This review contains minor spoilers.
Creating a follow-up to a famous Titans storyline is a risky move, especially if you’re not bringing Marv Wolfman and George Pérez on board with you. The good news is, Titans #11 channels what made the New Teen Titans series a terrific read and pays homage to its legacy. In fact, the whole concept of “The Lazarus Contract” is so brilliantly simple that you wonder why no one else thought of it before.
Part one of this saga kicks off with a flashback to the death of the Ravager, Deathstroke’s son, to remind us why you should always take your heart’s health seriously. We then travel back to current times with the Titans battling what appear to be H.I.V.E. cronies, but are actually a bunch of hired noobs. The heroes quickly dispatch of these posers, as one of them reveals the name of the man who hired them is Lazarus. Omen asks Nightwing about Lazarus, but he lies to her, saying he doesn’t know. When the Titans finally realize the fight was a distraction, Wally West is gone.
In an unknown location, the speedster is hooked up to some form of treadmill and forced to run. After a to and fro of “where am I and who are you?”, Deathstroke reveals himself as his captor and offers him a deal: Wally needs to go back in time to save Slade’s son and he’ll give up being an assassin for good. When Wally refuses, though, Deathstroke reveals his contingency plan: Kid Flash, aka the other Wally West.
Wolfman might not have penned this script, but Christopher Priest, Benjamin Percy and Dan Abnett capture his spirit here. From the intelligence of Deathstroke in fooling the team to Nightwing keeping secrets, the first part of this arc holds everything that you’d expect from an old-school Titans story. There’s action, excitement, and a little bit of mystery that hooks you from the get-go. By the time you reach the last page of this issue, you wish you had the next part to read already.
Another highlight is how straightforward the narrative is. Too often, modern-day comic book writers try to show off how clever they are with avant-garde storytelling, but the books flop because they’re the only ones who know what’s going on. This isn’t the case here, as everything is kept linear with only the one flashback being used to bring new readers up to speed. Frankly, this delights me to see that the art of writing to entertain others is still alive and well in 2017.
As we’ve come to expect of Titans, the artwork remains a cut above the rest. Penciller Brett Booth and inker Norm Rapmund are pulling out all the stops on this series, and this issue is no different. It’s detailed, intense, and striking to behold. The book might not have Pérez’s name on the cover, but trust me, the art is just as good, if not better. It’s one pretty issue, ladies and gentlemen.
The fact that there’s still a long way to go in “The Lazarus Contract” is both a blessing and a curse. Why, you may ask? Well, we’re lucky we have much more of this absorbing story to savor, but we have to wait until next week for the next installment. If you’re a fan of DC’s young superhero team, Titans #11 is the one book you just have to pick up this week.
