Teen Titans #43

Titans East Part 1

Geoff Johns Writer
Tony S. Daniel Penciller
Jonathan Glapion Inker
Tanya and Richard Horie Colorist
Travis Lanham Letterer
Tony S. Daniel & The Hories Cover
Adam Schlagen Assistant Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor

Tony S. Daniel is a very hit-or-miss artist for me. Sometimes, when he nails an image, it's the some of the best comic book art you'll ever see. But on a pretty regular basis, you'll see some of Daniel's art that just doesn't quite seem to meet his standards. Perhaps he's rushing, or just not putting as much love into it, or maybe he has the wrong inker. In any case, this cover is one of those Daniel images that lets me down a bit. Mainly I'm upset with his Inertia. Not only does he look too old, but his gloves are wrong! Why can't anyone get Inertia's gloves right?

Bart Allen isn't in this story, but his clone is, so I'm taking the opportunity to look in on Bart's former team. When we last left the Teen Titans, Deathstroke's son, Jericho, was essentially resurrected by Raven. Jericho is catching up with his sister, Rose, and Nightwing in New York. To Rose's surprise, Nightwing accepts them both.

We then head to Robin's secret lab underneath Titans Tower in San Francisco. Wonder Girl and Raven have discovered Tim's insane attempts to clone a new Superboy. Cassie, who went on her own insane path to resurrect Conner in 52, approves of Tim's methods. But Raven is not pleased. Despite Tim's heart-breaking pleas to bring their family back, Raven insists she can't just resurrect Conner. She explains that with Jericho, all she did was bring his body back — his soul never left this plane because it was hidden inside Deathstroke and then trapped on that computer disk. But Conner's soul has moved on.

Cassie still demands that Raven bring Conner's soul back, and Tim says the Titans are unifying and Conner will complete it. Suddenly, a voice asks, "What about me?" Robin and Raven are immediately knocked out by a speedster, who pauses in front of Cassie long enough to show he's dressed as Kid Flash. Wonder Girl knows this isn't Bart and she tries to attack, but misses. Inertia quickly changes his costume, noting that some people prefer Impulse.

Cassie still angrily insists that he's not Bart, so Inertia takes the time to recap his origin story while pummeling Wonder Girl. He says he was cloned from Bart in the 30th century, trained by Thaddeus Thawne to seek out Bart and replace him. Thad rationalizes his current attack, by saying his quest to destroy everything about Bart should also include his friends. Thad then jokes that he briefly considered following Bart's lead and calling himself Kid Zoom, but for now, he's sticking with Inertia.

Once Wonder Girl falls down, Inertia turns things over to Superboy's old evil clone, Match, whose body and mind has been breaking down over the past few years, essentially making him a Bizarro. Inertia admits that Match isn't much of a conversationalist anymore, but he says clones need to stick together. Match ominously lumbers toward Cassie, saying "I hate Wonder Girl."

At Belle Reve Prison, in Terrebone Parish, Louisiana, Cyborg and Miss Martian are interrogating Bombshell, who was revealed to be a spy last time. But as soon as Miss Martian probes Bombshell's mind and realizes she's working for Titans East, Risk and Batgirl break into the prison and savagely kill Bombshell. They cause a mass breakout in Belle Reve, overwhelming our heroes. And Kid Devil is also attacked by a member of Titans East in a Catholic church in Los Feliz, California.

We then cut to Robin, waking up to find he's been tied up in front of Batgirl and Deathstroke. Slade blames the Titans for taking away his family. He reveals that he's controlling Batgirl with chemicals, and warns that he will do the same to others if the Titans don't give him Jericho and Rose back. Speaking of whom, Jericho and Rose are startled to come across an ominous-looking Titans Tower made of wood in New York.




This was pretty fun. I don't care about half the characters here, but I do like the idea of Deathstroke battling the Teen Titans with a team of teenagers himself. And it was kind of nice to see Inertia prove how powerful a speedster can be when they want to. He took out Robin and Raven like it was nothing, before messing around with Wonder Girl and handing her off to Match. I do wish, however, that he would have left Robin conscious long enough to really drive home the guilt game for the Titans caring so much about Conner, but not Bart. Regardless, this does look like it'll be an interesting story.

Next time, we'll see Bart Allen return to the Smallville TV show.