Part One: Invocation
Judd Winick Writer
Alé Garza Penciller
Trevor Scott Inker
Jeromy Cox Colorist
Comicraft Letters
Associate Editor Lysa Hawkins
Editor Eddie Berganza
Our cover shows three members of Young Justice — Impulse, Robin and Wonder Girl — running against a blank background with their shadows in the shape of their Titans counterparts — Jesse Quick, Nightwing and Troia. It's a fairly interesting concept, but I'm not sure about the execution. It just feels rather bland. And I'm not a fan of Garza's style — his heads and faces often look squished.
Our story begins with Troia savagely battling a bunch of monsters in the rain, while wearing little more than her underwear and wielding an extremely small sword. Donna then wakes up from her nightmare ... one month ago for some reason. This is a recurring dream for her that is becoming more real each night. And she fears it less, and welcomes it more every night.
Last night, in Austin, Texas, at 3:28 a.m. to be specific, a blue robot girl with pink hair falls out of a purple portal and lands in an alley. The robot is operating at 47.3 percent operating capacity, so it enters maintenance mode and begins scanning for cybernetic organisms.
Twenty-one hours later, in San Francisco, at 11:06 p.m., Jean Walters, chief executive officer of Optitron is holding a board meeting with the Titans — Jesse Quick, Arsenal, Troia, Nightwing, Argent, Cyborg, Tempest and Omen. Optitron wants to fund the Titans — provide them with a new headquarters, state of the art technology and all the money they need to focus on saving the world. Nightwing is skeptical, so asks Omen, a psychic, what the company's true motives are. She says they want the biggest tax write-off in American history, but they also genuinely want to help make the world a better place.
But this isn't good enough for Nightwing, and he tells the team they're leaving. Cyborg points out they could use a new jet, but Arsenal is the most vocal objector, telling Nightwing to consider what they could accomplish with this financial backing. Nightwing worries that this agreement would only start with the funding and end with the Titans being sent on special-interest missions for Optitron. Arsenal dismisses that concern, and says that this kind of money could put the Titans on the same standing as the JSA and JLA. As they leave the office, Nightwing sees something that makes him distrust Optitron even more — Young Justice sitting in the waiting room.
Nightwing groans that Optitron is making the same offer to Young Justice, calling it the fast food chain equivalent of super teams. Arsenal doesn't see the harm in that. Cyborg asks Robin if they were also flown out on a jet, and Robin says their plane had to make an emergency landing in Dallas because Impulse wrecked the bathroom and the cabin depressurized. Impulse says he just wanted to know where the water went.
We then cut to the Franklin Military Installation in Tucson, Arizona, where three of the Metal Men are working. The blue robot girl suddenly teleports inside the facility and immediately paralyzes the Metal Men with a blast of pink lightning. The blue robot then tries to connect with Platinum, but finds her technology incompatible and unable to repair herself. So she begins scanning again for more cybernetic organisms.
We return to the Titans leaving the Optitron headquarters, and Tempest has joined the side of Arsenal and Cyborg, saying they should at least hear out the company. Cyborg suggests they could draw up a contract to ensure they don't make any claims on their activities. But Nightwing worries about what would happen if they happen to stumble across an area where Optitron is getting its hands dirty. Troia suggests Nightwing has a chip on his shoulder against rich corporations. Cyborg pleads with his teammates to take half an hour to talk about this offer before they leave.
The blue robot girl suddenly teleports into the Optitron foyer and attaches herself to Cyborg, who starts screaming at her to get off him. Argent and Jesse Quick try to pull her off, but they're both blasted aside by her pink lightning. Nightwing orders the Titans to focus on protecting the civilians in the building. Impulse and Empress come out of nowhere and offer to take out the robot. Empress grabs Cyborg, while Impulse vibrates inside the robot to try to shake her loose. Nightwing warns them that this robot is too unpredictable. Superboy suggests they all attack, but Robin sides with Nightwing.
Impulse's plan seems to be working, until the robot activates its defense mode at "factor 10," which creates a large pink explosion. Cyborg is finally freed from the robot, but his legs have been incinerated. Superboy puts the robot in a headlock, but she throws him off. Troia and Tempest get in a couple of good hits, though, and Arsenal manages to shoot off one of the robot's arms. The robot finally teleports away, leaving most of the heroes rather beat up. Cyborg weakly tells Nightwing that the robot didn't mean to hurt anyone. Nightwing looks at all the injuries around him and says, "You could have fooled me ..."
This comic was underwhelming. The art ranged from mediocre to distasteful, and the story just left me wanting. So much of it was spent on a rather tired argument about a superhero team being sponsored by someone else yet still wanting independence. We basically just went through this with Young Justice and their short-lived reality TV show. And, going back almost a decade, we had the exact same scenario when Arsenal led the New Titans. Maybe, just maybe, this argument could have been interesting had we been able to see what Young Justice thought about it, taking into account their experience with "Super Vision." But instead, the Titans dominated the conversation, which was comprised entirely by Nightwing being unyielding and rather unreasonable. All Young Justice got to do in this issue was make a couple of jokes and act like idiots.
This was the first of a three-part story that's supposed to take us from the Titans and Young Justice to the Outsiders and Teen Titans. At least that's what it was advertised as. But DC chose the writer to be Judd Winick, who will write the new Outsiders series. So it's not too surprising that this miniseries feels exclusively like a set up for the Outsiders, with everybody else playing a guest role. It would have been nice if the writer of the new Teen Titans series, Geoff Johns, was involved. Or better yet, why not give Tom Peyer (Titans) and Peter David (Young Justice) a chance to write a swan song for their books?
Next time, we'll jump into the Blitz storyline in The Flash #198.
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