Titans Annual #1 (DC, 2025)

I don't think any fan of Titans would go "wow, this exploration of Donna Try as a character is GREAT!" but  here we are. Thanks, Phil! 

TITANS ANNUAL #1 written and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, colors by Arif Prianto, and letters by Wes Abbot.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to First Issues now, the weekly show
posted daily ish about only the newest first issues released
by insert comic company. Here this week, I'll be looking
at the comics released for the week of July thirtieth,
twenty twenty five. Honestly, I have not read Titans in
a while. I know I should, especially after whoever was

(00:20):
really a posted to the Titans being around got ousted.
No names, just guesses. Titans Annual number one, written and
illustrated by Phil Jamenez, Colors by Arif Prianto and letters
by Wes Abbott, Abbit Glass, backs of Abo Shit because
of Donna troyat Troy Curse by a pod you, Phil Jamnez,

(00:45):
was that two over the top? Probably? Anyways, This fantastic
annual for Titans is about Donna Troy, a character that
honestly was a fantastic support character, but anytime any writer
on any Titans book focused directly on on her more
than a couple issues generally turned her into banging her
mom's boyfriendwriting and rewriting her backstory for the upteenth time. Honestly,

(01:10):
if you really want to know more about Donna Troy,
Linkara has a fantastic overview of the Teen Titans full
history in his video series March of the Titans over
at a top the fourth Wall. Now, long story short,
Donna's not necessarily the weakest character. She has had some
great moments overall in my personal time reading Titans. But
she was probably the founding member of the og Titans

(01:33):
that actually got screwed over a lot more than anyone
else throughout her time. And one of them will become
a heroin addict and this book covers all of that, actually,
not the heroine, but Donna Troy's history. Yes, if I
gave a premise, it would just be me recounting how
the sidekicks of Heuros came together to form the original
Teen Titans team, even though Donna Troy was technically just

(01:56):
put on the team because editorial didn't know anything about
Wonder Woman at the time. But I'm trying not to
be a comic historian for a moment. I'm just trying
to be a comic reviewer. Basically, this is a great
history of both the Titans, which, by the way, is
the best scene I've ever read involving the Kid Titans
when they were starting out, as Donna shows up to
Wayne Manner in full wonder Girl outfit, and it's all

(02:18):
inspiring to think that Diana just dropped her off at
the front door in the middle of the night for
Little League stuff. But more importantly, at least to me,
this is a history of Donna Troy in the best
way I've ever seen it presented fully. Besides the og
Titans her relationship with Speedy, the two major things that
I found really invested in reading this was showing her

(02:40):
and Diana's relationship, because yeah, Wonder Woman is back to
being formed from clay and given life by well not
to really muddy the point love, whereas Donna was born
and grew up naturally, so there's an obvious parallel and
it works great in conveying what Donna is, conveying who
Donna is based on how she was raised on Paradise Island.

(03:02):
But then there's also the other shoe, her strange father
who she finds out had died, and we get to
see her emotions about that. Yes, I admit I may
or may not have gotten Miss the ied in a
couple spots, because damn it, Jemenaz made this look great
and feel weighty as absolute get out, not just the
best Titans single issues now, but it may actually be

(03:23):
one of the best I think I've ever actually read truly,
so obviously my verdict is collect it. Collective means that
you should have a digital copy of this to read,
a physical copy to also read because it's very pretty,
all the variant covers that look good to you, and
of course check out this current run of Titans. Honestly,

(03:44):
they're back in a big way and I love it.
But maybe I'm wrong. Let me know what your thoughts
of this issue or even if I missed an issue
over on Facebook at the Comic Archivist, on Twitter at
AGC Underscore does it All? Or Blue Sky at a
Jasey does it All? Without any Underscore, don't forget to like, share,
of follow, and do all the other stuff that I'm

(04:05):
being told is important to continue doing these shows and
more than anything though Stiggled and Inklings