Titans #30 – Round 4: The Green Vs The Man And Machine

DC K.O. ALL FIGHT MONTH: ROUND 4 OF 8!

Titan #30 marks the next round of Fight Month and signals the start of the more intriguing matchups in the event.

This issue sets the member of the Titans, Cyborg, against the avatar of The Green, as the machine faces nature. Layman drops readers into the beginning of Round 1 and uses Cyborg’s inner monologue as the driving force behind the action, as well as Cyborg’s motivation and mindset going into the fight. Cyborg comes out swinging, pulling no punches and throwing everything he has at Swamp Thing, winning the first round, expressing the guilt he felt having to defeat a fellow superhero, justifying his brutality as doing whatever it takes to win given the larger stakes.

Round 2 follows the established story points where the combatants get to choose their incarnation of themselves, nicely illustrated by Woods. Layman keeps true to Victor’s personality and overconfidence, opting to stay in his current form since it was easy to defeat Swampy in the previous round. A nice curve ball is thrown with the reveal that Swamp Thing let him win so he could gauge his powers, winning round 2 after going after the human side of Cyborg and not the machine, trapping Victor in digestive acids, while telling Cyborg that he is alone in this fight, causing Victor to doubt himself thus weakening his shielding so the acids can kill him.

The deciding round, while anticlimactic, resolves in a manner showing both Cyborg’s resolve and that he is not alone. Layman also caps off the fight with a victorious Cyborg, which, given that this takes place in the Titans title is expected, though his thoughts on the next and ultimate goal of the competition weigh heavily on him.

The issue has two interludes: one continuing to move the Titans’ KO story arc of resettling humanity in space as Earth is transformed into Apokolips, and events at the Watchtower with the Darkseid possessed Booster Gold, facing the next member of the Quantum Quorum…Grodd.

The issue is well-paced and provides movement on all fronts of the KO story arc. While Cyborg’s victory over Swamp Thing was expected, it would have been interesting to have the rounds work out so that it was Aquaman, avatar of the Blue, facing Swamp Thing of The Green in the championship round.