Teen Titans #19

Titans Tomorrow Part Three: East Meets West

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 the future Bart Allen opening a rift in time with the Cosmic Treadmill and sucking away all the current Teen Titans — except for Kid Flash, oddly. This is basically what happens in this issue, and I'd even go so far as to call it a spoiler. I do like this future version of Bart, and I'm happy to see him be the focus of a cover. But as with many of McKone's faces, I'm not quite sure what expression he's trying to go with on Bart's face.

Our story begins in New York City 10 years from now. It's bright and sunny and everyone is extremely cheerful and polite. But there is a lingering sense of dread in the air with the news updates on the civil war with the Western United States. The main conflict is taking place in Kansas, where Red Star and Mirage have recently been captured. But the people of the Eastern United States love and respect their heroes, the Titans East, who are seen flying above the city with our group of Teen Titans.

Our heroes are led to the Titans East headquarters, another T-shaped tower near the Statue of Liberty. Beast Boy, however, is skeptical. He asks the future Vic, Cyborg 2.0, why he should trust them, pointing out Ravager's inclusion on this team and the way his future self has seemingly broken his long friendship with Cyborg. Terra says that Beast Boy left because of her, and Bumblebee warns her not to talk about the past. Cyborg 2.0 explains that he also remembers the Teen Titans' time-travel adventure, and he's spent the past three years preparing for the arrival of their past selves.

Three years ago, the Titans West split the United States in half, running a militant state free of crime, poverty and disease in the West, succeeding mainly by having Dark Raven take away the population's free will and hope. The Titans East, meanwhile, has freed 12 of the 50 states and is currently working on Kansas. Wonder Girl asks how they turned into such lunatics, and Kid Flash says it's as if it would be better for them to break up when they get home. Beast Boy agrees with Bart, saying they should break up to stop this. Bart says that's not what he meant, and Rose insists that they don't break up. Cyborg 2.0 explains that in their timeline, the Teen Titans were thrown 10 years in the future, faced themselves, and when they returned, they split apart. But then they weren't around to save the rest of the heroes during the crisis. They eventually did reunite four years ago, but their time apart erased who they used to be. Superboy sums it up nicely: In order to prevent this future, the Titans need to stay together.

Starfire asks Batwoman where her future self is, and Batwoman tells her she's far away from all of this with Nightwing. Starfire then asks Batwoman who she is, but before she can answer, the Flash comes crashing through the front door. He's pretty beat up, and even has a batarang stuck in his shoulder. Superboy wants to attack the intruder, but Ravager tells them Flash isn't their enemy. Bart weakly asks if Deathstroke gave them the location of the Cosmic Treadmill. Ravager says it's in the Batcave, and Captain Marvel says Deathstroke even gave them the schematics to the cave. Flash then says what he probably should have started with — the Titans West have learned he's a traitor and they're on their way here right now.

The Titans West arrive right on cue, blasting through the wall with Superman's heat vision. Wonder Woman tells Cyborg 2.0 to surrender the kids and they'll let them live, but both Cyborgs say "Hell, no." A huge fight erupts, and it's kind of hard to tell what Kid Flash is doing, as he's pretty much bouncing around everywhere. At one point, Wonder Woman manages to grab hold of him. The Flash helps fight Animal Man off Superboy, freeing him to go after Superman, who has just knocked down Captain Marvel.

We then cut to Drake Manor in Gotham City, where Batman has chained Robin up to a chair with a device on his head that will allegedly wipe his memories of this world. But before Batman can begin the process, he's contacted by Superman, who says that Bumblebee and Wonder Girl have taken down Dark Raven. Superman's message is abruptly cut off and he soon comes crashing down through the ceiling, courtesy of a tag-team effort by Superboy and Captain Marvel. But Batman is prepared for Captain Marvel, and he plays a recording of Freddie saying his magic word aloud. And apparently this is enough to turn Captain Marvel back into a human.

Superboy frees Robin, but Batman pulls out Bruce's old Kryptonite ring and starts punching Conner with it. Terra, Ravager, Flash and Kid Flash arrive next and head straight for the Cosmic Treadmill. Kid Flash asks Flash if he really hooks up with Ravager, and Flash wisely says he does in this time, but the younger Bart might not in his own time. With Superman, Superboy and Captain Marvel down, it's just Robin vs. Batman now. Robin points out that his older self may be older, bigger, stronger, more experienced, and might have learned some new tricks, but he still has the advantage because he's a hero. Somehow, Robin's confusing logic pays off and he manages to knock out Batman.

Batwoman suddenly appears and kisses Robin, saying she almost forgot who Tim used to be. She introduces herself as Bette Kane, formerly Flamebird. Robin says he saw her gravestone, and she admits that Batman did kill her, but the deal he made with Ra's al Ghul worked out ... for the most part. Robin's even more confused by this, believing Ra's to be dead, as well.

Everybody else soon shows up, and Kid Flash and Flash have already started charging up the Cosmic Treadmill. Kid Flash boasts that his older self rules and invites his teammates to hop on. Cyborg is worried about leaving behind the Titans East, but Cyborg 2.0 assures him not to worry about their future selves. Flash tells Kid Flash the Cosmic Treadmill is now up to speed and set to arrive at Titans Island 10 years in the past. He'll jump off and let Kid Flash crank it up one more notch when he's ready. Kid Flash asks if there's anything he should do in the future, and Flash simply tells him to keep listening to his heart. Everybody finally gets on the treadmill, and they all disappear in an explosion of light. A moment later, our heroes arrive back at their tower in their time.

Later, it's 4:45 p.m. on a Saturday, and everybody is kicking back and relaxing. Bart's skateboarding again and Cassie is tossing a frisbee around with Gar as a dog. Conner asks Tim for a shirt to borrow, saying the only shirts he has here have an "S" on them, and he needs something else to wear since Bart's insisting they all go to Dave and Busters to have some fun. Tim says he thinks they sometimes forget how to have fun, and Conner agrees, saying if they've learned anything from their recent adventure, it's that they need to lighten up. The two friends then reassert their agreement to stick together, no matter what.

We then get an epilogue in Smallville 10 years from now. Superman visits his Pa at his Fortress of Paradise, telling him the Teen Titans have escaped back to the past and he's worried their present is going to change around them and cease at any moment. But his Pa, Lex Luthor, tells him not to worry and focus on having a baby with Wonder Woman. Kon-El promises to not let his Pa down, and Lex says, "You never did, Son. You never did."




This was a really good story. Geoff Johns was surely working on Infinite Crisis when he wrote this, giving him lots of opportunities to tease to what's going to be happening in the DC Universe. And it's pretty fun sorting out all the clues and figuring out what definitely will happen in the future from what only happened because the Titans were separated. I do enjoy the Titans of Tomorrow, and I'm happy to say that they even reappeared as late as 2018. This future version of Bart is my favorite version so far — even if I'm ambivalent on his romance with Rose. He managed to retain his optimistic and positive nature while the world fell apart around him. And although it wasn't explicitly stated, it seems reasonable to assume that he created the enormous Flash Museum to protect as many people as possible from the Titans West. But now I'm wondering how he let Batman steal the Cosmic Treadmill, but I guess that's a minor issue. Most importantly, though, I loved his advice to his younger self. That was just perfect.

Sadly, I once again have to complain about the art. It almost seems like Mike McKone is shying away from the big action scenes. Both Superman and Dark Raven were defeated off panel. And it kills the story to have such essential elements reduced to a recap in a word balloon. I also found myself being quite confused by the nature of this East vs. West civil war. Where is Gotham in all this? It didn't seem like it was part of the West's Dark Raven control, but it also feels weird that this Batman wouldn't have taken complete control of his own hometown. Oh well. Just another little nitpick in an otherwise fun and engaging story.

Next time, we're going to shake things up a bit. I've decided to cover every appearance of every version of Bart Allen. And I think that should also include his long-lost evil clone, Inertia. So I'm going to cover a comic that doesn't have Bart, but does have Inertia — The Flash #217.