Teen Titans #12

Raven Rising

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencilled by Mike McKone
Inked by Marlo Alquiza
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza
Special thanks to Norm Rapmund

Our cover shows Mike McKone going back to his "random headshots" routine that I despise so much.  We have a perfectly serviceable image of Raven, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy. And that's fine. They're the focus of the story, they can have the whole cover to themselves. But then McKone decided to squeeze in the rest of the team in these weird, out-of-place, black-and-red circles. And Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl just look so bored to be there.

Our story begins in Northern California at 5:13 a.m. Sunday (which means that basically a whole day has passed since we last saw our heroes). Superboy, Wonder Girl and Cyborg are unconscious in the forest, surrounded by Brother Blood's followers, who are preparing for their young lord's wedding to Raven. Brother Blood bites Wonder Girl's hand and sucks some of her blood before proclaiming Raven his sister and his wife. Meanwhile, a battle rages inside of Raven with all our other heroes and Jericho.

Ravager gets the first hit in, but her swords slide harmlessly through Jericho's "soul self." Starfire takes a shot at him, which leaves her open for Jericho to possess her body. But Kid Flash manages to break Jericho's eye contact at the last second, joking that Jericho needs to put some clothes on, but not his old pirate shirt because that "sends the wrong message."

Jericho repeats the message he gave to Bart back when this all started: "Kids shouldn't wear costumes." As Bart tends to Rose, Jericho possesses Beast Boy's body and attacks Robin as lion. Rose does not like being touched by Bart, but he reminds her of her (very brief) time as a Titan, and asks if she's planning to take down her dad. This suggestion makes Rose really mad, and she slashes at Bart's chest with her sword.

Jericho then turns on Deathstroke, telling his dad he's going to possess his body once again and finish off the rest of his family. Starfire tries to protect Gar from Slade, but he shoots her in the shoulder. All fighting is interrupted by a sudden flash of bright light in the stars. Robin assumes this must be the doing of Brother Blood, and as usual, Robin is right.

Brother Blood has somehow "opened up" Raven, and everybody comes flying out of her cloak — along with dozens of red demons with horns and wings. Superboy, Cyborg and Wonder Girl finally wake up, and Cyborg explains that Brother Blood sapped their strength and "clogged up" his joints. But now they're all fine. Brother Blood's followers are horrified to see that the demons are attacking them, but their 13-year-old leader insists that the demons are merely killing those who lack true faith in the Church of Blood.

Robin takes on Brother Blood again, while Ravager locates the unconscious Beast Boy, still with Jericho inside him. She prepares to kill him, but hesitates just long enough for our heroes to knock her and Deathstroke away. Jericho leaves Beast Boy's body, but nobody knows where he went. Bart asks how they get rid of the demons, and Cyborg says they need to retrieve Raven's chakra, which Brother Blood has swallowed. Starfire vows to tear the boy open, but Cyborg and Beast Boy come up with another plan.

Wonder Girl is suddenly possessed by Jericho and begins attacking Superboy. Brother Blood, meanwhile, has Robin pinned on his back. Starfire grabs Sebastian from behind and holds his mouth open, as Beast Boy turns into a parasitic ascaris and dives into Brother Blood's mouth. Brother Blood head-butts Starfire in the face and shatters the skull-crown-thing on his head. Cyborg, meanwhile, tries talking to Jericho, telling him to leave the kids alone and take control of his body. Jericho falls for the bait and enters Cyborg, but instantly realizes that was a mistake.

With Starfire off his back, Brother Blood returns to beating on Robin. Starfire does manage to knock Sebastian back down, though, which gives Beast Boy enough time to do his work to the boy's intestines. Brother Blood soon vomits up a pool of blood, along with Beast Boy and Raven's chakra. Beast Boy places the jewel back in Raven's forehead, and she instantly begins sucking in all the demons and cultists. Brother Blood's followers beg him to help them, but he can only stand in stupefied shock at the turn of events, saying that Raven was supposed to love him. Our heroes try to avoid Raven, as well, but they're soon overtaken by her darkness, as well. However, they quickly reappear in front of Titans Tower. Raven stands before them and says the world will not end today.

We cut ahead to 10:45 a.m., where Bart has constructed a skateboard ramp on the tower's roof. Starfire flies up to check on him, and he explains that when he gets airborne on his skateboard, he can stretch time out forever and think. Starfire asks if he's thinking about Rose, and Bart admits he is. He's deeply troubled by how psychotic Rose suddenly has become, citing Cyborg's theory that Deathstroke has drugged her with the same serum he used to twist his body and mind. Bart recounts how when he first met Rose, way back on the New Titans, she was trying hard to not be like her dad. And Bart kind of liked her then.

Bart heads back inside to join everyone else at their late breakfast, and Cyborg explains that when Jericho entered his body, he somehow converted him into an electronic file, which he now carries around on a disk, simply labeled "Jericho." Cassie thinks it's still bad to have him imprisoned like this, but Beast Boy believes it's better than being trapped inside Raven. Superboy asks where Brother Blood and his followers went. Raven says she suspects her "soul-self" sent them all to a place where they couldn't hurt them again, but she's unsure, as she's still regaining control of her abilities. She then begins to leave, saying she's too dangerous to stay with them. Beast Boy begs her to stay, but it's Superboy and Robin promising to help keep her dark side in check that convinces her.

Elsewhere, amidst a fiery backdrop, the demons continue slaughtering all of Brother Blood's followers, including his "mother." They praise the boy as their new ruler, and he graciously welcomes his new congregation into his heart. Sebastian then assigns an unseen person as his new mother.

Deathstroke and Ravager did manage to escape somehow, and Slade takes Rose to his trophy room. He lectures her for hesitating to kill Beast Boy and Jericho. Rose promises Slade she won't fail him again, and to prove her devotion, she pulls out a dagger and rams it into one of her eyes so she'll be just like her daddy.



It's now been a full year since this series started, and we finally have the full team that was shown on the first cover. And I have no idea what happened in this story. I mean, how am I supposed to understand how Raven's powers work if she doesn't understand them, either? What I do know happened, is that we were forced to wade through quite a lot of conveniences in this story. Brother Blood conveniently defeated our heroes off panel last issue, and they spent an entire day being unable to fight back, until, conveniently, all their friends returned for the final battle. Cyborg was conveniently able to defeat Jericho, Deathstroke and Ravager conveniently escaped, and Raven conveniently sent Brother Blood to an undisclosed location, where he can assemble an army before his next appearance. This really was poor storytelling from Johns and McKone. Too many important details were told, not shown.

As for Bart, I'm kind of torn on his involvement with Rose. On one hand, it's nice to see his caring nature come through. Even if he only had a brief relationship with someone, he'll still be concerned for their well-being. But on the other hand, it's frustrating to see how Johns has forgotten this quality of Bart's when comes to Max Mercury, or any of his friends from Manchester.

Next time, we'll begin comics with a publication date of September 2004, beginning with a quick cameo in Batman #630.