Titans stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson/Robin, Anna Diop as Starfire, Teagan Croft as Raven, Ryan Potter as Beast Boy, Alan Ritchson as Hawk and Minka Kelly as Dove.
Titans is available to watch now on DC Universe in North America. The series will arrive on Netflix in international markets soon.
Synopsis
Dick and the new Robin, Jason Todd, team up to track down the man who is killing off Dick’s old circus friends.
Review
If Titans had already found its stride before this episode then the series is now at full speed. Just when I thought I understood how great this series could be it throws in an episode like “Jason Todd”.
Interestingly this episode is another self-contained story. When the series last did this in the “Doom Patrol” episode (reviewed here) I felt that it detracted from the overall narrative of the show. However this time it feels the show has found a balance between pushing its narrative forwards whilst being able to tell a lone story.
Curran Walters is a great addition to the cast. I found myself wanting to like Jason knowing the characters story as I do. But Walters does such a great job of making him the charismatic but arrogant guy that he is that it’s difficult to find him amiable.
His excitement at being Robin is palpable and infectious. By the end of this episode I wanted to be Robin as well. But then seeing him beat up a bunch of cops just because he can kind of ruins the whole thing. The writers have done a great job a creating a life-like version of the comic character. It will be interesting to see what they do with him in future appearances.
“Jason Todd” also does some heavy world building for the show. The flashbacks to young Dick flesh out the story and characters of Haly’s Circus. We might not get to see his first appearance as Robin (just yet) but seeing Tony Zucco and his interactions with Robin are stuff of legend for comic book fans.
Then there’s the brief glimpse of the Batcave and the Batmobile which will have any fan hanging on the edge of their seat. I stand by the fact that Titans not throwing in Bruce or Batman in fully to the show is the right move. We’ve had just enough teases that it’s exciting without ever detracting from the characters this show is focussing on.
As for the rest of the Titans they are used sparingly here but not to the detriment of the episode or the story. There’s enough follow on from last week to keep the overall plot moving.
With the team arriving at Batman’s safe house we’ve got ourselves primed to interrogate Dr Adamson in the next episode now that he’s woken up from his beating in the last episode.
Once again Titans features some incredibly strong action. Jason Todd has a great fighting style which is somehow even more brutal than Dick. The fight sequences continue to be incredibly well choreographed and filmed which is a huge draw for this series.
For a second it seemed that Titans may have introduced an arch-nemesis for Dick in the form of Nick Zucco/Melting Man. His character had huge potential which may have been squandered thanks to the actions of Jason. I would love to see the character explored again later down the line.
At this stage what I need to see is Titans developing some on going villainous characters for the team to stand off against. Otherwise this is easily the best episode of the series to date.
Verdict
“Jason Todd” is a huge piece of fan service. An excellent self-contained story within the arc of the season it really fleshes out the character of Dick Grayson and the world of Gotham and Batman.
It really helps to centre the series in the DC Universe without sacrificing the overall quality of the storytelling.
9/10
Next week on Titans…
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