Teen Titans #10

Raven Rising

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencilled by Mike McKone
Inked by Marlo Alquiza
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza
Special thanks to Norm Rapmund

This is a rather creepy cover by Mike McKone, but once again, the execution diminishes the intended effect. Showing the Teen Titans in a pool of blood at Brother Blood's feet is a really cool idea. The problem is the blood doesn't look realistic. It's almost as if our characters have been frozen in carbonite like Han Solo. The blood is too flat and the edges on the characters' faces and bodies is too crisp.

Our story begins at Titans Tower in San Francisco at 6:06 p.m. on Friday (which is odd, because last issue began at 9:30 p.m. on Friday; I mean, why bother being hyper-precise with the time if you're going to ignore it?). Starfire has mostly cleaned up her garden after Krypto's rampage and notices a bunch of birds flying out over the bay. She follows them and watches the water turn to blood. Suddenly, a huge swarm of black ravens come crashing through one of the tower's windows (they sure do go through a lot of windows here).

Superboy initially believes that the ravens flying out of Krypto's mouth was a result of him eating one of Starfire's alien plants. Cyborg checks the dog, noting he's fine, but unconscious. Starfire returns to the tower to tell them about the blood, and suddenly an enormous skeleton rises from the bay, saying, "Raven belongs to Brother Blood." Starfire recognizes it as the skeleton of Trigon, and Cyborg realizes this must be Raven's way of trying to contact them.

Back at the hospital, Beast Boy is still a raven, repeating the line: "Raven belongs to Brother Blood." Wonder Girl gets her lasso around Beast Boy to keep him from flying away with all the other birds, while Kid Flash takes all the psychic patients into a different room. He notes the black shadows that had previously surrounded them is gone, which must be a good thing. But some of the shadows now surround Robin, who randomly starts shouting about how he hates lying to his father. He rants about how neither Bart nor Cassie feel the pain of being dishonest to a parent, and he comes to the conclusion that he hates Batman.

The shadows swirl around Bart, as well, and he tells Robin he has it worse. His dad is dead and his mom left him a thousand years in the past. Bart says his mom must have considered him a problem child to abandon him like that. Cassie also become afflicted by this wave of hatred, saying that her dad abandoned her and her mom. But Cassie's rant is stopped by the reflection of Ares in the window, urging her to stay strong. The three teens are suddenly electrocuted somehow, which brings them back to their senses. Bart says it felt like someone was in his head or heart, and Cassie wonders why she was talking about her dad. Robin theorizes that happened because Raven hates her dad.

Back at the tower, Cyborg, Starfire and Superboy battle the skeleton of Trigon, with Superboy delivering the final blow with a blast of his heat vision. Krypto wakes up and tackles Conner in celebration, while Starfire and Cyborg discuss what is happening. Starfire believes they had already destroyed all the darkness within Raven, but Vic believes everyone still has a dark side, no matter what.

The rest of our heroes return to the tower, with Cassie flying Robin and holding Beast Boy on a leash, while Bart runs below. Bart tells everyone about Beast Boy's condition and repeated message. Superboy repeats the information Cyborg had recently learned, that Brother Blood is now an arms dealer instead of a "religious weirdo." But Bart tells him that the Daily Planet reported last Tuesday that Brother Blood's corpse washed up on a beach in Oregon (Bart now reads every paper every morning). All Cyborg can gather from this information is that someone new is now leading the Church of Blood. Robin asks if the church has always targeted Raven, but Vic isn't sure.

Beast Boy is no reduced to merely cawing like a raven, and Starfire notes how odd it is that Gar is not staring at her chest. Cassie elbows Conner in the stomach when she catches him staring at Starfire, and Bart laughs at him. Cyborg then suggests they find out where all the birds are flying to, so they let Beast Boy off his leash and take off over the bloody bay. Superboy carries Robin (after stashing Krypto in Starfire's room), Starfire carries Cyborg, and poor Bart is forced to run across the blood, which prompts him to begin quoting from the book of Revelation.

Bart responds to Conner's query that, according to Revelation, water turning to blood is the second event for Armageddon, with the first being loathsome sores. Superboy interprets that as acne, and tells Bart not to take everything he reads literally. Bart asks for a better explanation as to why he's running across blood. Robin asks them all to gather close to him, away from Starfire and Cyborg. He whispers to them that they should be prepared to take down Raven if things go bad. Bart and Cassie prefer to take the optimistic approach with Raven, and Conner warns them to not let Starfire hear them discussing this.

We then cut to Sebastian, who is fawning over the chained and bleeding Raven. His mother warns him that something is wrong with Raven and he needs to stop this. Sebastian says he'll continue with the ceremony and will fulfill prophecy by making Raven his bride. His mother continues to protest, saying she's not actually his mother and that he'll destroy them all. Sebastian leaps on her, kills her and bites off her nose, saying that with her flesh and blood consumed, she will live on inside him. He then chooses a different follower to be his new mother.

Our team then reaches the birds' destination — a random cave in the woods. Wonder Girl puts Beast Boy back on his leash, and Superboy and Kid Flash both forget about their Super-Cycle and spaceship in asking for a Titans Jet or Bat-Copter. Conner then urges Bart to scout out the cave for them, but Bart forgets he can vibrate through objects and says he can't go running in the dark or he'll crash into a wall. So Starfire leads the way, and nobody notices that Deathstroke and Ravager are secretly following them.

Once inside the cave, Beast Boy resumes telling everyone that Raven belongs to Brother Blood. Superboy asks Wonder Girl to give Gar a light shock of lightning to return him to his senses, but Cassie says she can't control the voltage. Bart asks how the lasso works, and Cassie says lightning strikes when she gets angry. Bart points out that the lasso is teaching Cassie how to be angry, and she really doesn't have a good answer for this.

Robin and Cyborg spot five figures in red cloaks heading toward a room, and Robin forgets how to count in suggesting that the five of them (there's six of them) take out those five figures, steal their cloaks and slip in unnoticed. Cyborg likes the plan and orders the Teen Titans to charge ahead. But they're too slow, as the door suddenly open, revealing a large, cathedral-like room filled with dozens of cultists. Brother Blood was just about to marry Raven, and he orders his followers to attack the intruders.

Superboy mocks Brother Blood for being a 12-year-old, so Sebastian corrects him, saying he'll turn 14 next month. Brother Blood then manages to bite Superboy's arm, which gives him Superboy's powers. And his first action with this newfound strength is to pound the ground really hard, causing a small cave-in. Starfire is hit in the head and knocked out, while she and Robin fall down into a dark cavern, where Deathstroke and Ravager just happen to be.



I don't like demons. Or magic. Or any of that kind of stuff. I didn't even like it when Peter David veered in that direction during Young Justice. But I do like the Teen Titans having a villain their age. (Yeah, an almost-14-year-old should be too young for them, but Johns basically writes them at that age, anyway.) I also think it's kind of neat that Brother Blood can gain heroes' powers by biting them. That works for me, for whatever reason. I am a little frustrated that we know so little about this Sebastian kid. Apparently he was introduced during the Outsiders, when the previous Brother Blood, his father, was killed. If these two series had a connection like this, then why didn't they do a crossover? Or better yet, why didn't they use this Brother Blood storyline as the Graduation Day event that forged these new teams?

As for our heroes, I am very frustrated that Wonder Girl is clearly wielding a cursed weapon and nobody cares. And, in general, I am sick and tired of everyone's whiny angst. But I did find Bart's "angry" comments interesting. Although what he said about his mom technically wasn't true, it does make sense that a small part of him, deep down inside, would think that his mom must consider him a problem child to have abandoned him.

Geoff Johns is also playing an interesting game with Bart Allen. The problem with speedsters — especially in a team setting — is that they are basically invincible unless you can find a good enough weakness to slow them down. Bart's weaknesses were his impulsive nature and lack of experience. Now he has sworn off that impulsive personality and suddenly gained a photographic memory, which he used to memorize every significant work of Western literature in the 20th century and read every single newspaper every day. I'll admit, I am envious of the ability to read everything. But the problem is now there is no reason for Bart to be caught off guard by anything. Or even to make a single mistake. He knows everything and is fast enough to do anything. So since Johns gave Bart a new ability, he has to take away previously established abilities to try to balance him out. Dropping Bart's "scouts" was a good idea, but ignoring his ability to vibrate through objects is a travesty. That was established on Day One. So Bart should never worry about running into a wall — especially know that he's insufferably smart.

Next time, we'll begin comics with a July 2004 publication date, starting with Action Comics #815.