Teen Titans #2

Child's Play

Written by Geoff Johns
Penciled by Mike McKone
Inked by Marlo Alquiza
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza

Our cover by Mike McKone is another sloppy, disappointing image. Once again we have Raven, even though she's not in this issue. And once again we have Bart as Kid Flash, even though he's still Impulse. And what's with that idiotic face he's making? Well, I guess everyone's face looks kind of weird. At least Beast Boy is actually an animal that can fight this time.

Our story begins with Deathstroke the Terminator in his trophy room giving a speech to his old "friend" Wintergreen. But Wintergreen's head has been added to Deathstroke's wall, placed alongside exotic animals like a rhino, lion, gorilla, etc. And the main point of Deathstroke's speech is that he now hunts alone.

We then cut to Titans Tower, San Francisco, at 7:36 a.m. Even though Superboy had previously complained about an 8 a.m. wake up call, and had stayed up till 3 a.m. with Robin the night before, he is up bright and early, taking a few laps in the pool. Robin is also up and is already (or still) wearing his uniform. He wants to talk about their late night discovery that Superboy has Lex Luthor's DNA. Superboy dismisses the whole thing as a joke, but Robin insists on asking Batman to run a DNA test. Superboy refuses this offer, asking Robin not to tell anyone about it. But once he leaves, Robin collects one of Superboy's hairs from his towel.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy and Bart are eating cereal on the couch while watching a nature documentary. Bart wants to watch Saturday morning cartoons (seriously), and he and Gar get into a playful fight for the remote. Gar turns into a lion, then a cheetah, but is still too slow to catch Bart. Amidst their roughhousing, Gar knocks a lamp into the TV, cracking the screen. Bart blames him for the mess, but Gar blames Bart for not catching the lamp with his super speed. Starfire arrives and destroys the remote control. Bart starts to apologize, but Starfire tells Impulse he goofs off too much, and tells him to come to her next time he wants to spar.

Cassie shows up (in her uniform) and announces she's leaving. She spent all night thinking about joining this team, but in the end, decided she needs to get away from all the ghosts of the Teen Titans. Bart chases her down, begging Cassie not to leave. He says they need these weekends after spending all week in school pretending to be something they're not. Cassie tells Bart she was just expelled from her school, all because Zeus decided she should be a hero. Bart points out that Zeus didn't make that decision — Cassie did. She claims that Bart doesn't know her, so Bart says she's the girl who made him believe they could make a difference, the girl who made him like girls, the Wonder Girl.

This makes Cassie pause for a bit, but she ultimately says she doesn't know where she belongs. Beast Boy, Starfire, Superboy and Robin have now joined them in the gardens, and Superboy tells Cassie she belongs right here. Her response is interrupted by a large explosion over on nearby Alcatraz island. Beast Boy turns into a bird and says they need to fly over there to rescue the tourists in danger. Superboy follows him, and Starfire picks up Robin. Bart puts on his Impulse uniform and asks Cassie if she's coming.

In the end, Wonder Girl does decide to join everyone, but she and Starfire start giving conflicting commands. Beast Boy plays peacemaker, telling them they'll sort out hierarchy later, but for now, they need to focus on rescuing people. Superboy stops a wall from falling on a group of kids, and Robin hands them some gas masks to make it through the smoke. The kids ask our heroes who they are, to which Superboy answers, "We're the Teen Titans, kid." But as Superboy said that, he was right in the crosshairs of somebody's rifle.

Wonder Girl is helping load people onto a ferry when she spots Ares' reflection in the water. Impulse draws her away from this by reporting the smoke in the prison is too thick for him to rescue more people, so she tells him to clear the smoke. But Cassie is also in the gunman's crosshairs. Beast Boy turns into an elephant and loads up his trunk with water, while Starfire flies him in position to try to put out the flames. Naturally, an elephant can't carry that much water, so Superboy tries to help by rupturing what he thinks is a water pipe. But it was actually a gas line, which only makes things worse. Suddenly Cyborg shows up and somehow puts out all the flames. (I seriously have no idea how he did this. The art and the dialogue do not help at all.) Cyborg then shakes Superboy's hand and formally welcomes him to the Teen Titans.

Wonder Girl and Starfire start pushing the ferry out to sea, and even though he's already checked, Starfire orders Impulse to go back through the prison once more to see if anyone else is there. So Bart goes back inside. He runs down a dark hallway and hears someone say, "Like moths to a light." Impulse stops for a second and is hit in the back of the neck with a dart that paralyzes him. Deathstroke emerges from the shadows, explaining that Bart's metabolism will break down the tranquilizer in less than a minute, but that's all the time he needs. He places a shotgun barrel to Bart's right knee, and apologetically says he's simply sending a message: "Kids shouldn't wear costumes." Deathstroke then pulls the trigger, destroying Impulse's knee.

So this is it. The end of Impulse. Of course, Impulse stopped being Impulse the second Young Justice ended and Geoff Johns was put in charge of the character. But this is a significant injury that will "wake up" Bart and lead to him becoming Kid Flash. And it was a pretty shocking moment. Of course, I am reminded of Impulse's first encounter with Deathstroke so long ago in Deathstroke: The Hunted #45. But for as well-calculated as Deathstroke's plan seems, it really feels like he went to a whole lot of work just to injure one Teen Titan. Also, I am inclined to blame Starfire for this accident. If she would have listened to and believed Bart, he wouldn't have had to go back in there a second time.

I am rather conflicted about Bart's speech he gave to Cassie. On one hand, that is in Bart's nature to try to keep his friends together and cheer them up when they're feeling down. But some of the things he said were just not accurate. He had decided to be a hero — and demonstrated an attraction to girls — long before he met Cassie. So maybe that's Bart just saying whatever he can to try to get Cassie to stay. Or maybe that Geoff Johns once again demonstrating his apathy toward Young Justice and Impulse.

I've also come to the sad resignation that we're now in a world where nobody knows or cares about the several years of Young Justice running around and saving the world. You'd think those kids would recognize Robin and Superboy from Young Justice, but they don't. And our characters aren't going to talk about that time, either, let alone what happened to the Super-Cycle or The Max or anything. I guess you don't want to weigh down new readers with too much continuity, but what about the old readers who still care about the stuff that happened before?

Next time: Teen Titans #3.