Teen Titans #52

The Titans of Tomorrow ... Today! Part Two: Beat Yourself Up

Sean McKeever • Writer
Jamal Igle • Pencils
Marlo Alquiza, Jesse Delperdang, Rob Hunter • Inks
Rod Reis • Colors
Steve Wands • Letters
Alé Garza, Scott Williams & Rod Reis • Cover
Adam Schlagman • Asst. Editor
Eddie Berganza • Editor

Our cover is an homage of 1960's The Brave and the Bold #28, the first appearance of the Justice League of America. It had to be done. This story is a big Starro fight, after all. This is a fun cover, and I do enjoy Garza's work. I'm just sad that he didn't do the interior art, as well. This is our third consecutive Teen Titans issue, each with a different artist. What is this — The Fastest Man Alive?

Our story begins with Blue Beetle discovering the imprisoned Justice League members in the old Titans Lair in Gotham County. After discovering the Titans Tower empty, Blue Beetle somehow followed Kid Devil's energy signature all the way across the country. Superman, under a kryptonite light, weakly says "Titans ... future ..." but Beetle doesn't know what he's talking about. Batman only has his hands bound, but he doesn't elaborate on Superman's words, only telling Beetle to free them. Blue Beetle says he'll have them out in a — but before he can say "flash," Bart's evil clone attacks him, mockingly urging him to finish the sentence.

In Gotham City, the hospital is still burning and Robin is still pointing a gun to his head. His future self begs him not to kill himself, saying he'll condemn all the lives he would save, not to mention ensuring that Conner and Bart will never come back. But before Robin gets a chance to consider this, or pull the trigger, he's attacked by the Starro-controlled Prometheus. And just outside, Miss Martian is battling her future self. In Chicago, Kid Devil turns against his future self to help Ravager. And in California, Supergirl is fighting the clone of Conner, while Wonder Girl debates with her future self on whether they should kill the villain they're battling.

We return to Titans Lair, where Bart's clone proclaims himself to be the greatest Flash the world will ever know, as he blocks Blue Beetle from accessing the control panel. Blue Beetle encases himself in a protective energy cocoon, which Bart's clone smugly begins to vibrate through, saying he'll snap Beetle's "scrawny blue — " But before he finishes the sentence, Bart's clone is electrocuted and knocked unconscious, giving Jaime the chance to say, "My scrawny blue what now?"

Even though the Titans of Tomorrow had previously said any tampering with the Justice League's cells would kill them, Blue Beetle has no trouble freeing them and putting Bart's clone in a cell of his own. Wally mournfully gazes at Bart's face, and Batman suddenly gets a distress call from Black Canary. The Justice League immediately takes off, saying they have full confidence in the Titans' ability to handle Starro and their evil future selves. As soon as they're gone, Kid Devil, his future self and Ravager teleport into the lair via a fire portal, having defeated their Starro-controlled villains. Red Devil immediately attacks Blue Beetle, saying he never thought he'd get the chance to kill him twice.

Tim's future self finally helps him knock out Prometheus and even puts out the fire. He then says he'll help get the rest of the patients out of the hospital, but he places his gun in Robin's hand, telling him to think about how Prometheus tried to kill him, all the people who died tonight because of Robin's inaction, and everyone he's ever lost. Future Tim then smugly walks away, leaving his distraught younger self with even more quandaries to trouble his mind.

We return to the Titans Lair, where Red Devil suddenly receives a new memory. Instead of killing Blue Beetle, he throws him outside, where a large group of villainous heroes from the future have gathered under the leadership of Lex Luthor. Included in this group are the future versions of Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, Speedy, the Ray, the Star-Spangled Kid and many more.




There really wasn't a whole lot that happened this issue. The kidnapping of the JLA — something that should have been a huge, Earth-shattering deal — was immediately resolved with no fanfare. Granted, in last issue we saw that the Teen Titans didn't even bother to pretend being upset by this, so I'm left to wonder why include this plot point in the story at all? If you're going to go to the trouble of capturing Batman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter — the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe — then I think you should do something interesting with that. I also hated how abruptly those heroes took off. Clearly they called away to the Sinestro War, but they didn't bother saying that? The Teen Titans are neck-deep in some very serious trouble right now. The Justice League owes to them to at least explain why they're not sticking around to help out.

The Blue Beetle fight with Bart's clone was brief, but fun. Interestingly enough, this fight will kind of become the mirror image for Blue Beetle and Impulse in the Young Justice animated series a few years later. I also liked how Wally took the time to gaze at Bart's clone. He inadvertently helped cause Bart's death, and since then has been vexed by two evil clones of Bart. It's been a rough couple of months for Wally.

Next time, we'll dive right into the Sinestro War with Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1.