While John Layman’s Titans Vol. 3: Hard Feelings was more bicker-y than I might like, neither was it as problematic as I’d feared. I do appreciate that Layman is not writing for the trade — it’s all connected, of course, but Hard Feelings offers two- and even one-parters with the Titans fighting various villains, and that felt nicely more episodic and less goal-oriented than your standard DC trade. I also appreciate Layman picking up a variety of threads from Tom Taylor’s run before him when he certainly didn’t have to.

The greater difficulties are not new; as a Titans book, Hard Feelings is concerned with very familiar Titans concerns, even on to the next volume, when I rather wish someone could find some uncharted ground. But also there’s an undercurrent of anti-Justice League sentiment across this story that I just didn’t like personally. I guess the Titans rebelling against the Justice League is more interesting (more on-brand?) than everyone getting along, but while Justice League Unlimited touts a more cohesive League, it seemed unfortunate for Titans to be immediately poking holes in it.

[Review contains spoilers]

I don’t think Hard Feelings starts off well. No sooner are the Titans touring the new Watchtower than Donna Troy wonders what happens if the League gives an order the Titans disagree with — and then Beast Boy carelessly enrages an alien animal and gets reprimanded by the Question. The Titans leave the Watchtower in a huff, and already whatever status the Titans had as the team hand-picked to replace the League has vanished.

It’s not so much I think the League is being unfair to the Titans as I think Layman is creating conflict where the general arc of the DCU story — Dark Crisis, Absolute Power, the first volume of Justice League Unlimited — doesn’t uphold it. Later, Batman swoops down to commandeer a mind-controlled Killer Frost when the Titans want to rehabilitate her, insinuating the Titans' opinions don’t count as much as the original Leaguers. It’s rude of Batman, letting alone that the Titans suspect something that world’s greatest detective Batman doesn’t, and I see both of these as Layman angling the plot where he wants it to go rather than what we’ve recently seen — Batman praising the Titans during Absolute Power and so on.

Notably there’s a moment when Cyborg quips, “This what we do now? Drop everything to do work for the Justice League,” which felt ironic given that, of them all, Cyborg is an “original” Leaguer. That’s in continuity at least as recently as Cyborg: Homecoming, positing Vic joined the Titans soon after a few League missions, but the lack of acknowledgment anywhere in the book makes me wonder if Layman knows it. Among all the characters, I thought Layman’s Cyborg was a bit rough; I loved the reveal that he’s resurrecting Taylor’s Vanadia, but his fighting with Arsenal Roy Harper and general lack of patience seemed out of character (see one page where Cyborg says they should focus on saving people rather than stopping the Clock King, and the very next page where Cyborg is mad they let Clock King get away).

Hard Feelings comes down to Psycho Pirate wanting to steal Raven’s empathic powers and also that all the Titans' current foes, including Psycho Pirate, are being manipulated by Deathstroke. This is, I grant, what Titans series are — something about Raven and Trigon, something about Donna Troy and the Olympian gods, something about Starfire and the Tamaranians, something about Deathstroke, repeat — but another “Raven’s emotions” plot just after Taylor’s “Raven’s emotions” plot in Titans Vol. 2: The Dark-Winged Queen seems exceptionally repetitive. Too, while I grant all Titans runs have their Deathstroke story, the fact that I can rattle them off so easily — New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, of course, Teen Titans: Titans East, Titans: The Lazarus Contract, Teen Titans: The Terminus Agenda — suggests this has been done one too many times.

Again, I did enjoy simply that we’ve got a couple issues of the Titans against Clock King, one of them against Mammoth and Shimmer, another against Killer Frost — that is, somewhat basic, episodic heroes vs. villains stuff. Quite aside from the Titans (for better or worse), Layman’s four-page sequence of Frost getting increasingly frustrated on the Watchtower is a highlight — funny and with a good portrayal of life on the space station Watchtower in general (they have an ice cream robot!). I also appreciate Layman, perhaps picking up from Taylor, portraying the Titans as a team that does things differently, trying to help rather than imprison their enemies — I only wish this wasn’t portrayed as the Titans doing what the Justice League will not.

Pete Woods draws the majority of this book, an artist ubiquitous at DC in the early 2000s but whom I don’t feel I’ve seen as much lately; his art has matured in interesting ways. I’m looking back at an old Robin issue inked by Andrew Pepoy versus Hard Feelings, which Woods inks and colors himself; obviously gains in digital coloring are a factor, as there’s considerable more depth and shading here (perhaps also less use of full black to hide what technology couldn’t overcome then). But too while the art is visibly Woods-esque, some of the animated roundness has faded, replaced with angular lines; see Donna’s chin most times Woods draws it. Woods' reimagination of some of the background characters is inspired; I particularly like his Trigon by way of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.

The good and bad in the Titans going after Deathstroke in the next volume following Titans Vol. 3: Hard Feelings is that we have something to compare it to; John Layman can equally deliver the best Titans/Deathstroke story in a while or just another to add to the pile. I’d still like a Titans story where I might say, “I’ve never seen that before” (Tom Taylor’s Titans: Beast World was right up there); maybe once Layman gets the Titans' greatest hits out of the way.

[Includes original and variant covers]