Cosmic horror comes to the DC Universe as the Beast World event kicks off. Spinning out of the pages of Titans, where we've seen weird alien spore-like creatures climbing inside people and taking them over, and learned that the leader of the Church of Eternity is actually a Tamaranian, this new event puts the Titans squarely in the centre of things.
When the ship lands on the moon the two astronauts discover an ancient temple carved into a mountainside. Using their suits coms, Brother Eternity speaks some ancient Tamaranian, and the temple activates. The moon begins to shake apart as a giant monstrosity breaks its way free from beneath the surface.The Titans, who were watching the televised mission, spring into action, with the members capable of surviving in space boom tubing to the remote moon. They're unable to save the astronauts, but manage to escape as the moon breaks apart, revealing a huge alien monster.
As the heroes gather on Earth, Starfire reveals that she knows what the creature is, telling them about ancient Tamaranian history. The monster is known as the Necrostar, and appears to be similar to Starro. The creature, which looks kind of plant-like, unleashes smaller versions of itself that help it to take over and destroy worlds. Her people rose up against it, billions of beings with the same super powers as her. She's asked how they beat it, to which she replies that they didn't. Starro did. Starro and the Necrostar battled, and when the Necrostar was beaten the Tamaranians sealed it in a prison and sent it out into space; where it would eventually become the moon of Titan.
Hope of defeating the Necrostar seems thin, but Beast Boy has a plan. As the stronger heroes head into orbit to slow down the spores, and the ground based heroes do their best to deal with the ones that make it through, Beast Boy uses his ability to become other animals to turn himself into Starro. Garro, as he jokingly calls himself, flies into space to fight the Necrostar, as his own spores tackle those attacking Earth. Garro beats the monster back, and Cyborg opens up a boom tube that sends it to the coldest place in the universe. All seems well, and the day is won.
This issue is pure set-up, getting us into the place for the main thrust of the event; but it's absolutely fantastic set-up. The Necrostar is genuinely scary, in a way that Starro never is. Maybe it's a combination of the name and the spinier, more dangerous looking design, maybe it's the cosmic horror of something sealed away for generations in the coldness of space, but this thing feels like a big threat. It's a shame its dealt with in this one issue (apparently), but it's used perfectly here. It spurs our heroes into action, and it gives us a reasoning for Gar turning into a Starro that makes perfect sense.
After Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths the Titans were given the reigns to be the premier super hero team, to take the Justice League's place for when things are at their worst. It didn't really feel like they were doing this during the events of Night Terrors or Lazarus Planet, and their own title still feels fairly small in scope. But, this time we get to see them leading. They're the first to try and deal with the Necostar, Starfire is their source of knowledge, Gar is the one coming up with the plan, and the other heroes are listening to them and taking their lead. It may have taken a while to get there, but this finally feels like the team are doing the thing that the trinity asked of them.
This issue also saw Doctor Hate remove his helmet, though we didn't see his face. But Gar did, and not only did he recognise them, but seemed shocked by who they were. With Waller having messed with the multiverse this seems like we're probably getting a character we know, though they might not be this world's version of it. The shock that Gar has might be a 'why are you doing this' kind of thing, but it could also easily be a 'you're supposed to be dead' or 'I just spoke to you a minute ago and you were good' kind of thing. There is definitely a new mystery now as to his true identity.
The book is drawn by Ivan Reis with Brad Anderson on colours, and the book looks absolutely fantastic. There's something about Reis drawn books that just have this bigger feel to them. He feels like an event artist, one who draws the big, special things. The scale of the threat in this issue, along with the art makes this book feel bigger than Night Terrors or Lazarus Planet. Maybe this is me remembering things like Blackest Night, and how big that was, and putting some of that remembered hype and projecting those feelings onto this. Whatever the reason, this book just feels special.
Beast World looks set to be a fun event, one that isn't going across too many books, and that doesn't have a ton of tie ins. If it's kept to this kind of quality throughout, without it disrupting large parts of the wider publishing line it could end up becoming one of the better events from DC in years.
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