Teen Titans #½

The Ravager

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencils by Ivan Reis
Inks by Marc Campos
Colors by Sno-Cone
Letters by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza

Our cover is by Mike McKone, featuring a fairly decent shot of Rose Wilson dressed like her father, Deathstroke. But I don't get what's going on with the mugshots of the Teen Titans on the side. Are they supposed to be in sniper crosshairs? It mostly feels like a waste of space to me. Also, we once again have Raven on the cover, but not in the inside story.

This issue was a 13-page mail-in order from Wizard magazine, which was apparently still a pretty big deal in 2003. Technically speaking, this comic does not have a publication date. But an editor's note does say this takes place between issues #6 and #7, so we're going to review it now. I don't know why they didn't call this Teen Titans #6½, but that's beside the point.

Our story begins with a series of flashbacks, beginning with Slade Wilson meeting Lillian Worth in Cambodia 18 years ago. Sweet Lili would eventually give birth to Slade's daughter, Rose. We then see Dick Grayson's parents die in Gotham City 10 years ago; Rose learning martial arts in New York six years ago, Slade's oldest son dying in East Hampton five years ago; Slade killing his second son, Jericho, in the dimension of Azarath three years ago; Superboy being cloned in Metropolis two years ago; Sweet Lili dying in the Adirondack Mountains 18 months ago; and Impulse being shot in the knee on Alcatraz Island one week ago.

We then cut to today in Chicago, where Rose is living with loving foster parents, who are patiently weening her off her violent tendencies. Suddenly, the foster parents are both shot in the head by a man in a red-and-blue outfit, who introduces himself as Deathstroke's half-brother, Wade Defarge. He's taken up the identity of Slade's first son, Ravager, just to drive him nuts. In fact, Wade hates Slade so much, he even offered to kidnap Rose for free, despite being offered $100,000. But before he can take his niece away, the Teen Titans literally come crashing through the wall.

Kid Flash dodges a shot from Ravager's gun, saying he's not going to get hit twice. He then starts punching Wade, saying that when people can't afford Deathstroke the Terminator, they call Deadshot. If they can't afford Deadshot, they call Merlyn. But if they can't afford Merlyn, then they Wade. Cyborg then steps in to start attacking Ravager, explaining that they received an anonymous call giving them Rose's location and saying she's in danger.

Bart asks Rose if she's OK, telling her he's Impulse, or Kid Flash. But Rose doesn't want to be touched. Beast Boy tells her they're just trying to help, but Robin, who has confirmed the deaths of the foster parents, darkly says, "We can't help them." Cyborg, meanwhile, is trying to interrogate Ravager to find out who hired him. But a gas arrow flies through the window and knocks out everybody.

When they come to, Rose and Ravager are gone. Cyborg realizes they should have anticipated Deathstroke's involvement, although Beast Boy is much more forgiving of their performance. Superboy comments on how psychotic the Deathstroke family is, ranging from this Ravager to Jericho, who attacked them last week. Starfire tries to defend Jericho, but Superboy lumps him in with the other "wacko" Titans — Raven, Terra and Duela Dent. Bart angrily claims that Rose is not like her family and that he's going to find her.

Cassie remembers that Bart knew Rose, and Starfire provides a brief history. Rose didn't know Deathstroke was her father until a few years ago, and she inherited his strength, stamina, agility and limited precognition. After her mother was killed, Deathstroke wanted nothing to do with her, and for a brief time, Rose was a member of the New Titans, along with Impulse. Superboy takes this all as confirmation of his point.

Rose then wakes up in a warehouse with her dad standing over her. Deathstroke apologizes for not being a part of Rose's life, and says he now needs someone at his side he can trust. He shows Rose that he's tied up Wade, and he proposes they kill him to erase the bad memories of Ravager and replace them with better ones. Rose instantly agrees to this place, and even takes it one step further — demanding to use her dad's sword on her uncle to give him a slow death. Deathstroke gladly approves.

We conclude our story at Titans Tower in San Francisco. Apparently the team spent hours looking for Rose, and Kid Flash covered every inch of Chicago, but to no avail. Wonder Girls asks who put the hit on Rose in the first place, and Cyborg says it had to have been Deathstroke, weaving an elaborate plan to bring his daughter to his side.



I think the smaller page count really hurt this story. Everything was rushed to the point of basically giving me whiplash. In the space of less than an hour, Rose Wilson goes from doing homework and watching Cinderella to wanting to kill her uncle as slowly and brutally as possible. We needed some more time between this dramatic change in attitude. It also bugged me with how incompetent the Teen Titans were in this issue. Seven powerful and experienced superheroes charged into a house, recklessly destroying an entire wall in the process, all to take out one random C-list villain. And not one of them saw Deathstroke's arrow coming. And none of them could prevent the gas from knocking them out. Kid Flash could have blown the gas away, or Cyborg could have filtered out the gas with his suit, or something, right? And how come they couldn't find Deathstroke at the end? Kid Flash can move at the speed of light and vibrate through walls. If he needed to find someone in Chicago, he should be able to find them.

I found Geoff Johns' timeline interesting. We did witness the death of Sweet Lili, back in 1995. That was during Impulse's short stint with the New Titans, which apparently happened only 18 months ago. It is true that Bart also did think he liked Rose for about five minutes back then. But it feels kind of odd for Johns to call back New Titans stories from eight years ago, and yet go out of his way to avoid any mention of Young Justice.

The one positive I have for this issue was the artwork. I like Ivan Reis' style much more than Mike McKone's. It's more refined, more consistent. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If this title had a better artist, I'd be able to handle Johns' changes a lot better.

Next time: Teen Titans #7.