Titans #17

I disagree with the previous reviews.  I don't know how many issues of Titans McCallum wrote, but I get the impression it was maybe only this one? I thought he got Gar Logan exactly right. He clearly did his back reading on Logan and knew his NTT stuff backwards and forwards.  The issue begins with Wally and Roy needling Gar about his old celebrity status and how that's been turned into a liability - Gar is all about image vs. reality.  Yet what makes him 'the only constant' in the Titans is his ability to deal with the Titans' changing reality at the end of the day.  If you read it carefully, you'll find this issue really gets at the heart of what makes Gar tick.
 
The 'daddy issues' line refers to Raven and Terra.  Regarding Terra, Vic is talking about Slade acting as a father figure toward her and then sleeping with her.  He's not talking directly about her being the illegitimate daughter of King Viktor Markov - he's referring to Deathstroke.  Raven has similar veiled scary problems with Trigon; fans rarely recognize her issues with Trigon for what they really are. The point Vic is making is that Gar has been trying to help women with serious, ironically very similar problems, but they were and are both so messed up that they are messing him up. This issue follows on the heels of Gar's encounter with Black Lantern Terra in Blackest Night, where he acknowledges to her that he will always love her.  This presumably gets back to Raven, given how Donna and Raven behave toward Gar in this issue. That explains Raven's hostility.  But although Gar is on the receiving end of everyone's jibes and criticism here, he's actually right.  Raven does have serious daddy issues, and by not letting Gar help her, she is treading a path remarkably similar to Terra's, who also would not let Gar help her.  Gar's caught between the image of romance he thinks he sees with both women and their awful realities.  Given that neither girl could handle being with him, he's left with the question, what is he beyond these ships?
 
Those dual references between image and reality repeat with Gar being trapped between the old DP and NTT glory days on the one hand and having to rework his role as a hero on the other; he has to act, not just as a follower on the team, but as a leader.  That transition, finding a new reality, is extremely important in this issue because it shows how Gar can find a new baseline, become a new constant, and provide stability to new Titans teams.  He can literally 'morph' into a new kind of hero.  It's a real shame that Henderson subsequently completely threw this set-up for Gar as leader - which was clearly established in this issue despite Gar's shipping problems - out the window.  This is a solid issue with a rare exploration into some of the hidden depths of this character.