Teen Titans #50

Passage

Writers Sean McKeever; Geoff Johns; Marv Wolfman; Todd Dezago
Pencillers Randy Green; Mike McKone; George Pérez; Todd Nauck
Inkers Andy Lanning & Sandra Hope Pgs 1-3, 10-15, 20-33, 35-38; Marlo Alquiza Pgs 4-9; George Pérez Pgs 16-19; Lary Stucker Pg 34
Letterer Rob Leigh
Colorists Rod Reis, Tom Smith & David Curiel
Cover Alé Garza & Scott Williams w/Reis
Alternate Cover McKone & Lanning w/Reis
Assistant Editor Adam Schlagman
Editor Eddie Berganza

Our main cover shows the new roster of the Teen Titans: Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Devil, Ravager, Blue Beetle, Miss Martian and Supergirl. With the old holdovers Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven now gone, the leader role has defaulted to Robin. And with the addition of Supergirl alone, this team isn't going to be hurting for power against just about any threat that comes its way. The cover itself is OK. Robin and Wonder Girl have kind of wonky faces, but everyone else looks good.

Our alternate cover shows the updated Titans of Tomorrow smashing through the glass wall that was the main cover. I like the symbolism of the new current team being replaced by frightening future versions of themselves. I also don't mind changing the Titans of Tomorrow. After their previous encounter with this team, our Teen Titans of the present day made significant changes that altered the Titans of Tomorrow. The future versions of Tim, Conner, Cassie and Bart look the same, but now they're joined by future versions of Kid Devil and Miss Martian, who has now embraced being a White Martian.

Our story begins at Titans Tower in San Francisco. Even though the Tower has its own dedicated hall of statues of fallen Titans, the team has bucked tradition a bit by erecting large golden statue of Superboy and Kid Flash out in front of the tower. Robin, Raven, Miss Martian, Beast Boy, Kid Devil, Ravager, Starfire, Cyborg, Wonder Girl, Supergirl and Wally West have all gathered for a brief ceremony to commemorate Bart Allen. Robin gives a brief speech, talking of how Bart embraced life, and how his exuberance impacted each of them in ways they'll never forget. Tim says today they're not mourning Bart's passing — they're celebrating his life.

Cassie compliments Tim on his speech, and Beast Boy tells Kid Devil and Ravager about the time Bart drove Robin's Batmobile. Gar happily brings in Cassie, Tim and Cyborg on the conversation, which leads us to the Geoff Johns/Mike McKone story called Friday Night Lights.

Instead of being a retelling of Bart's wacky adventure in the Batmobile (as detailed in Teen Titans #9), this story is about the time Bart coerced Robin into letting him fly one of the Batplanes. Wonder Girl and Beast Boy were also in the plane, and Beast Boy demanded to know why Robin let this happen. Cassie explained that Robin lost a bet with Bart that he'd be able to give orders to all the "old guys" by the end of the week, and Robin lost when Starfire burned a hole in Robin's cape after he told her to take monitor duty. Beast Boy sadly realized that he's now one of the "old guys," but Bart assured him he's "not that old." Robin was worried about returning the Batplane before Batman and the Justice League rescued Aquaman, but Bart assured him he won't put a mark on the plane and no one will ever know about their joyride. But as soon as he said that, Bart crashed through a "Welcome to Smallville" sign.

A depressed Conner Kent slowly departed from school, before suddenly being met by Krypto. The super dog tore at Conner's backpack in an attempt to warn him of the approaching Batplane. Conner reacted too slowly and was soon scooped up by his friends. Conner tried to protest, saying he wanted to take this weekend off, but Beast Boy told him they have tickets to Challengers Mountain (whatever that means). Bart told Conner to stop thinking and just start doing. He said they should enjoy being on the Titans, making new friends and going out to have some fun on a Friday night. Bart asked Conner if he thinks it'll ever get better than this, and after noticing the way Cassie is looking at him, Conner is forced to agree with Bart.

We then return to the present, cutting to Washington, D.C., where Wonder Woman is examining the damage caused by the Amazons Attack event. She spots the future version of Conner lurking in the shadows, and initially thinks its Superman. But then she's attacked from the opposite side by the future version of Cassie.

Back at the tower, our heroes have moved the party inside. Raven tells Starfire of Bart's repeated attempts to see her naked, and Starfire admits she brazenly stripped nude in front of Bart once, allowing him to stare at her for two solid minutes. Just as she was at Bart's funeral, Ravager has no interest in reminiscing about her fallen teammate. So Rose pulls Kid Devil away and invites him to go skinny dipping in the pool with her.

In Toronto, Martian Manhunter is searching for a serial murderer when he's approached by the future Cassie disguised as Wonder Woman. By the time J'onn realizes she's an imposter, he's attacked from behind by the future Kid Devil.

The party at the tower is now wrapping up, and Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy and Wally are saying their goodbyes. Robin welcomes Wally back to Earth, saying he didn't get a chance to say so at the funeral (because Wally wasn't at the funeral!). As the older heroes fly away in a random black jet one of them happened to have, Cyborg says they should visit Jericho and see how's doing, still possessing Match's body. Beast Boy comments on how odd it is now that none of the "old guard" are on the Titans anymore. But Cyborg is confident this current group will be great. Starfire asks Wally why he's flying back with them instead of just running home, and Wally says he just wanted to spend some more time with his old friends.

Wally begins talking about Bart, saying he initially believed Impulse was not Titans material. Young Justice was one thing, but the Teen Titans was serious business. And then on his first day on the job, Bart got his kneecap blown off. Wally doesn't know what went through Bart's mind as he endured the pain of having an artificial kneecap put in, but when he came out of that ordeal as Kid Flash with "all that bravado," Wally became even angrier with Bart. In his mind, Bart hadn't earned the right to be Kid Flash on the Teen Titans. But Wally gradually came to realize that he was actually excited for Bart to have this chance to prove himself. And in the end, Wally maintains he was right about Impulse not being Titans material. But Kid Flash was.

Starfire asks Wally if he thinks Barry Allen ever felt the same way toward him. Wally says he always wanted Barry's approval until he wrote a letter to him. And that leads us into the Marv Wolfman/George Pérez story called Dear Barry ...

This story is about the Teen Titans rescuing an apartment full of people from an exploding gas line. Wally was so impressed with his teammates' resolve to help others, he felt compelled to write to his mentor all about it. At one point in the mission, Wally was worried he wouldn't be able to save six elderly people all confined to their beds. But then he remembered some inspiring words from Barry, which gave Wally the courage to save those people. Barry responded with a brief letter, telling Wally that he has always been proud of him since the first day he put on his Kid Flash costume and he knows that his former sidekick will always do his best.

Back in the present, the Titans are now watching Bart's favorite TV show, Tiny Titans. Ravager finally returns from her "swim" with Kid Devil, and Cassie berates her for skipping out on their day of remembering Bart. Suddenly, Kid Flash walks through the door. Cassie and Tim excitedly jump up to greet Bart, and Cassie wraps him in a big hug. Tim asks if this is a time travel thing, but Supergirl sadly interjects to say her X-ray vision reveals that this isn't really Bart. She gently urges the imposter to come clean, so Miss Martian shape-shifts back to her normal form. Wonder Girl immediately tries to attack Megan, but Supergirl holds her back. Megan explains that she had heard Bart was a trickster, so she thought she could cheer them all up with a little trick of her own. Ravager finds this hilarious, but Robin manages to kindly explain to Miss Martian how that little stunt was wrong. Luckily, the awkward moment is interrupted by Kid Devil reporting a "situation" in Texas.

In Gotham City, Batman is investigating the scene of a murder in a dark alley when he's attacked by the future version of Conner. We quickly cut to Texas, where the Teen Titans team up with Blue Beetle to fight Lobo. It's kind of a jarring, random battle that ends abruptly, but an editor's note tells us to read the complete story in Blue Beetle #18. Suffice it to say, the day is saved, and Robin offers to let Blue Beetle come train with them and maybe earn a spot on the team. In Metropolis, Superman comes home to find Lois bound and gagged. Before he can free her, the future Cassie wraps her lasso around Superman's neck, and future Tim attacks him with a kryptonite ring.

Early the next morning, before dawn, Wonder Girl finds Robin sitting out in the fog in front of the statues of Bart and Conner. Tim admits he didn't sleep that night, and Cassie tries to assure him he can't blame himself for Bart's death. But Tim explains he's feeling guilty because he never took Bart seriously as a hero or a person. So Cassie cheers Tim up by reminding him how Bart really was an impulsive goofball, which leads us into our one-page story by Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck.

Cassie lists off several misadventures they had during Young Justice (none of these things actually happened in the series, but after Infinite Crisis, all things are possible). Professor Ivo Jr. once replaced most of the team with robots, and took Impulse almost a week to figure out something was wrong. On another occasion, Bart made a comic book about Young Justice and compromised all their secret identities. When Superboy confronted him with this, he showed Impulse a Superman comic that names his secret identity as Dirk Devlin, which Bart thought was accurate. Impulse also somehow turned the entire team into animals (himself a rabbit, Robin a robin, Wonder Girl a cheetah, Superboy a stag, and Secret a mouse), and then all into cavemen, and even had them all arrested for breaking speed limits. And Cassie closes with the story of the Justice League sending Young Justice as envoys to Gorilla City via pneumatic tubes, which they called "P Tubes." And poor Bart thought that meant something else, causing Young Justice's first international incident.

Cassie tells Tim that she didn't realize how much Bart had matured until she saw him as the Flash, so she tells Tim to not beat himself up over it. She then begins to cry, and says if Tim blames himself, then she'd have to, too. Tim goes down the long list of friends and family he's lost over the past couple of years: Stephanie, his dad, Conner and now Bart. He begins to cry, too, saying it isn't fair. Cassie wipes a tear off his cheek, then removes his mask. As she leans in for a kiss, Tim half-heartedly begins to protest, but ultimately agrees. However, before they can kiss, Tim hears something fast zooming across the water toward them.

Believing they're under attack, Tim puts his mask back on and prepares to fight. But it turns out the sound came from Wally, who looks like he just escaped a major fight. Wally vaguely says "They're alive, Robin!" Then tries to warn them that nothing is what it seems. But he's suddenly knocked out from behind. Robin and Wonder Girl turn and see the future versions of Bart and Conner standing before them, smugly saying, "Miss us?"




This was actually a really nice issue. There were a lot of positives with Bart's funeral in Countdown, but there weren't many personal stories. This issue gave us that opportunity. And by being an extra-sized issue, it had room to reminisce about Bart and still set up future storylines with Blue Beetle and the Titans of Tomorrow. And I really appreciated how they brought back the same old creative teams to provide flashbacks of untold tales from their original runs on the Teen Titans (or Young Justice). I will admit I'm being a bit greedy here, but I was let down by the Wolfman/Pérez story. Instead of having Wally (rudely) make a remembrance of Bart all about himself and some boring letter he wrote to Barry, I would have preferred to bring in Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo or Paul Pelletier to give us a wacky Wally/Bart adventure.

And I'm going to continue being greedy by complaining that the Dezago/Nauck story was only one page long. But that was such a beautiful, marvelous page! I miss Nauck's art so much, as well as that wonderful, goofy team of Young Justice! I feel like these stories (turning into animals, being replaced by robots, etc.) were the kind of stories Dezago wanted to tell, but wasn't allowed to. I was still very happy with what Peter David gave us, but Dezago's vision of Young Justice would have also been incredible.

So far, I'm pretty happy with McKeever and Green, and I'm genuinely intrigued to see what they do with this future version of Bart. In any case, it is nice to have some comics to review, even though Bart is technically dead.

Next time, we'll briefly see how Bart's death affected the Outsiders in their final issue of the series, Outsiders #50.