Teen Titans #23

Lights Out • Part Three: Secrets and Lies

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 doing ... something ... with his hands, as he's surrounded by all the Titans (past and present) who have gathered to fight him. But instead of fighting, all our heroes are merely standing around with blank looks on their faces. I would say Doctor Light has hypnotized them, but nothing even remotely like that happens in this issue, leaving us with an odd, bland cover.

Our story picks up at 12:12 a.m. Saturday in Philadelphia. As Superboy and Captain Marvel Jr. catch the crashing helicopter, we see that Cyborg didn't bother sharing his and Starfire's plan with the rest of the team, as Superboy is shocked to see so many heroes have arrived. He flies back down to join in with the attack, but first he checks on Wonder Girl, who says her lasso is still "out of juice." She asks how his eyes are, and he says his vision is still fuzzy, but he can see well enough to fight.

Kid Flash still wants to fight, but Flash forbids it, saying if he tries to run on his knee now, he'll do permanent damage. As Wally takes Bart to a doctor, he surprisingly expresses pride in the teen, saying the fact that he's still willing to fight says a lot.

Tempest begins the fight by freezing the water in Doctor Light's eyes. Starfire tosses the villain into the side of a cab, and Bumblebee tries to hit him with her stingers, but Light deflects with a shield. The Herald hits him with a blast from his horn, then Duela Dent pushes Herald aside to squirt some acid from her flower at Doctor Light, but only hits his cape. Doctor Light responds with a big blast of light that knocks down a bunch of heroes and sends others scattering. Arsenal begins looking for Speedy, as he and Nightwing are struggling to understand how Doctor Light is so powerful now.

Raven begins healing Dove, and Mirage tries to intimidate Doctor Light with an illusion of Superman, but he sees right through it. Superboy and Wonder Girl attack Light, but he knocks them down with another blast. One hero is able to withstand Light's attacks, Red Star, who lands a punch on the villain's jaw and holds his arms back, while Pantha and Wildebeest begin attacking him. But Light is able to push them off.

Doctor Light sadistically calls for more, and when the heroes respond, he sucks in all the nearby ambient light for one massive attack that puts everyone on their backs. Light contentedly walks back into the museum, where he sees Speedy has untied Green Arrow and is dragging him away. Once Speedy sees Doctor Light, she panics and pulls out Roy's old mysterious blue arrow, meant only for emergencies. But before she can fire it, Cyborg comes crashing through the doors and tells her to save it.

Cyborg punches Doctor Light out through a window, follows him, and activates his solar shields, which essentially make him immune to Light's attacks. Doctor Light does manage to blow a small hole through Cyborg's side, but it doesn't bother Vic, who manages to land some ferocious blows. Starfire gets in a shot, as well, finally putting an end to the fight. But Doctor Light is satisfied with the events of the evening, saying, "Everyone saw ... I already ... won."

The police and paramedics arrive, tending to all the wounded heroes. Superboy congratulates Cyborg for taking on Light one-on-one, but Cyborg gives credit to everyone else who softened him up. Superboy also reports that Nightwing and Starfire are arguing over who invited Duela Dent, and even he believes she's more delusional than Ravager. He asks what they're going to do with Light now, and  Cyborg says Nightwing has called someone to pick him up. Right on cue, Batman and Batgirl step out of the Batwing. Superboy is impressed that he didn't even hear the plane, and Batman says that's because he's not supposed to hear it. Superboy tells Batgirl she's always welcome at Titans Tower, but she doesn't respond. Batman picks up Light, and says he's taking him to Belle Reeve. As they fly away, Superboy complains that Batman's rude.

Cyborg then confronts Green Arrow about the tale Doctor Light told them. Green Arrow angrily asks if it matters, and Cyborg says, yes, it does matter because the Justice League essentially created a monster and put the lives of all these kids in danger. This heated discussion, however, is momentarily interrupted by Speedy celebrating Green Arrow's safety, and Nightwing and Starfire announcing they need to return to the Outsiders headquarters, which has apparently been broken into during the fight.

We then cut to the Titans returning to Teen Titans Tower in San Francisco via the T-jet. Bart is with the team, hobbling around on some crutches, implying that after Wally took him to a doctor to repair his artificial knee, he brought him back to Philadelphia so he could fly back with his teammates. We also learn that Cyborg managed to get the whole story out of Green Arrow off page. Bart's first concern is whether his grandpa, Barry Allen, participated in the mind wipe. And Cassie is worried about Wonder Woman's involvement. Vic says that, according to Green Arrow, Wonder Woman was not there when it happened, but the Flash was.

Beast Boy wonders who they're supposed to look up to, and Cyborg says they look up to each other. Robin insists that Batman wouldn't do this, and Superboy adds that Superman wouldn't, either, and they shouldn't write them off. Cyborg says this is all a matter of trust, and to avoid the JLA's fate, he says he doesn't want there to be any secrets on the Teen Titans.

Speedy speaks up, finally telling everyone that she is HIV-positive. It's tough for her to say this, and everyone is pretty quiet after this news. Beast Boy eventually breaks the silence by telling Speedy that he also is technically infected with a disease. He briefly recaps the Beast Boys and Girls storyline and admits he's afraid that he'll become Animal Man when he's older. Raven confesses she still can't stop feeding off the emotions around her, especially when everyone's sleeping in the tower. Wonder Girl reveals that Ares gave her the lasso to prepare her for some war, and she wants to throw it away, but can't bring herself to do it. For a moment, it looks like Superboy is about to say something, but Bart cuts through the tension by joking that he ran out of underwear, so he stole some of Beast Boy's.

Despite all this, Speedy is still a bit apprehensive. Cyborg assures her they're not going to kick her off the team, and they will take the necessary precautions to keep Mia and the Titans safe. He adds that he will want more details from Mia, and she promises to answer any questions. Cassie takes her hand, saying they all joined the team because they know what it's like to be different. Gar reminds her that he and Vic live in the tower seven days a week and are always available to help. Bart kind of dances around Mia on his crutches, telling her that she's now a Titan for life, just like all the other heroes they fought alongside. Everyone finally heads to bed, feeling much better. Except for Robin, who glares at Superboy, upset he didn't come forward with his DNA secret.

We then check in on Batman, Batgirl and Doctor Light, flying high above the clouds. Doctor Light asks where they're going and insists once again that he didn't lose that fight. Batgirl pulls off her mask, revealing herself to be Ravager. Deathstroke also pulls off his Batman mask and congratulates Doctor Light, saying he's been invited into "higher society."




Last issue I complimented Geoff Johns' handling of villains' motivations. This issue, I'm going to criticize his big fight scenes. Green Lantern Rebirth ended with the Green Lanterns repeatedly blasting Parallax for the whole issue, with absolutely no effect. Until the very end, when they somehow win by blasting him just a little bit more. The Doctor Light fight was fairly similar in that regard. The Titans kept punching Doctor Light over and over again, which didn't seem to faze him at all, until the end, when he was defeated ... by being punched just a little bit harder. Thankfully, Johns did do a better job of including all the other heroes in this fight than the Green Lantern Rebirth debacle. But at the same time, I still felt all these diverse heroes with their vast skill sets were severely underutilized. Their attack lacked any planning or creativity, and the whole fight became rather repetitive. A handful of heroes would charge Doctor Light, he'd blast them, then repeat the process with the next group.

Johns is working very hard to make Cyborg the ultimate hero. But Vic comes off as a horrible leader in this issue. He refused to tell his team the plan to bring in a dozen other heroes as reinforcement. And instead of waiting for that reinforcement, he charged right in with his team, directly leading to Bart nearly being crippled for the second time since joining the Teen Titans. And Cyborg let his team loose on Doctor Light, despite all the warning signs and strong hints he received from Wally. He also failed to provide his team with any basic preparation against Doctor Light, while conveniently withholding his own solar shields until the very end. And to top of his night of failure, he allowed Deathstroke to walk away with Doctor Light right under his nose.

The Deathstroke reveal was quite odd. On one hand, it's nice to know why Batman was drawing a sword last issue. But on the other hand, this raises a few questions. How was Deathstroke able to fool Cyborg? I can see him getting one past Superboy, who's easily distracted, but Cyborg should know better. Also, how did Deathstroke get a super-silent Batwing? I know I should be wondering what this higher society is, but I'm having trouble working past the implausibility of this disguise, which really was wholly unnecessary. I don't see Deathstroke and Ravager running the risk of being discovered by Nightwing or Robin. Couldn't they have disguised themselves as D.E.O. agents or something?

So, yeah, this was a disappointing issue. Mike McKone is still struggling with heavy action sequences, and Johns' script was rather lackluster. I don't care about Speedy being HIV-positive, and I am still stunned that nobody is doing anything about Wonder Girl's evil weapon from Ares. So, did I like anything about this issue? Well, it was nice to see Wally treat Bart well — an event that happens far too rarely. Of course, Wally still should have told Jay Garrick, Bart's guardian, that Bart has suffered another serious injury. Even better, Wally probably could have defeated Doctor Light in half a second before taking Bart to the hospital. Just saying.

Next time, we begin our first crossover with the Outsiders, beginning with Teen Titans #24.