What is it about this book?

It seems to have all the workings for a great series.

Deathstroke leads a group of damaged titans. Worked with Titans East (written by Geoff Johns) in Teen Titans and worked when he taught Dick Grayson in the “Renegade” arc of Nightwing. But why is it falling short on this series?  For me, if you put Deathstroke in a book, you have me. He is just one of those characters who I will read any title he is featured in. Arsenal is perfect for the line up, but the heroin addiction story line seems too forced. Osiris is certainly damaged enough and makes for an interesting character to throw in the mix as a wild card character.  And the Ink we were introduced to during Final Crisis would also fit perfectly, if Wallace could get the character down, but so far has fallen short.

I guess it comes down to Wallace.  He has great ideas and I want to see where this book is headed.  Who does not want to see a big battle stand off against the inmates at Arkham? And the characters have a lot of potential. The dialogue just comes off lacking and uninspired.  The scene with the JLA talking about the death of Ryan Choi was painful, but not as painful as the art in that scene.

And onto the art… The cover is inciting, but there still something off about it.  Perhaps it is simply a matter of style preference.  I know they do it all the time, but this really belongs on a Batman cover, not on the cover of Titans although it does have Batman  and Deathstroke fighting against the Arkham inmates, although not most of the ones pictured.

And as mentioned earlier, the art with the Justice League was simply terrible.  The art of Congo Bill was so far off… Congo Bill is normally calm, except in battle, so why is he yelling a simple line?  The art was just completely off the mark in this issue. I feel like with what was happening in this issue, there could have been potential for an amazing artist to come in and create some epic panels.  It could not be further from that at this point.

This all comes down to potential.  Yes, this book has got it.  Is that enough to keep me reading? For now, the answer is yes.