Teen Titans #34

New Teen Titans Part I: One Year Later

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Tony Daniel
Inks: Kevin Conrad & Art Thibert
Colors: Richard & Tanya Horie
Letterer: Nick J. Napolitano
Asst. Editor: Jeanine Schaefer
Editor: Eddie Berganza

Our cover by Tony Daniel shows what the Teen Titans look like one year after Infinite Crisis. Frankly, they don't look that different. Wonder Girl, Robin and Cyborg are still here, wearing only slightly different costumes. Rose Wilson, now Ravager, was once a Titan way back in the day, so she's basically just returning to her roots. The biggest difference is Kid Devil, who now has the body of an actual devil. What is interesting, however, is how these heroes are charging over the statues of some of their former teammates — Superboy, Kid Flash, Beast Boy and a headless female that I believe is supposed to be Raven.

My digital copy includes the sketch variant, which is very interesting because it includes the head of the Raven statue. For some reason, that head was replaced with a random hand in the final version. I wonder if they thought it was too busy. They shouldn't have thought it was misleading or confusing, though, because the Teen Titans have an established tradition of building statues of their former teammates whether or not those teammates are deceased.

Our story begins with Cyborg waking up to find Ravager and Kid Devil in the kitchen. He recognizes Ravager and remembers her as a villain; he doesn't recognize Kid Devil, but understandably considers him to be a villain, as well, and immediately attacks. He even lashes out at two non-powered individuals, Wendy and Marvin. Luckily, Robin steps in before too long and explains everything. Wendy and Marvin are the new caretakers of Titans Tower and have been repairing Cyborg for the past six months. Kid Devil is Eddie Bloomberg, Blue Devil's sidekick. And Rose Wilson has abandoned her father and become a good guy ... even though she still dresses like Deathstroke.

Robin and Cyborg take a walk in the gardens to briefly recap the past year. Cyborg was severely damaged in space, which is why it's taken so long for him to wake up. Starfire has been missing since Infinite Crisis, Speedy is apparently training on an island with Connor Hawke, Bart is "kind of retired," Raven quit the team after breaking up with Beast Boy, and Beast Boy has rejoined the Doom Patrol.

Robin then sadly leads Cyborg to a large, beautiful statue of Superboy, saying Conner died saving the universe. (In Infinite Crisis #6, which came out this month, Conner died while helping destroy Alexander Luthor's gold tower and fighting Superboy-Prime once more.) Cyborg sheds a tear for Conner's death, then asks where Wonder Girl is.

So the whole team heads out to downtown San Francisco to confront Wonder Girl, while she's battling a villain called Gemini. Cassie gives Cyborg a big hug when she sees him, but she refuses Robin's offer to return to the team, accusing him of leaving her alone for months after Superboy died to travel the world with Batman. Robin tries to explain that he was training, but Wonder Girl flies away in disgust.

When they get back to the tower, Cyborg complains that this team isn't the Teen Titans, and he tries to call up Beast Boy to bring the real Titans together. He dials up the Doom Patrol, which is currently headquartered in Prague, but he only gets an answering machine left by Bumblebee. Cyborg can tell something is wrong with Robin, but he insists he's fine. However, later that night, Robin enters a secret cave underneath the tower, where he is working on his 97th attempt to create a new Superboy clone.




The idea for DC was to conclude Infinite Crisis by having all their regular titles skip ahead one year and then fill in that missing year with a weekly series called 52. Unfortunately, they couldn't quite wait for Infinite Crisis to end before jumping ahead. I would have preferred pushing this story back one month and spending this issue to show what the Titans were doing during Infinite Crisis #6. Go more in depth on Wonder Girl's relationship with Ares, show more of Beast Boy and the Doom Patrol, explore Cyborg and Starfire's adventure in space.

In any case, this issue wasn't too bad. I found it interesting that Robin said Bart has retired, but neglected to tell Cyborg that Bart is now four years older. I guess that's still a surprise for Infinite Crisis #7. Beyond that, it is compelling, yet depressing to see Robin slipping into an obsessive madness. Wendy and Marvin are already pretty annoying, as is Ravager, although Kid Devil has the potential to pick up the levity left behind by Beast Boy and Kid Flash. But none of that really matters to this blog, anymore. Bart Allen is no longer a Teen Titan, and we won't be seeing much of them for a while.

Next time, we'll finally conclude this massive event with Infinite Crisis #7.