It is here! I was taken in by George Perez’s art and Marv Wolfman’s story since New Teen Titans #1 (1980) and the preview in DC Comics Presents #26 (1980). The Titans featured former sidekicks Robin and Wonder Girl, but the new characters were fresh, in other words, they were my heroes. Even through the Teen Titans animated series and the recent Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. There were two episodes released on DC Universe today; “Titans”, next week is“Hawk and Dove.” The pilot is directed by Brad Anderson with a teleplay by Akiva Goldsman and Geoff Johns. Spoilers! Night, circus tents, a young girl in a hood enters and finds it empty, suddenly a marquee lights up with “The Flying Graysons.” Spotlights hit and then an acrobatic family is revealed. The girl watches as they swing effortlessly and beautifully on the trapeze, captured in slow motion. The “Flying” part of the sign shorts out, the trapeze snaps, and the girl screams soundlessly. The bodies of the parents flung down out of the hands of their son hanging upside down on his trapeze. It is horrifying. The girl screams, we can hear now, and this continues to where she is wakened from her nightmare. She is played by Teagan Croft who also played Bella Loneragan in the Australian soap opera Home and Away (2016). Her character is in a way innocent and desperate for help, struggling with the demon inside.
Her mother (Sherilyn Fenn), Angela, checks on Rachel and has her focus on her breathing. Rachel tells her mother to lock the door, it is covered in crosses, one drops down. Then, we get the inside of a car in rainy Detroit, Michigan. He looks over the case file of a battered girl and is observing a man on the street. This is Brenton Thwaites who played Henry Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Bek in Gods of Egypt (2016), and Jonas in The Giver (2014). The detective enters the police station and is introduced to his new partner, Amy Rohrbach (Lindsey Gort). Detective Grayson says to not get in his way. His fellow officers explain to her that he came from Gotham. It shifts to Traverse City, Michigan, where we get Angela who wakes up takes pills and drink from a bottle. She pulls up her gown to look at claw marks on her side. Rachel knows when her mother is lying and lashes out with her demonic face. Rachel takes the bus to school, a bully, Kyle (Colton Gobbo), taunts her and Matt, (William Healy) a footballl player defends her and they get into a fight broken up by the bus driver. The bully calls her a slut and and her demonic face appears on the bus window. At school, she tries to thank Matt, but he walks on past her. It is interesting to see an ankh on her backpack.
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THE TITANS - “Titans” - Steve Wilkie/ @2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Rachel returns home to find a gunman holding her mother hostage. He forces her to tell Rachel she is not her mother. The gunman shots her in the head, Rachel screams unleashing her power knocking down the gunman and she runs out. Detective Grayson again watches the man in the police report with charges dismissed. He puts his thumb print on a briefcase and it makes a retinal scan before opening, very cool. In an alleyway, is there with his men, a pack is thrown, and a gang member takes out a stuffed tiger. He uses a knife to cut it open to take out out a small bag of pink drugs which says the color is liked by the kids. A figures passes overseas and says, “I’m only here for Tyler Hoechlin.” The actor? Robin lands on a car hood telling the gangs to drop the drugs and guns and walk away, shoulda listened. They scan the roof looking for Batman and then realize Robin is alone. Robin drops a gas capsule that fills the alley, the gang members shoot, and Robin insignia wing dings fly out! Robin’s fight taking down the gang members is vicious and one of the best fight scenes for a comic book show. Tyler is in his car, Robin breaks the window, and slides his face on the broken glass! Then, stops on him and uses his staff telling Tyler never to touch is kid. He leaves the alley with his angry comment about Batman.
Later at his apartment, Dick is bruised, but cleans his uniform and equipment. Before he leaves, he sees a poster of the Flying Graysons. The captain (Phillip Jarrett) is looking at footage of Robin and is told he hasn’t been seen in a year. Rachel is at a bus depot and gets a ticket to Detroit. Night, she goes to a homeless shelter to eat, and a social worker, Ally, tells her that she she can taker to a youth shelter to stay. On the way there, Rachel sees in a broken mirror her demonic self saying that she’s lying. Demon Rachel tells her to run, she sees a passing police car, and throws a brick to stop it. Rachel is arrested and taken to the police station. Detective Grayson is told his interest in helping out kids might help with Rachel. He goes to interview her in a room and she instantly recognizes him as the “boy from the circus.” Next, there is an extreme close-up of the red hair of a young woman who wakes up next to the bloody face of a dead man in the driver’s seat. The woman is played by Anna Diop who also played Nicole Carter in 24: Legacy and stars in Bosch as Desiree Zealy. She walks out of the crashed car, in her metallic purple dress and fur coat, and we get that this is outside of Vienna, Austria. The woman sees a car with gunmen firing automatic rifles. She runs to the woods on the side of the road and the gunmen pass her. Later, in a petrol station, she sees her United States passport, and name of Kory Anders. A woman with amnesia chased by gunmen!
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THE TITANS - “Titans” - Steve Wilkie/ @2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Kory sees a key to the Hotel Das Alpens and heads there. She is greeted by a hotel employee and speaks to her in German. Kory finds the hotel room is empty and finds a cell phone picture of herself and a man (Mark Antony Krupa). She finds another man tied up and asks about the man on the cell phone. He breaks free and they get into a fight which ends with her punch that sends him flying across the room. The man tells her that the other man is Konstantin Kovar, he is known as the superhero Red Star in the comics. He at his club and Kory finishes it up by snapping his neck. At the interview room, Rachel tells Dick about seeing him at the circus and that her mother was killed. She touches his hand, gets a vision of young Dick watching as his parents die, and then a voice that says he wants to help him, Bruce Wayne! Dick goes to check on the information and leaves Rachel in the room. He sees Amy outside of the police station, she asks about his partner which she thinks was a Gotham police officer, and he explains that he felt he was becoming to much like him. A police officer takes Rachel away. Dick gets a call that Rachel’s mother was shot. Demonic Rachel wants to kill the officer, Rachel struggles, but gets a syringe in the neck. Dick sees the car drive away with the unconscious Rachel.
At the club, Kory wanders into the office of Konstantin who greets her, he is angry that she was his lover and betrayed her over a girl. Konstantin takes out his gun, fires, the bullet is vaporized and Kory’s eyes glow green. Kory starts to glow and sends out an inferno from her hand! She picks up the picture of the girl, it’s Rachel. Konstantin and his men are ashy statues. Rachel revives handcuffed to a chair surrounded by candles. The man who killed Rachel’s mother has a knife. The police officer in the next room hears a noise, Dick knocks him out, and takes his gun. The man says something about a doorway while Dick calls out for Rachel. She screams and is gagged, the man waits behind the door with the knife, and then Rachel falls unconscious. Demon Rachel is there, knocks the door closed before Dick can enter, and then opens the man’s mouth to send in demonic energy. He does not end well. Rachel wakes, hugs Dick Grayson, and asks for help. He takes her to a Porsche which he calls a “family heirloom”, and takes her to a safe place. I’m thinking the Batcave. Then, we get Visions Electronics in Covington, Ohio. A security guard is busy playing Minecraft when he hears a noise. He sees games fallen from a shelf and then a green tiger! It races to a forest and starts to transform into Garfield Logan. He is played by Ryan Potter who voiced Hiro Hamada in Big Hero 6 (2014) and Big Hero 6: The Series and starred in Supah Ninjas. This is all set-up, dramatic and gritty, the action scenes are impressive and the language just pushes the series into the adult realm. A fresh approach to superhero shows.
Five Wing Dings out of Five!
#TheTitans, #DCUniverse, #BrentonThwaites, #TeaganCroft
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