Or – “It’s An ‘Abused By Bruce Wayne’ Support Group Reunion!”
They apparently get a special rate at “Domino Masks R Us” for the case lot assortment… Teen Titans is a book that I keep meaning to get around to reviewing, vacilating as it does between superb and absurd, and now that we have a slow comic week, (and since Steve kindly covered the accompanying issue of Countdown yesterday) I thought we could check in with the junior JLA and their road to recovery after the devastating battle with Deathstroke. Though I’m irritated at the sight of Jason Todd (DC owes me $1.99 from when I voted to off the schmuck) at least it works in the story context…
Previously, on Teen Titans: Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven established a new tower as a place for the new younger heroes to gather and learn. Kon-El, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Robin, and others came to take advantage of a place to hang with kids who really understand their troubles. Members came and went, Kon died heroically, Kid Flash was lost in the speed force and returned as the new Flash, and then time jumped a year. Reforming with new members, the team set off in search of Raven, and found Jericho. With Ravager already on board, that meant both of Deathstroke’s children were again Titans, and he gathered his own group, Titans East, to oppose them. This plan was goofy enough, but it turns out that all he really wanted was to guarantee that his kids had a family, and once that was established, he bolted. The battle was severe enough that former Titans Nightwing, Flash, Troia, and Raven returns. After that battle, they apparently found out about the death of Duela (Is that pronounced ‘Doo-Ay-la’ or ‘Doo-Lah?’) Dent, the Joker’s Daughter, at the hands of Stinky the Monitor. Donna Troy remarks that she’s “been to more funerals than she’s had birthdays,” and it’s completely true…
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Jericho, by the way, is trapped in the body of defective Kon-El clone, Match, and has spent three days controlling his various and sundry murderous urges. Robin and Nightwing can only guess at who killed J.D. (them bat-kids stick together, unless you’re Spoiler) and decide their first priority is to investigate and find out who did it. As the team decides on a plan, splitting up to cover two leads at once, Wonder Girl (who loved S-Boy) quickly stammers that she’ll go with Nightwing, but what she means is ‘I’ll go wherever Match isn’t.’ Everyone ignores her awkward moment, and picks their team…
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Wait, what? I have to read an entirely different book for a key scene in THIS one? I thought that we weren’t doing that anymore! Dang that Paul Dini… Since Stephen already covered this, we’ll just see what he said.
This issue also finds Donna Troy and the rest of the Teen Titans at the grave site of Duela Dent. Countdown doesn’t happen in weekly chunks like 52; instead time compression and decompression are the order of the day. From what I can tell, only three days have passed since Stinky shot Duela in Countdown #51, and it is time to bury a fallen hero – once a Titan, always a Titan. After everyone leaves, Jason Todd pops out of the shadows to talk over an idea with Donna.
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Well it looks like someone is putting two and two together.
Back in THIS book, we see the team later that night waiting to interrogate the actress who Duela kidnapped right before her execution. While Swingwing and Laddio– err, Nightwing and Robin, rather, talk with her, Donna Troy takes a moment to counsel her “little sister,” Cassie (Wonder Girl.) She, like everyone else, caught how uncomfortable Cass is with Match, and reminds her that he ISN’T her lost boyfriend. “You need to start moving on, Cass,” says the woman who turned evil for a year when her husband died.
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Aww, poor Wonder Girl. I can’t stand to see a woman cry, it’s like my Kryptonite. While Donna comforts Cassie, Nightwing and Robin are stunned to hear the woman say that someone called “The Red Hood” was there when she woke up. Robins I and III decide it’s about time to have a serious talk with Robin II, who complains that he didn’t kill anybody. Jason knocks both his “bro thers” on their butts, but quickly finds the sword of the Ravager inches from his jugular. Nightwing is satisfied that Jason didn’t do THIS, but warns him that he’ll be back if Todd screws up again. As the team leaves, Jason yells at daddy’s favorite sons, “If you boys want to try to kick my ass again, next time just come to me and try it! Don’t hide behind some useless ‘investigation.’ ” Tim Drake calmly turns around, walks up to the Red Hood… and we throw our coverage over to Stephen’s review of Countdown:
What is the best part about this sequence? Reading Teen Titans #47, which features the lead in to the funeral, Robin and Nightwing interrogating Red Hood (Jason Todd), the reappearance of Duela’s intended kidnap victim Tracey, and the bigger mystery of who is trying to cover up the crime scene. Plus, where else will you find this shot?
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“Consider THAT next time, Todd.” Heh. Tim doesn’t usually get the tough-guy John Wayne moments, so I like this, in a vicious schadenfreude kinda way. Meanwhile, back at Titans Tower, Raven wants to take a few moments to talk with Beast Boy about their relationship, but BB has another focus: Kid Devil. The team’s resident funnyman and trickster, K.D. was obviously shaken by recent events, and of course, the fact that he’s going to die horribly when he’s twenty and have his soul eaten and stuff. Gar can relate… well, to the funnyman part, not the whole ‘satan will eat me blah blah blah,’ and wants to make sure Devil knows he’s among friends.
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As they talk, we follow Raven to the main room, where an exhausted Jericho is trying desperately to hold onto Match’s body. Match’s mind is starting to exert itself, saying “Me surrender to you… until the beginning!” Heh. Bizarro logic… Worst of all, Jericho now knows what it is that Match wants to do when he breaks free.IMAGE REMOVED BY DC LEGAL DEPARTMENT
Of the Titans, pretty much only Donna and Wonder Girl are strong enough to overpower Match in a one-on-one battle, but this isn’t one-on-one. He quickly takes out Ms. Martian, counters Kid Devil’s fire breath with freezing breath of his own, and drops Beast Boy like a used cigarette. The other five Titans continue to investigate, this time checking the alley where Duela was killed for clues. Nightwing discovers a strange energy residue, and tries to analyze it when his scanner is annihilated. A light shines down on them, and a mysterious voice speaks…
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The voice from above finished Nightwing’s thought with, “I believe the phrase is ‘a sitting duck.'” A bolt of energy knocks Ravager down, and suddenly all five Titans are teleported back to the tower! There’s no clear explanation of what took away Wonder Girl’s powers here, (the implication is that a Monitor did it, but there’s also the pervasive problem of ‘Amazons Attack’ impending) but it takes the team’s strongest member off the field. As Beast Boy, Cyborg, Ms. Martian and Donna hold Match steady, and Wonder Girl realizes what she has to do…
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Aww… she did listen when Diana preached love over violence! With Match under control, Raven tries to talk to BB again, but he brushes her off. Likewise, Wonder Girl can’t answer Robin’s questions about what is happening to her. My suspicions about the whole Amazon thing are at least partially proven groundworthy when she gets home to the apartment she shares with Kara Zor-El (Supergirl).
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Next issue: another crossover! I had just gotten used to not having a ‘big event’ comics every month, it’s a bit startling to have it start all over again. 52 being out of step with continuity was a blessing, keeping each book to it’s own cast (mostly) and limiting the ways that we could be annoyed. Countdown is a whole new animal, and while I’ll save most of the ranting on that title for Stephen, I’ve found it’s crossovers awkwardly shoehorned in for the most part, most obviously in the scene with the Monitors this issue.
Still, it’s a gorgeous comic book to look at, with penciller Chris Batista able to draw powerful male and female heroes, as well as attractive and expressive faces. Wonder Girl and The Red Hood look especially good here, and Adam Beechen does an interesting set of Titans. As the regular Robin writer, he seems to want to give the character more of an edge, now that the older Titans are here to handle the rudder for a bit. Overall, it’s a good effort, marred by the annoying “we’re going to a funeral, but you can only see that story by reading a different comic book” setup and some awkwardness in terms of integrating the Monitor plot. Still, it’s well worth a look, and well worth it’s 3 stars out of 5 rating. Hopefully, the delays that have plagued this book are done, at least for a while, and we can get a monthly dose of a book this nicely done.
16 Comments
I’m wondering if that Ray of Light isn’t really Lightray, who then gets kacked by said Monitors.
Wow: Supergirl and Wonder Girl: two blonde, blue-eyed superchicks, and they look quite distinct. Now that’s good art.
Dway-lah is how I always pronounced it but I’m Irish.
Wow: Supergirl and Wonder Girl: two blonde, blue-eyed superchicks, and they look quite distinct. Now that’s good art.
What impresses me is how his Supergirl keeps the pert-nose-sharp-chin facial features that all Michael Turner designed characters have, yet he gives it real human dimension… That’s impressive.
Dway-lah is how I always pronounced it but I’m Irish.
Dway-lah it is… That actually sounds more like a name and is easier on the tongue than either of my variants, plus it doesn’t sound stupid. My people are middle European, so we use many unnecessary consonants. In Polish, her name would probably be “Czieraekcakaczach Dent.” But, what other language is so much fun to write? Dobry rano! Lubię pierwszorzędnego człowieka!
I would have gone for doo-AY-la.
I just can’t find it in me to sympathise with Wonder Girl, nor find her interesing. To me, she’s just another of DC’s Bland Blondies…
DOO-LAH!!!! I’m just kidding, I have no idea. Match seems like a nicely done execution on the ol’ Bizarro theme. For some reason I’m reminded of an old Ambush Bug comic: “Glop, Glop, I’m not a mop, I’m a Glop. I want my pearl…Wonder Girl.”
There should be Bizarro-everything in the DC Universe. I want a Bizarro Darkseid who wears day-glo orange and shoots “Alpha Beams” from his eyes that turn things into ice cream. Maybe a Bizarro Riddler who acts like Alex Trebek and just keeps giving out answers.
It is BIZARRO!
How about a Bizarro Jimmy Olsen who’s interesting, with a backstory that makes sense? Ouch… That was even a little too nasty for me.
Dog bite man am big news on Bizarro World!
Ok, Bizzaro ‘Tom Welling’? I know I’m a little behind on this, but come on! If they’re going with that route, just bring Superb…er…’Tom Welling’ back. He was my favorite character. And since the multiverse is back, ‘Tom Welling’, technically, died for nothing :(
Bring back ‘Tom Welling’!!
Glad to see we are creating our own little meme here.
But I agree – bring back
SuperboyTom Welling!Bizarro Tom Welling would theoretically win every major acting award.
“Bizarro Tom Welling am hate to thank the Academy for losing! Me like to tell Mom to get lost! Me do it all without you! Hello and drop dead! Me hate you all! Please no watch me next movie!”
Bizarro Tom Welling would also have great taste in movie roles.
“Goodbye, agent? Me am be in ‘Cheaper By The Dozen VII: Electric Boogaloo!’ Me am not thinking it banal and insipid, and me not think it even worth time to look at Bizarro Hilary Duff, who am not a vapid wannabee Lindsay Lohan! Hello!”
Speaking of Cheaper By The Dozen, it’s not unthinkable that a once-great comedian was replaced by BIZARRO STEVE MARTIN sometime around 1996.
“Me am… a staid and logical GUY!!”
Oh, BTW, does anyone else think Jericho never getting out of Match might actually make both characters a smidgen interesting? Class? Class?
Jericho becoming trapped inside of Match would be very interesting. I don’t usually fancy clones, but a classic Titan’s character becoming trapped inside a degraded and demented clone of a dead Titan would make his presence much more profound. I’m sure the interaction between Jericho and his sister would not be affected, but having Jericho/Match around would be akin to a knife wound that won’t heal for Robin and Wonder Girl.