Teen Titans #32

Doom's Day

Geoff Johns / Writer
Todd Nauck / Penciller
Sean Parsons, Nelson, Lary Stucker / Inkers
Phil Balsman / Letterer
Jeromy Cox / Colorist
Jeanine Schaefer / Asst. Editor
Eddie Berganza / Editor

Our cover by Tony S. Daniel is a rather common pose for comic book covers. Our heroes are all beaten and strewn across the floor, while the ominous threat glowers at them from the shadows. The cover says "Superboy is back!" and Superboy is intentionally obscured to make us believe that this is Conner attacking his friends again. But this deception only works if the reader didn't see Jim Lee's cover of Infinite Crisis #4, which also came out this month. I also question why Daniel drew Superboy so incredibly large. He looks even bigger than Superman here. But the biggest problem with this cover is the credits. For whatever reason, Daniel didn't draw a single page inside this issue. All the pencil work was handled by the amazing Todd Nauck. Perhaps he was a late fill-in, which could explain why he needed three inkers to get done on time.

Our story begins in Smallville, with Conner still glued to the news on TV. This time, they're talking about Superman saving people and other heroes in El Paso, Texas, and Los Angeles. Conner pulls out his Teen Titans communicator and seems to once again consider going out and helping his friends. But as he steps out the front door, he finds Superboy-Prime flying right above him, announcing himself as Conner's replacement.

We then cut to the current headquarters of the Doom Patrol in Key Mordaz, Florida. Beast Boy has snuck inside as a mouse, but was quickly discovered. None of these heroes can remember having previously met, but they are familiar with each other. When the Doom Patrol asks Beast Boy what he wants, he has a somewhat startling answer. Turning to Rita Farr, aka Elasti-Girl, Gar asks why she isn't dead.

Back in Smallville, Superboy-Prime has already started the fight, slamming Conner into a tractor. Conner tells the Kents to leave, and Prime insists he won't hurt them because he never hurts good people. Conner points out that Prime narrowly missed hitting the Kents when he tossed him across the yard. Prime lamely counters by saying he never beat up his friends like Conner did. He calls him a monster for having Luthor's blood in his veins and accuses him of not knowing the difference between good and bad.

Jonathan Kent asks Superboy-Prime to stop fighting and talk, but Prime shouts that he doesn't want to talk anymore. He grabs Conner and starts shoving him through a nearby forest, saying he wants his life back. He wants to be the only special one again — the Earth's only hero. Prime explains that his world died to save this one, and now he's disgusted to see he was replaced by a science experiment gone wrong — a cheap imitation. By this point, the fight has reached downtown Smallville, and Krypto has stepped in to attack Prime. This gives Conner enough time to send out a distress call before returning to the fight with a renewed focus.

In Florida, Beast Boy explains that ever since he and Raven visited Hell, he's been having nightmares of being with the Doom Patrol as a kid and watching them all be killed by the Brotherhood of Evil on an island. Dr. Niles Caulder, the leader of the Doom Patrol, admits he's been having the same nightmare since he recorded a vibrational subspace tremor just hours after the JLA Watchtower exploded. But before they can begin to discuss what these nightmares mean, Beast Boy's Titans communicator goes off.

The Superboy fight has now reached Keystone City, and even though Conner is on the verge of death, he manages a small smile and shows off his communicator. We're then treated to a beautiful two-page spread of all the heroes who arrived to help out (Infinite Crisis #4 didn't even give this scene one full page).

Cassie pulls Conner to safety, surrounded by Robin, Raven, Dr. Caulder and Dr. Mid-Nite. She explains that Beast Boy brought the Doom Patrol and Kid Flash brought the Justice Society of America. She asks Conner who he's fighting, and all he can say is he doesn't know. Raven tries to heal Conner, but suddenly finds her powers aren't working. Dr. Mid-Nite says he recently heard from Zatanna that the Spectre has broken down magic. Raven asks what this means, and Caulder says Raven's abilities and the entire world is evolving. Conner asks why so many people showed up, and Robin simply says they're here to help him. Conner tries to say something else, but passes out.

Bart, Jay and Wally have begun attacking Superboy-Prime, talking about Conner's injuries. But Prime surprises the speedsters by knocking them all down, declaring that he's fast, too. Hourman smacks Prime with the Welcome to Keystone sign, Sand and Terra launch a combined Earth-based attack, Bushido slashes with his sword, Mr. Terrific hits Prime with some lasers, and S.T.R.I.P.E. punches Prime into a bus, but none of this seems to have any effect.

Kid Flash asks how they're supposed to defeat this guy, and Speedy says it's finally time for her to use the blue arrow. Apparently she's done some more research between now and the Brother Blood battle, because she now knows that the original Speedy, Roy Harper, stole the arrow from Superman when he offered the first Teen Titans a rare tour of the Fortress of Solitude. And this arrow is called the Phantom Zone arrow.

Without further ado, Speedy fires the arrow at Superboy-Prime. The color on Prime fades away, and he's quickly encased in a two-dimensional plane of glass. He asks where he is, and Beast Boy snidely says, "You're in the Phantom Zone, freak." Prime protests that the Phantom Zone is for criminals and he doesn't belong there because he's a good guy. As Prime begins punching against the wall of the Phantom Zone, Wonder Girl asks Dr. Mid-Nite to try to get Conner to start breathing again. Eventually, Superboy-Prime, the being strong enough to break through the walls of reality itself, is able to shatter the prison of the Phantom Zone.

When Superboy-Prime breaks free, our heroes are engulfed in a wave of rainbow light. This light floods Beast Boy's mind with all the memories of his past life with the Doom Patrol — a life that was supposedly erased by the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The rest of the Doom Patrol has the same visions, and Dr. Caulder's red hair suddenly turns gray. He hypothesizes that they were taken out of time and forgotten, but now their history is being realigned to normal thanks to Superboy-Prime's actions.

Kid Flash again asks his teammates what they should do now since even the Phantom Zone couldn't hold Superboy-Prime. Raven is more worried about Beast Boy and the Doom Patrol, and Bart says it looks like they're hypnotized. Speedy suddenly finds herself remembering that Gar used to be a member of the Doom Patrol. The rest of the heroes continue attacking Superboy-Prime, but all they manage to do is make him angrier and lose even more control, until he accidentally decapitates Pantha.

When Superboy-Prime kills Wildebeest as well, Bart helps up Wally (who must have taken a pretty nasty hit in his initial attack). Bart tells Wally what's happening, and Jay says, "This is way past red." So Wally suggests they throw Prime into a prison they know he won't get out of. As Prime blasts Bushido in half, Bart pauses to deliver a farewell message to the teammates he's known the longest — Robin, Superboy and Wonder Girl. He says, "We're gonna handle this. Take care of each other. Don't forget that. The Justice League did."

Cassie cries out Bart's name, but he's already long gone by then. The speedsters and Superboy-Prime disappear in a flash of light, and the remaining heroes begin to gather themselves up and tend to their wounded. Conner is finally able to speak again, and he weakly says, "I'm sorry."




What a great comic. It took one of the biggest fights this year and added more wonderful detail. And lucky for me, it was Todd Nauck replicating this fight scene. Unfortunately we didn't get the emotional scene of Bart, Barry, Max and Johnny pulling Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, but we did get Bart's wonderful farewell message to his friends. Bart's had enough experience with the Speed Force to know that there's a very high chance that he won't be able to come back from this. So he chose a message of unity for his final words to his old Young Justice pals, indicating that he's still upset by the Titans of Tomorrow and the falling apart of the JLA. It really was the perfect goodbye.

I do have mixed feelings on the Phantom Zone arrow, though. On one hand, I really like it as a way to show Superboy-Prime's power and provide motivation for the Flash family to consider their drastic course of action. But on the other, I'm wondering why a Phantom Zone arrow was ever created in the first place. Did Superman make a whole bunch of Phantom Zone weapons just in case something happened to his Phantom Zone projector? And I'm really underwhelmed by the reveal of the Phantom Zone arrow. Geoff Johns has been teasing us with the blue arrow for quite a while now, and in Teen Titans #30, we saw Mia learn that it came from the Fortress of Solitude, but that was it. I feel like we needed one more issue before this one to properly set that up.

In fact, I would have loved one more issue for a bunch of things. Yes, this issue did show us why Beast Boy had the Doom Patrol with him, but that still kind of came out of left field. It would have been great to have seen his nightmares before he journeyed to Florida to track down these people. And this gets more complicated by the whole Blüdhaven situation. We saw Kid Flash and Beast Boy cleaning up Blüdhaven, indicating that happened before Kid Flash disappeared. But in future issues, we will see the rest of the Teen Titans return to Blüdhaven, or go there for the first time, if you believe the Adventures of Superman made a continuity mistake. Which it likely did. In any case, this is an amazing story that just keeps me wanting more.

Next time, the craziness continues in Infinite Crisis #5.