The New Titans #130

Where Nightmares End!

Marv Wolfman Writer
William Rosado Penciller
Will Blyberg Inker
Chris Matthys Colorist
Albert DeGuzman Letterer
Dan Thorsland Editor
The New Titans created by Wolfman & Pérez

For this, the final issue of The New Titans, acclaimed Titans artist George Pérez was brought in to draw the cover "for ol' time's sake." Unfortunately, there is no Impulse here. However, just about everybody else, and they look great — even the new-fangled Cyborg, in a completely robotic body of black and red. Changeling's uniform is completely different than the one he wears inside this issue. Minor detail, though. A neat feature on this cover is the bright light behind Starfire, taking the shape of Raven.

This issue is "celebrating the end of sixteen glorious years" for Marv Wolfman. Also note that contentious editor Pat Garrahy is finally gone. Due to these factors, I believe Wolfman was finally able to give the characters he created the conclusion he felt they deserved. However, this means that characters such as Impulse, Damage, Minion and even Arsenal were more or less shoved to the background.

Our story begins with the new Cyborg flying through space with Darkstar, Green Lantern, Minion and the entire Tamaranean army led by Starfire's sister and husband. They're on a mission to take down Raven and her alien allies, and save the captured Starfire and Changeling. Raven begins preparations to revive the children of Trigon by removing the demon seeds from Changeling, which conveniently removes the madness from his brain.

Raven then explains to Starfire that long ago, the Titans thought she had died, but only her flesh perished. Somehow, a Trigon seed found and entered Raven, bringing her back to life. Raven then attacked Starfire on her wedding day and attempted to plant a seed of Trigon in her. But Raven mistakingly placed the good part of her soul in Starfire, and now Raven wants to reclaim her whole soul. But before she can do so, the Titans attack freeing Changeling and Starfire. For the first time in my New Titans run, Changeling doesn't turn into a monster, but an actual animal — an elephant — cracking jokes all the while.

Starfire takes on Raven one-on-one, explaining that since she has a bit of Raven's soul in her, she knows everything. Apparently, back when Trigon's body was destroyed, he sent his genetic pattern into his seeds, murdering Raven's brothers and sisters. The good Raven knew Trigon hadn't been defeated, so she launched an elaborate plan, tricking her evil self into gathering the Titans once again and giving them the ability to destroy Trigon once and for all. The soul of Trigon is then summoned from the evil Raven, and everybody blasts it with all they've got, apparently destroying the ultimate evil forever and finally freeing Raven.

Everyone then meets on New Tamaran, and Raven, now a glowing gold entity, decides to stay with Starfire and help rebuild their society. Raven also reveals that Starfire is pregnant, but Starfire won't let her say the gender of the baby. Changeling decides to explore outer space with Cyborg, and Wolfman got his wish to break up the Darkstar-Green Lantern romance by having Donna also stay behind on New Tamaran. (Of course, this breakup was written very kindly, and could be interpreted as a temporary goodbye, but I seriously doubt we'll ever see Kyle and Donna in a relationship again.) Starfire then gives a rather sappy speech about the rising generation of Titans.

We get a quick glimpse of Bart Allen (before Dead Heat) with a small, blue figure of Max Mercury behind him. We also see Damage wandering around in the desert, and Terra visiting Mirage in the S.T.A.R. Labs hospital. I guess Mirage really did have her baby after all ... ? I don't know, I'm definitely missing something here, but I don't care enough to pick up those other New Titans issues. The story then ends with the one main character Wolfman really wanted to bring back but wasn't allowed to — Nightwing, who stands on a random rooftop in New York. Thinking of his old friends in the Titans, Nightwing says, "Take care, guys. You're the best!"

We also have a final thank you note from Marv Wolfman, as follows:

With sixteen years of gratitude to:
Romeo Tanghal, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Eduardo Barreto, Tom Grummett, Bill Jaaska, William Rosado and all the great artists who have given life to my words!
Also to Nick Cardy & Bob Haney — without whom there wouldn't be a Titans, Teen or otherwise.
Stan Lee & Jack Kirby our X'hal
And especially to George Pérez, unquestionably still the best of the best!
And to all a good night
Marv Wolfman
October 25, 1995

This was a rather emotional ending to Marv Wolfman's legendary Titans run, even if it didn't make a lick of sense. It might have been better had I been reading all 16 years of Wolfman's Titans stories, but from this issue, it seems like there were too many convenient happenstances to get all the characters in the final place Wolfman wanted. And it wasn't made entirely clear why the team had to fall apart as a whole. I mean, Arsenal, Minion, Terra, Green Lantern, Rose and Impulse could still be a pretty good team. Perhaps DC was originally intending to keep those characters together in a different title, but it never happened.

I always liked the idea of Impulse being a member of the Titans, but he never really seemed to fit in well with this Wolfman team. Wolfman had taken his characters on incredible journeys over his 16-year span, having them grow up, get married, have kids, die and come back to life. And there simply wasn't any room for younger, fresh characters like Impulse and Damage. Impulse really needs to be on a team of younger heroes, where everyone's on the same status. And that will happen, just not for a while.

There aren't any letters to the editor, but there are a whole bunch of ads we haven't seen in The Flash or Impulse.

One shattered child is one too many. Batman: The Ultimate Evil. A two-issue encounter with the destroyers of children. By Neal Barrett, Jr., Denys Cowan, and Prentiss Rollins.

The Ultimate Doom. It's Doom in its original entirety along with the all new demented episode four, "Thy Flesh Consumed." It's called Ultimate Doom. It's the kind of killing that makes life worth living.

Saturday Morning Cartoons Greatest Hits and No Doubt Tragic Kingdom Just a Girl from Sam Goody and Musicland.

What good is a Sony Playstation if it isn't Loaded. When I find F.U.B. my balloon will be red, he will go splatt! and I'll carve him up into bite-sized chunks so I can feed him to my fuzzy bear Peroy.

Elric: Song of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock.

The flying is so realistic, it'll actually create a sonic boom. (In your shorts.) A two-page ad for Warhawk on Playstation.

It bleeds acid. It can read your mind. It is a born killer. It is the least of your worries. Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure.

The Immortal Eyes Chronicles. A trilogy of novels. A series of sourcebooks. The future of Changeling: The Dreaming.

Whose will be done? Kingdom Come. This is one of the best DC Elseworlds stories ever. Written by Mark Waid and painted by Alex Ross, this story presents a distant future of the DC Universe, corrupted by the more violent tendencies that became so popular in comics in the '90s. I debated reviewing this series, since the Flash of this story is kind of an amalgamation of all the other Flashes. I could have talked myself into including Bart in that list, but the story doesn't specifically say it's him, nor does it present anything that could be uniquely Bart. In the fact, the Flash in Kingdom Come is more of the concept of the Flash personified, and less of an actual human character. So I won't review Kingdom Come, but you should definitely read it anyway.

Skybox International presents The Battle of the Century. DC versus Marvel trading cards.

There is no cure. Contagion. An 11-part story in the various Batman titles.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In this case, rip out their spine and internal organs. Mortal Kombat 3.

Next time, we continue Dead Heat with The Flash #110.

The New Titans #126

Going Home

Dale Hrebik Writer
Rik Mays Artist
Chris Matthys Colorist
Albert de Guzman Letterer
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor
A very special thanks to Ruben Diaz
Created by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez

The Siege of Zi Charam is over, and the usual creative team has taken the month off, even though this is technically the first part of Meltdown, a countdown to the end of the series. Will Rosado did the cover, which finally features Arsenal for a change. He is the team leader, after all, so why not pull him out of the background once in a while?

The story begins with basically the exact same image on the cover of Arsenal falling off a bridge. Turns out it's just a training exercise with an old counter intelligence agent from the group Checkmate. Roy Harper then goes to a pool party with his friend, and we get a rare shot of Roy's daughter. There's some brief discussion about his duties as a father, but ultimately, it seems he places the Titans above his daughter.

At the Titans headquarters, Bart slows down to have a serious conversation with Roy. He says since he grew up so fast he probably doesn't know everything he should, and since Roy's sort of an adult, he might be able to help him. After a little prodding, Roy finds out Bart is talking about Rose. He says while everyone was off in space, it was basically just him and Rose manning the headquarters, but she never talked to him. Roy says Bart should just spend some time with her, pay attention, listen and not talk at her a million miles an hour. And then Rik Mays decides Bart needs to look like a girl.

After Bart leaves, it's revealed that Roy was actually Mirage the whole time. She transformed into him without even realizing it. Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner then join Mirage out on the lawn, then they're suddenly attacked by Impulse, Minion, Supergirl, Terra and Rose. Another goofy spar ensues, and Minion warns Donna that Bart said he'd "hit her so hard she wakes up in my century." Donna calls Bart a little imp, and he corrects her, saying his name is Impulse and that she'll never hit him even on her fastest day. Bart was right, and he tackles Donna, ruining her good jeans. She flips him off her and he bounces off Minion's hard Omegadrome.

Mirage again unwittingly transforms, this time into the super villain Mongul. Supergirl easily takes her out, while Terra and Rose double-team Kyle. The real Roy soon arrives, asking whose idea this was, and everybody blames Bart and Tara. Bart calls Roy "Dad" and apologizes for the mess, saying he just wanted to keep the troops sharp. He also says he wanted to play shirts and skins, but Tara wouldn't go for it.

Suddenly, Donna chews out Kyle for being too rough with Rose, and an editor's note tells us she was injured during a training session in Deathstroke #51. Rose yells at Donna for treating her like a little kid and storms off. Bart tries to talk to her about how awful Donna is, but Rose gives him a death glare, making Bart feel like a dunce.

We then cut to S.T.A.R. Labs in San Francisco, where the demon-possessed Changeling is being held in stasis. But then a careless lab technician tosses a thermos to his friend and accidentally cracks the glass on Changeling's chamber, awakening him. Kind of a cheesy way to revive the villain, but whatever. Bart's not going to stick around for most of this Meltdown story, so we don't need to worry too much about it.




This was a rather odd filler issue. For starters, the art wasn't good at all, but that's usually been the standard with The New Titans lately. And Dale Hrebik certainly is no Marv Wolfman. I'm not sure why a fill-in writer would choose to do a character piece when he doesn't have a full grasp on the characters. He should have stuck to a simple monster-of-the-month story. I did like seeing Impulse turn to Arsenal as a trusted adult  — that feels right in line with his character. But I didn't like Bart's infatuation with Rose. I suppose the whole thing happened off-page, and it didn't feel natural at all. Especially when you read in Impulse's own series how he's completely oblivious to girls flirting with him.

The letters this month are from The New Titans #123, the Jarras Minion special issue. One writer, however, does mention Impulse.

Jack Grimes II, of Oxford, N.J., says Impulse is a great character whose personality actually matches his powers. Jack says Impulse can be annoying at times, but he is cool, and an enjoyable member of the team. Now for the ads:

A stellar wind blows across the starship Enterprise and in its wake death follows. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ill Wind.

Trust nothing except your fear. Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions. Starring Famke Janssen before she became Jean Grey in the X-Men films.

Gotta own it. Make the music your own. Hum. You'd Prefer an Astronaut. Musicland and Sam Goody.

On ancient ground, at the edge of the world, an evil born in heaven is about to be unleashed on earth. Christopher Walken. The Prophecy.

Experience the dark world of White Wolf Publishing. A Nomad of the Time Streams. On a Darkling Plain. Borderlands 4.

Legends of darkness are not always myths. Vampire: The Eternal Struggle card game.

When absolute evil arises ... there'll be hell to pay! Underworld Unleashed. A three-issue miniseries changing the face of villainy in the DC Universe forever! Mark Waid, Howard Porter and Dan Green.

Next time, we return to the main series with Impulse #7.

The New Titans #124

Prometheus Gathering

Marv Wolfman & Michael Jan Friedman Story
William Rosado Pencils
Keith Champagne & Jason Martin Inks
Joshua Myers Colors
Albert DeGuzman Letters
Keri Kowalski Asst. Edits
Pat Garrahy Edits
Created by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez

So William Rosado returns after a two-issue hiatus, and once again, Michael Jan Friedman had to help Marv Wolfman with the writing — something that always makes me uncomfortable. Something that also makes me uncomfortable is a complete lack of Impulse on the cover. Everybody else gets to be sucked into the black hole leading to the Siege of the Zi Charam, except for my favorite little speedster.

Our story begins with Sargent Steel and a random scientist visiting the Titans in their satellite to tell them about a mysterious and disturbing gravity well that has been discovered near Jupiter. Arsenal and Terra are curious as to why the Titans are being asked to investigate this instead of the Justice League, and Damage yells at Impulse to pay attention, since he's too busy blasting aliens on his Game Boy.

Steel lays down the law with the Titans, saying the government has been paying the Titans' bills for several months, and now they want something in return. Arsenal reminds him of the stipulation in their contract that allows the Titans to choose their own missions, but everybody else seems real excited at the prospect of visiting Jupiter. Jarras suspects Psimon could be the cause of the well, Damage thinks it could be Dr. Polaris, and Impulse celebrates reaching level 63,387.

So everybody starts to load up Darkstar's puddle jumper, and we get to finally see some fringe characters who have been floating around in the background for the past couple of issues. These include Rose Wilson, daughter of Deathstroke, and Annie Bonelli, Darkstar's friend, along with her two boys, Thomas and Benjamin. The boys are thrilled to meet Jarras, calling him a Vulcan, an elf, and asking if he rides a wolf. Impulse, meanwhile, is excitedly running around, chanting over and over again, "I'm going to Jupiter. I'm going to Jupiter."

Everybody gets into the ship, and there's a pretty funny, awkward moment between Jarras and Arsenal. Jarras, a small, blue elf with a squeaky voice comes hovering up to Arsenal in the Omegadrome in its condensed egg form, politely apologizing for being late. It's a wonderfully absurd moment. Impulse, meanwhile, realizes he left his Space Legion Vid on the satellite and can't leave it behind since he's way past level 100,000. So he decides to hurry and grab it, but nobody realizes he left and they take off without him.

The rest of the Titans then go off to have their own adventure without Impulse. And none of them realize he's not there until they get sucked into the black hole and reappear somewhere very far away. I wonder if the omission of Impulse is the work of Marv Wolfman, who didn't seem to appreciate having new characters forced upon him. But whatever the cause, I think Impulse will be fine. Impulse's own series is taking off and he doesn't depend on the New Titans for a monthly adventure. And since Impulse's friendship with Damage has been fractured, the only character I'll miss from this team will be Jarras Minion.

The letters to the editor finally return without explanation, and unfortunately, they all are about the Forever Evil event, which did not include Impulse.

Paul Sampson, of Sydney River, Nova Scotia, said he enjoyed Forever Evil so much, he didn't even notice the absence of Damage and Impulse. Well, I did; but then again, this is an Impulse blog, not a New Titans blog. Well, let's get on to the ads now.

Gotham City's greatest hero. Mega-City One's toughest lawman. The ultimate showdown's about to begin. Batman-Judge Dredd: The Ultimate Riddle. Alan Grant, John Wagner, Carl Critchlow, Dermot Power.

Super Karts. To make it more realistic, we'd have to kick dust in your face! On CD-Rom for IBM PC & Compatibles.

New MTV cards from Fleer. Fresh, tasty and anything but wholesome.

Gotta rock. Radiohead The Bends. Our Lady Peace Naveed. Musicland and Sam Goody. I don't know anything about Our Lady Peace, but I do like Radiohead. The big hit on The Bends is Fake Plastic Trees, which is a pretty great song.

Live from the House of Blues on TBS.

Year One. They were legends from the beginning. Flash Annual #8 by Waid, Peyer, Brewer & Stegbauer. Deathstroke Annual #4 by Wolfman, O. Cariello & McCain.

Two decades ago scientists sent a message to space ... this ... is the reply. Species. Be intrigued. Be seduced. Be warned. Starring Ben Kingsley, before he played the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, and Alfred Molina, before he became Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2.

Next time, we get back to basics with Impulse #5.

The New Titans #123

Salvation

Marv Wolfman Plot
Michael Jan Friedman Dialogue
J.B. Jones Pencils
Rich Rankin Inks
John Costanza Letterer
Chris Matthys & Ed Lazellari Colors
Keri Kowalski, Assistant Editor
Pat Garrahy, Editor
The New Titans created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez

As we can see by the cover, this is a Minion story. It's a good enough image, and I am excited to learn more about Jarras Minion, but I am worried about the instability of the creative team on this title. It's usually a bad sign when one person does the plot and someone else does the dialogue. Although Friedman, the writer of Darkstars, is a good choice for a space story. And Jones is the penciller again for the first time since issue #117. But that means Finn Harris only did one issue, and before him was William Rosado. I hate having three pencillers for three issues.

After the Crimelord-Syndicate War, the Titans decide to visit their satellite base for some reason. Also, for some reason, Jarras feels compelled to share his personal feelings with the team. And Damage, ever the idiot, is surprised that he can understand Jarras, so Supergirl reminds him that Darkstar gave him a universal translator like forever ago.

Jarras is feeling particularly lonely, and although Darkstar reminds him that his father is still alive, Jarras feels he has little in common with him. He tells the Titans that after he attacked the Darkstar prison ship in an attempt to kill Psimon, he decided to return to the ruins of his home world, Talyn. There, he found a group of aliens taking precious Talyn relics. Believing them to be thieves, Minion attacks them, only to learn that they were actually trying to preserve Talyn's memory.

We also get some nice background of Jarras' life, his family and how his entire race was genetically modified to lack all aggression. It's all very interesting stuff, but Impulse only stands around and listens to Jarras' story with everybody else. At the end, Jarras says he has finally realized that revenge is not the answer, and Arsenal tells him he can stay on the team as a full-time member — as if he already wasn't.

Altogether, this wasn't a bad issue, although I am sad we've had a run of issues with very limited Impulse action. I'm really missing a big Titans adventure that gives everybody something to do.

Once again, for some reason, there are no letters to the editor. So here are the new ads:

Dredd. June 30.

Icon #27. You can't go home again! By Milestone.

Gotham City made him the men he is today. Now he'd like t o express his gratitude. Batman: Two-Face. Crime and Punishment. By J.M. DeMatteis and Scott McDaniel.

Year One. They were legends from the beginning. Superman Annual #7 by Stern, Gossett & Pascoe.

Batman Forever. Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman and Chris O'Donnell. This movie was a big part of my childhood, but I have mixed feelings on it now. I actually wrote a review on it sometime ago here.

Next time, we get plenty more Impulse action in Impulse #4.

The New Titans Annual #11

After Year One

Marv Wolfman Writer
Greg Land Pencils
Keith Champagne, Mike Sellers and Will Blyberg Inks
Albert DeGuzman Letters
Chi Colors
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor

The cover by Land and Sellers shows all the Titans together — Green Lantern, Mirage, Minion, Impulse, Supergirl, Damage, Terra, Arsenal and Darkstar. After suffering through two issues with some of the worst art of the '90s, it's great to have a competent artist again. It is a little odd to not be able to see through Impulse's goggles — he looks a bit like a bug — but all in all this is a very solid cover.

Our story begins some time after the Crimelord-Syndicate War, and Terra and Mirage have taken a vacation to Niagara Falls. Mirage is still feeling down after losing her baby a couple of weeks ago, and the experience has brought up the old questions she's had about her and Terra's existence. They were the only members of the Team Titans who didn't disappear after Zero Hour. Suddenly, the two heroes are chased by a flying silver sphere. As they rush back to the Titans headquarters, they call ahead, and Bart answers. They ask him where Arsenal is, Bart says he's in the john, then hangs up, not waiting to hear what else they had to say.

Bart then occupies himself by playing a very fancy virtual reality video game that may have been provided by the Darkstars. But even this high-tech equipment is too slow for Bart, who complains that direct mind-link transmissions haven't been invented yet — that way the images would be able to move as fast as Bart could think. Terra and Mirage then come crashing in with the sphere hot on their tails. They accidentally destroy Bart's game, and the resulting explosion attracts the attention of the rest of the Titans. Damage blames the explosion on Bart and his "stupid V-R game," saying he warned him not to hook it up to the surround sound. Bart answers with, "As if. Exploding boy." Which, I guess, means the Impulse-Damage friendship is officially over now.

Mirage then brings everyone's attention to the silver sphere, and Bart sheepishly admits he forgot to tell everyone that Mirage and Terra called about two hours ago. I'm not sure why they didn't try to call a second time after Bart hung up on them, but I guess they were quite scared of the sphere. But it turns out the sphere isn't dangerous at all. Bart recognizes it as an old-fashioned holo-projector. And despite the objections from everyone else, Bart turns it on.

Turns out, Bart was right, and the holo-projector contains a message from the Time Trapper to Miriam Delgado and Tara Markov (which are the unoriginal secret identity names of Mirage and Terra, respectively). Anyway, the Time Trapper begins to explain the complicated connections of the Team Titans to the events in Zero Hour. He says the villain Extant opened a multiverse of alternate realities, selected an army of pawns, and pulled several heroes from this timeline to place into a faulty timeline in order to program them to execute his commands when the time was right. The Time Trapper intervened here, and was able to give Mirage and Terra the means to break Extant's programming, which is why they didn't join the other Team Titans in attacking everybody during Zero Hour.

The Time Trapper then goes into more detail about Mirage's past, telling her she was always a meta-human, using her powers of illusion to survive on the streets of Brazil. For some reason, Bart then demands a clarification of her powers, even though he's already been on several missions with her. Mirage explains that if she actually morphed, she'd always be the same mass, but with simple illusions, she's able to change her size and voice. And for some reason, she feels compelled to illustrate this point by turning into a copy of Impulse. I guess this kind of stuff was thrown in her just in case some kids decided to start reading the New Titans with Annual #11.

While Miri is thrilled to learn that she really is from this timeline, and all the other Team Titans came from other realities that don't exist anymore, Tara is furious to discover that she was basically a slave of the Time Trapper. And before the pre-recorded holo-message can get to Tara's origin, she grabs a laser rifle that's conveniently hanging on the wall next to her, and destroys the holo-projector. Tara then throws a fit like the whiney teenage girl she is and storms out of the room.

Even though Terra has clearly left the building, Donna Troy begins to tell her how important memories are, even unpleasant ones, such as the time Donna lost the custody of her child. Her ex-husband, Terry, made the argument that Donna's life as a Darkstar was too dangerous for a child. Crimelord then sent a henchwoman named Pierce to disrupt the proceedings, which convinced the judge to side with Terry. All the Titans feel bad for Donna, especially Bart, who runs to Wally West's house in Keystone City to look at a rare photograph of his parents.

As far as I know, Bart has never actually met his mom and dad — Meloni and Don. It is likely his grandma, Iris, brought this picture back with them on their journey from the 30th century. It is a little odd that Bart keeps the photo in Wally's house, but I guess he forgot to take it with him to Alabama — it is likely that Bart packed very hastily.

Anyway, the sad, emotional angst carries over to Jarras Minion, who, as always, is missing his entire planet and having a hard time fitting in on Earth. So Donna decides to take him under her wing for the day. She gives him a universal translator and some of Bart's clothes, which includes a black T-shirt with a skull on it and the words: "Rebel without a clue." Jarras doesn't quite care for this outfit, so Donna takes him shopping. Meanwhile, Kyle Rayner visits the grave of his dead girlfriend. It was her birthday, so he brought her roses.

We then return to Bart, who's on his way back from Kansas, when he runs into Supergirl, presumably on her way to visit the Kents in Smallville. Since everyone is in an introspective mood, Bart and Supergirl talk about how they like being in the Titans. Supergirl says she prefers the team over spending time with Lex Luthor, who once worked in connection with Crimelord to provide Arsenal with a rigged suit and weapons. Arsenal's purple suit nearly killed him during a fight with Crimelord's goons, but Supergirl saved him. She wanted to ask if she could join the Titans, but was too embarrassed. A few weeks later, during the Forever Evil story line, Arsenal finally asked her to join the team.

Bart admits that he didn't wait to be asked to join. We are treated to a flashback of Bart intercepting Arsenal's message meant for Wally. Bart's wearing the full-fingered gloves that he's never worn before or since, and oddly, we see that Wally was hiding in the next room the whole team, listening, and approving of Bart's decision to join the Titans. I always thought this occurred while Wally was battling Abracadabra in the 64th century. Nevertheless, Bart wasn't able to catch up with the Titans until after Zero Hour, at which point Arsenal says, "Bart, Wally told me you might be interested in joining our new team of Titans." This is another odd statement, since Wally disappeared during Zero Hour, and wouldn't have had the chance to talk to Roy about Bart's place on the Titans. Plus, I was under the impression that Wally and Roy weren't on friendly terms at this time, and I know for sure that Wally didn't know Bart was spending time with the Titans until Bart told him.

Continuity errors aside, Bart challenges Supergirl to a race back to the headquarters, with the loser buying pizza. Bart gets off to a quick start, but then he begins to worry about hurting Supergirl's feelings, so he takes a quick break in Putnam County. He then entertains a daydream of him eating pizza with Supergirl, and he makes several strange faces that completely baffle me. Luckily, the confusing art ends quickly enough for Impulse to stop a nearby bank robbery. Fans of The Andy Griffith Show will recognize Andy Griffith, Barney Fife and Aunt Bee in the background. As Bart runs away from the scene, he says, "I've always wanted to do that." This is another perplexing line for me, since Bart has already stopped at least once bank robbery with the Flash family, in addition to serving on several more exciting missions with the Titans and others. I'm beginning to think Marv Wolfman wasn't reading the Flash at this time.

Bart finally catches up with Supergirl at the Titans headquarters, and for some reason, he tells her he forgot about the race and went and hung out with Max Mercury for a while. I'm thoroughly confused by everything here, so let's hurry up and end this. Bart makes Arsenal tell everybody the story of how Supergirl saved his life, then they all eventually go home, with Bart saying he's going to have dinner with his grandma.

This issue wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. The main goal seemed to be to answer all the leftover, lingering questions from Zero Hour and to show some scenes Wolfman didn't have time to get to previously. However, some of the continuity problems were answered in the most convoluted way possible. And I didn't even get into all the Terra stuff, since I don't understand it, and I know for a fact it was a major point of contention between Wolfman and DC. I was also upset that so much time was spent explaining such a worthless detail as Arsenal's need to get a new suit. But the worst of it (for the purposes of this blog) was the contradictions with Impulse. I can justify some of them, but not all of them. Wally West was not involved in Bart's decision to join the Titans, and Wolfman and Garrahy should have known that.

I also have mixed feelings on Greg Land's art. He is a talented, competent artist, but he occasionally makes some confusing choices. Of course, a lot of that could be blamed on Wolfman's script, which had Terra storm out of the Titans headquarters about two or three times. But Wolfman can't be blamed for Land's inability to draw normal human emotions. Where's Salvador Larroca when you need him?

Well, there aren't any letters to the editor or any new ads, so I'll finish my review for this disappointing — but not awful — issue. Next time, we'll do something fun, with Impulse #3.

The New Titans #122

 

Syndicate Rites!

Marv Wolfman Writer
Finn Harris Artist
Albert DeGuzman Letterer
Chris Matthys Colorist
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor
Special thanks to Lois Krabbe
The New Titans created by Wolfman & Peréz

The second part of the Crimelord-Syndicate War unfortunately also suffers from horrible art. I don't know if that was because this crossover was rushed, or if this stem from Pat Garrahy's inability to keep a consistent art team — Finn Harris takes over this issue after William Rosado drew just five issues of the book. Whatever the reason, this art is unpalatable. Just look at this mess of a cover. Everyone looks wrong — especially one of my favorites, Minion. And to make matters worse, Impulse is nowhere to be found. However, it might be preferable to not have Impulse at all rather than have a grotesque version of him.

Deathstroke #48 ended with the Titans being inexplicably beaten by the Syndicate. Instead of explaining how such powerful heroes could be knocked out, this issue begins with all the Titans being captured except for Deathstroke and Darkstar. Deathstroke, who had been flying around with a stupid propeller-backpack, is blasted out of the air and dies in Darkstars arms. She then goes nuts on the Syndicate, but they get her to stop attacking by threatening to kill the Titans.

We then cut to S.T.A.R. Labs in San Francisco, where Green Lantern and Jarras Minion are visiting Mirage in a hospital bed. If I'm not mistaken, she suffered a miscarriage during the Forever Evil story line that Impulse was not a part of. Anyway, Lantern and Jarras are soon summoned to the other side of the country to meet Sargent Steel at the Titans headquarters in New Jersey. Steel introduces them to their newest team member, Rose Wilson Worth, the daughter of Deathstroke. Steel then immediately sends Lantern and Jarras to Dallas to help out the rest of the Titans. I feel bad for these two, who pretty much wasted all day flying back and forth across America. I'm sure the personal introduction of Rose could have waited until after the Crimelord-Syndicate War.

Anyway, we see that Deathstroke suddenly and mysteriously comes back to life a few moments after dying, and he immediately takes off to rescue the Titans, who are being held in a force field. Impulse sums up my feelings about this art.

Luckily, Damage is able to free them with a large blast, which Deathstroke unluckily got caught in, and he dies for the second time in the past five minutes. When he's asked how he came back to life, he quotes Monty Python with a simple, "I got better." As the Titans attempt to escape, the Syndicate sends in their big guns — giant robots called Cybernaughts.

Green Lantern and Minion show up just in time to battle the robots, and Impulse uses his speed to draw the robots' fire away from the team, but he ends up causing a lot of collateral damage with this tactic. The Titans are quickly overwhelmed by the Cybernaughts, and soon Green Lantern, Darkstar and Supergirl are knocked out. Damage begins to panic, saying their most powerful member have been taken out, but Impulse reminds him that they're pretty good, too. Suddenly, a strange little ship arrives, which Impulse believes to be help. Instead, the ship is carrying Crimelord's Force-Troops — Coven, Slagg, Deadzone, Powerhouse, Bolt, Sudden Death and Mammoth.

This story had tons of potential, but the art just killed it. The action scenes are so chaotic, I can't tell what's going on at all. I have to rely exclusively on the dialogue, and even that is unreliable. At one point, Damage thinks, "They got Bart and Roy!" But two panels later, we see Bart is perfectly fine. I don't know what to make of it. I honestly can't wait for this crossover to end, which is a shame, since I really like the idea of the Titans having crossovers with Darkstars and Deathstroke.

For some reason, the letters to the editor page is missing, so we'll head straight to the ads.

Year One. They were legends from the beginning. Catwoman Annual #2 by Gorfinkel, Balent & Hodgkins.

Xombi. Discover the meaning of magic. Monthly from Milestone.

Fear the dark no more. Primal Force. A monthly journey into the dark corners of the DC Universe. Seagle - Choles - Kaalberg ... Covers by Haley & Simmons.

Strangers in a strange land ... Sovereign Seven. Chris Claremont. Dwayne Turner.

On the verge of greatness. Discover these two bands at their beginnings. Here are their debut albums on sale now. Korn. Elastica. Available at all Musicland/Sam Goody stores nationwide.

Next time, we'll take a break from this disappointing Crimelord-Syndicate War and find out once and for all exactly how Impulse joined the Titans in The New Titans Annual #11.

The New Titans #119

Forever Evil I of III Chapter One: Dark Titans

Marv Wolfman Writer
William Rosado Penciller
Keith Champagne Inker
Albert DeGuzman Letterer
Chi Colorist
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor
Titans originally created by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez

The cover by Rosado shows Deathwing threatening Mirage. I don't know much about Deathwing beyond him being the father of Mirage's unborn child. And the fact that he works for/is possessed by Raven right now. If you look closely, you can see Raven and her other minions in the shadows, which is pretty neat. But I wish they could have avoided the speech bubbles, especially since they required a TM behind every name.

Long before DC's recent epic Forever Evil crossover, there was a small, three-part Forever Evil storyline in The New Titans. It focuses on Raven trying to spread the seed of Trigon to other metahumans. But Impulse isn't involved in this story, so I won't go into much detail. In fact, the only bit of Impulse we see here, is a scene we've already seen in Damage #8.

Troubled by what Psimon insinuated about his past, Damage has decided to leave the Titans for a while to figure out where he came from. Arsenal is dead-set against this idea, and a shouting match ensues. Damage then storms out the room, and Impulse tries to call Grant back. But he won't listen, and leaves anyway. So Arsenal asks Impulse to keep an eye on him, and let him know the Titans will help him once he's calmed down. Impulse says, "Hey, no problemo," and he takes off.

And that's the last we see of Bart this issue. The rest of the story gives some time to Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner and Roy Harper. But the most important development is that Raven captures Mirage at the end of the issue.

Impulse is going to sit out the next two issues of The New Titans, because he apparently will be too busy following Damage around in his book. This is rather unfortunate, since Impulse was a major character in The New Titans ever since he joined, having single-handedly saved the team several times. But this marks the beginning of the end of the New Titans. Marv Wolfman was rather unhappy to have characters like Impulse and Damage forced on him, and as soon as he could, he began telling stories that focused mainly on his characters, like Raven and Changeling. I understand and respect that artistic need, but I am sad Impulse won't be heavily involved in New Titans anymore.

The letters page opens with a note from Pat Garrahy that, for once, isn't negative at all. He merely informs us that Supergirl will be involved in the Forever Evil storyline.

Gary Halpin, of Co. Clare, Ireland, said he enjoyed issue #116 in part because Impulse wasn't as annoying as he usually is.

Charles Skaggs, of Columbus, Ohio, said he loved seeing Impulse's reaction to getting hurt. Charles said Impulse sees everything as a game and this particular "reality check" was long in coming. Charles ends his letter by saying Impulse is definitely one of the best things about this book.

Now for the ads.

A fallen angel rises ... Azrael. Dennis O'Neil, Barry Kitson, James Pascoe.

The end is near. Don't miss it. Final episode! Tales from the Crypt.

Next, Flash #99: Part 5 of the 6-part "Terminal Velocity." Targeted by laser fire, Flash must outrace the light speed beams to save Linda's life, knowing that doing so will cost him his humanity and cause him to vanish forever. And if the Fastest Man Alive is lost, there may be no one to stop Kobra from destroying Keystone City.

The New Titans #118

Downtime

Marv Wolfman Writer
William Rosado Penciller
Keith Champagne Inker
Chi Colorist
Albert DeGuzman & John Constanza Letterers
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor

Our cover features the evil Raven attacking Thunder and Lightning — two rather fringe characters, but not altogether unknown. I think their simple and self-explanatory names help make them somewhat memorable. I first became acquainted to them in a 2003 episode of Teen Titans. But Impulse has very little to do with Thunder and Lightning and Raven, so I won't dwell on them for too long.

Continuing from New Titans #117, we pick up with the imprisonment of Psimon. Green Lantern goes aboard the Darkstar prison ship with a video camera so the rest of the Titans can see how securely Psimon is locked up. Green Lantern asks the Darkstars about their video games for Impulse, since he's already beaten everything Earth has to offer. To my surprise, the Darkstars actually do have video games and they download them to the Titans computers. Kyle Rayner then flies back to the Titans satellite with Donna Troy, while Jarras Minion lingers in the background, vowing to get his revenge on Psimon.

Impulse is very excited to see Green Lantern, and he asks all about the Darkstars ship and their video games. Lantern gives him the video camera, and he takes off to immediately watch it, saying it's going to be "mucho rad." Lantern then tells Arsenal he'll officially join the Titans. Everybody teleports back their base in New Jersey, and Impulse and Damage start geeking out about Star Trek. Impulse quotes "Make it so" and "Q! What have you done to my crew?" And he asks Damage if he remembers Data's evil twin. Tara then tells the boys to stop being losers and go explore New York with her.

We then cut to San Francisco, where Thunder and Lightning are battling some of Crimelord's men. The two heroes win easily, but they are attacked from behind and possessed by Raven. We then see Raven abduct another young metahuman who can turn into crystal. Meanwhile, the evil Changeling seduces and abducts a young woman in New York.

We then return to Bart, Tara and Grant — out of costume — exploring the big city. Bart wants to go see the Warriortech demonstration on Eight Street, since it's supposed to be awesome, but Tara and Grant are too busy being moody. Tara then calls Bart "Squirt," and he responds with, "It's Mister Squirt, Rocky." They pass by a couple of bullies, and Bart wants to stop them, but Tara says they can't butt into everything. Bart's not satisfied with that, so he quickly runs over there, knocks one of the bullies down, yells at him, then runs back to Tara and Grant before they realize he was gone.

The three teens then stupidly try to enter a bar, and the bouncer refuses to let them in, even after Grant promises they'll only drink root beer. The bouncer is slightly rude to them, saying they should come back when they're finished going through puberty. This greatly upsets our heroes, and Bart calls back, "I can't wait to grow up so I can be a jerk like you!" But Tara gets the last laugh by creating a small earthquake underneath the bouncer. Bart then sees a guy trying to con people with three-card monte. But Bart's eyes are too fast for his slight of hand, and he wins every time.

They then decide to blow Bart's winnings on the arcade, but Bart is so good that he racks up 536 free games and complains of boredom. Tara then complains loudly that a cute guy she thought was flirting with her was actually interested in someone else. She's quite rude to Grant, but then tries to apologize in a rather awkward way. And the issue ends with Darkstar telling Arsenal that she'll officially join the Titans as well.

I wish I could say I liked this issue more than I did. I always want to see my heroes get some downtime and have fun out of their costumes. But everything just seemed a bit off in this issue, particularly the dialogue. There were tons of random thought bubbles that just did not fit in the context of the action, like Kyle wishing his dead girlfriend was with him on the Darkstar prison ship. And later, Kyle was supposed to have said something that insulted Mirage, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what that was. I strongly suspect heavy editorial interference here.

I did like having Bart play Star Trek with Grant, and I've always thought those two make a great pair. I guess it is natural for them to hang out with Tara, as the three of them are the youngest members of the team, but I don't know why anyone would spend much time with that negative and rude girl. She'll walk by a helpless kid getting beat up, but will gladly attack a slightly rude man who's just doing his job. No, Tara, you were in the wrong for trying to enter the bar in the first place. What were you thinking? I also don't think Bart playing card games is the best use of his powers, but he was only conning the conman, so I guess it's forgivable. But this issue really demonstrates the need for adult supervision. We can't have these super-powered teens attacking everybody who offends them!

The letters page starts with another astonishingly negative note from Pat Garrahy. He basically chews out the readers for not liking what's going on with Changeling and Raven. He then asks them to keep reading, but also doubts that they'll even like the upcoming story. That is no way to treat your fans, especially when your book is struggling, and I believe it was in 1994. In any case, I do know for sure that the end of The New Titans is on the horizon.

Michael McCalister, of Valencia, Calif., praises the new, fresh team, and says Damage, Terra and Impulse all have the "teen spirit" that the original team did, and more.

Shane Parker, of Mahomet, Ill., calls Impulse one of DC's brightest rising stars and "an absolute pistol."

Jim Faerber, of Harvey's Lake, Penn., says Impulse is probably the most fun to write, and he hopes he'll continue to develop a friendship with Damage. He also loves how Impulse's hyperactive personality matches his powers, or is it the other way around?

Jeff DeWitt, of Redlands, Calif., also asks for more interactions with the angst-ridden Damage and the carefree Impulse.

After seeing so many people praise and call for more Impulse-Damage team-ups, I wonder why DC didn't do more with them. Oh well. Time to move on to the ads.

The year is 2045 ... the forces of evil have unleashed a mind-control drug called tek. And if these men can't stop it, the whole world will be hooked. Greg Evigan, William Shatner. TekWar: The Series. On USA Network.

Lobo Deadman. The Brave and the Bald. One of them is dead ... and one of them is not ... yet. One-shot on sale in January. Alan Grant, Martin Emond.

Here comes the bride ... Catwoman #18. Chuck Dixon, Jim Balent, Bob Smith.

Who gets to kill Major Force? Capital Punishment! A three-part story of vengeance. Guy Gardner Warrior #27-28, Green Lantern #60.

If you loved The New Titans then you'll love The Man Called A-X. Marv Wolfman & Shawn McManus.

Hard-hitting action and adventure every month! A DC subscription form. You could get 12 issues of The New Titans for $19.40 when they normally cost $1.95 each.

Dark Destiny and Elric: Tales of the White Wolf. These are two anthology books with a bunch of different writers, but the only one I recognize is Neil Gaiman.

Ready for your bedtime story? Tales from the Crypt presents Demon Knight. Starring Billy Zane, who would soon be the star of The Phantom.

Next time: The Darkstars #28. Darkstar is caught in the crossfire of an escalating war between the alien syndicate and the mysterious Crimelord. Meanwhile, in an alternate reality, Ferrin Colos makes some disquieting allies in his struggle against an evil doppelganger.

The New Titans #117

Psimon Didn't Psay You'd Win!

Marv Wolfman Writer
William Rosado Penciller
Keith Champagne Inker
Albert DeGuzman Letterer
Chi Colorist
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor

In addition to the regular credits, there's also some "graffiti" on the wall on the first page that says "Production Dave Bednar, Todd Jaeger." I'm guessing these two guys had to come in at the last minute to help get some pages out. The cover is by our old friend Stephen J.B. Jones after Johnson and Panosian again. I never much cared for Jones' interior art, but this cover isn't half bad. The concept, more symbolic than literal, is a pretty neat one, and Psimon's face looks great. Impulse is way too buff, though, even by 1994 standards. And the TM next to Psimon's name is quite distracting.

Our story picks up where the last issue of New Titans left off, with Psimon knocking out all our heroes. Mirage, however, is mysteriously resistant to Psimon's attacks. He attempts to examine her, but is unable. Psimon then concludes that she's not a threat, so he begins to torment each of the Titans in turn, beginning with the one he's familiar with, Donna Troy. Psimon gives Darkstar visions of the original Teen Titans and her son dying. He then moves on to Impulse, playing on his fear of aging rapidly.

Up next is Damage, who is tormented by not knowing who or what he is. Then Psimon haunts Green Lantern with a vision of his dead girlfriend. Mirage then feels a power growing inside her and realizes that Psimon unwittingly gave her some of his power when he tried to examine her. Mirage then turns into a clone of Psimon, attacks him psychically and frees the Titans.

But even though Mirage can mimic Psimon's abilities, she's still not as strong as him, so she needs help distracting him in order to break through his psychic defenses. Jarras Minion then arrives in the Omegadrome, seeking vengeance for his lost planet. Everybody launches an all-out attack on Psimon, and Impulse plays his part by running circles around him, delivering a bunch of punches and insults such as Pane-Brain, Glo-Dome and Maroon. Bart has a lot of fun doing this, as it reminds him of blasting Z-Vectors on the V-R Holos.

Psimon is soon defeated, and Green Lantern locks him in a cage. Jarras immediately jumps out of the Omegadrome, begging for the opportunity to kill Psimon. But he finds he is unable. He desperately wants to avenge his family and planet, but is unable to summon the necessary hate to kill the villain. Amid this emotional grief, Damage and Impulse quietly laugh at how Jarras sounds like Alvin the Chipmunk and looks like a Smurf. To their defense, they can't understand Minion, and don't fully realize what's going on. I, however, am impressed that Impulse has caught up on the '90s cartoons to understand the Chipmunks and Smurfs references.

I must admit I'm a bit disappointed by this issue. Psimon, the destroyer of worlds, was teased for quite a while before this issue. He possessed Green Lantern, one of the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe, and he ultimately accomplished ... nothing. Well, I guess he did convince Damage to go on a soul-searching journey in his own book, and he did act as a catalyst for some great emotional turmoil for Minion. But I didn't want to see Psimon taken down so conveniently.

The Impulse stuff in this issue was pretty good. Playing on his fear of growing too old was a logical move, but I wonder what would have happened had Psimon taken it the other direction. He said, "You look like a teenager, but you're really only an infant, aren't you?" What if he convinced Impulse that he couldn't keep up with or relate to his teammates since he has so little life experience? I'm not saying Psimon should have turned him into a toddler instead, what we got was fine, but it makes me wonder.

William Rosado provided adequate artwork for his first time on New Titans, but I don't like how he showed Impulse running. He gave him Starfire hair that trails endlessly behind him. But Impulse punching Psimon a bunch of times looked OK.

We only have one page of letters today, because, as Keri Kowalski said, they needed to cut the letter column in half in order to give us more story — which was 25 pages instead of ... 23? 24? Anyway, the letter page is quite cramped because it had to have a preview of next issue's cover, a lengthy description of that issue, equally lengthy descriptions for five other titles that are associated with New Titans, and an odd note by Pat Garrahy talking about how his grandma drove him to the comic store to buy the Judas Contract issues. So that only left room for two short letters, and only one of them mentions Impulse.

Charles Skaggs, of Columbus, Ohio, said he enjoys the interaction between Damage and Impulse, and hopes more intergroup relationships are established. As I said in my 1994 retrospective, I felt like  the Damage-Impulse friendship had a lot of potential. I guess we'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts. Now for the new ads.

Lightning strikes ... again! The Power of Shazam! By Jerry Ordway. Trade paperback coming in December.

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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind ... and the last best hope for peace is the last of the Babylon stations. Babylon 5. A new ongoing series based upon the Warner Bros. science-fiction TV series.

Younger, bolder, tougher, brasher, smaller. Zero Hour gave him a second chance at life ... Dr. Shrivel won't! The Atom Special. Tom Peyer, Luke McDonnel, Doug Selogy, Mark Propst, Ande Parks, John Dell.

Up next is Flash #97: Part 3 of the 6-part "Terminal Velocity." With the help of original Flash Jay Garrick and super speedsters Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, Wally West tries to prepare Impulse for the mantle of Keystone City's protector. But a surprise develops in the chain of succession. Plus, Max Mercury reveals the incredible secret of who he really is and how he came to be.

The New Titans #116

Psimon Psays ... Die!

Marv Wolfman Plot
Marv Wolfman & Frank Pittarese Script
J.B. Jones Penciller
Keith Champagne & Rich Rankin Inkers
Chi Colorist
Albert DeGuzman Letterer
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Steve Mannion Production
Pat Garrahy Editor

The cover, by Johnson and Panosian, is the second half of the image that started with Green Lantern #57. Impulse, Mirage and Arsenal are being held by Green Lantern's constructs, while Terra is in the clutches of Changeling, who for some reason has a green head and an aquamarine body. The idea of this two-issue cover was a good one, just the execution — especially the coloring — was off.

Our story begins with Mirage falling toward Earth in an escape pod. Remember, last time we saw her, she was attacked by Changeling in the Titans satellite. She managed to get away in the pod, but is unable to control it, and is seemingly going to die. Fortunately, Darkstar arrives in the nick of time to save her.

We then return to the Titans Earth-based headquarters at Liberty State Park, New Jersey, where Changeling has put all the Titans in gooey green egg-prisons. But then Changeling becomes confused and distracted, and decides to go looking for Cyborg, forgetting that his old friend is dead. This momentary distraction gives the Titans time to try to break free, but they quickly discover the eggs can counter their powers. Terra is unable to summon rocks to break her out, and the egg stretches to accommodate Damage's punches. And as Impulse says, the "green-cheese" is slowing him down, and fighting it is like "tryin' to swim through seven-ply gell-seal."

Changeling checks the Titans computer, but is unable to find any information on Cyborg. He then hears a loud "skrash," which is the sound of Impulse breaking out of his egg. Turns out, he just had to move slowly to get out. Impulse quickly frees the others, and Terra creates giant rock armor for herself, which Impulse says is awesome. Terra then punches Changeling, saying, "Hey, who do ya think I am — Urkle?" (I believe she was referring to Steve Urkel, the quintessential geek from the show Family Matters, which was quite popular in 1994.)

Impulse gets in another hit, calling Changeling "frog-boy." But that wasn't enough, and soon Changeling is back on his feet. But then he's knocked out by a green semi-truck created by Green Lantern. We then get a replay of the ending of Green Lantern #57, with the possessed Green Lantern attacking the Titans. The injured Changeling decides to retreat during the chaos, while Lantern starts launching missiles at the Titans. One of the missiles actually hits Impulse, and he kind of goes berserk on Green Lantern.

Impulse knocks out Green Lantern, but Arsenal chews him out for being reckless. Impulse, however, insists that he's fine, and even says the fight was a lot of fun — except for when he got knocked out. The Titans regroup and check to see if Lantern is really unconscious, but he's not. Impulse says, "This isn't a good thing ... is it?" It's not, and the Titans soon find themselves in green cages that are filling up with water.

Luckily, Darkstar and Mirage arrive to save the day. Mirage tries to free the Titans, while Darkstar battles Lantern. But Mirage is unable to open the cages, and the powerful Darkstar is no match for Green Lantern. Soon, Lantern finds himself in position to kill Darkstar, but Kyle Rayner finally resists Psimon's orders. But Psimon isn't bothered by this, and decides to attack the Titans himself.

This wasn't a bad issue, but it was rather repetitive. It played out almost the exact same way the fight with Changeling did, right down to the whole knock-out/fake-out thing. I've read a few interviews with Marv Wolfman saying he did not have a good time writing the Titans at this time, and his stories and dialogue was often changed at the last minute. And since Frank Pittarese was brought in to help with the script, I can only imagine that there were some behind-the-scenes problems. But this issue wasn't a complete waste. I was happy to see Impulse save the team again, and I really enjoyed the scene of Impulse beating the snot out of Green Lantern.

The letters column begins with another rather defensive note from Pat Garrahy, basically defending the new direction of the book and begging longtime Titans fans to give this new team a chance. He also announced that William Rosado will be the new penciller, which means that J.B. Jones only lasted three issues. The New Titans has been quite chaotic under the editorial reign of Garrahy, which is quite unfortunate, since it had an accomplished writer and a promising cast of characters.

Around this time, it wasn't uncommon for DC to send advance copies of comics to subscribers, and each of the letter writers this month got a sneak peek of New Titans #0. Here's what they all had to say about Impulse:

Jeff DeWitt, of Redlands, Calif., said Impulse was "another great character."

Joey Marchese, of Clark, N.J., praised Marv Wolfman for capturing the essence of all the team members and "thankfully the energy that seems to follow Impulse." Joey said "this protégé of the Flash and direct descendant of Barry Allen is one of my favorite characters in the 'new' DCU."

Jeffrey Badger, of Des Moines, Iowa, however, had a different view on Impulse: "Overall, I can see potential for this character, but I feel right now he is just as Terra described him: a brat. It's to the point that I really dislike his character. I also read Flash and don't care for him in that book either. I understand his body has matured more than his mind, but currently he bugs me. I'd rather see him grow into someone I'd like to read about than have him dropped from the title."

Oh well. Not everybody can be an Impulse fan. Now on to the ads:

Earth 2. This time, WE are the aliens. Blastoff: Fall 1994. Sundays on NBC.

Judge Dredd Legends of the Law. The legends of tomorrow's greatest lawman ... today! With the premiere 4-part story arc by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Brent Anderson and Jimmy Palmiotti. New ongoing series beginning in October!

Sgt. Rock Special #2. The Battle of the Bulge! A tale too big for one story! All-new tales of blazing battle action by Chuck Dixon, Eduardo Barreto, Howard Chaykin, Russ Heath & Graham Nolan. A 64-page one-shot special coming in November!

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Shadowheart. The devil gave one man the right to rule the shadows. The Klingons call him Shadowheart. Worf calls him brother. Friedman, Erwin, Barnett. Four-issue miniseries starting in October.

DC Comics Online. If you have a computer and a modem, you can download hundreds of full-color pictures of your favorite characters, sneak preview what's coming to the stores, talk directly with artists, writers and editors, access the DC Comics archives and meet other DC Comics fans. To help you on your journey to the Internet, America Online is offering 10 free hours of access to more than 80,000 software files and programs.

Batman: Castle of the Bat. Enter the castle of the bat at peril to your immortal soul ... for herein lives the grotesque bat-man, who may be a savior, a demon — or something far worse ... An else worlds graphic novel by Jack C. Harris and Bo Hampton. On sale in November.

Start the New Year off right! With a DC Comics subscription. You could get 12 issues of The New Titans for $19.40, when a single issue normally cost $1.95.

The DC Universe page is a Daily Planet extra, with the headline: "Deathstroke's body missing! Slade Wilson's corpse disappears from city morgue." A full article follows by Keri Roberts, and as a newspaper editor myself, I am quite impressed by this.

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Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles. Drink from me and live forever. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea and Christian Slater. This movie also stars a young Kirstin Dunst, long before she played Mary Jane Watson in the first three Spider-Man movies. Apparently she did a pretty good job here, as she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Next time: Flash #96. Kobra and his terrorist horde have overrun Keystone City. Only the Flash, returned from his odyssey during Zero Hour, can free Keystone ... if he can bring Impulse up to speed before Wally West's humanity erodes completely. Plus, the chilling secret of Flash's near future threatens to tear Wally and Linda apart.

The New Titans #115

The Final Change

Marv Wolfman Writer
J.B. Jones Penciller
Keith Champagne Inker
Costanza & DeGuzman Letterer
Chi Colorist
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy

The cover is by Jones, and it says "After Johnson and Panosian," which I guess means it was based on a cover they did, although I don't know which one. However, this cover does vaguely remind of the first Justice League cover with Starro. But instead of a world-conquering starfish, we get our sweet, lovable Changeling, changed into something that's not very sweet or lovable. Poor Impulse is the only captured, but everyone else seems to be quite distressed. As for the artwork ... well, it's about as good as I'd expect from J.B. Jones. Which means it sucks. Sorry, Mr. Jones, but I've seen a lot of better comic book artists out there, even from the archaic age of 1994.

Our story begins with Changeling fully possessed by Raven. She has ordered him to subdue each of the Titans so she can implant the seed of Trigon in them. And it appears Changeling has succeeded in his mission — except for Impulse. However, the demonic shape-shifter is too busy gloating to notice a red-and-white blur zoom past him.

We then get a series of flashbacks to see how Changeling defeated the Titans. First was Mirage, who was up in the satellite, worrying about her unborn child. Changeling attacked her, but she wounded him and managed to escape via a life pod. However, the pods in the satellite seem to have been very poorly designed — Mirage has no way to steer it or communicate with anybody else, and she fears she will die when the pod burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. Changeling knows this, and he laughed at Mirage's eminent demise as he teleported down to the Titans' Earth base.

The next victim of Changeling's was Arsenal, who got thrown in the swimming pool and trapped beneath the cover with very little air to breathe. Changeling then took out Damage by trapping him with some sticky green goo he spat out of his mouth.

We then cut away to outer space, where we get to catch back up with Jarras Minion. It's been three weeks since his home planet Talyn was destroyed, and he has gained full control of the Omegadrome. The advanced mechanical suit has enabled Jarras to break his genetically modified passivity and experience anger and rage for the first time. The Omegadrome has also enabled Jarras to track the destroyer of his world, the mysterious rainbow double-helix, which is leaving an energy trail right toward Earth.

Back on Earth, we find out that Terra was the last one Changeling attacked, who he stung upside down with his gross green goo. Returning to the present, Changeling begins wandering around the headquarters looking for Impulse. He then soon realizes that all the Titans were freed during the brief moment he turned away from them.

Impulse arrives and attacks Changeling, who retorts by calling Bart Kid Flash. This angers Impulse so much that he repeatedly calls Changeling a jerk wad. The rest of the team joins the fight, overwhelming Changeling. He then changes back to normal — which Impulse thinks is "mucho cool" — and says he doesn't know where he is. Everybody lets their guard down, and as soon as they do, Changeling transforms into the hideous monster we saw on the cover, and he captures the New Titans.

In the epilogue, we see Kyle Rayner, the last Green Lantern, return to New York City. But he is unaware he is being followed by the mysterious rainbow double-helix, which reveals itself to be long-time Titans villain Psimon.

Well that wasn't a bad issue of New Titans. Wolfman seemed to be experimenting a bit with his chronology, which made it rather confusing to read the first time through. I really tried to simplify it for the summary, but the odd issue of cutting away to a separate event in the middle of a flashback still cropped up. And, of course, the art was pretty awful. But I've come to expect it and can deal with it alright.

The letter from Pat Garrahy explains that half the art team had to change since they were overburdened with other projects. I don't know who's necessarily to blame for that — perhaps the editor who chose those people — but in any case it doesn't look too good to have such a big shift after only one issue from when you made a big deal about the new team. Garrahy also spends a good portion of his letter reiterating that Changeling is going to stay as a villain. I'm coming at this story from 20 years in the future, so I know this change didn't last forever, but I wonder how I would have reacted to this story line back then. I don't think I would have been really upset, but I would have doubted that Changeling would stay a bad guy for too long.

None of the letters to the editor mention Impulse, so I'll just head into the ads now. The first one is for a story arc in the Superman comics called Dead Again!

Next is a CinemaCast sculpture of Darth Vader. Inform the troops Lord Vader has arrived. Now, one of the most powerful and menacing figures in galactic history, Darth Vader, can be yours with this limited edition sculpture. Anakin Skywalker, once a proud Jedi Knight, was seduced by the dark side to become Lord Vader — the Emperor's dark-armored apprentice. You can experience the staggering power of the Empire, made manifest in its ultimate symbol of evil ... Darth Vader.

Batman Madness. A legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. On All Hallows Eve the Mad Hatter is having his tea party. The children of Gotham City will be attending. Something dark will be served. This influential comic was later collected in the Batman: Haunted Knight trade paperback, and it is essential reading for any Batman fan.

Lobo Preacher Wars. Repent or be fragged!

The Batman Adventures Annual #1. The Scarecrow. Scarface. Harley Quinn. They all went straight — once. Well ... almost.

We then have a holiday-themed subscription order form (which means they used the word "holiday" and drew a red bow on a mailbox). But for $19.40, you could get 12 issues of The New Titans when they normally cost $1.95 each. And of course, if you had a computer and a modem, then you could call a 1-800 number to order a free DC Comics online starter kit.

Up next is a pretty interesting DC Universe page that breaks down the process of coloring a comic. It took seven steps and usually two people — a colorist to choose the colors and a separator to enter the color codes into the computer.

Flash Terminal Velocity. The Ultimate Rush. Time is the enemy. They call him the Flash. He thought he could run forever ... now, each step is taking him closer to the finish line. Can he outrace his fate before his time runs out?

And the final ad is for Extra Bases baseball cards by Fleer. They feature Paul Molitor, who won the 1993 World Series MVP with the Toronto Blue Jays. These cards are 35% larger than the average cards, which would have driven collectors like me nuts. I need to have all my cards the same size so they can fit in the standard sleeves.

Next time we'll finish up Nov. '94 with Flash #95. The tragic events in Zero Hour have left Keystone city in turmoil. Flash is gone! Young Impulse stands alone against the forces of Kobra, whose coils begin to tighten around the city, now twice bereft of its super-speed champion.

The New Titans #0

The Changing Order

Marv Wolfman Writer
Stephen J.B. Jones Pencils
Collazo/Candelario/Champagne Inks
Dave Bednar Production
John Costanza Letters
Chris Matthys Colors
Keri Kowalski Asst. Edits
Pat Garrahy Edits
Launching a new history for the New Titans originally created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez

This is an all new direction for the New Titans, and what better time to do it than issue #0? They've got a new team, a new logo on their cover, and a new art team. Unfortunately, the art is a bit of a mess in this issue. It's never a good sign when three inkers are required, and I'm not sure exactly what Dave Bednar's role was here, but I imagine it had something to do with the artwork.

But let's get back to that new team, as shown in Tom Raney's cover. Starting in the bottom left is Mirage turning into the current Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. Mirage's real name is Miri (rather unimaginative) and her power, naturally, is to create mirages. Kyle Rayner will eventually join the team, but just not in this issue. I'm not sure how he survived Zero Hour, but I'm not too concerned about it. Moving up clockwise, the green guy above Mirage is Changeling, who has been looking a bit more demonic since his run-in with Raven. Next to him is the leader, Arsenal, who is wearing a much better outfit than what we last saw him in. Next to Arsenal is Terra, which sounds exactly like her real name, Tara. She can control rocks, and has a bit of a crush on Changeling. The really creepy-looking guy on the right side is Damage, who was a major player in Zero Hour with his ability to expend enormous amounts of energy. He normally doesn't look that scary — that's just a result of Raney's poor art. And last, but not least, is our lovable Impulse. That's not the best-looking Impulse we've seen so far, but it's not the worst we'll ever see.

This issue takes place two weeks after Zero Hour, which is a bit unfortunate for me, because I really wanted to see exactly how this team got put together — particularly how Impulse joined. We know he  got a phone message intended for the Flash, but the big crisis happened before we saw him meet up with Arsenal and the gang. And now this issue picks up after this team has been together for a while and had a few practices. We will eventually see how everybody joined in an annual issue, but it'll take a while to get there. So in the meantime, we open this story with Nightwing, the former Titan leader, defending this New Titan team to Sargent Steel.

Earlier that morning, at one of New York's warehouse piers, we see a husband-wife super villain team named Coven and Slagg. They're working for Crimelord and are currently threatening some criminals who work for the Triad. Changeling has arrived on the scene to save the day, but instead of turning into an animal as usual, he changes into a grotesque, monstrous form. He also surprises himself with his own murderous urges. He almost kills the husband, Slagg, but he's ultimately knocked out by Coven.

Meanwhile, in the shopping mall beneath the World Trade Center (yes, this story happened long before 9/11), Damage and Arsenal are battling some more Crimelord goons, who are wearing giant, mechanized suits. The battle is not going well, and soon Damage is buried under a pile of rubble before Arsenal's backup can arrive. And to make matters worse, Arsenal notices that the goons have sabotaged the subway tracks just as a train approaches.

We check back in with Changeling, who is saved by Terra and Mirage. However, Coven and Slagg escape in the chaos. Changeling quickly revives, and the three Titans rush off to answer Arsenal's distress call.

The train Arsenal was worried about gets closer and closer, and is about to derail, when it says, "Beep beep!" Turns out it was just Impulse holding a lantern and making a Roadrunner joke. (We love the Loony Tunes here!) Impulse explains he saved the train by pulling out its brake lines (which doesn't make any sense to me, but whatever). He then proceeds to beat the snot out of the Crimelord goons because their lasers are too slow to hit him — unlike magbeams, which haven't been invented yet.

Impulse asks Arsenal if there are any more robots to fight, and he directs him upstairs to where Damage is. Luckily, Damage has pulled himself out of the rubble. Unluckily, he has let his anger get the best of him and is about to explode. So, just like they practiced, Impulse uses a gravlift to carry Damage out to the ocean to safely release his excess energy. Impulse runs back to the shore to watch the mushroom-cloud explosion — which is "too cool" — and runs back out to catch Damage before he falls in the water. He brings him back to Arsenal just as the rest of the team arrives.

Now that their mission is complete, the Titans now need to check in with Sargent Steel in New Jersey. As Impulse runs there, he realizes he enjoys his time with the Titans more than his time with Wally West or the virtual reality he grew up in. Bart doesn't care too much for Changeling — who has been a bit of a butt in this issue — but he likes everybody else, especially Damage. Impulse thinks that this team is going to be "real whip." (I'm not sure if that was supposed to be 30th century slang or 1994 slang. Either way, it sounds rather weird.)

Impulse gets to Steel first and has to wait for the rest of the team to catch up. Once they get there, Steel takes them to their new Earth-based headquarters — a former train station at Liberty State Park. It's fully equipped with state-of-the-art technology and teleporters to their satellite base. But Impulse is primarily concerned with the base's selection of computer games.

Later that evening, at New York City Hall, Senator Perry is holding a press conference. Apparently he and Senator Williams authored an anti-terrorist bill, but then Williams was assassinated by Deathstroke. I'm not sure how an anti-terrorist bill would make terrorism more illegal than it already should be, but Perry assures reporters the president has just signed the bill and the end of terrorism is at hand. As soon as he says this, he is killed by Coven and Slagg, who announce that their demands will be met, without elaborating on what those demands actually are. All this may seem rather out of place, and that's because most of it has to deal exclusively with Deathstroke. But Marv Wolfman was also writing Deathstroke at this time, and we'll get a Titans-Deathstroke crossover soon enough.

Our story then returns to the beginning, with Nightwing assuring Sargent Steel that this new team of Titans will be just fine without him, and he won't even secretly help them from the shadows. He's led the past three teams, and now wants to take a well-deserved vacation. Isn't it funny how so many people feel like they need to justify the word vacation with "well-deserved" in front of it?

Anyway, the last page of the issue takes place out in space, with the Green Lantern catching the attention of the mysterious force that just destroyed the planet Talyn. It looks like a glowing, rainbow double-helix. But it'll soon catch up to poor Kyle Rayner and we'll learn exactly what it is.




So that was Impulse's first adventure with the New Titans, and I quite enjoyed it. Impulse deserves to get out and do something besides being constantly yelled at by the Flash. He fits in with this team personality-wise, and he's already established himself as one of the most powerful members of the team. But that power needs to be focused and organized, and Arsenal seems to have the personality to successfully order Impulse around — unlike Wally. Wolfman didn't have much info on Impulse to work with here — super speed, from the future, likes video games — but I think he captured his personality and power set quite well. He had him goofing off, cracking jokes, always being the first to arrive somewhere, and also being a competent hero. I am quite pleased with how Impulse was handled, although I would have liked a line about where he was when Arsenal called for backup and exactly how Impulse saved that train.

In typical Wolfman fashion, this story seemed simple on the surface, but actually set up a couple of different story lines. We have Changeling dealing with his demonic possession at the hands of Raven, the emerging menace of Crimelord, which also spills into the Deathstroke title, and the mysterious threat in space targeting Green Lantern. And Wolfman manages to balance these stories quite well, which really makes him an entertaining read. Most unfortunately, his interesting story is hampered by the poor quality of art. This stuff may have been average in 1994, but it does not hold up today. A lot of faces looked really weird, some pages depressingly had no backgrounds, and the artists kept forgetting that Impulse has goggles. What a shame.

I don't have any ads or letters this time because I own this issue digitally — it's the only issue of this era of New Titans that's available through Comixology since they have all the #0 issues from the Zero Hour event. So even though the art sucks, I do recommend spending the $1.99 to see Impulse in his first team adventure.

Next time, we'll head into comics with a November 1994 publication date. Impulse appeared in two issues that month — Flash #95 and New Titans #115. I like to save the better issue for the end, so I'll review The New Titans #115 first.

New Titans #114

24 Hours

Marv Wolfman – Words
Rik Mays – Pictures
Karl Story, Jason Martin, Keith Champagne – Inks
Gina Going – Colors
John Costanza – Letters
Keri Kowalski – Asst. Edits
Pat Garrahy – Edits

This issue isn't available digitally yet, so you have to suffer through pictures from my phone. But even crisp, digital images wouldn't help this art look any better. The cover is by Tom Raney, and nobody is drawn particularly well. Although I do enjoy the concept of everybody walking away against a white background.

Before I get into the story, some explanation is in order. Bart Allen, who's only existed for three months, is about to join one of DC's premier teams. And luckily for us, it is being written by the godfather of the Titans, Marv Wolfman. Wolfman spent 16 years writing Titans comics, rotating the cast around, growing characters up, having them get married, have kids, die, change names and costumes and turn evil and good again. He also created Cyborg, Starfire and Raven, three stars of the current Teen Titans Go! So Bart is in good hands here.

This issue deals with the transition of the Titans. Most of the old members are leaving, and most of the new members haven't joined yet. Out of all the characters on the cover, there are only two of them we need to worry about. The most recognizable one should be the green guy wearing short shorts and shoes that surely were very cool in 1994. He's Garfield Logan, aka Beast Boy. But at this point in the story, he's grown up a bit and changed his name to Changeling. The main guy in the middle is Roy Harper, who began his career as Green Arrow's sidekick, Speedy. He's Arsenal now, leader of the Titans, and even has a daughter he never sees. And don't worry, he won't stay in that terrible costume forever.

Our story details the first 24 hours after the Titans have split up. I'm only going to focus on the characters who will have a major impact on the stories Bart's involved with. First is Changeling, who is immediately captured by Raven and her cronies. That's right, Raven the former Teen Titan, is now evil. She explains that within her reside the souls of the hundred slain children of her demon father, Trigon. To help her demon siblings be reborn, she is implanting them within metahumans like Changeling.

On Talyn, the sixth planet in the Proxima Centauri system, a mysterious force is destroying and killing everything in sight. The natives of Talyn were genetically modified a thousand years ago to have no aggression, so none of them can defend themselves. The Darkstars, an intergalactic peace-keeping corps, tries to protect the world, but they are unable to stop the threat. Jarras Minion, a teenage boy with blue skin and pointy ears, runs to home to tell his mom his siblings have been killed. She puts him in the Omegadrome, a device she built with her husband to help them counter their lack of aggression and defend their planet. The Omegadrome was built for Jarras' father, but since he was away looking for his kids, Jarras' mother put him in the high-tech suit to save him. The Omegadrome does protect Jarras, but he doesn't know how to use it and can only watch helplessly as his entire planet is destroyed.

Arsenal begins his day with a morning jog with President Bill Clinton. Presidents in comics are always interesting to me. Sometimes they're just a generic-looking nameless commander-in-chief, and sometimes they just happen to look a lot like the current president. But in this case, Bill Clinton is undoubtedly the president, and he even mentions his wife, Hillary. Anyway, Clinton assures Arsenal that the Titans will receive government funding and still retain complete independence. So Arsenal spends most of the day signing papers with Titans liaison Sargent Steel, a rather pesky bureaucrat with a metal hand. Arsenal then realizes he should probably put together a team, so he starts calling everyone he knows, including former Teen Titan Wally West. But he gets stuck with the answering machine, since Wally is kind of in the 64th century right now. However, someone else does receive the message.

That red hand is supposed to make us think it's the Flash listening to the message, but as a later issue will reveal, this is actually Bart. However, Bart does not wear gloves that cover his fingers, so this is a bit of a mistake on the creators' part. It is a bit understandable since Bart is such a new character, but I also feel this mistake was intentionally made to create a bit of misdirection.

Anyway, Arsenal spends all day at the Statue of Liberty, trying to persuade heroes to join the new Titans team. The only person who agrees is Changeling, who assures Roy that he's completely fine after his run-in with Raven and not feeling evil at all. A mysterious character named Phantasm then shows up and whisks the heroes away to an adventure in Damage #6. But Bart's not there, so we'll have to wait to see these guys again in Zero Hour.

So that was a very, very quiet debut for Bart in his first appearance outside the Flash series. And although this was a rather slow transition issue, Marv Wolfman did plant some important seeds for future stories in New Titans. Wolfman is in this for the long game, and he's the master of spreading stories over several years. All the stuff with Raven started a long time ago and will keep going until the end of this series. Unfortunately, Wolfman's story suffers with some of the worst art I've seen in a comic book. Rik Mays' work in this issue was simply abysmal. Everybody looked so ugly and horrendous. Not a single page looked halfway decent. Perhaps Mays was rushed on this one, since he needed three inkers, or perhaps he just stopped caring, since he would be replaced on the next issue. Colorist Gina Going also made the same mistakes she made on Flash #94 with Wally's hair. Except this time it was Roy's hair that randomly changed colors on the same page. It's a real shame that such an interesting story had to be presented so poorly.

It's also sad that Comixology hasn't added this issue to its catalogue yet, but having the physical print copy allows me to review the letters and ads. Of course, all the letters in this issue are talking about New Titans #111, which did not have Bart, so I'll only talk about the column written by new editor Pat Garrahy. He seems to take a preemptive defensive stance against complaining fans, assuring them that he misses the good ole days as much as they do, but the new stuff is going to be really great. It's kind of sad for an editor to practically beg the readers to give this series a chance, but it is understandable. Garrahy also announces that Arsenal's new team will include Mirage, Changeling, Damage, Impulse, Green Lantern, Donna Troy Darkstar and Terra. The new creative team will be writer Marv Wolfman, penciller Stephan J.B. Jones, inkers Hector Collazo and Harry Candelario and colorist Gina Going. Garrahy also pays tribute to Murray Boltinoff, a DC editor from 1943 to 1988, who died March 6, 1994 at age 83.

This is an inside cover house ad, which often were black-and-white in the '90s to save money. It's promoting the upcoming Zero Month, and to my surprise, it features Impulse quite prominently right in front next to Batman. I guess he quickly gained favor at DC and among the fans to be used in ads like this.

Next we have Star Trek trading cards, which features the USS Enterprise in the background of the Mona Lisa and the tagline: With a stroke of the brush, a generation gap is crossed.

An ongoing monthly by Milestone called Xombi. He took one step beyond and he can't step back.

Green Arrow #81–90: Cross Roads by Jim Aparo, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Doug Moench, Kevin Dooley and Gerry Fernandez. Out of Seattle and in your face!

The trade paperback Star Trek: Tests of Courage. A new ship. A new captain. A new danger.

A DC subscription form. DC delivers action and excitement every month! If you wanted to rip this page out of your comic, you could fill out a form on Batman's cape and order 12 issues of New Titans for $19.40, which isn't a bad deal, since a single issue cost $1.95 at the time.

A DC Universe page that advertises San Diego Comic-Con and makes some goofy predictions for Zero Hour. The best one, and most accurate, is naming Mike Carlin the main villain.

Flash by Waid, Wieringo and Marzan. Everything else is just roadkill!

Natural Born Killers. A bold new film that takes a look at a country seduced by fame, obsessed by crime and consumed by the media. Starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr. (before he became Iron Man) and Tommy Lee Jones (before he became Two-Face).

Next time we'll begin Zero Hour. It was a five-issue mini-series in the summer of 1994. Much to the frustration of many databases, the issues cleverly were numbered in reverse, starting with #4 and ending with #0. Bart does not appear in #4, so we'll skip to #3 and catch up when we get there.