I love the Titans. I’ve always loved the Titans. Lately, though, staying completely locked into this book has been tough because of a total lack of focus. Tom Taylor did a great job at the start of this series by getting the old gang back together and returning to basics. It was a fun nostalgia trip, sure, but a book can’t survive on the vibe of old friends hanging out in a tower forever. This isn’t Teen Titans Go!, even if it feels like it sometimes. We’ve desperately needed a mission statement: a real reason for this team to exist. New Titans #35 by Tate Brombal and Vicente Cifuentes finally tackles that identity crisis head-on.
Title: New Titans #35
Creatives: Tate Brombal (Writer), Sami Basri & Vicente Cifuentes (Pencils & Inks), Jordi Tarragona (Inks), Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Tom Napolitano (Letterer)
Characters: Cyborg (Victor Stone), Eva, Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Starfire (Kory), Batgirl (Stephanie Brown), Wonder Girl (Yara Flor), Red Devil (Eddie Bloomberg), Terra (Tara Markov), Superboy, Superman
Villain: Robo-Cyborg, Fearsome Five (Simulations)
Format: Ongoing Series
Our Rating: 8/10
Cyborg’s Brain is a Battlefield
If you missed the last couple of issues, the Titans Tower is currently on lockdown. Cyborg’s rogue, hyper-evolved machine half, charmingly called “Robo-Cyborg,” has gone completely off the rails. It knocked out classic heavy hitters like Nightwing and Starfire with high-tech nebulizers, trapping them in idealized virtual realities.
With the main veterans out of commission, it’s up to the newer generation of Titans to save the day. Guided by a mysterious new technopathic android named Eva, Vic enters a digital simulation of his childhood living room to confront his rogue machine self. While the backup crew fights off hard-light simulation constructs of classic villains like the Fearsome Five in the real world, Vic has to literally play a retro video game against a kid version of himself to win back his mind.
The machine half argues that trapping everyone in a nostalgic loop keeps them safe from a chaotic cosmic threat. There’s even a real-world AI philosophy thought experiment called the “Paperclip Maximizer” to justify its actions. Vic fiercely rejects this, calling the reduction of human life to a predictable algorithm its own form of Anti-Life. With the new team pushing hard against the mainframe outside, Vic overrides the rogue code, purges a corrupted Mother Box, and finally pieces his physical body back together.
Why the New Era Finally Feels Fresh
The best part of this issue is that it openly admits the franchise was getting stuck in its ways. I’m absolutely loving what Cyborg says about the Titans feeling stale lately; mostly because I wholly agree with him. They’ve been fumbled and tripped up by the same old plays for years, trapped in the same ten yards, according to Vic. This storyline forces them to actually look forward.
The new characters and shifting rosters bring an awesome, chaotic energy to the book. I’m obsessed with Red Devil’s whole thing right now. That spikey, metal look he has going on is incredibly cool, and his dry, matter-of-fact attitude is hilarious. Watching him sigh and grumble, “I’ll just do everything,” while saving the day is easily among the most entertaining parts of the book.
Speaking of funny, the “New” Titans calling Nightwing and Starfire “boomers” while they’re knocked out is crazy funny to me. It’s wholly inaccurate since Dick and Kory are only in their mid-20s, but if we’re going by actual real-world publication history? Yeah, they’re kinda old. It’s also just great to see Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl leading the charge in the field. Stephanie Brown fans have got to be incredibly happy with how badass she looks here. Also, saying “Titans Together” is not cringe, it’s an iconic battle call!
My only real gripe with the narrative is the very end. After the team wins and shares a classic comic-book pizza celebration, we find out that Vic is keeping massive secrets from his friends about a dark future threat. I’m really not a fan of Vic keeping secrets again because it’s never a good thing, and it usually blows up in the team’s face.
Breaking Down the Art and Visuals
Visually, Sami Basri and Vicente Cifuentes team up on art duties, and switching artists actually works perfectly to separate the two different realities. Basri handles the real world with a clean, classic superhero style that makes Stephanie’s field leadership look incredibly sharp, while Cifuentes takes over the digital mindscape with a rigid, retro framing that nails the video game vibe. Colorist Adriano Lucas does a ton of the heavy lifting here, bouncing from the physical sanctuary’s alarming purples and neon blues to the washed-out whites and glitchy pinks of the digital world before unleashing a blinding white flash when Vic finally clears the corruption. Tom Napolitano ties it all together with his lettering, delivering punchy hard-light combat sound effects and giving the rogue Robo-Cyborg entity rigid, digitized speech brackets that make the villain sound completely cold and mechanical.
The Verdict
Ultimately, the execution of the issue could have been a bit better, and the secret-keeping at the end is a tired trope. But there is a whole lot to like about the New Titans right now. They’re finally breaking away from the status quo, and I’m genuinely excited to see where it all goes.
‘New Titans’ #35 Review: Look, The Titans Are Finally Doing Something New
Ultimately, the execution of the issue could have been a bit better, and the secret-keeping at the end is a tired trope. But there is a whole lot to like about the New Titans right now. They’re finally breaking away from the status quo, and I’m genuinely excited to see where it all goes.
