Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Written by David Branson Smith & Matt Spicer
Directed by Matt Spicer
Ingrid Thorburn is a mentally unstable woman who seems to have little human contact outside of online social media, notably Instagram. She is released from a mental health facility and returns to her recently deceased mother’s home, still in grief about that loss and deep into her ongoing psychological issues. That is when she comes across an article on Taylor Sloane, a new social media tastemaker. Taylor fills her Instagram with accounts of the food she eats, the clothes she wears, and the activities she and her husband get up to living in Venice Beach. Ingrid decides that Venice Beach is where she needs to be and cashes out her inheritance to go there with the chance of running across Taylor. Eventually, this chance meeting occurs and Ingrid’s problems only compound from there.
The Titans begin to form stronger bonds in this second collection of Wolfman and Perez’s legendary run. There are two core story arcs presented here: Donna Troy’s temptation at the hands of the Titans of Myth & Changeling’s quest to avenge the fallen Doom Patrol. Both stories set in stone a lot of future Titans mythos, particularly the Doom Patrol storyline. This volume also serves to further connect the Titans with the DC Universe, and it’s very complicated history.
Dick Grayson has existed in many forms over the years. Acrobat in Haly’s Circus, sidekick to Batman, leader of the Teen Titans, independent crime fighter, secret agent, but now he returns to his Nightwing identity. Grayson has gone undercover in the Parliament of Owls, a secret cabal that has worked against the Bat-family since the New 52 relaunch. The Owls believe Grayson has switched sides and partner him up with Raptor, an acrobatic assassin to take care of some problems started by the terrorist cult Kobra. Grayson must feign villainy while trying to access the Owls’ most guarded secrets to bring them down.
Barbara Gordon has lived through many phases in her relatively young life. She started out as Batgirl, a partner to Batman and Robin. The cruel actions of the Joker left her wheelchair-bound, but Barbara rose above her depression to become Oracle, a voice in the ear of the Justice League giving them vital information about dire situations. After years of physical therapy, she walked again and took back the mantle of Batgirl. However, there is a new Oracle out there, and Barbara wants to know who is masquerading as her. She teams up with her old partner Black Canary but the two cross paths with the vengeful new Huntress, Helena Bertinelli. This trio seeks to find a solution to their respective problems.
Green Arrow is on the hunt for a cartel of human traffickers preying on Seattle’s homeless population. He crosses paths for the first time with fellow crimefighter Black Canary, and there is an immediate spark between the two. Together they learn about the Underground Men, disfigured monstrous beings living beneath the city who are rounding up the homeless and shipping them to a nightmarish facility in the international waters of the Pacific. Green Arrow learns that they are directly tied to his family’s company and are a direct result of his neglect of this legacy. Machinations from behind the scenes quickly turn the entire city against the hero, and he must bring down this evil cabal with help from some wayward friends.
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