Teen Titans #8

Family Lost

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencilled by Tom Grummett
Inked by Kevin Conrad
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza

This is actually my favorite Mike McKone cover so far. Simple, straight-forward and to the point. None of these weird gimmicks that try to cram in too many characters in odd, unusual ways. Just a solid shot of Raven in front of a fiery explosion that compliments the Teen Titans fireball logo. Unfortunately, this cover implies that Raven will make a grand re-entrance in this issue, which does not happen. Although we do talk about her for a bit.

Our story begins in Gotham City at 5:43 p.m. on Friday. Tim Drake is heading out to join the Teen Titans, feeling guilty about constantly lying to his dad, who believes Tim's injuries are the result of playing football without a helmet. Robin discusses this with Batman while flying out to San Francisco, coldly telling the Dark Knight that he never had to lie to his father.

Meanwhile, it's 2:52 p.m. Pacific Time in San Francisco, where Wonder Girl and Kid Flash have already arrived and are helping the mentors escort super villains to the newly opened prison on Alcatraz Island. But two classic Titans villains — Mammoth and Gizmo — have escaped and are causing a scene at Fisherman's Wharf.

Kid Flash makes sure everybody knows that he knows everything about Mammoth, but Cyborg makes him protect the crowd of people who were protesting the reopening of the prison. During the fight, Beast Boy asks Wonder Girl where her boyfriend, Superboy is. She tries to deny this, but Beast Boy can see right through her. (We do see that Superboy is once again stuck in detention.) The two get so caught up in their banter, they are almost hit by the rampaging Mammoth, but Kid Flash pulls them to safety in the nick of time.

Wonder Girl electrocutes Mammoth with her lasso, Starfire blasts him and Cyborg finishes him off with a big punch. Gizmo has a powerful bomb at the ready, but Beast Boy turns into a blue coral snake and bites him. He gives Gizmo the option to surrender and be escorted to the hospital to have the venom drained, or he can drop dead.

Back on the Batplane, Batman has changed the subject to Raven, warning Robin that she's spent her life being dishonest and he can't trust her. The angsty Robin says, "Sound familiar." So Batman finally says it's better that his dad doesn't know he's a superhero.

Robin finally arrives at Titans Tower at 4:13 p.m., around the same time Superboy shows up. Robin claims he was late because Clayface escaped Arkham, so Superboy tries to quickly come up with a story about Bizarro trashing the Daily Planet, but Robin sees through him. They join Bart and Cassie in the classroom and hear all about the excitement they missed. Apparently the task of escorting villains to the Alcatraz prison is one of the favors the Teen Titans needs to do to repay the city for financing their tower. Despite the protests, all our heroes believe this is a good idea, as San Francisco can charge other cities to house their villains, and should any villains escape, they'll likely attack the nearby Titans Tower instead of the city.

With everybody at their desks, Starfire comes in to debrief the new members on the history of Raven. Superboy is reluctant to spend more time in a school setting, but Bart is curious, noting that he couldn't find much material to read about Raven. Robin tries to deliver Batman's warning, but Starfire insists that Batman does not know Raven like she does.

So we delve into the story of how Raven's mom ran away from home, fell into a cult and was impregnated by the demon Trigon. She was rescued by the people of Azarath, who raised Raven to suppress all emotions to avoid the attention of Trigon. Raven then came to Earth to battle Trigon with the Teen Titans ... several times. Eventually Raven turned evil, then her body was vaporized, which enabled her true self — a golden "soul-self" — to be free. (This happened at the end the New Titans, but Impulse missed out on all of it because he was left behind on Earth.)

Bart admits he spaced out during Starfire's lecture, but Cassie took notes, which he quickly reads. Cassie asks if the Raven they saw was a new body she created for herself, and Robin brings up the possibility that someone else created the body for her. Superboy is still failing to see the importance of all this, so Starfire cryptically says that Raven's appearance is always a warning sign of approaching evil. Robin quietly wonders to himself if Raven herself is the evil.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Deathstroke and Rose's quest have brought them to the Church of St. Sebastian. They are beating and killing the people dressed in red cloaks, demanding information about Raven. But all the people say is "All praise Brother Blood." And on the last page of the issue, we see that Rose has put on the outfit we saw on the cover of Teen Titans #½ and is calling herself the Ravager.



I really don't have a lot to say about this issue. We saw more of Geoff Johns' desire to reinstate everything Marv Wolfman did, as well as his fascination with prisons. I do wonder why he bothered to throw in protesters without allowing any kind of debate on the subject. But I will admit I kind of like the idea of our heroes basically taking a class on superhero history. Even though I don't care too much about Raven, this was a good way to present some key information.

Next time, we're going to return to The Flash and we're not going to worry about the continuity between that series and this one because it will make my head explode.