New Titans #38: A Shock to the System

Static is back! Having officially stepped his feet back in the superhero game, the premiere hero of Dakota is given the grand tour of Mount Titan by a very eager Superman (Jon Kent). However, first impressions for the returned hero prove to be less than ideal, especially when a face from Wonder Girl’s past returns to bring her back home.

The Dakota Incident was the hit that DC never expected when it was released. Despite efforts to sabotage its release, multiple print runs were made and the book was very well-received. As a result, Static and the rest of the Dakota heroes are now back in play for the first time in years to the delight of fans. As such this issue is something of a jumping on point for those who want to follow Static into this bold new era. In that sense it does its job pretty well without sacrificing the built in reader base.

Tate Brombal uses Jon’s tour as a way to introduce Static (as well as the readers) to the team if they haven’t been following the series thus far (like me). There is tension between the members of the team that has been built over the course of the book thus far, but its not so far gone that new readers will get lost. As for Static, Brombal has a good voice for him and makes his apprehension on joining the team very believable. There is also Yara, whose personal conflict is set up for the overall arc of this story. She’s normally not a character I had much investment in, but she’s fine here.

Sami Basri’s art is very expressive and with clear definition in the line work for each character. Adriana Lucas’ colors also add more depth to the illustrations, adding a storybook layout to Bruno Abdias’ nightmare scenes for Yara.