teen titans vol 3 by kami garcia

Vol 3: Beast Boy Loves Raven, illustrated by Gabriel Picolo
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Raven and Gar are on their way to Nashville, separately, but to see the same person, someone named Slade who can help them with their powers. Unbeknownst to Raven, her adoptive foster sister, Max is also tagging along to make sure she’s safe. Once in Nashville, the two teens find out their contact is going to be two days late. They keep bumping into each other and different restaurants, so Gar finally gets up the courage to talk to Raven. Their first encounter doesn’t go so well, but Gar is persistent and eventually gets Raven to come around. The two end up sharing a cheap motel room after Raven’s wallet is stolen, but she’s visited by nightmare visions of her father, Trigon, who is imprisoned in her necklace. When the date of meeting Slade finally arrives, the two go their separate ways to make their meetings. Thankfully, Damien Wayne is also in town to meet with Slade, and he’s a pretty untrusting person. He arrives in time to see Raven abducted, and mounts a rescue mission with Max to spring Raven and Gar from a secret facility.

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This volume starts out pretty cute, and Garcia plays up the teeny-bopper romance without going too over the top. There are plenty of hints along the way that things are not going to end up well for Gar and Raven once they meet up with Slade, so the ending isn’t too much of a surprise. What is a surprise is the introduction of Damien and the hinting at a few other characters, which Teen Titan fans will be able to spot easily. Garcia's two other books in this series had been pretty stingy on the cameos, so starting to see some more of the team show up and come together is exciting.

The art is once again stellar. Picolo has a wonderful way of making his characters very expressive with minimal lines. The color palettes are masterful, and I enjoy seeing how he develops colors for each character, but also blends them together as the characters interact more. This is a visually stunning series!

​Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2

Publisher: 
Publication Date: 
ISBN: (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Graphic Fiction, Romance, Friendship, Superheroes, DC Comics