Flipped through the whole issue quickly when I spotted it on the stands.
Beaver's art is very reminiscent of Murakami's designs, which is great, but Nauck has so defined the look of this series it was strange not seeing his typical group shots when Robin screamed out "Titans GO!" Actually, I'd say that was the worst panel of the issue. We totally missed on a great shot of Robin with the Titans behind him, and Donna with the Amazons behind her.
In many ways, this issue could have dealt with more things than it had time too. After all, where exactly did Donna come from? That much is still a mystery, and probably the number one thing I was hoping Torres would nail down for us, given her convoluted mainstream origins. Plus, I didn't quite grasp why she would voluntarily threaten her role as Wonder Girl just to compete with the other female Titans. If she won the right, she won the right. Right?
Regardless of these issues, I deeply enjoyed the tale, although I admit it wasn't the strongest story we've seen in this books more recent issues. I didn't entirely buy the conflict between Donna and Cassie, simply because it went how we'd expected it too. They butt heads, then one saves the other and they're cool. How did Cassie know how to find the island by the way?
We also didn't get much time to take in the battle with the baddies, which may have had something to do with Beaver's art, or just the limitation of the page number. Nauck would have done some huge sprawling battle scene. Here, while the dialogue suggests it's a big brawl, the fighting taking place doesn't quite live up to the hype. There was a great lead-in, but the climax lacked.
The ending also kind of threw me. Again, I think it may be due to the fact that Nauck and Torres have found a way to compliment each other so well that by issues' end, if either of them were unsure about how to conclude the story and make it work, you'd never know. Here, we were treated to another "Join us, won't you?" scene, like all the others, and it didn't feel genuine. It felt old hat and abrupt. Cassie robbed a museum, invaded a private (and hidden?) island and all for a fight. Pretty rude if you ask me, and not the type of thing that would gain you instant access into a superhero group, as far as I'm concerned.
I also thought that Raven would play some kind of specific role in the story because a whole panel was used to show her meditating under the trees, and seperate from the competitors. Maybe an interesting angle would have been to have Cassie take out the Titan gals during the competition. It's only a thought, and yes, something we've all seen before, but this story just kinda went along it's merry way with few surprises.
Still, I really liked it. The style art grew on me, and while I wish Beavers had kept the designs of Cheetah and Giganta in the JLU wheelhouse, I'm just glad they were mentionned.
So I still don't know how Wonder Girl functions alongside the real Wonder Woman...oh well. At least there's this fun issue! And guess what? Cassie's outfit, gross as it may have looked on the cover, looked much better inside!
ONE ISSUE LEFT PEOPLE. Can't believe I actually got into this book after walking away from the cartoon. I love that we won't know quite what's happening in the final issue until it hits stands.
Should be good!
Sort of. 
