I figured I'd just go ahead and make a different thread for these since Infinite Crisis is over. And yes there are three reasons I'm still reading Teen Titans and they are:

1) Wonder Girl
2) Ravager & Kid Devil (mostly Ravager at the moment)
3) The lame "Superboy fans! Please don't stop reading Teen Titans! See? Robin's trying to bring him back, and we gave him a soul so he'll be back! Don't leave us please!" feeling that it's giving off...which sadly enough is working because I don't have anything better to go on.


Teen Titans #35

It starts with Gar in the Doom Patrol trying to get Herald to laugh when he gets the message from Cyborg calling him. Now for the funny part so funny in fact that I'm going to quote a good bit of it. Robin starts his 98th attempt to reclone Superboy and leaves to sit on his bed where he's pounced on by a naked Rose (See? I called it in my last Titans review didn't I?) Now the quotage.

Rose: Where have you been? I've been waiting all night.
Robin: Rose?! What are you doing?
Rose: Having fun.
Robin: What are you doing in my bed?
Rose: Trying to take off your utility belt.
Robin: Have you been drinking again?
Rose: Maybe.
*someone sneaks into the Tower*
Rose: Just give me a try.
Robin: I'm giving you a try as a teamate.
Rose: I was hoping we could be buddies.
*the intruder puts in an old passcode and sets off the alarms*
Robin: *handcuffing Rose* Teammates is as far as it's going, Rose.
Kid Devil: *bursts in the room* Robin! Someone's in the Tow..er? *notices Robin on top of a naked and handcuffed Rose* Hot damn.
Robin: It's not what it looks like.
Rose: Yes it is.

Come on, you know that was friggin hilarious. Really, how often is it really not what it looks like? Anyway it turns out the intruder's Wonder Girl, but that doesn't stop Ravager (who is dressed btw) from trying to hurt her until Cyborg broke it up. Cyborg then sends off Kid Devil and Ravager saying the Titans need to talk (ouch). You then find out that Kid Devil has to call Blue Devil four times a day, apparently something happened between him and Zatara and BD keeps close tabs on him. Ravager then points out that she doesn't want Wondy to join because the only reason her and Kid Devil are there is because Robin's friends said no. And if Wondy joins, then Rose is out and Deathstroke will be able to find her again and put her back on the super serum that made her insane in the first place. Apparently Nightwing told Robin that Rose had to be on the team but that doesn't calm her because she feels no one wants her there, but KD says he does, awwwwww.

Anyway Wondy was trying to access the Titans' files to see if they had anything on the Brotherhood of Evil since they were doing a lot of stealing of cloning information. Since many of the top scientists have gone missing, no one's been able to successfully make a human clone (aaah so that's why Robin's having a hard time). Since the Brotherhood's still on the run for bombing Bludhaven, Wondy wants to take then down herself. And it doesn't get past her that since she's been trying to stop them, Robin's been studying them a little more, possibly thinking she couldn't handle it herself. Which makes her cry a little because she tried so hard to save SB. They're able to get her to kinda join the team for a mission and stay if she wants and they'll reform the "real" Titans.

The Brotherhood which consisted of Elephant Man...kinda self explanatory there, Plasmus I'm assuming(lava guy), Goldilocks (uses her hair like tentacles), and Warp (going out on a limb here but I think he makes portals). The Titans fight for awhile but while Kid Devil's fighting Plasmus, he kinda gets his chest ripped out...another ouch. The medical people try to take care of him but since they don't get his physiology someone else helps out. Dun dun dunnnnnn The Doom Patrol, which consists of a guy in a wheelchair, Beast Boy, Herald, Bumble Bee, a..golden...guy, Elastigirl, and what looks like Hush. To be continued!

Teen Titans #36

Okay, so we start it off with the Brain and Monseir Mallah being all lovey dovey, for lack of a better term as they planned their revenge on the Doom Patrol. Who ironically enough we go to. And it seems that long story short, the Doom Patrol got fuuuuuuuuudged up! And Niles(the leader dude in the wheelchair) is a genius and whatnot and fixed them up pretty damn well, though there were conveniently enough problems left that they were still extremely dependent on him which rubbed Robin the wrong way.

But anyway, most of the Doom Patrol went after the Brotherhood leaving the Titans behind which also didn't rub them well(lots of bad rubbing in this story). Once again it's pointed out multiple times through the story that the current Titans team sucks as a team and most people who've been asked to join never stay long because they can't get along, while the Doom Patrol is "family". Niles was able to fix up Kid Devil, but he wanted Kid Devil to stay with the Doom Patrol and not the Titans since the Titans aren't a "family" and that's what KD needs instead of "selfish teenagers". Oh while I'm remembering, Kid Devil was lying about Blue Devil making him keep in constant touch with him, BD hadn't heard from him in months.

Anyway, Robin argues with Niles over how he keeps everyone dependent on him on purpose and all but before the argument can be finished, Negative Man(the one I thought looked like Hush) burst through the wall all beat up causing everyone to go after the Brotherhood. They end up splitting up into two teams (Cyborg/Beast Boy/Elastigirl and Wondy/Ravager/Robin) Cyborg's team finds the others and ends up getting attacked by the Brotherhood, while Robin's leaving Wondy and Ravager in his dust as he's trying to find out how "they're doing it", but all three are stopped when they see that the Brain has a shiny new body. Woo.

Review

I guess this issue was okay. It was kinda weird for the most part, but I suppose that was a good thing, kinda making you feel like something was just freaky with The Doom Patrol. Personally if I had to choose I'd be on the Titans, the fact that almost every member had to be revived multiple times because of injuries that should have killed them isn't really a testament to the group. And it's kind of bugging me how they keep downplaying the Titans, about how they're not a good team. Personally I like the current lineup though...*kinda spoilers* I saw a cover to the new Justice League and it seems like Cyborg will be in the team, don't know what that'll mean for the Titans but I never found Cyborg essential as long as they have Robin. Totally looking forward to the next issue though, seems like Robin will end up telling everyone about trying to clone SB.

Teen Titans #37

Okay, so the Titans and DP continue go to fight Brain and Mallah, arguing with each other along the way. You find out that supposedly the reason The Brain has such an issue with the Doom Patrol is because the Chief caused his death as well and apparently he was supposed to be the original Robotman so he wants to destroy the Chief and his allies, blah blah blah.

Long story short, Brain's cloned body didn't work as well as he thought and he started to break down. So what's his talking gorilla lover to do? What else? Rip off his head and put his brain right back in that mechanical head.

Meanwhile Kid Devil woke up and the Chief tried to make him think that the Titans hated him and he'd never fit in, but he got busted by both the Titans and the Doom Patrol and was effectively removed as the leader of the team. Even so, Beast Boy decides to stay with the Doom Patrol since they'd need him more.

Blue Devil told Kid Devil that he wanted to talk to him but stood him up (possibly because he's stuck with the rest of the Bloodpact in the barrier thing but if that's the situation he wouldn't have been able to call in the first place) but Rose helped to cheer him up...kinda...okay she just lit her cigarrette using his mouth again. Cyborg's checking his memory banks and he sees that a lot of heroes talked to him and were inspired even though he couldn't move and all, among them Raven, Zatara, a female Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Girl before she changed her outfit.

Then we get to the interesting part. Wonder Girl's looking for Robin and finds that he tried all those times to clone Conner. Which of course she's annoyed at since it wouldn't be the same Conner but she understood and in their collective sorrow, smooched like there was no tomorrow before giving each other awkward glances and Wondy flying away. Oooooh yeah, if that's not a sign SB's coming back I don't know what is.

Review

Still couldn't care less about the Doom Patrol but I guess it was done well. And between Teen Titans and Outsiders, I'm getting bored with Mallah and The Brain. Once again, I think Kid Devil, Ravager, Wondy and Robin were cool, not as cool as the SB, WG, KF, and Robin combo but it's a suitable replacement I suppose until SB comes back which I'm more sure of because of his best friend and girlfriend hooking up which for jealous purpose or not I hope doesn't turn into an actual relationship. I'm noticing a possible Ravager/Kid Devil thing as well, and considering that they're two of my fave Titans at the mo I'm totally cool with that.

I like Cyborg's part in it as well, being the "rock" of the team. Sure he's not Red Tornado but I guess he's growing on me and they're doing a good job of making him seem important. So more or less, it was a cool issue, with once again another "Please don't leave us! Superboy's coming back, honest!" feeling to it...damn them...

OoooooOOOOhhh, less clueless now. ^_^ thanks

Spoiler Alert from the DC website about November:

TEEN TITANS #41

Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Tony Daniel and Kevin Conrad; Cover by Daniel

The explosive "Titans Around the World" story concludes with the team finding Raven! Will she bring back a Titan who died?

DC Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US

On Sale November 8, 2006

As much as part of me want's to go, "It's Superboy! It's Superboy!" but most likely it's going to be like...Pantha...or Jericho...or someone I care even less about...

TELL me about it. Sure would be nice, though... I've had some pretty crappy things happen over the last few years around November... just ONCE, I'd like some GOOD news to put in the ol' Holiday Email.

The odds that Johns would BE that nice and give Connor back to the fans this quickly are... *glances at Marx* Yeah. That bad. Everything ELSE the man has done, has been questionable at least where Connor's concerned. And that's part of the main problem.

Even IF it's on the level and this is IT... I don't like it. There's more to the story than just that. Say that this IS Connor's ticket back. It's not entirely implausible to believe, that he's not exactly going to come back completely safe and sound. The earlier reference made by another writer comparing Connor's death to the death of Spock, makes me wonder if there's another shoe that's waiting to be dropped. Like it's almost as if Connor's return is going to cause even worse problems than when he died.

I seriously hope they don't do that. I mean they already turned him evil and had him turn on his friends(which still annoys me a bit). If they do it again, or change aspects of his personality it would be like...what's the point in having him back if he's not really Superboy?

Okay! No I haven't forgotten about the reviews, just haven't been able to get my comics for awhile but all is now good!


Teen Titans #38

Here we go! Lets see where do we start? Cass seems to be having some issues fighting the baddies without them making perverted comments or the fans for that matter after they took out a random big guy. The Titans ended up signing autographs and all, and while Cassie refused to kiss her fans, Rose didn't have any issues with it. And even though I'd barely heard about Blue Devil apparently the fans totally had and were more interested in Blue Devil than Kid Devil, to which he replied by signing their Blue Devil picture "Blue Devil sucks".

After getting back to the Tower it's told that Kid Devil and Ravager will be getting replaced. They need heroes with 'more experience' but in the meantime one of Cyborg's recorded messages had Raven saying she had something and if anyone found out about it, that it'd destroy the little morale that was left. So on with the Raven search! First place is Russia and Red Star! But first, lets go to Colorado, where Risk(still with one arm) robs a place and gets home to get an invitation to Titans East. Well...not so much an invitation as join us or die. But back to Red Star's spaceship. Wondy tried to talk to Robin about the kiss but he didn't want to talk about it. Rose overheard part of the conversation and thought they were talking about kicking her off the team which led to yet another argument.

Red Star interrupts saying that the entire team should quit since they argue just as much as every other version. And even the ones that were close ended up having members that either turned on them or died (my thoughts exactly! Which is why YJ should be reformed! :P) But Raven had been there asking about the other Titans and stayed at an apartment which she was gone from now. But they did find a journal and basically one of the many Titans there stole something from Raven and she's searching for it.

But here's the awesome part, there was a scapbook part that had some of the 25 members who'd been Titans in the year. Who were Flamebird, Bombshell, Kid Devil, Aquagirl, Zatara, Speedy, Beast Boy, Power Boy, Offspring, Little Barda, Hawk and Dove, Miss Martian, Red Star, Mas y Menos(who just look freaky...), Argent, Hot Spot, Mirage, CM3, Riddler and Joker's daughter(you'd think they'd get some friggin codenames), Talon, Young Frankenstein(no...seriously...), Ravager, Molecule, and Osiris. And it ends with Raven running away from miliaryesque guys with a book in her hand.

Review

Okay, I suppose this is an okay issue. One thing that annoyed me is once again the Titans are being made out to be the worst superhero team of ever. I liked that since the batclan isn't an urban legend anymore Robin could take pictures with fans and stuff. And I was worried this Titans around the World thing would be a way to change up some of the members but looking for Raven I can deal with. But what I found priceless was the list of former Titans. I mean...is there any hero that doesn't have a junior version? Some, like Aquagirl and Offspring I'm cool with but come on...Zatara? Little Barda? Molecule? Miss Martian? Young friggin Frankenstein? That's just sad... Anyway as I said, it was a semi okay issue.

(issue 39 coming in a few minutes)

Teen Titans #39

And here we go. We start out with Zatara on show basically doing what Zatanna would do. Cool magic stuff that looks all cool...yeah. Though I will say he uses his powers in pretty funny ways, like making a pizza and putting more cheese on it. Though as he got to his dressing room he ran into the Titans, and boy was he not happy about the situation. He seemed to have a particular hate for Kid Devil. Like Red Star he was incredibly snippy leading us to believe just about every teen who was on the Titans left on bad terms. But Raven had been there and was basically asking Zatara to tell her about herself (*insert another Raven origin here*). After which Zatara snapped at the Titans, who left and of course after they left he wanted to apologize but had a show to do. (Oh the drama!)

Next stop, Miss Martian! Who seems to be basically a young girl Martian Manhunter. Kinda like Supergirl, though her personality actually reminded me a lot of Secret if she had telepathy. You know, doesn't know much of the world and is kind of naive but is really sensitive(Ravager made her cry) and worried about people not liking her. Raven had come to her as well wanting her to read some of the Titans minds to find who took the book(assuming that's what was stolen) but she had a rule about not using her telepathy on good people. They tried to get her to bend her rule to help but apparently all she could hear were bad things the Titans thought about her(funny since only two of them knew who she was...).

Next stop, Bombshell (yet another jr hero of Captain Atom I'm assuming) who was fighting Nazis. The Titans helped her out and surprise surprise she actually didn't despise the Titans(really...I was in awe, I thought that was going to be a consistent thing). She met with Raven as well and according to Bombshell they found proof that the Titan who stole from Raven was...dun dun dunnnn Ravager! Then you see Miss Martian reading through some thoughts about Raven and the traitor and the book and ended up turning to her true form which I'm going to assume is the white alien race and not Martian Manhunter's green one. Again...dun dun dunnnnnnnn!

Review

I liked this one a little better than the previous one. Not nearly as much arguing for arguing's sake. Zatara was okay I suppose, just as I said, all the junior heroes is kind of getting to me. Kind of like they took a good idea and are going overboard with it. I did like that they did Raven's origin in one page and not another entire issue. I totally liked Miss Martian, but as I said she really reminded me of Secret so that's probably why. It seems like she might be evil but I actually am kind of hoping she's not and joins the team. We can't have Secret, so I suppose I'll settle for semi-Secret lol. Bombshell was tolerable as well even though she's yet another junior hero. She kind of has a playful Loboesque feel to her. Almost positive Ravager isn't part of the big bad thing since that's really...obvious. Why have the former villain be the evil one? O.o

Anyway, pretty cool issue more or less(still can't touch YJ) and the next issue has Miss Martian in front of Evil Superboy, Terra, Evil Raven, and Jericho. Hm...think they're trying to imply something? >.< The fact that they could make a legitimate team out Titans who've turned on the team just reeks of overusing a cool idea.

Let me just say, Zatara's kinda cute. And I STILL think something happened between him and Kid Devil.

lol I still find that particular scenerio unlikely but I'm curious to know what exactly did happen between the two.

Having read it myself, I'm actually surprised you can't see the signs yourself.

First, note Eddie's reaction at seeing Zachary Zatara. Eager, almost thrilled to see him again.

Zach's reaction however... is another matter. He was almost spitting nails. Then he let slip a crucial peice of information when he said, "When I quit the Titans... well, quit YOU, Eddie..." it caught my interest. Reminded me of that famous line from Brokeback Mountain. "I wish I knew how to quit you!"

And then, let me draw your attention to the end of the scene with Zach. Who did he call for, to wait up? It wasn't the Titans. It was EDDIE.

When they got lost on New Azarath... I think something happened. I think New Azarath was a Brokeback situation with them. What's more... I'm surprised at you, Marx. I'd think you better than anyone, would be able to recognize the look one gives a despised ex when that ex turns up again. It's a look I've had on my own face when a certain boy I know looks ME up irregularly.

There's potential signs, but I highly doubt it. Not to say there haven't been a slew of new homosexual relationships lately. Batwoman and whatshername, Knockout and...the other whatshername, Grace and Thunder...(so thinking Grace is like...Knockout's daughter or something, but I digress)

Actually what it put me in the mind of was the first issue of Teen Titans where Bart was all happy to see everyone and Wondy was really ticked. Nothing was really happening just they had this big issue where someone close to her died and all and he was acting like it hadn't happened. They all kinda had that look. And if Impulse and everyone left she might have called for Impulse because he was the one she was most cold towards.

lol Not saying you're wrong, but that could be the issue.

Teen Titans #40

Okay so we go to Bombshell accusing Ravager of turning against the team using the fact that every other Wilson did it so why not her since the stolen book contained secret identities and she could have sold it to Deathstroke. Oddly enough it was Cassie that was the first one to defend Rose with the logical point of Rose hating her father so she wouldn't turn to him. But the team as a whole wasn't sure and made Rose go back to the Tower.

They find out that Raven's on her way to Pheonix with the missing encyclopedia. Meanwhile back at the Tower, Rose is packing up to leave but the twins stop her saying that they figured out that it probably wasn't the encyclopedia, but there were some pages cut out with just enough room for a disk ("Shield not important! It's the talisman in the shield") While the Titans discuss how unlikely Rose is to be the traitor, Bombshell points out that Miss Martian, whose conveniently flying towards them is a possible traitor as well. While she said she broke the rules and read minds, Bombshell blasted her to show that she was a white martian...ooooo. The attack though caused the jet to go down and Wondy flew out and caught it, in a blatant attempt to say she's either getting stronger, or is stronger than she knows (funny since catching planes/jets isn't that big of a deal super strength wise. Superboy's done it multiple times, though it took Thunder and Grace to stop one, guess it depends)

Cass and Kid Devil went in the building while everyone else fought Miss Martian. Inside was Raven performing a ceremony to bring "him" back. Though as Raven saw Kid Devil she mistook him for Trigon and blasted him, but Cassie set her straight with just enough time to realize that dun dun dunnnnn! Bombshell was the actual traitor. She and her men had taken out the rest of the Titans and she was trying to get the book when Rose attacked her giving Raven enough time to throw the disk into the ritual, bringing back...Jericho!
...
...
*yawn*

Review

Meh, I suppose this issue was okay, I did like Bombshell being the traitor because...you didn't really know her...so you didn't care. I also liked the fact that Cass was the one to stand up for Rose. I do see them eventually being friends, kind of a Goku/Vegeta thing. And as I said, I'm cool with Miss Martian joining the team, I guess. As for the dead Titan brought back to life...

I called it didn't I? You know...eventually I think one of the writers will realize that YJ fans read Teen Titans so maybe they could throw us a bone or something? Hell, I'd take Empress.

You know what i realised...we're reading a comic book simply for Robin and Wonder girl. Both of whom act totally different to how they should be.
For the love of waffles!! where is the actual character interaction?!! we dont want all these different members that'll join for like one episode!! we want ONE team!! that gets along!! WITH IMPULSE AND SUPERBOY, not messed with...IN THE TEAM!!

I totally agree on the yawn factor... as my character would cynically say, "With a name like Bombshell, you'd expect her to drop a few along the way."

Thoughts: While it was a yawner of a deduction, it also was a logical decision to bring back Jericho first. Firstly, Jericho's soul was pretty much on-hand, while finding Conner's would be a bit more difficult. Secondly, Raven's never CAST that particular spell before. Given how much Superboy is missed both IC and by the fans... you'd *want* to have had a practice shot or two at the spell before trying it on the main target. Given Jericho's history... both extended and recent, leading up to how he got trapped in that disc in the first place... if something went wrong, who'd MISS him? Seriously. Though I liked the... reveal.

On the plus side, this now sets up a precident. Find Conner's soul, add in the fleshspell recovered by Raven, and pop n' fresh, we get our Superboy back.

On a side note, I *actually* began sketching ideas of how my character could re-purpose a metal detector into a home-made soul detector.....

Oh testify! Totally feel the same way. We're trading YJ, a comic with awesome interaction, where the team got along, on their way to becoming the new JL(actually better than the Justice Leaque since not only would they have worked with each other longer but damn near every junior version has more potential than the current) and we got a replacement with only two of the characters and a bunch of random junior heroes who don't get along.

What I'm hoping though is that the team has no speedster and we know Inertia's gonna be on Titans East and he's also made an appearance in the Flash, so I'm hoping Bart'll return even if it's temporary. As you said, he's not that old, Cyborg's a member of the active team, they could have the Flash on it if they really wanted, but I highly doubt it.

And the thing is, they already used Raven to bring back Jericho so I doubt they'll use her again to bring back SB. Using the same person and the same basic plan twice to do the exact same thing would be like...having someone either die or turn on the Titans in every single incarnation...no....wait...they did do that didn't they?

:blink: ...whicn is ENTIRELY my point, dear Marx. ENTIRELY my point.

The simple fact is, the story should be centered around the search for Conner's soul. For expediency (and a shorter story), this time around the focus was on the rest of the Titans constantly trying to play catch-up to Raven, who was already 3 steps ahead and hunting for the fleshspell that revived HER. In short, we just wasted about 4 or 5 issues of the Titans being utterly clueless right up to the climax.

When Conner died, one of the writers likened his death to the death of Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Which was a quest to track down Spock's revived body from the Genesis planet. Here, it's the reverse. They're going to play it out as a quest to find his soul, why else make the point of Raven showing him he HAD one?

And incidentally. Isn't that how Hawkman got revived the last time? By bringing Kendra to Thanagar and using her as a beacon for Carter's soul to follow to the place where a fleshspell was cast? I seem to recall such, in my JSA 'records'.

Teen Titans #41

Yes, I do realize this is kind of late since 42 just came out but it's a pain to get to my comic book store and when I did they were taking forever to put up the new comics so I just said screw it and I might get it next week. In the meantime 41 goodness!

We start our the story giving a brief overview of who Jericho is and what he's done, blah blah blah, he gets introduced to Rose and then immediately attacked by Bombshell, whose immune to Jericho's power. Also there' s a lot of Jericho inner monologue which I guess is a good thing because the guy can't talk and if it wasn't there you'd wonder if he was just going to turn on the Titans again.

Jericho goes into Wondy and starts fighting Bombshell, and outside, Robin and the others start taking car of business with Bombshell's soldiers. After they finish with the soldiers they go after Bombshell who points out that if they hit her too hard she'd blow up like Captain Atom. But Miss Martian can tell she's lying and Kid Devil lights her up like a bonfire. Raven uses her soul self to cool the metal and what happens when metal is extremely heated and immediately cooled, children? It breaks, allowing Ravager to go off on Bombshell with her swords.

Robin and Wondy go to stop her from taking it too far but Jericho stops them and lets her go for the final stab. Which didn't cut her at all. Oh. Yay. Ravager's not a killer like her father...like we didn't already know this, but eh, guess it was cool. Also Robin points out that if Raven brought back Jericho she can bring back Conner. Cue the eventual reason why this won't be possible. Oh and we get another plug for Titans East with Deathstroke saying he wants both of his children back and knows how to do it and you see pictures of Risk, Batgirl, Sun Girl, Joker's daughter, Riddler's daughter, Match, Inertia, and Kid Crusader.

Review

Meh, wasn't too blown away by the comic. But it was passable I guess. They cemented that Rose wouldn't be turning on the team despite being the obvious choice and Miss Martian and Jericho are going to be part of the team. I do find it odd that Jericho's still mute but if you lived so long being mute I doubt the first thing you'd do is talk even if you body could(case in point, Batgirl), and his body might not be able to. But I'd have to see him in a few more issues to know if I like him or not and as I said I'm cool with Miss Martian even though she looks like a green sailor scout. But eh, overal this was an average issue I guess.

What I find interesting, is how Raven reacts with Kid Devil. Frankly, he spooks the hell out of her because of his looks. Kinda unfair for him, he didn't plan on looking the way he does... but anyway. Guess even though Trigon's dead, she STILL has 'issues with her father'.

Funny you should say it that way since he actually did, but I'll get to that later.


Teen Titans #42

Yes, I was actually able to get TT 42 pretty soon, just turned out I was around the comic book store a few days ago anyway. But anyway we start the story with Kid Devil stalking one of the many doors to the Oblivion Bar(for those not in the know that's a bar where only magical beings are allowed as well as the HQ for the Shadowpact) and as soon as someone opens it, Kid Devil dashes in trying to find Blue Devil basically to get kicked back out again. Not quite sure if it was because he was underaged or not, since he's like Blue Devil and Blue Devil's allowed in.

But after being kicked out he was told where BD might be, cue the flashback. Basically from here it goes into how Blue Devil got his powers and how Eddie was there when it happened and was the guy's unwanted sidekick. Or unwanted superhero altogether since everyone discouraged him from it, only person who was cool with him was Robin II...oh yeah...that just speaks volumes, but anyway the one who'd taken care of him all this time, his Aunt Marla ended up getting killed on a helicopter crash because of an explosion at a power plant. Later he tried to join the Titans, but was overshadowed by the other superpowered teens from Luthor's Everyman Project(basically gives anyone super powers). But he was rejected from the Everyman Project as well, conveniently enough getting contacted by a mystery guy who gave him a black candle that would make his "dreams become a reality."

Meeting with Zatara he found out that if lit, it would summon whatever demon made it. So since he had Zatara with him, Eddie lit the darn thing much to Zatara's surprise since his powers wouldn't help them get back out since they can't affect living things. Long story short, the demon was Neron who offered to make Eddie a devil. The catch being if Eddie's trust in Blue Devil was ever broken, then Eddie would have to become Neron's protege. I think we all know what the choice was but after Eddie was changed into Kid Devil, Neron told him that he made a deal with Blue Devil as well, and all he had to do was destroy a power plant...the one that killed Eddie's Aunt Marla...dun dun dunnnnn! Kid Devil didn't believe him though and went on about his business.

End flashback, Kid Devil's able to find Blue Devil, who didn't even know that he was a demon like him now and asked him if he was responsible for Marla's death. Turned out he was(though for the record he did check everything and thought there wouldn't be any casualties), Kid Devil's trust is broken, and he'll officially be Neron's beyotch in three years when he's not a teenager anymore. But does he let this get him down? Hells no! He's going to enjoy those three years for all they're worth. But wait! This isn't the end, guess who has poor ol' Aunt Marla's soul? I'll give ya a hint. It starts and ends with 'N' and rhymes with Cleron(No that's not a real word, want to make somethin' of it? :P).

Review

First...I'd like to say...the art in this issue was bad...like...bad bad...when I say bad I'm talking last five issues of Superboy bad...and that's pretty frickin bad. But ignoring the art I did like how they handled Kid Devil's origin. I also find it funny that he didn't ask Blue Devil about the Aunt Marla thing immediately after he got his powers, but they did make it sound like the two of them were ducking each other which wouldn't be helped by Blue Devil being stuck in a blood bubble for a year with the rest of the Shadowpact. I also found it funny that on the cover it looked like Blue Devil would be getting pissed at Kid Devil and it was the total opposite. Blue Devil was the one that got the flaming...pun intended. Storywise this is pretty much what you'd expect from an origin story, nothing really blew me away but it also wasn't extremely predictable, like saying Eddie got his powers from Luthor's Everyman Project or something. Overal, I'd say it was good, not great, and that's being very nice considering the horrid art, rating's purely on the story.

That reminds me of an old Vegas proverb. "Never bet against the house without knowing the rules." Eddie got into this simply by not understanding that Neuron plays the same way ANY baddie plays. With a stacked deck. You only get three options, then: Take your chances, or simply don't play... or do your homework and come prepared with your own stacked deck. When I used to play Pokemon, I'd cheat by saving my game just before entering a Gym, and then do my homework by testing to see how strong the Gym Leader's Pokemon were. Then reset the game without saving and build my Pokemon up about five levels higher.

Apparently, Eddie isn't the smartest guy on the planet. Cute... RIPPED in the abs department... but not the smartest. The terms of the deal were almost blatantly obvious about being a setup. Oddly, Neuron told Eddie the way to defeat the trap, but he didn't understand it. By stating that if his trust in Blue Devil was broken, he'd lose. Answer: Blue Devil had a secret, and the way out is to accept the truth no matter what it is. Eddie didn't. He just reacted, hurt that Blue was responsible for his aunt's death. He didn't accept it, he blamed Blue and decided to break his trust in Blue Devil. It's human, yes... but it was a big mistake since he'd made a deal with a devil, and devils are good in only one regard: they're good at screwing with human nature.

About the art: As Diana Prince said to Wonder Woman, nobody's perfect. Not even Superman. Artists make mistakes too.

On that note, about Infinite Crisis since I GOT the TPB. I give. I do. I cannot, despite my GREAT desire to still, hate Geoff Johns anymore for what happened to Conner in IC. I still think there was another way... but I do see where he was coming from, after reading a bit of an explaination for why Superboy was killed off. Doesn't mean I like it, but I understand it a little better.

Now, if it was MY hand writing this... I'd have had Wally come back WITH Bart, leaving Linda and the kids wherever they went to... and have written it where Wally either died or vanished again for good after crashing SBP into the tower. Wally was a Titan once, and as they say. Once a Titan, always a Titan. Besides, great sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths. Losing another Flash destroying the big machine. Almost like that would be the ultimate destiny or fate, to being a Flash. To go out the same way that they wrote out Barry Allen all those years ago.

But in the end, I do see the truth in what Johns said. Batman's already lost a protege... so it HAD to come down to either Cassie or Conner. They had to bring back the Trinity. Given that I think Johns was toying fleetingly with the idea of maybe Cassie having Conner's kid.... well, I see the point of why Conner was chosen. Does NOT mean I like it. At. All. But yeah. I get it now.

Finally.

Though....

Phil Jimenez said something, that makes me think we'll see Conner again SOON. The question was asked about who's really dead now, as a result of IC. I'll quote the bottom part of the answer, following the partial roll call of killed off characters: "It's hard when you're created to be the next generation of heroes. It's a lot of pressure, and it often leaves you dead. Although some of these people (Titans for example) we think die here may not really be dead..."

Hm it's not so much I think the artist making a mistake, just think I don't really like his/her style. There are some styles that just work better with other titles, but I digress. I found the Kid Devil thing kind of weird as well, it'd been a good couple of months before he met up with Blue Devil you'd have thought that he'd have at least accepted that there's a possibility that Neron was right considering Blue Devil was dodging him.

As for Infinite Crisis hm, let's see. Batman: lost a Robin already so that excludes Tim and Dick, and Batgirl and Huntress probably wouldn't have the same effect since the majority of fans like Babs better which also excludes her. Wonder Woman: lost Donna already so she can't die again, same with Cassie. And no one would really care if it were Artemis. Superman: lost Steel if memory serves so he can't die again, Supergirl has already died in a Crisis as has technically Power Girl and no one would really care if Natasha died, so yeah I suppose Superboy was the logical choice.

The thing I find funny is that if the whole point was the bring the trinity back together they picked a funny way to do it. Kill the member of the S-Family that means the least to Superman. I've read on the message boards how much Kara supposedly meant way more to Superman than Conner, but after catching up on Superman/Batman it's totally true. He didn't show anywhere near that amount of compassion to Superboy. I think it'd be summed up in a conversation between Batman and Superman about the subject where Batman pointed out that Clark hadn't given Superboy his secret identity right away but he did to Supergirl and Superman replied, "Superboy's not Kryptonian."

Haven't really read Superman but has he even really grieved for SB?

Technically, if you count Spoiler (and who DOES?!?), Bats has lost TWO Robins.

Anyway. About Conner. He was LIVING with Clark's parents, for starters. And although the S-titles don't really show it much, I think there was some talk in 52 about it. In EITHER case, I think that's partly why Clark's so hot to adopt this new Kryptonian boy (Zod's kid) and name him Chris. (I find that amusing, since that was the name I was shooting for with Match). Making up for earlier mistakes maybe?

I also seem to recall, that after Conner survived the baldness phase, he and Clark began to finally bond. Guess it took having your head messed with, to have something in common. Anyway, I think Clark cared for Conner. It shows, in little ways. Krypto, asking his folks to take him in... I honestly don't think he had anything AGAINST Conner, it's just his genesis that threw Clark off and always confused him. The whole clone thing. He wasn't sure how to act towards Conner. Brother? Father? Cousin? What?

Despite the familial confusion (which I would totally understand, if someone ended up being cloned from the DNA of myself and my WORST ENEMY!), I do believe Clark cared for Conner. He was just... well, oddly a lot like Bruce was, about it. Not sure, or perhaps at the time not ready to BE, that father or older brother figure.

They say it's different with girls, compared to boys. Dunno, having never been a dad myself. But that's what they say. So in theory, it makes perfect sense that he'd take more of an interest in Kara. That, and she was born on Krypton like he was. Conner... well, I think Clark may be a little... um... shall we say starved, for direct links to his lost homeworld?

Oh, that reminds me. Is Krypto dead now? Wondering about that.... also, I'm kinda having the same kind of confusion I was earlier talking about. Regarding Match. Is he Conner's brother? Or son? Because the latter would REALLY friggin' freak Conner out if one thought about it long enough.... (Damnit! Now's the time I REALLY miss that "help" smiley, Jake!)

Hm, that's a good point. If Superboy being cloned from Superman makes him Superman's son...kinda...then the same would be said for SB and Match. It's just the age difference that really does it(SB and Match are the same age so you'd just assume they'd be 'brothers'). Though you're right, the actual relationship was never decided. Sometimes Superman referred to SB like the little brother who gets to have all the fun and Superboy's referred to Superman as "like a father" to him. But yeah, he showed periodic interest in SB(giving him his Kryptonian name, parents, Krypto, having the occassional heart to heart, etc.), but it seems like it's just that, periodic interest when he feels like it. I won't go as far as to say a Blue Devil/Kid Devil relationship but it kind of resembled that. He definitely cared about him, but I wouldn't say enough to stalk him even though he's possibly more powerful than Supes is to begin with if you get the reference.

And hm, not sure if Krypto's dead or not. Either way it wouldn't surprise me if he's in limbo now.

Teen Titans #43

Yes, it's time for the first issue of the Titans East storyline. *crosses fingers* Here's hoping it doesn't suck. We start off with Jericho and Ravager meeting up with Nightwing and having lunch. Apparantly having Jericho back has made everyone be so much kinder to Rose(or I guess it could be the not killing Bombshell thing). At this point I'll quote myself from issue 41.

Well won't ya know it? That's exactly what happened. Since Jericho's soul never actually died(he was in Deathstroke mostly, then on the computer disk), it was just a case of making a body for it. But since Conner's soul had already 'moved on', it was a moot point. But right after this was realized Robin, Raven and Wonder Girl were attacked by "Kid Flash". Funny fact: As soon as they were attacked, Cassie said, "You aren't Bart Allen.". Always good to know secret id's remain so secret, but I digress. "Kid Flash" turns into "Impulse" and utters the best line of the comic. "Would you prefer Impulse? Some people do." We get recognition! Woo! Anyway, long story short, it's Inertia, who isn't alone for Match am not there as well. See what I did there? With the Bizarro talk and all? That's because not only does Match look like a Bizarro, he is a frickin Bizarro, talking in opposites and all. I'll get into the logic of that in the review.

But we now go to Cyborg and Miss Martian who try to find out exactly who hired Bombshell to infultrate them. But before they can actually get it out of her head they're attacked by Risk, and Batgirl slices Bombshell's throat making sure she won't be telling any secrets. Oh and Joker's daughter and Riddler's daughter attack...meh. And Sungirl attacks Miss Martian herself(she's a pyrokinetic ain't that an original power). Meanwhile Kid Devil at a church trying to figure out how to get out of his deal with Neron when he's attacked by Kid Crusader. Heh heh, get it? Kid Devil and Kid Crusader? Gotta love those names...anyway. Robin wakes up to be tied up in front of Deathstroke and Batgirl(oooo kinky!). Anyway, it's motive time! Dun dun dunnnn!

Basically, Deathstroke feels that the Titans took all of his family from him so he's simply returning the favor by taking their family from them. Case in point, Batgirl....whose being drugged! Dun dun dunnnnnnn! I guess that's what explains the monologues and acting completely out of character. Anyway we now go back to Jericho and Rose doing so more brother sister bonding when they notice a Titans Tower that looks like it's built out of sticks...wait! Don't tell me! There's another Tower somewhere built out of straw! Show me the wolf! Where's the Wolf!?


Review
Okay, first let me say...the art was much better, only complaint is that if Batgirl and Raven randomly switched costumes, there's way we'd be able to tell except when Batgirl randomly starts to fly. Can Raven fly? I think she can, it'd be funny if she couldn't..you know...Robin and Raven can't fly. Ha! I kill myself! But anyway back to the review. I'm cool with Rose being accepted and all as long as she doesn't lose her edge, Jericho still bores me though. And as far as Titans East goes, I'm looking forward to the all out brawl, should be fun. Inertia's great, as I said, best line in the comic. I'll get back to Match(which you'll kind of already know if you read my post in Stupid Quotes), Risk is interesting, if not purely for the fact that he's still badass with one arm. Batgirl, as you all know I'm a huge Cass fan, and I'm iffy about the her being drugged thing, but I'll give the writers the rope, what they do with it is up to them. Joker's daughter and Riddler's daughter? Except for the horrid names, you can't really make an opinion about them yet, more rope. Sun Girl? Even more rope, she has extreme, one trick pony, boring potential but she might be interesting, same with Kid Crusader.

Deathstroke as always is a total badass, though he seemed to be a bit deluded at the moment, but I'm cool with that. And I did find it interesting that Batgirl reminded him to give her the shot, at least it wasn't the stereotypical "Help me Robin! I can't control myself- *shot!* Yesss Masster.." deal. *coughSuperboyandIndigocough* *clears throat* sorry about that. And now as for Match...

He's the only person in Titans East that kinda...irks me. It just doesn't make any sense. The whole Bizarro thing happens when you make a clone of Superman right? Because of the Kryptonian DNA and whatnot. But obviously it worked with Superboy's hybrid DNA, he was perfectly stable. When The Agenda made Match they said he was even more stable than Superboy *insert "Meltdown" joke here*...so...how the heck is he turning into a Bizarro? He was originaly meant to be sold off to the highest bidder, so...what good is he if it's temporary? I know it means that it's now pointless to use Match to try and reclone Superboy but still. There were plenty of logical ways besides making Match a bizarro. Teaming up Inertia and Match was great idea, but it would have been cooler if it was the original Match. Both are clones with implanted knowlege and whatnot to make them 'better' than the original. Instead it's an awesome Inertia and a blabbering idiot Superboy clone that speaks in opposites. As I said in the stupid quotes section it does make sense if the Agenda always meant for Match and any further clones to be temporary so they'd have to keep getting new ones, which while I'd accept that as a reason, it's a terrible waste of potential.

Anyway, long story short, it was a pretty cool issue and I'm totally looking forward to more...but Match sucks. :P

Remind. Me. To. MURDER. Geoff. Johns.

I didn't even think there was a higher level for him to go, on my shitlist. He just found that higher level.

lol From what I hear, he won't be the writer for much longer, so here's hoping.


Teen Titans

Okay, so we start this off with Ravager and Jericho going into the other Tower to find Deathstroke waiting for them. Of course immediately it's a family brawl. And speaking of brawling, Wondy wakes up in the Fortress (that place really needs some security) to have Match proclaim his love for her (in opposites of course), apparently Slade said he could have Wondy after everything was all said and done. Onto Kid Devil and Kid Crusader! Devil's tied to a crusifix and Crusader casts a spell on him, turning Kid Devil back into a human. But since said spell is only temporary, that means that Crusader has to kill Eddie in his human form for it to be permanent(dun dun dunnnnn).

Back at the Robin cave, Batgirl tries to inject Robin with the same serum she's under. While Jericho helps out Rose fighting Deathstroke. Apparently he's being much more violent than he was before. Batgirl's distracted by Ravager, and the two go at it once more. Robin tries to stop them(he's still tied up), and gets punched a couple of times by Slade, only to get stabbed by Jericho from behind. Onward to a funhouse where Raven's chained up around a bunch of mirrors where they're messing with her head. On to Cyborg who's dismantled, with random limbs hanging around the room as Risk keeps punching him saying he's a bit annoyed that the Titans didn't really seem to care about him though they were able to work endlessly to fix Cyborg. And while he doesn't personally hate Cyborg, he's being paid a lot of money to beat the snot out of him.

Sungirl is torturing Miss Martian, whose shackled up(what the heck, is this the all bondage issue of Teen Titans or what?) by setting her on fire while Inertia watches. More talk of her being from the future saying that in the future the Martians are slaves because of something Miss Martian did. Inertia gets a call from Slade that they need help and they proceed to help with Jericho and Ravager. A batarang frees Robin and him and BG begin to fight as Robin says that they were always prepared for Ravager to turn on them, including having an antidote for the serum which he effectively gives to Batgirl who returns to normal almost immediately and strikes a bat pose as she states that she remembers everything(while holding SB's shirt) and will kill Deathstroke for it.


Review
Well, this issue was okay as well. I'm rather liking the arch as long as I ignore certain parts of it, like Match and to a much lesser extent, Batgirl. As I mentioned before, I found it pretty funny that damn near every Titan was either tied up or shackled in this issue. I'm half expecting the next issue to have all of them breaking free in one panel or something. But anyway, it's accomplishing what it's supposed to. Showing that Titans East is extremely well matched against the other Titans. Though I am curious as to why a Deathstroke who apparently spanked Justice League members in Identity Crisis, can't fight Ravager and Rose without help from Sungirl and Inertia. But once again, I can ignore that, as well as why exactly there's a Robin cave under the New York Titans Tower. But everything else is pretty cool and it makes you want to know how all of this is going to turn out especially with BG's turn at the end.

And while I'm on the subject of Batgirl, I'll get to my issue with her. I can't remember by heart how many Batgirl issues there are but through her entire series she's been totally against killing. She accidentally killed a shadow guy(whose name escapes me at the moment) and freaked out about it until Stephanie revived him. And I firmly believe the only reason she killed Shiva on their second fight was because she knew they were right next to a Lazarus Pit and she went out of her way to make sure Shiva was even dangling above it. She didn't seem to really show any remorse for any of the countless people she's killed while she was under Slade's control. But I can buy this since if I was forced to do something I despised doing multiple times, including killing one of my parents anger might be the first thing to surface as well. So I'll give it a chance and see how it comes out...and fully plan to torture Johns further before he's dead if Batgirl ends up dying in this arch.

Teen Titans #45

Okay, took a bit but here's the review for Titans 45. Oh and my bad, I thought that everyone was in totally different places (Robin Cave, Fortress, etc.), but it seems it's all in the Titans East Tower, just in different rooms. Anyway...we start off with Batgirl letting Deathstroke have it(and Deathstroke returning "it"...in turn) and Jericho jumping into Inertia to help her.

Back to Raven, there's still plenty of "it" around because Riddler's daughter and Joker's daughter are letting Raven have it as well. But Raven notices that Duela(Joker's daughter) is a bit confused and asks why she's with the evil Titans. To which the answer is "Because they asked me to join their Titans. You never have. I never belong anywhere." So of course Raven asked if she'd like to join their Titans, but of course that shouldn't have worked...but a sucker punch from Duela to Riddler's daughter showed that it did.

And right after finally being freed, Raven went to help out Cyborg, wrapping Risk in her soul self making him live over and over having his arm ripped off. Cyborg points out that the others need help as well but Raven suggest that they get the "others" first. Curiouser and curiouser. Meanwhile Miss Martian's able to telepathically get through to Eddie(she's still being tortured) to try to help him and you learn that Kid Crusader's parents were killed in their sleep and he thinks a demon did it. Realizing Miss Martian's in his memories, KC lashed out and hit the demon essence transforming Kid Crusader into a demon(dun dun dunnn). But he's able to get Miss Martian out and escape. Onto Match and Wondy, who are a bit busy with Match trying to get busy with Wondy only to get interrupted with some timely intervention from Batgirl(wonder if Wondy knows BG and SB kinda had a thing) and Robin.

Being quite ticked at Match for looking like Conner(I actually felt slightly bad for him about that, he couldn't really help that he looks like SB, black and red shirt probably doesn't help the situation though...), Wondy knocks him through the wall. The Titans begin to regroup just to find that Titans East has regrouped as well, prompting a mutual "Titans Together!". Big brawl, though Wondy's still beating the Holy Hell out of Match, saying how Match is ruining Conner's memory and Conner's worth more than a thousand of Match, and to give back Conner, yada yada to which Match responds with an uppercut and a "Me am Conner!!", which for the non-Bizarro inclined is "I am not Conner!" Ain't that the truth. More brawlage. Long story short, through either brute force or trickery Titans East Wins. Most of the Titans East want to end it now, but Deathstroke says he wants them to be killed in front of Ravager and Jericho. But before he can finish what he's saying, he's interrupted by Nightwing saying to "Get the Hell off our island.", backed by Beast Boy, Donna, Flash, Cyborg, Raven, and Duela. Can I get a "Let's get ready to rumble!"?

Review

First thing's first before I say anything else. When I saw Nightwing and the others I thought that was especially cool. And when I saw that Flash was with them I was all "Oh yeah, Flash was a Titan, wasn't he?". Then I smacked myself in the head as I remembered Wally's not the Flash anymore, Bart is. BART'S BACK WITH THE TITANS! UH HUH! *does my happy dance* Okay...I'm good now...
...
...BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART! OH YES! Okay...okay, I really am good now. Onto the review. There was a lot going on in this issue, I did my best to just summarize most of it but I'm totally liking this storyline. And while it wasn't a bunch of people breaking out of their chains at the same time like I said, I did call that they'd be breaking out at around the same time and gladly it wasn't all in predictable ways. I'm also curious about the whole Kid...Demom...Crusader...thing. The original spell was temporary but since the power's been transferred who knows if it'll still be so. And if Kid Crusader-Demon has the "curse" I wonder if he'd be Neron's minion(of course most likely this'll be moot since Eddies probably getting his powers back).

Duela's turn was frickin hilarious and Risk is intriguing for the fact that he seems to be immoral to begin with and just got the evil offer first and just wasn't quite as easily swayed as Duela. And finally, the whole Match/Wonder Girl business. Gotta say I still hate what they did to Match but I'm kinda feelin for him, since he's possibly dying and getting either manipulated by bad guys or beaten up by Wonder Girl because he looks like Conner when he had nothing to do with Conner's death. Don't get me wrong, I see Cassie's side as well. If someone close to me died and I had to fight a warped version of them I'd probably take out my frustrations on them as well, but the point is even though Match sucks and the whole Bizarro thing is stupid at least they have me slightly feeling for the character.

So overall, I really liked the issue and as usual look forward to see how this is all going to end. There are some slight tidbits from the latest "52"(week 51 & World War III) involving the Titans that I'll post when I can.

---

As promised...er...said I'll give a very brief summary of what's gone down involving the Titans in World War III and Week 51. Led by Beast Boy the Titans(Um, I believe the team was Beast Boy, Raven, Hawk, Dove, Young Frankenstein, and Terra) did what they could to fight Black Adam who, for those who don't know was in the classic "starting to turn good because of his family, but they're all killed in front of him" deal. They did their best but in the end Black Adam tore through Raven's soul self, wounded Hawk and Dove like whoa, ripped off Young Frankenstein's(lame...so very lame) arms and punched a hole through Terra. Which definitely explains why the team's completely different at the beginning of OYL...I'd kinda leave too at that point.

And for Week 51, after Black Adam's taken care of, a bunch of heroes decide to visit the Superman and Superboy statue including the Titans. Now there seems to be a Church of Kon-el, that isn't quite as destructive as the cult from what Clark said. We also see Kid Devil meeting up with Rose for the first time as he asked to be introduced to the Titans. And you also find out the reason Robin's new suit is red and black is because those were SB's colors...You know...I can't believe I didn't see that one, but I guess it wasn't as obvious as Wondy's.

*grabs a microphone that has dropped down from the ceiling* Ahem. LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!
Okay, yeah, I had to get that out of my system. As for Bart being back, *does her own happy dance* Yes, I missed Bart. This is cool. As for having (almost) all of the original Titans standing together and Dick acting akin to Harrison Ford in Air Force One, I must say it was something not to forget.
One more thing! Do you think even if Eddie gets his powers back, that the curse would remain with Kid Crusader. I mean I'm sure Neron would be able to find a loop hole that would allow him to get two birds with one stone, he is a demon after all, and they are rather cunning in manipulation. It's just something to watch out for I guess because I don't know if they would turn Kid Crusader into a Demon for convenience. Or they could, sometimes you never know.

In a way, it WAS the original titans back in action. The bit where Jericho jumped into Match's body, was an interesting twist. I'm guessing Match is going to be sticking around under guard, so Robin can figure out more about cloning.....

Turns out that the curse would have been tranferred with being a demon. I'll touch on that in a bit. Just got Teen Titans 46 yesterday. I'll probably either do the review for it tomorrow or the day after.

Teen Titans #46

And the "startling conclusion" for the Titans East story arc begins. It begins with some inner thoughts of Deathstroke saying how everything he does has a meaning whether others see it or not. There's some good ol' banter between the heroes and the villains before the inevitable "Titans Together!" The good Titans are actually prepared for Titans East this time so they're holding their own now. Oh and there was Cassie's it-couldn't-possibly-be-anymore-obvious line of "Bart..? You look so much...older..." Raven points out that she can remove the demon from Kid Crusader but Eddie would have to take it back which makes him think for a bit but he does decide to take it and the curse back.

Meanwhile Ravager, Jericho, Donna, Batgirl and Nighwing are all taking on Deathstroke as he states that he plans to kill all of them. And Wonder Girl and Robin take on Match...who if I'm translating right got quite angry at Wondy's concern over Robin, seeing that as her loving or in his words "hating" someone else. Flash takes on Inertia and basically owns him and uses him as a human projectile to get Match off of Wonder Girl. Robin gets a little carried away and gives orders to Flash, calling him "Kid Flash" which wasn't received too well by Bart as Wonder Girl points out that with Bart an adult, and Superboy dead with only a bizarro clone of him left, the "old days" are gone.

Match is taken out momentarily with his deflected heat vision. With most of Titans East taken down the ones going against Slade are considerably bigger but Batgirl's the first to reach him and try to kill him only to be stopped and knocked out by Nightwing to stop her from doing that(despite that whole "reading body language" thing that should have at least stopped the punch that knocked her out). The fight continues as Slade uses Cyborg's gun arm on everyone else and Jericho takes over Match. In the distraction Deathstroke runs away and blows up the Titans East tower. In the chaos, a few people seem to have disappeared. Notably Inertia(who Flash went after himself), Duela, and Batgirl.

We get to the lovey dovey portion with Rose hugging Jericho(still in Match's body) and Beast Boy asking what they do with the island now to which Donna says they make it theirs again. And finally it turns out Inertia helped Deathstroke escape in exchange for putting in a word for him with some of Flash's rogues. And it turns out this whole deal with Titans East was just a way to give Jericho and Rose a real family. Awwwwwww.

Review

As with the others this was a good issue despite my shots at some of Wonder Girl's dialogue. But really she was making statements so obvious I thought she was Empress (Zing! No, really. "This...it's the tennis court at our headquarters! It's not Bedlam's castle at all!" I mean, come on! Anyway, I'm getting off track). Anyway, as I said, it was great having Bart back with the others, but also very sucky. These guys were his closest friends and he just treated them like teamates he didn't need anymore. Not even sure he would have been there if Inertia wasn't involved. I was just expecting a little more out of that but I guess thats the writers way of saying "Don't hold your breath for Bart being a regular."

The face offs were pretty cool blatantly showing that Titans East beat the Titans before almost purely because they caught them offguard. I also liked that Eddie did consider letting Kid Crusader stay with the curse but decided against it. Oh also a side point, you gotta give it to Robin for getting hit..in the neck...by Match and showing no after effect from it. As for Batgirl I pretty much figured she'd try to kill Deathstroke and someone would stop her...though I did think that she would have gotten further at it than being snatched in midair without even hitting him. Since she disappeared I'm very curious what's going to happen with her now. And as Sirdar said, I'm also curious what they'll do with Match, though i'm thinking he'll just be in a holding cell. Doubt Robin would use him in clone research since he's an unsuccessful clone and Robin doesn't seem to be going that route anymore since he and Cassie agreed a clone "wouldn't be Conner."

As for Duela's dissappearance...no clue. Though she is evil again in Coundown 51 but that might be before this happens anyway. Damn DC's confusing timelines! Anyway, the final revelation that this was all so Rose and Jericho would have a family? Lame...lame, pointless and stupid. Rose was already becoming connected and Jericho probably would have as well. But despite the lameness of the end, the overall story was cool so I forgive it.

Totally forgot to post the review of this one



Teen Titans #47

Just a quick recap of what's been going on in Countdown that's relevant to Teen Titans. The Monitors are the guardians of the new multiverse and there are anomolies that should be dead: Supergirl, Donna, Kyle, Jason Todd and Duela among them. One of the Monitors feels they should just kill the anomolies and proceeds to do just that to Duela right in front of Jason. But since almost nobody knows who the Monitors are, makes finding the killer a bit difficult. On with the story!

Nightwing decides that after the funeral they need to search out who killed Duela and the other half to watch over Jericho in Match's body since he's having a hard time controlling him(uh...it's called Kryptonite anyone?). Robin, Nightwing, Donna, Ravager, and Cassie go to find the killer while Cyborg, Miss Martian, Kid Devil, Beast Boy and Raven watch out for Match/Jericho.

After the funeral, Nightwing and Robin interviewed Duela's would be victim while Donna basically told Cass she knew the reason Cass chose to be with that group was so she wouldn't be with Match and she should get over Conner. *insert tender Wonder Girl hug #809,748,313,487* Nightwing and Robin find out Red Hood saw it happen so they look for him next. Which they do...and only find out that an alien did it. Though you get to see Nightwing and Jason Todd both get kicked or kneed in their respective junk which is always funny. Beast Boy and Kid Devil have a tender moment and Match breaks free. Meanwhile as Nightwing and the others search the area where Duela was killed a voice from above basically says "Mind your own business. Go away." Oh and Cass lost her powers again(see how that was said as an afterthought because it's already happened?). They get teleported back to the Tower where Match is raising all Hell and with a simple "Match. Match it's okay. I'm here." from Wondy, problem solved.

Then she goes away(her powers apparently back again...) and complains to Supergirl in time to find out that the Amazons are attacking DC.

Review
This issue was very...meh. But I accept that it was basically a transition issue as to how the Titans will be involved in the whole Amazons attack deal. As well as getting Supergirl involved in the Titans, which we know will get more significant at issue 50(trying not to give any spoilers). Though speaking of Supergirl, if you look at the window in the panel where Jericho regains control of Match, it looks like Supergirl landing outside. It's not mentioned so I guess it could be Miss Martian...who went outside for some reason, but...that looks like the S-Shield shape on her chest.

I did like that other people are acknowledging that Cassie's grieving is going on borderline obsession. I suppose having the mid-Juniors being with the Junior Juniors was cool (Nightwing/Robin and Donna/Cassie) Other than that...yeah...not too much to say on this issue. I have found it funny that Match has forgotten about his tactile telekinesis possibly more than SB did. Poor poor ttk, how I shall miss thee.

Actually Marx, if you ever read the Annual that tied into Infinite Crisis (the Conner and Cassie thing), Cassie explains to Conner that ever since the Greek gods and Paradise Island left this plane of existance, her powers have been flukey at best. Apparently, HER powers are linked to both Paradise Island and to the Olympians somehow. So long as they're MIA, her ability to call on the use of her powers is... unstable and unpredictable.

Aaaah, but she linked her powers to Ares instead whose more stable I'm assuming. That's how she got her powers back just in time to see Conner die in the first place.

Once again the irony of what I say comes into play lol.


Teen Titans #48

Okay as for what you'd need to know from Amazons attack. Basically Queen Hipolyta is back(Wonder Woman's mother) from the dead but she's all cold and evil now and is having the Amazons uber attack Washington DC. As a retaliation the president sent out an order that anyone having anything to do with the Amazons is to be in a detention camp, including Wonder Girl's mom...dun dun dunnnnn!

The issue starts out with Supergirl and Wonder Girl at the camp trying to get them to let Cassie's mom go. Oh and Cassie's powers are still wonky(see that unenthusiasm again?). Anyway the Titans show up to try and help and Cassie gets all 'Rah!' at them, Robin especially for having Match around and not talking about the kiss. Robin tries to deal with the situation calmly by simply asking if Wonder Girl's mom could be let out. In the meantime Ares makes a reflective appearance and tells Wondy she's fighting the wrong battle, to which she more or less says 'Screw you!' and shatters the mirror(probably not the best thing to do when he's the source of her powers). Then it turn out not only can't the military negotiate about freeing Wonder Girl's mom but because of their amazon ties Wonder Girl and Supergirl are under arrest.

Keep in mind...they only have guns and they're going to arrest Wonder Girl and Supergirl...riiiiight, that's smart. Anyway to further show their intelligence the military even shoots first. Robin makes the call to protect the military and Rose points out it's better to directly attack Wondy and Supergirl. Miss Martian takes on Supergirl (and does surprisingly well actually) while Kid Devil takes on Wonder Girl, whose powers are still going wonky. Anyway, long story short Wondy punches Robin through the gate and her mom tells her fighting like this is only going to make people fear the Amazons more so she should just leave and find another way. Robin offers to help but Cassie replies with "No thanks, Robin...you've shown me how you help when I need it...and I'm not impressed." *coughemo!cough* Anyway she blows up the T-Jet and flies away. Supergirl and Wondy then go to talk to Hippolyta who says she'd discuss things out with the President if he'd meet with her, which was of course a lie and she'll kidnap the President once she gets her.

Review
Once again the issue was pretty...meh. Story...art...everything was just meh. Can't wait til issue 50. Anyway, to be honest the whole Cassie having issues with the Titans thing is pretty boring. Though I am curious where Ares fits in to all this after all, he's the god of war, big war's coming between humans and Amazons, I wonder what his game is. The fight was pretty cool, personally I loved the fight between Miss Martian and Supergirl. But I think it's because she held her own against her. Whenever anyone takes Supergirl off her pedestal it makes me smile whether it be Batgirl or Phantom Wonder Girl. And oddly enough I do like Supergirl, she just gets so high and mighty sometimes. Anyway I'm getting off track, once again I see this comic as a way of tying in the crossovers, and leading up to issue 50 which is cool by me I guess. Personally I think the most Countdown 43 was much better, probably will do a review about it soon.

Oh I wonder!!!
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What? You mean no one else is thinking it? Could it be possible that Ares brought Hippolyta back to life, in order to create a war between the Amazons and the U.S.? Clearly it would seem likely that he would be so bold. Or it could even be Ares disguised as Hippolyta to start the war mongering? As for Cassie and telling her she's fighting the wrong battle, he probably wants continue to drive that wedge between her and the Titans because she will only have one place to go really, with Hippolyta and the rest of the Amazons. Well that's what I think. But who am I to judge. I just obsessed over Greek Mythology for a good two years when I was younger.

Don't mind me and a semi-rant. If this all turns out to be true then they need to get better writers. I never used to call them this far in advance.

lol Well Circe was the one who brought her back to life but it still hasn't been said why she's gotten so bloodthirsty all of a sudden. You could totally have a point with Ares being the reason for that. Would totally make sense actually. And I actually do agree with Ares wanting to drive a wedge between Cassie and the Titans, though of course Robin's not helping the situation any. And semi rants are all good, I do them all the time. I actually wouldn't be surprised if you were right lol.