Teen Titans #18

Titans Tomorrow Part Two: Tales of the Titans

Geoff Johns Writer
Mike McKone Penciller
Marlo Alquiza Inker
Jeromy Cox Colorist
Comicraft Letters
Tom Palmer Jr. Associate Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor

Our cover by Mike McKone shows our current Robin confronting the future version of himself, who has taken up the mantle of Batman. Most importantly, though, this cover confirms something that was only hinted at last issue: In this future, Bruce Wayne is dead. He's buried next to Alfred, with a tombstone that identifies him as a "beloved husband" and adorned with a Batman symbol. So in this reality, not only did Bruce get married, but apparently his secret identity also became public. (His grave will not have that Batman logo inside this issue, and it will be next to Selina Kyle's, who is described as "beloved wife.")

Our story begins in New York City, ten years from now (2015, I guess). The future Bart Allen, now the Flash, is late to a secret meeting in the middle of the night (he says being late is a bad habit he picked up from his grandfather). He tells his mystery companion that the Titans from the past have arrived, just like he remembers it. Bart says this is their chance to stop it all and save everyone, but the shadowy figure is worried about changing and forgetting things. Bart's sympathetic, but he says he needs to leave, since Batman is already suspicious. Before taking off, he tells his companion to contact Victor and tell him they need Terra. Rose Wilson tells Bart she loves him, and they share a romantic kiss.

Meanwhile, at Titans Tower in San Francisco, Superboy has run back to his room with Robin to tell him how he saw their future selves torturing Deathstroke. As they talk, the future Titans continue their interrogation downstairs. Batman orders Aquawoman to probe Deathstroke's mind telepathically, but she says he's resisting too much, and she doesn't want to kill him like she did Tempest. The Flash shows up, and when Batman asks where he was, he lies by saying he was talking to Max Mercury in the Speed Force. Superman asks Batman to let him "finish this," referencing Hawk and Dove in Smallville, and saying he's worried about his pa. Wonder Woman says their top priority right now is dealing with the children upstairs. Batman promises Slade they'll end this quick if he tells them what Victor is planning. Slade tells Gar to lift up his eyepatch, and Animal Man stupidly complies, revealing a bomb Deathstroke got from Cyborg.

Later, our Teen Titans have decided to sneak away. They go to the tower's hangar, finding it loaded with at least two different jets (one of which is invisible) and a large Luthor armor suit. Cyborg comments that the Titans could take out the Justice League with all this tech, and Robin says they might have. Superboy warns him to beware of Superman's super-hearing. Kid Flash is still doubtful about Conner's tale, but Starfire says she believes him. Wonder Girl says this future is "totally messed up," pointing out how none of their future selves ever smiled. Beast Boy is mostly worried with how bad his future self stinks. Raven notes that their future selves have all hidden away their emotions, and she's worried she's responsible for that. Robin also points out how suspicious it is that they haven't met the future versions of Cyborg and Starfire yet.

Deathstroke suddenly shows up, telling the Titans they all grow up to be real pains, as bad as the late Roy Harper was as Green Arrow. He immediately attacks our heroes, saying his son Jericho was right to want to kill them young. Kid Flash starts punching Slade, saying it's "totally weak" that he's still out to get the Titans after all these years. Deathstroke shocks him by saying the Flash becomes the worst one because he steals his daughter away from him.

The future Titans come crashing through the wall, and Superman places Deathstroke in a headlock, saying he's now going to finally kill him. Batman warns him not to do this in front of their younger selves. Wonder Girl sees this as confirmation of Superboy's story. Superboy is furious, telling his future self that Superman doesn't kill. Conner unleashes a blast of heat vision, but Wonder Woman blocks the blast, saying they're in a war right now. Somehow, this caused Superman to let go of Deathstroke, who runs and jumps out the window. He contacts Victor to send in Junior, and he's quickly swept away in a blue-and-yellow blur.

Cyborg orders the Teen Titans to escape, so they all follow Deathstroke out the window. Starfire is carrying Cyborg, Superboy is carrying Robin, and Kid Flash is riding on Wonder Girl's back. Bart says he knows how they can get home, and he asks Raven to teleport them to Keystone City. So Raven turns into a big black Raven that our heroes start flying through. But the future Titans are right behind them, riding on Animal Man, who's turned into a giant pteranodon. Batman orders Dark Raven to disrupt her younger version's soul-self, which she does, although it hurts her quite a bit. Superboy and Robin were the last ones to go through, and when Dark Raven attacked, it somehow caused Robin to fall out and be left behind, although Superboy was able to be teleported away with the rest. Superman catches Robin, who asks what changed him. Superman tells Robin that he changed him, then he knocks him out with a flick of his fingers.

The rest of our heroes arrive in Kansas, seeing that the entire city of Keystone (with a population of 23 million) has been converted into one massive Flash Museum. Beast Boy teases Bart that he needed an entire city to feed his ego, then asks him why they're here. Bart says it's likely that the Cosmic Treadmill has been rebuilt and is probably in the museum, as it has been in the past. He then notices that Robin is missing, and Superboy says they need to immediately go back. But Raven is too weak after being attacked by Dark Raven. Cyborg says they should get the Cosmic Treadmill now, while Raven rests, and he believes the future Titans won't hurt Robin, since that would probably also hurt Batman. Superboy says he'll go get Robin alone, but Wonder Girl convinces him to stay.

Robin wakes up in the Batcave, where Batman tells him his Titans are hunting down Robin's Teen Titans as they speak. He also vows to punish the Flash, saying he's known for some time that Bart has been a traitor, foolishly trying to uphold the legacy of Wally West's morality. Robin asks where Bruce and Alfred are, so Batman takes him to the ruins of Arkham Asylum, which has now been converted into a cemetery. He explains that Duela Dent destroyed the asylum six years ago while breaking out her father, the Joker. She then went on to kill Bette Kane, Cassandra Cain and Alfred. Robin notices the graves of Scarecrow, the Penguin and Hush, and Batman admits he killed them.

Robin is naturally creeped out by all this and tries to get away from Batman, only to come across Bruce's grave. He tells Batman he'd never become him, even if Bruce died, but Batman says he doesn't understand how dark it got when so many heroes fell during the crisis. Robin accuses Batman of giving up, and their argument turns into a full-blown fight. Batman tells Robin that his plan was to wipe the Teen Titans' memories and send them home to protect their future. He finally gets Robin pinned down and pulls a gun on him. Robin's shocked by this, saying he thought he had turned out like Bruce, but now realizes he couldn't be more wrong.

We cut back to the Flash Museum, where our heroes are fortunate to see that even in the future, the Flash Museum lacks basic security. They make their way down a lightning-shaped bridge, past enormous statues of different versions of the Flash. They explain that since it's 2 a.m., everybody is asleep. Starfire and Wonder Girl notice large portraits of Rose and Max, but the one that really perplexes them is of Donna Troy. Superboy asks Kid Flash where he thinks it all went wrong for their future selves, but Bart isn't sure. He is hopeful, however, that now that they've seen this reality, they can figure out how to change the future. Superboy says there's only one way to make sure these future Titans don't exist.

But before Conner can elaborate, they reach the display for the Cosmic Treadmill, which is empty. Bart wonders if the treadmill ever was rebuilt, or if it was taken somewhere else. Suddenly an alarm goes off, which Bart believes he somehow triggered. Everybody started running out the museum, wondering what to do now that they don't have their time machine. Superboy wants to go back to rescue Robin now, but Cyborg says they first need to deal with whoever the alarm summoned. He kicks the door open, and waiting for them is a group of heroes called the Titans East — the future version of Cyborg, Rose, Captain Marvel Jr., Terra, Bumblebee and Flamebird. And, according to the future Cyborg, they're the good guys.



This was a pretty fun comic. I like this dystopian future Teen Titans, and I really like how Bart remained good and pure while all his friends turned evil around him. Of course, he wasn't able to prevent Tim from murdering dozens of people, but then again, maybe he was just holding out hope for this time-travel adventure that could set everything right. His romance with Rose is a natural continuation of Geoff Johns' odd desire to hook those two up. He put so much stock in a couple of panels from 1995, where Bart said he thought Rose was cute.

The Flash Museum was unfortunately too dark and vague to showcase any fun Flash easter eggs. (And why didn't Bart just run in to look for the Cosmic Treadmill in one second, while keeping everyone else standing guard outside?) The Arkham cemetery was pretty fun, seeing virtually every name imaginable from the Batman world on the tombstones. Of course, it is kind of idiotic for Bruce Wayne and his friends and family to be buried right next to all of Batman's greatest enemies. But my biggest complaint with this issue is the artwork. McKone's action scenes can be so confusing. We had two very vague and nonsensical escapes by Deathstroke in this issue, making me really wish we had Tom Grummett here.

Next time, we conclude this tale in Teen Titans #19.