Teen Titans #7

Wednesday

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencilled by Tom Grummett
Inked by Nelson & Kevin Conrad
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza

Our cover by Mike McKone is kind of a hodgepodge collection of unrelated images. We have three computer windows, showing Deathstroke in a cemetery, Superman and Superboy flying over the fields of Kansas, and Kid Flash battling the Trickster. Oddly, Superman and Superboy are popping out of their computer window, and most randomly, Beast Boy (as a dog) and Krypto are tearing apart the Teen Titans logo. You'd also think that with the computer windows, this story is about someone monitoring these heroes (and villains), but that's not the case.

Our story begins with Deathstroke visiting the grave of his friend, William Wintergreen, whom he killed while being possessed by Jericho. Naturally, it's raining, because it always rains at cemeteries. Slade still doesn't quite understand what happened, or where his son is, but he vows to make sure Jericho stays dead.

At Titans Tower in San Francisco, Beast Boy returns from an acting class and asks Cyborg if he's picked up on any leads about Raven. Vic says he suspected Brother Blood to be involved, considering Raven's cryptic comment about blood washing over the Earth, but apparently Nightwing and the Outsiders have recently battled Brother Blood, and reported he is no longer a cult leader and merely an arms dealer.

At Smallville High School, Conner is serving detention for skipping class, and he surprises himself with his unusually dark thoughts about destroying the school and killing everyone in it. As soon as he leaves the building, he's met by Superman, who offers him a gift to apologize for the JLA getting into a fight with the Teen Titans.

We then check in with Kid Flash, who is reveling in his recent adventures with his friends and the Teen Titans. School is now completely useless for him since reading an entire library, but Flash insists he stay to gain experience and wisdom.

The Trickster is speeding down the streets in a customized car, and Bart easily defeats him by taking the car apart piece by piece. During the "battle," Bart's thoughts dwell on his difficulties at school — his string of perfect test scores has teachers believing he's cheating — and a desire to hang out with his friends again, especially Robin, who has a knack of making Bart feel stupid, which he actually craves right now.

Tim, meanwhile, is struggling with a homework assignment to write an essay about what he wants to be when he grows up. Tim has no idea what he wants to do in the future as a superhero or a civilian. We then cut back to Superman and Superboy, who are discussing Conner's developing powers and how the Kents can be a good resource for Conner, since they went through all this with Clark. Superman then summons Superboy's present — Krypto the Superdog.

Cassie Sandsmark, meanwhile, is missing Conner, while she and her mom are applying at their 17th different school — the Elias School for Girls. The previous principal, Ms. Foster, probably would have been more accommodating, having had quite a bit of experience with Young Justice. But the new principal, Ms. David, flatly rejects Cassie, despite her dozens of letters of recommendation, including some from Power Girl, Mary Marvel and the Red Tornado.

Suddenly, Cissie King-Jones fires an arrow past Principal David's head, saying that if Cassie isn't admitted, then she, the school's darling Olympic winner, will leave. Right behind Cissie is the human Greta Hayes, who adds that she'll also leave and that she's really good at trigonometry. The principal eventually gives in, but she sternly warns Cassie to not use her powers on campus. Cassie gives Cissie and Greta a big hug, realizing just how much she missed her friends.

We then return to Superman and Superboy for the third time, just so we can see Conner whine and complain a bit more, since he thinks owning a pet is lame. Back at the tower, Starfire is spending time in the garden, hoping this activity will teach her more patience. And back at Wintergreen's grave, Deathstroke is joined by his daughter, Rose, who is preparing to journey with him to Phoenix to try to track down Raven and Jericho.



This was a good decompression issue to give us a quick glimpse of what's going on in everybody's life. Unfortunately, we have a pretty big cast of characters to deal with, so nobody got more than a couple of pages (except for Superboy, who got more than enough room to display his teenage angst). Mostly, I was happy to finally see what Greta is doing now that she's no longer Secret. Sending her to Cissie's school was the natural thing, and I'm surprised that Cassie didn't try to go there right off the bat. I'm also surprised that Wonder Woman (or at least Red Tornado) didn't come into the principal's office to personally vouch for Cassie. It also would have been nice to see Traya, too, but I feel like I'm asking for too much at this point.

I did like Bart's pages. He had the most dramatic transformation since this team started, so it's understandable that he'd still be a bit wired from everything. It's also understandable that his school would become suspicious with him suddenly getting perfect scores. Bart's tactic he used with the Trickster is a pretty clever one, but it's also something that makes you wonder how speedsters are ever defeated by anybody. If you're fast enough to pull out every nut and bolt from a speeding car, then you should be able to stop just about everything that comes your way. Geoff Johns liked this stunt so much that he repeated it a few years later with Barry Allen and the Trickster again.

Once again, I have to say that I like the guest artist better than Mike McKone. The two inkers did have different styles, though, so that was a little distracting, but otherwise I was happier than usual with the art on this book. I feel a little bad for constantly ragging on McKone. I'm sure he's a wonderful and kind man. But I did not like his artwork in this series.

Next time: Teen Titans #8