Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Also,

Sunday, July 6, 2025

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3792 - Thor #168 - 1969 - and a Collection of My Oldest comic books - part four


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3792 - Thor #168 - 1969 -  and a Collection of My Oldest comic books - part four

Hi, Welcome. Thanks for clicking inside this post.

Before I start, I want to acknowledge that today is the day TEN YEARS AGO when I started the daily HEY MOM feature, two days after my Mom passed away.

I plan to write about that event tomorrow and share a song as is fitting for Music Monday.

Today is COMIC BOOK SUNDAY, which would not exist without my parents, especially my Mother, giving me comics as gifts for most of my life even taking me to stores when I was little to buy me a comic or let me spend my allowance on comics.

My first allowance was the cost of two comics and tax. Comics were twelve cents then, so my allowance was twenty-five cents.

The tradition of giving me comics persisted until the last year of my Dad's life. For many years near the end, his birthday and Christmas gifts to me were buying my monthly comics at Fanfare and having them shipped to me, which is what always happens.

And so, Comic Book Sunday...

I have this series on the blog that I have neglected. It's a series in which I share about my oldest comics. Farther below, I have collected the three posts I have made about these comics and collected all the covers for a fast scroll through the titles.

As I explain below, my first comic was Detective Comics #351 with Batman and Robin going against the Cluemaster. It was published in May of 1966. I was four-years-old.

I was not proceeding in chronological order, but the first post shares comics I had given to me (I don't think I had an allowance yet) in late 1967 and early 1968 -- Christmas and my birthday, which were prime times to give me comic books as gifts.

I am keen to track other early comics of mine, which I have to do by memory as the comics themselves are in boxes in a storage facility in Michigan. I am hoping to bring them out here next year or the year after.

MY OLDEST parts one and two (linked below) collect multiple titles because most if not all of the content was copied in from various posts on the 365 T-Shirts blog. I am more interested now in featuring one issue at a time in this series both for focus and because I have a tendency to try cram everything in one, gargantuan post, and that's really not necessary.

So, today's post is dedicated to Thor.

Since I have to figure out the oldest issue by memory, I had some doubt about which Thor issue I had first.

I am pretty sure it was The Mighty Thor #168 - September 1969

The Mighty Thor- wiki.


THE MIGHTY THOR SERIES at COMIC VINE 

The Journey into Mystery series at COMIC VINE

The Mighty Thor #168 - September 1969

However, in reviewing the entire series at COMIC VINE (my preferred database), I had some doubt.

Partly, my doubt stemmed from having bought a t-shirt featuring The Mighty Thor #151, published in April of 1968.

T-SHIRT

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/thor-151-to-rise-again/4000-124579/

I think that cover only looks familiar because of the shirt I now own that I have owned for a few years after a moment in which I realized I did not have a Thor t-shirt and went and found one.

I love Thor.

I am working on a catch-all post about Al Ewing's twenty-five issue story arc of The Immortal Thor.

Previously, I wrote about one issue in particular: The Immortal Thor #020 [Legacy #781] in my first installment on why I still read comics books:

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Shortly before that May post, I shared a post by the wonderful Marvel editor Tom Brevoort on Thor:

Saturday, March 29, 2025

BTW, I had dropped the Thor title from my subscriptions in 2024 and resumed it in 2025, at which point I caught up and read the entire run and was blown away! That journey is described in that May 4th post.

Some comics are better read as a saga with two dozen issues or more in the can and reading them quickly and consecutively.

Sometimes the monthly installments are not as satisfying.

MAYBE
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/thor-143--and-soon-shall-come-the-enchanters/4000-9564/

Okay, so I am positive that #151 was NOT my oldest Thor comic, but I am less sure about issue #143 from August of 1967.

Maybe?

I had a vague memory of an issue with Balder and Sif early in my reading, but also my memories are clouded by borrowing a bunch of early Thor comics while in college from Chris Nagy, with whom I played Ultimate, and so some covers look familiar because of that lending situation.

It's possible that issue #143 is my earliest Thor comic, and I can't check it until I get into those boxes in storage.



There's some measure of control to remembering and logging these facts of my life. Comic books have been very important to me throughout my life.

If this is my first issue of The Mighty Thor, it's a great one with which to start reading Thor.

I have shared the entire issue below.

I suspect that there's a debate over which Jack Kirby run on a comic is his best: The Mighty Thor or Fantastic Four. I doubt there's argument over his other comics (Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, and The Uncanny X-Men). Some might pick his Fourth World DC comics or even his return to comics and the gorgeous Eternals, which had a huge influence on me. I think it's down to either The Mighty Thor or Fantastic Four.

Kirby drew Thor starting in Journey to Mystery (#s 101 - 125) that was renamed The Might Thor once they realized it would be all about Thor and no one else (#s 126-179 plus annuals) -- so that's about 82 issues. His run on Fantastic Four  started with the first issue and ended with issue #102 (not counting the partial #108).

I probably would vote for his run on Fantastic Four being his very best work, but I know many would fight me on that claim. The Thor comics are a very close second given the interstellar and apocalypse centered storylines.

This issue features all sorts of particular Kirby-isms in their best form. From the splash page on, there's the classic Kirby features of the Asgardian armor decorations and the crackling energy backgrounds as well as the "Enchanti-Screen" all artfully "embellished" by George Klein.

Odin sends Thor off in the "Odinship" to find Galactus as penance for his recent "Warrior Madness."

Apparently, Galactus had to be sought out only because his power rivaled Odin's. And in 1969 when this issue was published, the original Galactus story in Fantastic Four has been published (#s 48-50 - 1966) and the second story, the return in 1968. And so it was time for another hero to confront Galactus, and Thor was a logical choice.

The Odin ship moving through space is all classic Kirby. Other classic features are the foreshadowing via newspapers headlines in the hands of bystanders in which the Warriors Three have collected Balder the Brave from a hospital. There's more classics with the guards in the Atomic Experimental Center as Thermal Man breaks free as well as a Kirby signature (page 11) of Chinese official scoping out a rocket through binoculars with what is seen in on the outside of the lenses viewing them up to his face from the front. Classic. Only Kirby.

The Galactus-Thor confrontation is also a classic twist for readers expecting a mega-battle. Galactus is weary and did not wish to be found. But he creates a "Visi-Cloud" (also Classic Kirby) to tell Thor his origin (or at least the beginning of it).

It's a great issue!!

Classic.

Following all the pages of The Mighty Thor #168, find the links to my previous Oldest Comics posts and all the covers for quick viewing.

Thanks for tuning in!

Now on to the issue.

SYNOPSIS

Thor enters the vastness of space as an act of penance for his Warrior Madness. There, Thor is tasked with finding the true origin of Galactus, Devourer of Worlds. Has Odin set an impossible task for his son? And what mysteries will Thor uncover in the universal folds?

Galactus origin, part 1 in "Galactus Found!" Script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by George Klein. Appearances by Balder, Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg, the Watcher, and Odin. First appearance of the Thermal Man. Kirby/Klein cover.

Creators










Issue details

Name
Volume
Thor
Issue Number
168
Cover Date
September 1969
In Store Date
July 08, 1969

THE ENTIRE ISSUE - THOR #169





























MY OLDEST COMICS - PREVIOUS POSTS

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Friday, July 7, 2017

MISSED ONE (ADDED 2508.31)


IN PART ONE







In Part Two:






IN PART THREE:



In part three and a half



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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2507.06 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3657 days ago & DAD = 311 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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Saturday, July 5, 2025

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3791 - So, I finally Finished Watching TITANS and SoD Reprint of #3015


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3791 - So, I finally Finished Watching TITANS and SoD Reprint of #3015

TITANS.

I finally finished watching it all. Four seasons is not a lot, but with limited time and opportunity to watch, it can take a while. Maybe six years? Maybe a little more?

I loved it.

I thought I had a post on the Titans show already, but I cannot find it. I know I have almost 3800 posts, but using categories or even searching for key words would bring it up. So maybe I dreamed posting about this show.

I adored the casting. 

I loved the new conceptions of Gar and Rachel as heroes and characters.

LOVED LOVED LOVED Hawk and Dove and especially DONNA TROY (my second fave after Nightwing).

Okay, I did not like the casting of Kory at first nor the different conception of her character, but ultimately, I loved it and this actor. Superb.

I mean, could they really do an orange, big-breasted alien, whose hair is often on fire?

The big breasts thing were surely the mode of the times, a feature of women in comics that has faded with the years (especially after Jim Balent's Catwoman, which was absurd).

So, since I cannot reprint a former post on the Titans show, I reprinted a Titans comic book post below and shared an article on the finale.

Loved the final scene with Dick and Kory.

It was a feel good moment and gave me a realization.

I have one take-away, a realization: I AM A GOOD PERSON.

Recently, through an event in my life, some people castigated me, impugned my character, didn't just imply that I am not a good person, basically SAID that.

They are wrong.

They have issues that they need to work on.

Watching the ending of Titans, the sense of family, the love, and the final scene with Kory and Dick together, maybe at the start of their relationship, I was filled with a feeling of love, acceptance, gratitude, and hope. They are good people. So am I.

I take on a lot of responsibility for things I do wrong. I can run myself down. I can wallow in hopelessness.

Titans taught me not to do that.

Never give up.

I am enough.

I am good.

So are you.

Thanks for tuning in.








'Titans' Series Ending Explained: Is Brother Blood Finally Defeated?



https://collider.com/titans-series-finale-ending-explained/

By 
Monita Mohan
Published May 11, 2023



Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for the finale of Titans Season 4.After four seasons of strife, sacrifices, near-deaths, and team changes, Titans concludes with a triumphant team embracing a future where they’re still a family, even if they aren’t together. Like several superhero shows before it, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Supergirl, and Arrow, the Titans series finale allows the main cast of characters to spread their wings beyond their team dynamic. But first, they have to take down a half-demon villain with a god complex.

Titans Season 4 has, in many ways, been a look at what’s come before. The show began with a cult called The Organization desperately attempting to kidnap Rachel Roth/Raven (Teagan Croft) to bring back her inter-dimensional demon father Trigon. This season follows the Church of Blood, a remnant of The Organization. Run by May Bennett/Mother Mayhem (Franka Potente), she successfully manipulates her and Trigon’s son Sebastian Sanger/Brother Blood (Joseph Morgan) into bringing the demon back to Earth. By the finale, “Titans Forever,” the Titans are in disarray, and the only way to win is if Kory Anders/Starfire (Anna Diop) sacrifices herself. How does the team defeat Brother Blood in the Titans series finale?


Titans Season Four Trailer



At the end of the penultimate episode of Titans, Sebastian finally killed his mother (for good this time) and absorbed all her power. Conner Kent/Superboy (Joshua Orpin) tried to kill Sebastian with the “Project Starfire” nuclear grenade orb, but since the orb had not reached 100% power, it didn’t hurt Sebastian at all—instead, he attacked Conner, seemingly killing him and blew the Horn of Trigon to summon his father.

The finale opens with Sebastian, now bedecked in full Brother Blood regalia, confronting his father—he knows that Trigon, like his mother, is lying when he says Sebastian will rule the world as Trigon’s equal. Sebastian is little more than a tool, and he’ll be disposed of when he’s no longer useful. So, Sebastian does the very normal thing of ripping his father’s giant demon heart out of his chest and drinking its demon blood (this season is not for the faint of heart). Having leveled up his power once again, Sebastian turns on his sister, Rachel. Thankfully, she’s just astral projecting her form to speak to him, but it’s obvious now that Sebastian is too far gone. He needs to be stopped—not saved.

One person who does need to be saved is Conner. Dick Grayson/Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites) tries to revive him with a specially-created super-injector, but Conner is unresponsive. Even loving licks from Krypto don’t seem to be working. The Titans may have lost one of their own, but Dick is not ready to let go. In the weirdest writing choice ever, Dick, standing over Conner’s seemingly dead body, chooses to book a dinner reservation for six people for Friday (Titans airs on Thursday, so we can assume he’s booking it for the following day). If a delicious-sounding dinner doesn’t tempt Conner back to life, then what will?





'Titans' Finale Introduces the Wormhole


S.T.A.R. Labs has been hiding a secret project called the Icarus Gate that’s housing a wormhole. While the gate is operational, powering it up requires the energy of over 10,000 Earth suns. Guess who has that power—it’s Kory! Kory has determined that Sebastian plans to use the wormhole to destroy her home planet of Tamaran because it’s ‘everything he’s not’. This plot point also goes back to Season 1 when Starfire was sent to Earth to destroy Trigon’s daughter so that she wouldn’t open the doorway to bring him to Earth which would then result in the destruction of Tamaran.

The gate is located beneath S.T.A.R. Labs and Sebastian just enters the building without anyone stopping him or IDing him. The only person to confront Sebastian is Dr. Espenson (Kyana Teresa) and she, along with everyone else at S.T.A.R. Labs, is soon killed by Sebastian. And why does he kill them? Because they destroyed his game Abraxus. Sebastian personifies the caricature of the entitled white guy who thinks he deserves greatness without earning it. Abraxus is a terrible game that he’s been trying to pitch since the season began, and which only got off the ground because Conner wanted to prove he could defeat Sebastian on his own. The game was a brief success because Sebastian “Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos”-ed the players into enjoying it and then sucked their life forces out while they played. Tim Drake/Robin 3.0 (Jay Lycurgo) shut it down with Conner’s help. And now S.T.A.R. Labs’ employees pay the price. Except one—Bernard Fitzmartin (James Scully), who wakes up from his Abraxus-induced coma just in time to reunite with his boyfriend Tim and help the Titans during the final showdown.




Brother Blood and Starfire Face-off in the 'Titans' Finale


The Titans head to S.T.A.R. Labs and find the massacred bodies of the employees. Bernard only escaped because Sebastian didn’t see him. Bernard and Tim have a quick, but cute, reunion, though it is hilarious how the Titans are dressed in colorful and intricate supersuits, but Bernard is stuck wearing gray medical-underwear. The costumers could have given Scully something cool to change into for the finale.

While the team gets into a battle with a meta-human task force (where did they come from?), Starfire is possessed by Sebastian and taken to the Icarus Gate. First of all, let’s just reiterate here that S.T.A.R. Labs, a facility with a literal wormhole in it, has absolutely no systems in place to prevent some rando from waltzing in and using magic to enter the gate room. Sebastian can “Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos” the password to the room, but this wouldn’t be an issue if the front door wasn’t unlocked.

Once Starfire comes to, she reminds Sebastian that destroying Tamaran and Earth were Trigon’s wishes, not his, but Sebastian has drunk his father’s soul, so he’s just doing whatever his father would have. Sebastian then hooks up Starfire to the gate’s mechanism, and it’s a freaky scene that seems to homage to the nightmarish cyborg scene in Superman III. It’s not quite as scary, though.


Deus ex Conner Kent Saves the Titans

What is annoying about Starfire being captured is that she turns into a damsel in distress during the climatic fight scene. Throughout this season, we’ve seen how Raven and Starfire are the powerhouses of Team Titans—in fact, in Episode 11, Jason Todd/Red Hood (Curran Walters) specifically tells Robin to hang back behind Raven and Starfire if fights get heated, and earlier in the finale, the three male members take cover behind the two ladies because they’re that powerful. But in the final battle, Starfire is tied up, and Nightwing takes on the boss battle on his own (Tim helps a little). Wouldn’t Raven have been a better bet? She is Sebastian’s sister, and despite his love for her in the earlier part of the season, as soon as Sebastian becomes all-powerful, he tries to kill her. She deserved the catharsis of defeating him. It also doesn’t make sense that Dick would have survived his fight with Sebastian since Dick has no powers and Sebastian is a demon-god. Only Raven’s white magic could have stopped him.

Instead, Raven’s relegated to jogging Starfire’s memories, which again, doesn’t make sense because the last time Starfire was incapacitated, in Episode 8, “Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory”, it was Dick’s voice and him professing his love for her that snapped her back to reality. Titans gets a lot right and then the show’s writers falter at the finish line.

The day is saved by Conner who blasts Sebastian into an electrical field and Dick’s escrima sticks disable Sebastian for good measure. But Sebastian isn’t dead which means he could still be a threat in the future. Kory, now free, grabs Sebastian and flies into the stratosphere. Is she gone? Is she dead? Nope, Starfire comes back, and her old powers have returned. And she and Dick finally kiss, and the team group hug out their victory. They don’t explain exactly what happened to Sebastian, but we can assume he’s gone boom. Earth lives for another day.




'Titans' Ends with a Bright Future for the Characters


We’ve reached a point in pop culture where no one dies in finales—yes, there were a couple of close calls and Ryan Potter most likely gave himself a headache with all the times Garfield Logan/Beast Boy cried over the apparent deaths of Conner and Starfire—but we are here for the happy endings.

Dick follows through with his dinner plans with the Titans. Gar announces that he’s leaving to be in the Red, but if he’s needed, he will be back in a snap. Rachel is also leaving the team—for a short while in Season 4, Rachel had lost her powers and felt like a normal person. She wants to feel that again and will be attending college in Blüdhaven. Tim says he’ll be seeing Rachel a lot—he's going to continue being Robin, but he has a life with Bernard in Metropolis, so he’ll be patrolling both cities. This is a bit confusing; in the comics, Tim Drake’s Robin is based in Gotham. Tim on Titans is also from Gotham, but he has been reluctant to return there. It seems that Tim is now Robin in Blüdhaven and Metropolis? That’s interesting since, in the comics, Dick’s domain is Blüdhaven, but he’s had no connection to the place on the show. I guess it’s Robin 3.0 to Blüdhaven’s rescue.

Conner is taking off to be with his genetic father, Clark Kent/Superman (no, he doesn’t cameo here, we only see his boots) who will be giving Conner flying lessons and hopefully some sage fatherly advice. Conner does worry if he’ll meet Clark’s expectations. He did some terrible things in his Conner Luthor phase, including killing one of Mother Mayhem’s acolytes. Dick, who is no stranger to murder and death, tells Conner to forgive himself. The show has certainly see-sawed on heroes killing people, and it’s just something that the heroes, and fans, will have to live with.

Dick and Kory are sticking together, but it doesn’t look like superheroing is at the top of their priorities. Back in Season 3, Dick had a vision of a little girl (Lillian Monize) calling him ‘daddy’. In Season 4, Kory has a similar vision of the same little girl in Dick’s arms. This is an obvious reference to the Kingdom Come comic series (Mark Waid, Alex Ross) where Dick and Kory have a daughter named Mar’i Grayson/Nightstar. In both their visions, Dick and Kory saw the girl with a red balloon. As a throwback to their visions, Dick and Kory see a child with a similar balloon walking by and look wistfully at it. They’ve only just rekindled their romance, but it looks like they’re already dreaming of their future child.



'Titans' Ends on a Happy Note, But Still Leaves Us Wanting

Titans ends on a positive happy note, but is anyone else disappointed that the team never said “Titans Together”? That’s the team’s comics catchphrase, and I expected a moment like in Avengers: Endgame, but it never came. In a way, that makes sense. The Titans aren’t together anymore, and throughout the four seasons, some members have been at odds with others, so the team haven’t been able to gel well. The Season 4 characters have been the closest to being a cohesive unit, a family, except for Conner’s rebellious phase.

The finale didn’t feel as epic as it could have—though it didn’t look rushed, there was an essence of getting this one out the door as soon as possible. Finales are hard; there’s always an expectation, and everyone’s is different. All we can say is, we had four years with these beloved characters, so many of whom made their live-action debuts on the show. It wasn’t long enough, but we’ll always have these four seasons of Titans forever.


Link to the original post I am reprinting below:

Sunday, May 21, 2023





A Sense of Doubt blog post #3015 - Titans #1 - review for Comic Book Sunday for May 21, 2023






https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/titans-(2023)/1



I admit it.

I am biased.

I joined Titan fandom back in the late 1980s, near the end of the Wolfman-Pérez years. I contributed to the APA (Amateur Press Association) TitanTalk. I wrote fan fiction.

I am huge fan if Nightwing and Donna Troy. (I ship a love affair between them that we will never see in the comics).

AND so, I am pre-disposed to like anything Titans related especially if it's not dreadful.

That said, I really love the new Titans  book from DC, and it's issue #001 that I bought Wednesday off the rack even though I have one coming from Michigan early next month.

Now, before I render a review of the book, I must confess that unlike other fans I am not an encyclopedia of Titans-lore. I have not read all the issues a hundred times, and I have not even watched the entire TV series yet, though I did finish season two a few months ago and so am ready to binge through the last two seasons as soon as I get a chance.

As for the issue, I loved it.

One thing many creators forget is that groups of superheroes, the Titans in particular, are a family. This point was driven home in the TV show, even a little artificially as they forged the bonds of family much more quickly than in the years of development in the comics.

Fans like the "family" theme because their fan groups feel like chosen families as well. Even more so than in the late 1960s when the Teen Titans were invented, the idea of a chosen family as opposed to the family one is born into without a chance for choice is a very currently relevant and powerful idea.

As one of the flagship titles in DC new reinvention project -- Dawn of DC -- Titans will surely be a cornerstone if it can proceed with longevity and a consistent creative team.

Tom Taylor has distinguished himself as one of the best of a cadre of young, new-ish comic writers. His current work on the Nightwing comic has proven to be one of the single best superhero comics in the industry. Again, the secret is history and the relationships of the characters. Most comic book readers are long time fans or new fans who plug into the history in various ways. Forgetting or ignoring the history is a fatal flaw of many creators in the industry. Comics have graduated from the "Battle of the Month Club" long ago. Readers want relationships, long story arcs, multiple sub-plots, character development and growth, and story lines with real stakes and significant events. Taylor has delivered that type of content in Nightwing and looks to be planning the same material in Titans.

Likewise, Nicola Scott has proven herself as one of the industry's elite artists with work on Wonder Woman, Black Magick, and Birds of Prey among other titles. Her work provides realistic humanity to the characters and reminds me of some of the greatest to draw comics and the Titans especially like George Pérez and José Luis García-López. Though rooted in tradition, her own style and shapes and develops new concepts for these characters, as we early in the first issue in which Beast Boy (Changeling) is rendered beautifully in his tight undies. On the very next pages, her depictions of Garth (Aqualad/Tempest), Nightwing, and Donna Troy are just gorgeous -- realistic and true top tradition (and somewhat with nods to the TV show).

Colors by Annette Kwok provides fullness and depth to Scott's art without altering her style dramatically and lettering by Wes Abbott enhances the story text without getting in its way.

The issue sets a classic frame with an inciting incident that returns at the end as a lead in to the next issue and first story arc -- solve the murder of Wally West (Flash/ Kid Flash).

I was a little disappointed by this choice as Wally has been through A LOT in recent years and yet we all know that he's not going to stay dead. After all, he has his own title on the horizon as well as being the main Flash in the current Flash comic.

But as a way to get reader attention, having him shot dead on page one and race against time in the scant seconds he has before his heart stops, not only shows his super power (how much can one do in those few seconds) and leaves both the Titans and readers with a mystery. After all, speedsters are only powerful for foes they face, challenges they can see and respond to. If at rest and caught unaware, shot before they can react, they are as vulnerable as the rest of us. Then again, does the sound of  a gun shot happen before the impact of the bullet at nearly any range? Especially at the kind of range a shooter would have to be from the Flash to catch him by surprise? Fractions of a second are like hours or days to us non-Speed Force-enhanced humans. Couldn't the Flash start vibrating to let the bullet pass as soon as he hears the gun shot, just a reflex to any gun shot? Or does the sound follow? The bullet already having pierced his heart. I hope the future episodes detail this answer a bit more. Wally narrates as much on the first page, shares that he has no chance to react as the bullet has pierced his heart before he hears the sound, but let's see Dick Grayson and crew mastermind this thought process in their investigation.

And so, the comic ends with a dead Flash (from the future??) and "SOLVE IT" all over the Titans Tower computer monitors.

In between, the story focuses on the gathering of the heroes with revisions to their characters from the TV show. The Raven of the Wolfman-Pérez years would not be involved in public displays of affection with Garfield, but the TV show girl would and does. Cute bedroom scene with them as Gar processes his PTSD. A great scene follows as Nightwing and Donna Troy (fan geek out -- those are my ship duo) trying to lure Garth back to the Titans with no success. Both Garth and Donna Troy are dead in the Titans  TV show at the end of season two, so maybe I need to watch the rest.

Then the heroes arrive at the new Titans Tower in Bludhaven (smart move and ties in with Taylor's work on Nightwing also set in Bludhaven, which is across the river from Gotham City for those who do now know) and the family feels are established and Raven kisses Gar in public, no big and good for media attention: they are officially a couple!

And then the battle of the week: Oracle calls - Giant Ape, nuclear reactor, the usual.

And with the comparison of Gar as a mouse in that earlier bedroom scene with Rachel, he's now a Tamaranean Apex Predator (or a Kaiju as one reviewer mistakenly called it).

And then it's time to establish another subplot and a long-term story arc with the interference of Peacemaker, Suicide Squad, and Amanda Waller, another popular DC property.

Titans be Titans and don't mess with Nightwing (my Main Man!!). 

Raven with the cowl drawn low even sends more of a Wolfman-Pérez years vibe in confronting the Peacemaker. Don't mess with her, either.

And then it's time to close the frame and set up next issue and the main story arc: can they solve the murder of the Flash?

Top to bottom I love this.

It gives me all the fannish feels. And it's just good storytelling, which is why the Critics rating of 8.6 and the reader's rating of 7.6 bothers me.

Then again, I am well aware that I am 10000% biased.

It's just great to have my Titans back!

10/10


Addendum - 2305.27 - 



I rarely get DMs on Twitter. So I was thrilled to get one from this lovely human admonishing me for not mentioning Kory, Princess Koriand'r, Starfire.

Part of my reason for not mentioning her was that she was not a very significant part of the first issue story. She had very few lines, and though she did help Donna drop the giant ape, she did not factor into the story significantly.

Still, it was great to see her. She is part of the team and has great history with the characters, especially Nightwing.

I also did not mention Cyborg for much the same reason. Though in both cases, I like how Taylor and Scott make them both either human (in Cyborg's case) or more human-like and relatable in Starfire's case.

I confess that I was not a shipper for the Dick-Kory romance, originally, in the comics. Though Pérez drew Kory with very large breasts, which for a young man was reason alone to love a character, I liked Dick with Donna, though it was never to be as they are and always have been securely in the friend zone.

Sidenote: I like the Scott is drawing Kory with much smaller breasts (more in line with the TV show?) and without the traditional costume that showed off her ample cleavage. It's important in comics to have realistic body types for female-identifying characters, especially since the trend for gigantic breasts, which really hit its zenith in 1990s, is WAY over and needs abandonment.

I have shared about this issue in this post (which I have reprinted in 2022 as shown below):

Sunday, November 6, 2022

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2819 - SoD Reprint of 1292 - De-objectify Women in Comics

However, on the Starfire-Nightwing romance, I do like it in the TV show. Though he and Dawn (Dove) were hot together, it makes more sense for her to be with Hank (Hawk). The Dick-Kory romance was WAY hotter in the TV show, as the Twitter person who admonished me posted with the following:



Still, I really like seeing Dick and Babs, so that was a better move than any of his other relationships, and I can ship Nightwing-Batgirl over Nightwing-Starfire.

One the subject of Victor, Cyborg, he has been written many ways since the original Wolfman-Pérez conception and often as more machine than human. About to star in his own title, it seems that the move is to position him well in-between. He's very human and relatable, being cocky in his retort to Peacemaker about being "far beyond anything you can comprehend" but also very operationally focused throughout in giving sitrep and assessment: "you were three minutes away from a major nuclear disaster."

It's good stuff.

I am hoping we see both Starfire and Cyborg have bigger roles in future issues and we see more Titans join the team or at least make cameos.

DC Comics need to remember the HISTORY of the comics and the saga they have told (which they seem to be doing here) with some not unreasonable connection to the portrayals in the TV show.




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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2305.21 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2879 days ago

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2507.05 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3656 days ago & DAD = 310 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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