Teen Titans #31

Lost and Found Part 2 of 2

Writer Geoff Johns
Pencils Tony S. Daniel & Todd Nauck
Inks Marlo Alquiza & Richard Bank
Colors Tanya & Richard Horie
Letters Comicraft
Ass't Editor Jeanine Schaefer
Editor Eddie Berganza
Special thanks to Chris Castallo

Our cover by Tony S. Daniel gives us the horrific image of Brother Blood's team of deceased Teen Titans — the former Hawk and Dove, Omen, Aquagirl and Kole. It's a nice, creepy cover, that is surely much more meaningful for longtime Titans readers who actually remember these characters. For me, I see this as a precursor to a future Geoff Johns story — Blackest Night.

Our story begins with Brother Blood as his team attacking the Titans, while the horde of demons continue to ravage Los Angeles. Kid Flash somehow became encased in one of Kole's crystals, but he's able to break out quick enough. Wonder Girl asks if they should be holding back in this fight, and Kid Flash asks who it is they're exactly fighting. Speedy says she's read up on the former Titans, and she correctly identifies Aquagirl and Phantasm. She believes these former heroes don't deserve to be treated like this.

Bart then asks a more relevant question: How is Brother Blood suddenly able to raise the dead? Raven isn't sure, but she does know the doorway between life and death is under threat right now. Bart asks what happens if that doorway is destroyed, and Raven says there will be no more judgment. Bart initially thinks that's a good thing, until Raven says that also means all souls would cease to exist. Beast Boy puts Wonder Girl in charge, telling her to take on Brother Blood while he and Raven attempt to journey to this doorway.

Raven's hesitant to bring Beast Boy with her, but he insists, saying he'll be her moral support. So Raven teleports the two of them to a space between dimensions called the Crossroads. Gar decides that now is a good time to ask her about the kiss they shared in the morgue, and he gets all upset when Raven puts off the question to focus on their very intense journey to Hell itself. They soon arrive at a massive door, conveniently labeled "Life and Death." Raven explains that this area has taken the form that their minds can comprehend. Our heroes also see that a young man is chained to the door, keeping it open.

The young man introduces himself as Kid Eternity. He was killed in a boating accident, but mysterious forces told him it wasn't his time and sent him back with the ability to summon deceased people. Later, Kid Eternity was "killed" a second time by a sorcerer craving chaos power. Since he had already died, Kid Eternity ended up in this strange Crossroads land, until Brother Blood ambushed him, chained him up to the door, and drank some of his blood to steal a bit of his powers. But according to Kid Eternity, Brother Blood is bringing back people incorrectly — only resurrecting their bodies, but not their souls.

Raven wonders if Kid Eternity is responsible for the resurrection of Jason Todd and Donna Troy, but he says the doorway was already cracked open before he got chained to it. He blames the resurrection of Superman for initially cracking it open. He asks to be set free to send all the dead people back to where they belong, and Raven confirms he is telling the truth. But before they can break his chains, they're attacked by Gizmo, Madame Rouge and the original Ravager.

Back in Los Angeles, Wonder Girl complains that her powers are fluctuating, which probably explains how she's able to get caught by Omen, who holds Cassie for Brother Blood to suck her blood. Kid Flash punches Brother Blood off her, but is quickly surrounded by more demons.

Beast Boy finally manages to break Kid Eternity's chains, enabling him to close the door and cause the zombie villains to disappear. In the real world, Speedy is forced to use her second-to-last arrow, a stink bomb, saying all she has left is the mysterious blue arrow. Wonder Girl tells her now's the time to use it, but before she does, Raven, Beast Boy and Kid Eternity appear before them. Kid Eternity instantly sends away the deceased Titans, causing Brother Blood to mourn the loss of his latest mother. Kid Eternity says he knows there have been seven generations of Brother Blood before Sebastian, each one having killed his father to take his place. And none of them are too happy right now.

Kid Eternity summons all the previous Brother Bloods, who apparently murder Sebastian in such a gruesome manner that Cassie and Bart can barely watch. Kid Eternity says that Sebastian works for him now, and he causes all the demons to return to Hell, where they belong. Wonder Girl reports that her powers have returned, and Raven says the doorway has been closed. Speedy asks Kid Eternity to bring the good Titans back to life, but he refuses, saying their souls are at rest.

In Smallville, Conner is having dinner with the Kents, discussing the Titans' victory in Los Angeles. Ma says Kid Flash has already rebuilt half the destroyed buildings. Conner quietly says Bart is good like that, then retreats to his bedroom. The other Superboy, watching all this from a realm outside of reality, smashes the crystal wall in front of him and vows to hold Conner responsible for his sin of inaction.




Well, it looks like we're finally done with Brother Blood. And I'm glad. I never really liked him that much. All in all, this was a fairly decent story. The idea of bringing back deceased heroes in an angry, zombie-like state is a pretty good one, but it didn't have much of an effect here. There wasn't much time to explore that aspect, and besides, none of our characters really had much of a connection to those dead Titans. And I think Geoff Johns may have had those problems in mind when he returned to this idea in Blackest Night.

I'm not sure why Tony S. Daniel struggled to complete this issue. Once again, we had a bunch of Captain Carrot pages in this issue, but even that reduced page count was too much for Daniel. However, I am very glad that Todd Nauck was brought in to help complete this issue. If I had my way, he would have been the regular artist on this series right from the get-go.

It was nice that the Kents mentioned Bart rebuilding buildings in Los Angeles. That demonstrates more of Bart's increased responsibility and addresses something often overlooked in superhero comics — collateral damage. However, I was surprised that it was Speedy who had read about the previous Titans and not Bart. Didn't he read an entire library once? Oh well. What really matters is that the Teen Titans are now caught up to Infinite Crisis and are ready for the official crossovers to begin.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at one of those crossovers, Wonder Woman #224.