TITANS #13 Exclusive Preview: Smackdown!

The Titans are back in action! After the slower pace of the last issue, TITANS #13 throws us right into a fight scene, and it’s pretty awesome. The last issue saw Omen interrogating Psimon for the location of Karen Duncan’s lost memories. These memories were stolen in the Titan’s first post-rebirth battle with the Fearsome Five, who are back to working for H.I.V.E. Despite this, we see Karen join the Titans as Bumblebee to fight for her own memories. Mal Duncan, on the other hand, was convinced by the Five to give up his powers and is now helpless in the struggle to get his wife to remember him. In the last issue we also saw some relationship building between members of the Titans, and if the kickass covers for TITANS #13 signify anything, that’ll be important soon.

The preview for TITANS #13 picks up in Alton Labs, the location Omen managed to steal from Psimon’s brain. They beat up a bunch of H.I.V.E. goons easily, with the usual witty quips. Then they face down a scientist named Binder. Seems like it should be no problem, right? Bumblebee thinks so, too. That is until Binder uses something called Hivemind to download the powers H.I.V.E. has been stealing. He changes in the blink of an eye from an ordinary scientist to a metahuman powerhouse and dishes out a beatdown.

This is where the preview ends, but we get a glimpse of what’s to come. As previously mentioned, this comes in the form of the covers. They suggest that later in the issue Wally and Donna’s budding romance might make things tense with Roy, who also has feelings for Donna. I, for one, am 100% here for this superhero love triangle.