Teen Titans #8

A Dark Omen!

Story by Scott Lobdell
Pencils by Ig Guara
Inks by JP Mayer
Colors by Andrew Dalhouse and Lee Loughridge
Letters by Dezi Sienty
Cover by Booth, Rapmund and Dalhouse
Assistant Editor Katie Kubert
Editor Bobbie Chase

Our cover is almost an exact replica of Teen Titans #1, except everybody's now wearing stupid Tron outfits. Heck, they're even running around on a computer-like gird, as if they were racing off for their next disc battle or light cycle race. At the very least, Booth did improve on the positioning of the characters from his first go-around with this pose — Superboy and Skitter are more prominent, and Kid Flash has been dropped down to fill some empty space. So ... kudos to him for showing progress? In any way, I think it's way too early to pay homage to the first cover of this series. We haven't even made it through the first year yet.

The black-and-white variant only serves to make our heroes look even more evil than they already look, and for the background to look even more boring than it already is.

Our story picks up one hour after last issue. The generic omniscient narrator has returned again to tell us that Harvest's initial attack actually knocked out the entire team, and they have been taken deeper into N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s facility (if only our narrator could tell us what that acronym stands for). Solstice has regrouped with the others, but Superboy is now gone, and there is no word on the condition or whereabouts of Danny the Street. Anyway, everyone is trapped in a cavern, forced to watch a powerful psychic named Omen torment the Teen Titans one by one, before sending them out into another room, dressed in those stupid Tron outfits.

Red Robin is naturally Omen's first victim. Bunker and Wonder Girl argue over the best way to save him, but Solstice stops them, saying Harvest is intentionally pitting them against each other. Kid Flash is nonchalantly sitting by, but he does put together the hints Solstice has been dropping and realizes that she wasn't just a prisoner upstairs like he was. Solstice sadly admits that she has been down in these chambers before, and was forced to do things she'll remember all her life. Wonder Girl asks her how they defeat Omen and get out, but Solstice sadly says the only escape is death.

Wonder Girl is the next victim, followed by Skitter. They both drop a few hints about their backstories, but everything is clouded in a frustrating shroud of mysterious vagueness — just like Kid Flash's origin. And speaking of Kid Flash, he is the fourth to enter Omen's "womb," as she calls it. He's not too worried, though, and even goes out of his way to warn Omen about his unstable powers. And sure enough, Omen's first attempts to manipulate the speedster result in her being electrocuted.

But Omen is fascinated by the glimpse into Kid Flash's mind, saying it has layers upon layers and was intentionally manipulated by someone else. (Only Lobdell thinks this strategy of handling backstories is fascinating and steeped in "layers upon layers.") Omen does manage, however, to remove Kid Flash's suit, leaving him in just his underwear and an uncontrollable fear of being torn apart by his speed power. Kid Flash is so spooked, he manages to escape Omen's womb and grabs the two remaining Titans — Bunker and Solstice — to try to find a way out.

But they're not able to get too far before Bunker is suddenly shot in the chest. Kid Flash and Solstice find themselves surrounded by what Solstice describes as Harvest's private army — much more lethal than the troopers they battled an hour ago. Right on cue, a member of this vanguard shoots Solstice through the head, causing Kid Flash to scream out in horror how he failed his teammates. He suddenly wakes up strapped to a table, wearing the Tron outfit from the cover. The whole thing was an illusion created by Omen.

Once Bunker and Solstice are tortured and given new uniforms, Harvest has another psychic working under him, a man named Leash, gather up the heroes and take them to The Colony and the beginning of a four-part crossover.




The frustrating thing about Lobdell's choice to only drop the smallest of crumbs on our characters' origins is that this is part of a brand new continuity, completely unconnected to anything that happened before this. Eight months in, and we still know next to nothing about Wonder Girl, Bunker, Skitter, Solstice and Kid Flash. There aren't any back issues we can read to fill in the blanks. And we can't even go to other series like Wonder Woman or The Flash to answer our questions. We have to very slowly — painfully — watch Lobdell parse out these backstories when he's good and ready for them. This isn't sophisticated long-form storytelling. Lobdell truthfully has no idea what he's doing. He knows the buzzwords to use to make it sound like there's some deep, grand scheme lurking behind all these characters. But there's not. And the upcoming crossover is only going to slow down this trickle-down theory of information. Yeah, that theory doesn't work in economics, and it doesn't work in comics. You need to build up some sort of foundation for readers to base their knowledge on before asking them to join you on your never-ending journey of tangents and mysteries.

Next time, Teen Titans Annual #1, part one of The Culling.