Teen Titans #22

Lights Out • Part Two: War and Peace

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 Doctor Light maniacally creating an image of light of the Teen Titans squirming and struggling. He looks pretty insane and evil, which is great. The Titans look rather bland, but I'll allow that, as this is merely Doctor Light's interpretation of them. All in all, a pretty solid cover from an artist I tend to criticize much more than I compliment.

Our story begins at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where it's already 11:48 p.m. on this Friday night. Doctor Light has ambushed the Titans with a blast of blinding light that has knocked them all down. He gives them all time to get back on their feet so he can tell them that their mentors, the Justice League, are false heroes.

Kid Flash complains he can't see, but Robin claims that his mask mostly protected him from the flare. Beast Boy says he can still fight using sense of smell. Speedy tells Doctor Light to not hurt Green Arrow, but this prompts him to unleash another devastating blast of light that knocks everybody down again. Light warns the Titans that they need to be careful around the Justice League or they'll take their minds, too. He walks over to Superboy and somehow pulls out his heat vision, forming it in a floating ball of red light. Wonder Girl wraps her lasso around Light, but he repeats the trick and pulls out the lasso's lightning, turning that into a yellow ball floating over his other hand.

Speedy shoots an arrow into Light's shoulder, although she says she was aiming for something lower. Light throws the lightning ball and Speedy and Robin, who just manage to avoid the blast. Beast Boy turns into an alligator and bites Light's chest. Robin, Kid Flash and Cyborg all join Beast Boy, who has now suddenly turned into a little squirrel or something for some reason. Not that it matters, though, as Doctor Light uses Superboy's heat vision to blast everybody off him.

Kid Flash is first to recover, and as he runs toward Doctor Light, the villain wonders aloud which knee is Kid Flash's bad one. He guesses correctly, shooting a thin beam of light through Bart's right knee, causing him to collapse in pain. Raven then tries to attack with her soul-self, saying she'll absorb Light's hate. But Light resists her, saying hate is all he is at this point, after having years of his life taken away from him. After he knocks Raven down, he picks her up and shoots some light from his mouth into her mouth, knocking her out for the count.

We cut to the Batcave, where Batman and Batgirl are watching the fight on the news, although the cameras aren't able to see exactly what's happening. All the reporters can confirm is that Doctor Light is still standing, and with the power out in Philadelphia, rioting is spreading through the city. Batman assures Batgirl that Starfire's plan is already in motion. She asks about Doctor Light, to which Batman dramatically pulls out a sword and says, "They want him."

Back in Philadelphia, Doctor Light drags Speedy up to the chained Green Arrow and throws one of her arrows into Green Arrow's shoulder. Light says he's been wondering which other villains had their minds wiped by the Justice League, suggesting Doctor Polaris, Felix Faust and the Tattooed Man. But now he's wondering if they did the same thing to other heroes as well. Light accuses Green Arrow of altering the minds of their sidekicks, too, to keep them in line. Green Arrow calls him a coward for taking on an unconscious 17-year-old girl, so Light knocks him out to shut him up.

Two teenage girls suddenly enter the museum, Dawn and Holly Granger, who reveals themselves to be Hawk and Dove. They've grown tired of waiting for everyone else to arrive and have decided to attack Doctor Light now. However, they're so wrapped up in their copious amounts of expositional dialogue that they're unable to focus on the fight. Light grabs both the girls and blasts them up through the roof and damages one of the news helicopters hovering overhead.

It turns out that Hawk and Dove only needed to wait a few more seconds. The museum is soon full of every available former Titan, led by Starfire and Nightwing. Captain Marvel Jr. and Superboy catch the falling helicopter, and Flash is kindly tending to the injured Kid Flash. Doctor Light is actually pleased by the sight of this small army, and he even urges Nightwing to shout that cheesiest of battle cries. Nightwing complies: "Titans together!"




One of Geoff Johns' strengths is his ability to clearly lay out a villain's motivations. When he really wants to, he can make the bad guys quite sympathetic. In this issue, Doctor Light's anger is almost justifiable. Almost. He did commit the heinous sin of raping someone, after all. But one could argue that the punishment the Justice League gave him went a bit too far. In any case, he is now quite an intriguing villain. He does seem a bit overpowered, but I'm not too upset by that. He has spent a few weeks plotting this revenge, and he is positively seething with hatred. I just wish his powers were better defined. Stealing Superboy's heat vision and Wonder Girl's lightning didn't make much sense.

The Teen Titans really need to improve their battle planning. They knew they were going to fight Doctor Light, yet not one of them thought about protecting their eyes from his attacks. Also, their grand plan was to just stall until the rest of the former Titans arrived. Why couldn't they have waited a few minutes for everybody to show up? Somebody could have been seriously hurt or killed during this stalling period. So far, the worst injury seems to belong to Kid Flash, who basically had a laser cut through his artificial kneecap. Of course, that was a rather frustrating and completely avoidable injury. I know Bart was blind, but he could still hear Doctor Light, right? And why didn't he vibrate the attack through him? Oh, I know. It's because Johns has completely forgotten about Bart's ability to vibrate. I don't think he's done it once in this series.

Next time, we conclude this battle in Teen Titans #23.