Twelve Titans between two teams on this one...about half of any actually do anything here...as Deathstroke has stolen Kid Flash's powers (the Wallace West one!) in order to travel back in time and save his son Grant, who was molded by HIVE into Ravager then died fighting the Titans. I'm not a huge Titan fan, despite repeatedly buying cheap comics like this one, but I vaguely recall this from the first couple issues of Wolfman/Perez's New Teen Titans. I'm not sure it went down the exact same way in the New 52, but close enough? In "Take Three," Deathstroke tries physically removing Ravager from that fight, running him to a safe house in Vermont at super-speed: Grant is momentarily annoyed, but is a Deathstroke fanboy...until he unmasks as his dad. Deathstroke punches him out, noting "the kid's got a cement block for a brain," and opts to try again further down the timeline.
Elsewhere, the Titans are in disarray: the elder members were led by Nightwing, while the youngsters were under the firm hand of Damian, but both teams seem like herding cats. There's a bit of discussion on whether or not to call the Justice League, like the party's out of hand and time to call the parents. Also, when the heroes leave, Damian leaves the powerless Wallace behind, like he'd done enough for one day; as well as forgetting Jackson (Aqualad) Hyde! With Jericho, the other Kid Flash brings the Titans back in time, to just before the originals were about to go after Ravager. (And here you'll notice a timeline change: no Cyborg! And Dick's Robin costume has pants, Garth's costume is very Aquaman, Arsenal has a hat, and Lilith was there since Raven would've been a later addition.) Damian has a novel method of protecting the timeline: stopping Kid Flash's heart! The idea is, if 'dead' for a few seconds, that would break Deathstroke's connection, and it does, forcing him to watch Grant die while the timestream resets.
Wallace and Jackson catch a ride to the fight, with Deathstroke's "...friend..." Wintergreen: he seems to say it in a really loaded fashion, but I thought he was like Deathstroke's Alfred. Past Robin saves Past Kid Flash, and they return to their place in time, Wallace's powers return, and a furious Deathstroke--with some lightning bolt highlights on his costume!--threatens the Titans for taking his son away again. Although Jericho tries to talk him out of it--you still have one son, dad...dad?--Deathstroke blazes into the Speed Force and disappears. Wally thinks that's it for him, forever; which does get a solid cheer from the Titans; but Wallace points out a man just died, not cool, guys. Wallace goes into the Speed Force, and Wally knows he won't be able to get out unless he goes after him, and Nightwing has Lilith link the Titans up telepathically like a rope to bring them back. Damian abstains: in his eyes, Deathstroke was a murderer that hung himself. Yes, but...Nightwing argues, the team should stick together...even though one member seems to have made the call to risk them all...
In the Speed Force, Raven freaks out, because Wally freaks out: he had been afraid of Deathstroke, and that fear was now feeding through all of them. Jackson helps Damian put it together, and the little grouch grudgingly comforts Raven, to bring everyone back. Deathstroke had seen god knows what in the Speed Force, and while he seemed to be losing that knowledge, he still felt everyone there should die...including him. He unmasks and walks away...to his own book. In San Francisco, Damian confronts Wallace: both felt they had been right, but Damian fires him from the team, in Teen Titans #9. (How many #9's has Teen Titans had? And just as "Teen Titans," and not "New" or anything else?) And in Titans #12, Wally may owe Damian a kick in the ass, since his timeline had changed and he now had a pacemaker for his damaged heart, and had had it for years. And going on as Flash could kill him, which seems like a callback to his status around Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Last Deathstroke post I mentioned we might look at something, and this wasn't it! But maybe eventually we'll get to another, with him and Damian for good measure. I've read a couple of his Teen Titans book, and my god, it's like the worst aspects of 90's Batman running the show: bossy, short, emotionally distant, manipulative. I think the idea is to show him learning and changing, but it's slow-going. Real slow. If you've ever been frustrated with Impulse's impulse control or Superboy's hormones; both of them seemed to grow out of it way faster than Damian is from his worst aspects.
1 comment:
Ummm, it's either "Stop it, get help" or "...And I took that personally."
Personally I like the one that says "FUCK DEM KIDS!" but that's just me.
I can't EVEN imagine what it must be like to experience the Speed Force unless you're used to it, but it's probably like a DMT trip after doing snorting a couple lines then quickly taking a couple tokes of meth. VERY DISORIENTING & extremely fast-paced enough to make you trip balls for the next few days.
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