Titans No. 33 review: War breaks out on Unearth

Team Titans is on Unearth to battle the Blood Cult and rescue Raven’s soul-self. But first, they have to defeat the hordes of Urkesh standing in their way in Titans No. 33.

Titans No. 33

Writer: Dan Abnett

Artist: Bruno Redondo

Covers by: Mico Suayan, Blond, Tyler Kirkham, Arif Prianto

Titans No. 33 cover by Mico Suayan (Credit: DC Comics)

The Titans have reached Unearth in Titans No. 33 and face the realm’s defense force, called the Urkesh. With Ben Rubel’s help, the team are able to defeat the army, but they have to continue their mission to locate the Blood Cult and rescue Raven’s soul-self.

Unknown to them, the Blood Cult are aware of the Titans’ appearance on Unearth, and they are getting ready to fight them. The Prince of Unearth, Travesty, doesn’t know what Mother Blood’s true intentions are, but she has engineered all these proceedings with an eye set on capturing some key members of the team. What is her endgame and how does Raven’s soul-self fit into all this?

Titans, Let Battle Commence!

Titans No. 33 is an action-packed issue that incorporates camaraderie, humor and spectacle. The installment felt like a cohesive third-act battle, where fire-power and wits play an equal part in securing victory for the Titans. Far too often, popular media concentrates on the action-oriented nature of war, but as we see in this issue, sometimes the nerdy ones are the saviors.

Ben Rubel has been a bit player in this series; he was even left behind on Earth when the entire team, and new temporary member Kyle Rayner, departed on their mission. Yet, he is shown to be invaluable to the Titans in Titans No. 33 as he feeds the team integral information from the books that created Unearth. This was a particularly delightful touch to see in this series.

Unearth books (Credit: DC Comics)

The battle itself was heavy on strategy and teamwork, injecting a level of energy that is hard to create on a two-dimensional scale. Writer Dan Abnett and the editorial team worked in layers of human interaction with the overall story and plot, making this one of the most refreshing issues of the current series’ run.

We’re Tolkien Unearth in This Issue

There’s a self-awareness to the facade of Unearth in Titans No. 33 that makes it fun to read. For one, it was obvious from the outset that Unearth was a derivative creation by Hinton – the man the Titans had encountered in Titans No. 24. Bruno Redondo’s art, therefore, borrows heavily from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but this in no way detracts from the reading experience because we are meant to see the similarity between the works. Abnett also adds humorous nods about the same to temper any cries of unoriginality by the artist.

Unearth in Titans No, 33 (Credit: DC Comics)

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Despite this, Redondo’s art is magnificent to look at. With the addition of Hi-Fi’s colors, Unearth is a splendid realm to behold and one that is worth discovering over a handful of issues at least. The landscape is eerie, familiar, and partly menacing, with colors that are just out-of-sync from the norm.

What will have readers hooked are Redondo’s character sketches. Each character has distinct features and expressions that add to the cinematic quality of the art execution. There is a particularly distressing panel where one of the characters is bound and pleading, which will make your stomach churn.

With Titans No. 33, it seems the series has finally kicked into high gear. The injection of new blood in the form of Redondo’s art gives it a unique look and feel, and readers will definitely be intrigued to find out what the denouement means for the team in upcoming issues.