him a different kind of dick and both characterizations are why i will never fully warm up to Wally. (Site won’t let me sign in on my phone. It’s Steve)
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Gosh yeah, Wally had a few poor qualities under Baron, he made some terrible decisions.
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I saw the “Supergirl based on the characters created by…” line in the credits, so I put in the effort to find her. There she is, with Superman, on one of the Tower monitors above Flash and Cyborg, hanging around Superman and Green Lantern. They’re all looking quite depressed as they are covered with bits of green Garro guts. So in answer to your question of where are they and why aren’t they doing anything, I guess they are out of commission with grief. Which is better than simply being unaccounted for.
I also can’t tell where Reiss leaves off and Pansica starts. They do have some elements of style in common, so it’s definitely a seamless pairing.
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Well, yeah, they’re all up in space… but are these people not professionals? Address the situation now and grieve later. Mind, Beast boy wasn’t exactly Nightwing.
A million points for spotting Supergirl!
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Hey there! Good review. Wally’s concern didn’t bother me or strike me as being out of character in the context of his time with the Titans. He’s often voiced a conservative voice of reason. I don’t actually find his comments all that out of line. It IS concerning to know that Vic could take over the government’s computer system at any time, whenever he wants. And there IS a section of the population that will find that horrifying and user it against the Titans.
It’s important to note that Wally isn’t saying Vic shouldn’t take this course of action. He’s just making a comment about a probable reaction.
As for the last panel reveal…are we supposed to know that there is a person in Raven’s gemstone? Is this a new development? If so… when did it occur? I don’t remember reading it in the Raven chapter of the recent Tales of the Titans. I’m confused. Raven has an evil self?
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I just don’t see how the idea of Cyborg taking over defence computers is any more worrying than the idea that Superman can spy on anyone at any time, or that Martian Manhunter can take over the minds of Congress or that Wonder Woman can influence literal gods…
I’m also confused about Raven, in the past Dark Raven has only even been Raven when her red, four-eyed, Trigon genes, not a separate person.
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I think the difference with regards to Cyborg taking control of the defence computers, is that he’s actually doing it. As opposed to the other examples, which sure… are possibilities, but haven’t actually happened outside of conspiracy nuts living in the DCU. I would agree, it’s a story point that doesn’t necessarily jibe with how I like to think of the DCU though.
I couldn’t agree more about Raven. Yes we’ve seen her as “dark Raven”, but that was never a separate entity. It was actually Raven. The idea that her dark self is living inside of her forehead jewel is brand new to me. I suspect it’s brand new to most people and could, therefore, use some fleshing out if it’s going to be used as a last page reveal or important story point.
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I think most people would give Cyborg a pass given he’s saving a million lives. Well, I would hope so.
I hope this Double Raven thing is explained.
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