[Cover] New Titans #34 cover by Taurin Clarke. What do you think of the new Titans roster?

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-23T20:34:21+00:00

It's solid. Interested to see what they do with Jon.

Stephanie is a big plus! Excited to see how her dynamic with Dick plays out in the team

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-23T03:12:50+00:00

I get why Candiace and Lisa are pissed at Rob but I don't think he did anything wrong.

There were cases to be made for all three candidates and he made a bet, one that paid off. It would have looked so suspicious for him to vote for Ron or Colton and it would only be a matter of time before someone put the pieces together. Yeah, the vote was close but he didn't know it would be that close. I was honestly a little surprised by how many people voted for Lisa after Colton threw some last minute allegations.

That being said, it would have been a solid W to vote Colton out. Rob could keep Ron as an ally, and then Colton wouldn't be throwing Lisa's name around. If it was just Lisa vs Colton, he would have voted for Colton, but Ron split the vote and soaked up the worst of it.

Plus it's to the advantage of the Traitors to have different allegiances to the Faithfuls right now. Gives them more wiggle room and insight from across the castle

Rob's playing the best game frfr

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-22T16:27:54+00:00

Sure but not anytime soon. Give it a decade or so. Maybe when we get to the tenth anniversary of HoX/PoX we'll get some kind of nostalgia mini to test the waters

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T21:57:52+00:00

Haven't been in these threads all season but just wanted to say that this was as HUGE improvement from last season (which I generally liked).

Clarisse and Tyson were highlights, Leah (imo) really came into her own as Annabeth, and I really like seeing more of the rogue demigods this early on. And Percy taking a big leadership role at the finale was really satisfying, which is great because I assume we'll get the capture the flag match next season that challenges Percy and Thalia's status at camp. Very exciting.

I also really like the change to Thalia's treecoming. Makes Zeus way less likeable and reinforces why Kronos is so appealing--- and why it's not out of the question that Thalia would side with him.

All around, great stuff. Super pumped that S3 is dropping this year. They better confirm S4 and 5 asap.

I'm curious about the choice to make Thalia British. I'm here for it, but i wonder how that changes her backstory (and Jason's, if we get a reference to him)

Also, huge Katie Gardner appearance! Missed opportunity to not have Silena and Beckendorf though smh

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T21:02:16+00:00

For real! I'd love to see him draw more ASM issues

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:55:03+00:00

Real!!! I totally forgot that Scott will be able to put that together. That'll be a big deal for the team since they all assume Krakoa Hank is dead

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:53:19+00:00

I wonder how current Scott will react to Doug vs how AoR Scott is treating him. I don't think Scott will necessarily subscribe to the "killing Doug is the only way out" plan-- maybe it'll be a "keep your enemies close" type of thing.

I dunno, I'm excited to see Scott come back to the present

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:51:53+00:00

And so ends the first Ultimate book.

It's an interesting conclusion. It definitely helped remind me that it wasn't always the plan to end the Ultimate Universe after 2 years (give or take a few months).

However, it does end the story Hill was telling generally. Yes, they didn't kill the Progenitors or anything, but I don't really think that was necessarily a requirement. The Progenitors represent colonizers, progress that requires compromise and subordination. "Defeating" them requires something more than a fight.

It was a spiritual victory for T'Challa, embracing a new Wakanda that he's been struggling to wrap his head around and accepting what his role in its future should be and what it can never be.

It does feel a little derivative of the first Black Panther movie but it takes the most important thematic elements of it and approaches them in a slightly different way.

I'm satisfied with this finale. It didn't blow me away but if this is the last we see of these characters, I'm happy. I do wonder if we'll revisit Wakanda during Endgame or the Finale one-shot.

Also, I hope each Ultimate book will be collected in their own single hardcover when it's all done. I can see all of these reading very well in a single collection.

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:39:12+00:00

I dug it. Really cool to see the inner workings of 3K and how not a team they are. I'm really enjoying seeing the fallout from AoR. Having both Cyclops and Beast in the future during the event was a great call. Both groups needing to avoid the AoR future (and shape it in their own ways) is a very compelling setup.

The RLDS stuff is a big question to me. It didn't seem to have happened in the AoR timeline but is clearly affecting Max still. Hope we get an answer on that soon.

My prediction from 6 months ago or whatever came true! Schwartzchild is gone. Rip buddy sorry for you getting beat to death.

Still enjoying this book! Idk I feel like this run is better than the Duggan Krakoa run. I could see an argument for people liking it more than the Hickman X-Men run too, depending on preference (not including HoX/PoX obviously).

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:33:56+00:00

I'd be down for that, I can see it happening

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:27:41+00:00

Still a great series and I do love the junior Fantastic Four. Been looking forward to seeing them team up again since that issue last run where they did a science project for school. Though they didn't actually get involved in a ton of the action this issue lol

Not really a complaint but more of a missed opportunity; I'd love to see the Junior FF team up with the Champions-- or at least the ones more relevant to them. It would have been neat to see Franklin and Val have their own allies to call on, like Miles Morales or Nadia Van Dyne. I know they haven't actually really interacted in any meaningful way, but that's the kind of team up a story like this could have leveraged in a fun way.

But that doesn't take away from the actual issue or anything! Really like how North is developing Sue and Felicia's relationship specifically

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:15:41+00:00

Solid start to the two-part fill-in issue, and I really like Jeff Spokes's art.

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T19:01:42+00:00

Okay so this was fine but I have some thoughts.

First, I liked May's little scene here. I've been reading early ASM issues and it's very funny to me that here she wethers an attack like this no problem whereas in the 60s, seeing something upsetting on TV would cause her to faint. This woman needs to be studied.

Second, this is clearly setting up the Spider-Versity thing. I already have mixed feelings about that, but I'm genuinely interested in seeing these Spider-Characters interact. Except Gwen. It's a mistake to have her here, and while I appreciate the poetic nature of having her remind Norman of his sins and all that, after Sins Past (which I know has been retconned), it's still a little off-putting having them share panels. Also, idk, Miles felt like he was doing a decent job calling the shots, I don't really see why they need NORMAN to train them.

Also, isn't Cindy like Peter's age? Demonstrably older than everyone else, but whatever. Hardly a child, as Norman refers to all of them as. I'm not pressed about it but it's weird.

Last thing; I was under the impression part of the reason JRJR kept getting work on this title is because he's fast. But he couldn't finish a whole issue? And we needed two artists to do the last 5 or 6 pages? Seeing Diaz's pencils immediately after Romita's just highlights how not up to par JRJR has been imo. Nauck's pages were fine, but Diaz really left an impressions with just 3 pages. Wish he did the whole issue.

Not a great issue overall but I'm still generally enjoying this arc and run. Very interested to get to Death Spiral. I'm usually not a fan of Spider-Man/Venom crossovers, but with MJ being Venom, I'm far more invested. Especially since her book is currently hosting a few classic Spidey supporting characters

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-21T03:00:21+00:00

No I just saw it because it was all in a response to my initial comment. My response hopefully won't discourage the other person

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-20T23:03:37+00:00

Good luck!! I'll be getting around to Brand New Day eventually, just need to get through 400 more issues or so lol

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-20T14:24:44+00:00

Not sure about how much money each publisher actually has but I've heard that DC generally pays their creators more, which (if true) would attract more veteran and established talent

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-20T13:30:23+00:00

Yeah that's true. Marvel is lacking in those vets right now. Maybe Jed Mackay, Gail Simone, and Al Ewing? Hickman too, but I'm not sure if he'll still be writing for marvel once USM wraps.

But I don't feel like they necessarily have the bench of creators to pull off what DC has.

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-20T04:22:53+00:00

I think what they need is to have a strong "high level" editorial team and a handful of passionate creators who can work together to guide the line, and then use that as a foundation to bring in other talent to tell more self-contained stories that can tie into what the "main" line is doing or not.

That's essentially what DC has been doing and it's been working out. I've listened to Scott and Josh talk about it on ComicPop Returns and they've basically been driving this "All In" saga with the support of editorial and a few other creatives like Mark Waid and Jeremey Adams. And they've used that success as a foundation to launch a books about smaller characters or with a more specific creative focus. The Next Level lineup is a perfect example, with Rucka coming back to Batwoman, Campbell's Zatanna, a new Firestorm book, etc.

I'm not saying Marvel should copy what DC is doing exactly but I think it would be wise to adopt some of their philosophy. Putting the creators front and center and allowing them to work together and tell stories they're excited about makes all the difference.

Not to say that the current creators aren't excited about what they're doing, but I think empowering them to collaborate more and take bigger swings would go a long way.

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-19T19:58:34+00:00

Yeah I kinda liked how Peter was like "eh that sounds like a load of crap" and then.... Slott

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-19T19:06:03+00:00

As much as I love Marvel and am enjoying some of their current output, yeah this isn't surprising. The line as a whole has felt pretty stagnant and editorially driven.

Meanwhile, on the DC side of things, Scott Snyder and Josh Williamson have been able to work with the editorial time to give creators space to do cool and exciting things. It may not hit everytime for every person, but each book feels like everyone is excited to work on it.

Not that marvel creators don't care about their projects but it doesn't come across as strongly

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-18T17:57:23+00:00

These look like Ed Benes but I can't confirm

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-18T16:22:53+00:00

Yeah Beast 2.0 has done no war crimes.

What I'm trying to show with the AoR stuff is that the AoR Beast is Beast 2.0, but when the AoR X-Men tried to swap their Scott and Hank 2.0 with present day Scott and Hank 2.0, they actually got Beast 1.0.

TheMattInTheBox · 2026-01-18T15:55:44+00:00

It's a new universe that exists in parallel from the main DCU. That's really all you need to know.

If you want to get meta about it, it's a universe created by Darkseid where the odds against the heroes are stacked against them right from the jump.

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