Teen Titans #30

Lost and Found Part 1 of 2

Writer Geoff Johns
Penciller Tony S. Daniel
Inkers Marlo Alquiza & Richard Bonk
Colorist Jeromy Cox
Letterer Comicraft
Assistant Editor Jeanine Schaefer
Editor Eddie Berganza

Our cover by Tony S. Daniel shows the dramatic return of Brother Blood, who has more cloaked followers, is surrounded by fire and is looming large over the Titans, who are once again drowning in a vague pool of blood. It is a pretty dramatic cover, even if I don't like the concept of this guy (at least he's not wearing a stupid skull-thing on his head anymore). Robin is missing and Cyborg should be missing, as we'll find out inside. The cover also includes a tease for a Captain Carrot comic, which is essentially a backup story in this issue. It doesn't seem to directly involve Kid Flash, so we won't worry about it.

Our story begins in Burbank at 11:13 a.m. Monday with Eddie Bloomberg reading the Captain Carrot comic (which was also written by Geoff Johns). Eddie was Kid Devil, one of the many heroes who helped Young Justice invade Zandia. But now that his aunt has died, Eddie is lost in life and keeps getting fired from every job he gets. He visits his aunt's grave in Los Angeles, but at 11:48 a.m., the whole cemetery erupts in a fiery explosion and dozens of red, winged demons fly out of the ground.

At 11:49 a.m. in Titans Tower in San Francisco, Brother Blood has somehow ... emerged from Raven. (I don't get how any of this works.) He immediately attacks Raven and starts sucking her blood. Beast Boy is quickly on the scene and transforms into a Tyrannosaurus rex and charges at Brother Blood. But Blood's new mother, the reincarnated Omen, uses her psychic powers to put Beast Boy to sleep. Brother Blood seems satisfied with that, telling Raven he's going to make his own Titans before having Omen teleport all of them to Los Angeles.

They all arrive in Los Angeles at 12:01 p.m., and the city is on fire, with the sky full of the red demons. Brother Blood orders his "congregation" to destroy all the non-believers, and he reaches over to drink Beast Boy's blood. But Raven pushes Gar away and teleports him and herself to a nearby morgue — the only safe place she could reach in her weakened state. Beast Boy pulls out his communicator to call the other Titans, and Raven explains that something has blown open the doorway between life and death and infected her soul self, enabling Brother Blood's escape. Raven isn't sure who is responsible for this, but she does insist on blaming herself, as usual. Beast Boy blames himself, since Cyborg left him in charge to go help Donna Troy on her secret mission. Their misery brings Gar and Raven together, and the two kiss in the morgue.

Sixteen miles outside of Gateway City, at St. Elias Private School, Cassie and Greta are sitting in class at 12:27 p.m. The class is discussing Wonder Woman's murder of Maxwell Lord, a topic that understandably puts Cassie on edge. When one boy accuses Wonder Woman of being a terrorist, Cassie loses her cool and slams the boy up against the ceiling. She quickly drops him, then flies out the window, daring her teacher to expel her, while the reflection of Ares watches on approvingly. Cassie then notices Beast Boy's call.

In Star City at 12:28 p.m., Mia Dearden has finally decided to call Roy Harper and ask him what that mysterious blue arrow does. To her surprise, Roy doesn't know, either. He apparently stole the arrow from the Fortress of Solitude. Mia then receives Beast Boy's summons and wonders if she should answer it since it's a Monday. Suddenly, Kid Flash shows up, talking very fast, saying Beast Boy's in trouble and his signal is coming from Los Angeles. Bart couldn't find Robin, and he figured Wonder Girl can fly herself over there, so here he is, offering Speedy a ride.

Before too long, Speedy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Raven and Beast Boy are all in the morgue. Speedy is understandably creeped out by all this, and Bart wants to wait for Robin and/or Superboy, but Beast Boy says they don't have time. Raven says they need to close the doorway between life and death and send Brother Blood and Omen back to hell, but she confesses she doesn't know how to do that. So Beast Boy suggests they find Brother Blood and ask him. When the demons reach the morgue, Beast Boy turns into a lion and shouts out the always stupid "Titans together!"

Soon our heroes our outside, battling the endless horde of demons in front of all the famous landmarks in Los Angeles. But they're soon surrounded by Brother Blood and his team of six deceased, brainwashed Titans. Our issue ends in Smallville at 4:34 p.m., with the scene of Conner watching the news from Infinite Crisis #1. Despite Ma Kent's encouraging words, Conner can't bring himself to leave the room and ignores his Titans communicator.




DC spent three years preparing for Infinite Crisis, but they still had some publication problems. This Teen Titans story ideally would have come out the same month as Infinite Crisis #1. But for some reason, it got pushed back by a two-part filler Hawk-and-Dove story. And even then, it felt like Tony S. Daniel was rushed on this issue. He didn't have to draw any of the Captain Carrot pages, but still needed two inkers, and a couple of his pages didn't seem to match the same standard as his usual work.

As for the story, even though I'm not a huge fan of Brother Blood, I do like the idea of a short-handed Teen Titans team facing an unending army attacking one of the largest cities in the world. And even though I don't have a connection to the resurrected Titans, I am glad that somebody finally acknowledged the death of Omen — the forgotten casualty from Graduation Day.

Next time, we'll return to our Vandal Savage fight in The Flash #229.