WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Titans Season 3, Episode 10, “Troubled Water,” available now on HBO Max.
As Season 3 of Titans rolls on, Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser) and Jason Todd/Red Hood (Curran Walters) are breaking Nightwing’s team apart systematically. They’ve turned Gotham against them, gotten the cops to start hunting the vigilantes and now, they’ve taken over Wayne Manor. However, as all of this happens, the show wastes a chance at giving us DC’s zombie apocalypse.
Zombies are quite the talk of 2021 given the epic battle Disney+’s What If presented as Marvel’s heroes fought the undead. The decision to introduce that storyline the way they did brought gravitas and gore to What If and a story widely considered way too dark for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s movies to viewers. This had fans wondering if someday we could see a spin on DCeased, with DC’s heroes fending off walkers too.
Titans paves the way for this as Gotham’s civil war breaks out. A propaganda video seeded out by Crane to a poisoned populace gets them to loot and riot, causing the city to be barricaded by the National Guard, something reminiscent of “No Man’s Land.” When the heroes corner some violent citizens, a few who have adverse reactions are contorting, growling and moving slowly, like zombies. They’re frothing at the mouth and hungry for human flesh, which has Dick ordering his troops to tread carefully.
They can’t use their full-strength, which truly tests heroes like Starfire and Superboy. The whole fight sequence is quite cerebral, as they have to adapt because their lives are at stake as they fight against folks they can’t harm. Sadly, this exchange, as suspenseful as it is, is way too short, and the heroes flee. This kills off the idea of hopelessness rather than throw them neck deep into a battle with innocents they can’t and shouldn’t fight.
Leaning into an enemy like this would push the team to their limits, as the heroes search for a cure to save the souls of these people. More so, it’d leave Crane and Jason petrified as they wanted to cleanse the city, not wrack it with mindless citizens tearing it apart from the inside.
A zombie war would prove Crane’s chemicals really are overkill, perhaps even making him regret it and try to form an alliance to mend things. Bruce could have returned too, helping Crane fix his mistakes, with Jason seeking redemption and humanity too. This truly would have stretched Batman’s no-kill policy, with even the cops struggling for answers on how to corral this threat.
Ultimately, we’d have gotten more conflict, turmoil and tension, as kids could have been turned by the toxin, leaving everyone with the stark realization their rivalry gave way to the biggest amount of collateral damage ever. As it stands, this scene’s way too short and the zombies aren’t even explained — which does leave hope that maybe the chemical thread can be picked up someday.
To see how Titans wastes its ‘zombies,’ check out Episode 10 and catch new episodes of Titans Season 3 on Thursdays on HBO Max.
About The Author
