DC Titans has been a rocky ride, to say the least, throughout its first two seasons. Season one assembled a majority of the team and while the show’s plot wasn’t all that great by any means, what kept myself and many others hooked to the show, were the characters. While the story wasn’t anything special, the great heroes, in part due to their strong acting performances, kept me glued to the screen. Season two’s plot was a little bit better, and Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke was a character that I was extremely excited to see, and he was phenomenal. Character growth and their development was something that kept my attention and had me tuning in every week to the show. But the plot was still not there.
Flashforward to 2021 and the show has moved to HBO Max, was given another writer or two, and was gearing up to introduce new characters such as Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Jason Todd would be reborn as the villainous Red Hood. Reviews began to come out ahead of the season’s release, and critics saw eye-to-eye with one another on the show’s dramatic improvement. I for one would have to pleasantly agree with them. The plot, while there is still no clear idea of what the season will entail, is improved and seems to be like it’ll be the best one yet from the show.
Image via: Screen Rant
Episode one titled Barbara Gordon sees the team together working to stop a a thief from stealing some tech from a warehouse in San Francisco. All the while Jason Todd is alone in the Bat Cave and sets out, on his own at Bruce Wayne’s disapproval, to stop the Joker. Jason ends up being beaten to death by the Joker with a crowbar, and Dick Grayson’s and Bruce’s worlds come crashing down. Dick and Barbara tell Bruce “no more Robins” and this his war on Gotham needs to be a one man act. This all comes after Bruce shows no emotion towards Jason’s death, and is acting as if nothing happened… While he has the names of multiple Robin replacements on his computer.
Names such as: Carrie Kelly, Duke Thomas (The Signal), and Stephanie Brown are revealed to Dick and he lashes out on Bruce’s lack of empathy. Bruce seemingly realizes his wrongdoing, heads to Arkham Asylum, and beats the Joker to death with the same crowbar that he used to kill Jason. He returns to Wayne manor and tells Dick, “It’s over. My time as the Batman has ended. Be a better Batman that I ever was,” and he leaves Wayne Manor without a trace.
The first episode was about old wounds being reopen, and tried to be mended with an unwanted remedy. Barbara, now Commissioner of the GCPD after Jim Gordon was killed by Mr. Freeze, seems a little lukewarm on Dick’s return to Gotham. Even Bruce didn’t seem all that happy to see Dick back, but he came around by the end. Season three seems like it is going to be about old wounds as Scarecrow will be popping up from time to time to assist Dick. Blackfire (Starfire’s evil sister) will be the villain of the second half of the season, and obviously there’s Jason whose the latest thorn in the Titans’ side after his abrupt leave from the team.
Image via: Screen Rant
Episode two titled Red Hood was about Jason’s rise to power as the Red Hood and how the Titans and Commissioner Gordon (Barbara) find out about who the man is “under the hood.” Jason enacts fear into some of the criminals of Gotham who now believe they can run Gotham with Batman M.I.A. and Robin dead. Jason makes a beautiful appearance as he has a duffle bag with a severed head in it, and kills 3-5 criminals in the process. He tells them that, “Gotham is mine,” and he quickly has them on his payroll.
One thing leads to another and Dick and the team screw up and a bank robbery goes, that the Titans could’ve prevented, sees Jason’s newfound criminal assailants come out with $25M and part of the bank blows up from a bomb. Dick, with the help from Hawk and Dove, find Red Hood who Dick soon realizes is Jason Todd. This leaves him and the team confused, and upset as they believe his newfound persona is their fault, and that they failed him.
Image via: IMDb
With the mystery of how Jason was brought back to life still lingering over the team, Jason persuades Hank to help him in episode three titled, Hank and Dove. Jason makes it seem like he’s in trouble, and maybe even being manipulated. This is quickly proven false as Jason is able to apprehend Hank enough to be able in implant a bomb into Hank’s chest. Hank and Donna have split for a while and Donna wasn’t too happy to see Hank back with the team. But they quickly makeup as Hank is seemingly on his death bed, and the team tries to figure out how to save him. Jason manipulates Donna into stealing $50M in gold bars from a truck going to a bank for him, only for him to have been playing her. Meanwhile Superboy and Gar are trying to create a device that can deactivate the bomb, but they’re too late. The bomb goes off and kills Hank in the end.
Donna breaks down in Dick’s arms, which might lead to a fight in episode four as she could blame Dick and might tear apart the Titans… again. Time will tell on what the fallout will be, and even if Hank is dead. This is DC Comics, no one is ever truly gone. Hank is a fan favorite, and I’ll be honest, when he died it hit me hard. If the plot wasn’t as great as it’s been thus far, I’d have jumped ship on the show after that happened! If I were a betting man, I’d guess that Hank will be back eventually as Extant.
Extant is Hank Hall after he went insane where he saw his future, and himself killing Dove. He became a murderous despot monarch and had a bloodlust. If adapted, I’m not sure how much the show version and comics version would align with one another, but it would be interesting to see. With Raven bringing Donna Troy back to life on Themyscira, I’m sure she’ll want to help Donna in bringing back Hank. Or, Dick will seek out R’as al Ghul and throw Hank into the Lazarus Pit which will surely unlock Hank’s darker side and might be catastrophic.
Image via: Comicbook.com
Much of plot is still unknown, but one thing’s for sure; season three is already better than any part of seasons one and two. With ten episodes remaining this season there is still a lot of plot ready to be dished out. Twists and turns will definitely come. The only thing I ask for, is a plot that lands in the end as well as it has been while it’s still just taking off into the air. That’s been hard to ask in the first two seasons, but I have a great feeling about the third season so far!
You can watch Titans every Thursday, only on HBO Max.