With the Titans newly reformed despite the adult heroes’ disapproval the team begins to act less as punishers of evil and more like a support system for a bunch of kids abandoned—or worse—by their parents. If they even have them.

The Titans get a mysterious phone call that Rose, the cast off daughter of the villain Slade, is in trouble. They arrive in time to help foil an assassination attempt on her, but are then knocked out. When they recover Rose is gone.

After the rest of the Titans finish escorting a pair of super villains to Alcatraz for San Francisco (and Super Boy finishes at school, and Robin finishes with Batman) the team assembles for brainstorming in their big mission—finding Raven, who appears to be reaching out to them for help. “Appears” become void when they literally begin hearing her screams. Raven is in the sadistic hands of the newest Brother Blood, who seeks to use her to open hell on earth, literally because she’s the daughter of a demon and his doorway to the realm. What was a pressing goal becomes an immediate mission (what with the water turning to blood and plagues of screaming birds and all).

The team has to fight a cult, and happens to run into Slade and the new Ravager, none other than Rose, twisted by the same drugs as her father plus his vile manipulations. Slade says he’ll help them defeat Brother Blood…if they give him Raven to slaughter.

This volume has a ton of bad guys, a ton of action and loads of teen angst. One can hardly wonder why all our heroes seem so depressed and anxious if this is what their teen years looked like. Also there’s this building element of nihilism, since it’s almost easier for all these characters to battle to the death or lay down their lives, rather than actually live them.

While a lot of younger kids were brought in to the super hero fold with the cartoon Teen Titans (and they should have been, I’m a big fan.) this is not the same Teen Titans. This band is sunk much deeper into a shadowy crack of the DC-verse and the mood and tension from these scarred, struggling heroes might be too much for younger readers.

Personally I always find tv and movies more fun when you can tell the creators, actors, and crew are having a lot of fun with it. One of the reasons why Marvel fan culture has been more interesting to me.

This book is loads of fun. They took great care to tie it into the show cannon (even stating in the introduction that this IS cannon), and using the show writers to write the comic script. This volume hits on all the past fun points—Brother Blood, Slade, Arsenal gets his costume, Malcolm Merlyn plots some stuff, and there’s a side plot with Diggle and the Suicide Squad.

The tones are spot on as well. Oliver struggles with letting others help him when Arsenal gets shot busting a drug ring. Diggle leads the Suicide Squad on a covert mission to save young girls. And most importantly Felicity awkwardly charms her way right into Oliver’s heart.

Arrow is past third season, but this is still a fun fleshy read, worth seeking out and adding to a collection. The writing is great, the art is wonderful, and it offers a little bit of a patch for those off season withdrawls.

ISBN: 9781401260958

Still hunting down the sleaze of the world Black Canary (with Oracle at the assist) stumbles into a slave ring with a twist. These slaves are also kidnapped heiresses, business moguls and other member of the One Percent. The scheme is a good one (forced labor and ransom? Score!)

Also included in this volume is a semi-romantic interlude with Nightwing, and the adventures of the female mercenary group, The Ravens, who cross paths with the Birds off and on. And sea monsters, for good measure.

Dixon expands all of our troubled favorite ladies and challenges them in less than physical ways. Oracle dodges the military and Batman’s babying. Black Canary tries to help people who really need it, sometimes even if they don’t deserve it. It’s nice to see them come together to a place where they’re standing up for people because it’s what’s right, not because they’re invincible or martial arts masters.

Dixon also touches on the issues that super powered people would bring, like people suddenly becoming weapons in the nuclear arms race.

This volume has its fun moments, but also has a more sober tone that the first book. Still, it’s a fantastic read, very recommended for comic fans, and public libraries wanting to build a collection.

ISBN: 9781563894848

In the beginning there was Black Canary and Oracle. One is fresh out of a break up with Green Arrow (that Green Arrow, yes) with a passion for kicking evil butt and a somewhat short attention span. The other is wheelchair-bound, hopeful and determined to find a way to still save the world from her clock tower. Oracle might be a Charlie, but Black Canary is not an Angel.

I really enjoyed this book. Really. Black Canary is sassy without being annoying, strong without being obnoxious. She’s on the right side of confident. There’s a strong sense that she’s trying to not just take back her life, but also take back crime fighting for herself, instead of fighting to support someone else.

Oracle struggles with the same. She’s lucky enough to have big Bat brothers watching out for her, but she’s tired of being coddled. They, for all their differences and arguing, find a friendship together, while also fighting tyrants, terrorists, and… soda reps?

These characters have certainly been around a while, but you don’t need to be a die-hard fan to enjoy this book. It’s a great place to start if you want less super powered, more secret agent style comic tales. With only a butt joke here or there it’s a great place for young teens to start too. Highly recommended.

Lucifer’s quest to steal and secure the dangerous magical artifacts of the world continues. While stealing a painting with an enchanted frame, she crosses a team employed by the mysterious and powerful Madam Cymbaline. She also tries to save a security guard from a more mundane problem—a heart attack—by trapping him in stasis in the painting. But “The Empty Garden” isn’t so empty and Lucifer accidentally releases Cymbaline’s brother, Yves. After that it’s a fight to survive between the siblings who are determined to kill each other, and kill her.
I absolutely love this series. It’s clever, mystical, but practical and the characters and artwork are fantastic. If you want something outside of the super man and barely dressed women of the genre, look here.