Teen Titans #54

The Titans of Tomorrow ... Today! Conclusion: Fight the Future

Sean McKeever • Writer
Eddy Barrows, Joe Prado & Greg Tocchini • Pencils
Rob Hunter, Julio Ferreira, Oclair Albert & Joe Prado • Inks
Rod Reis • Colors
Barrows and Hunter with Reis • Cover
Travis Lanham • Letters
Adam Schlagman • Asst. Editor
Eddie Berganza • Editor

Our cover by Barrows shows the evil clone of Kon attacking Supergirl and the evil clone of Bart attacking Ravager. The story inside implies that there's some kind of bad history between Bart's clone and Rose, but we never get the full story. Anyway, this is a well-done, striking cover, but it feels woefully incomplete for the conclusion of this story involving so many different characters. At the very least, the future versions of Tim and Cassie also should have been on this cover.

Our story begins with Miss Martian flying Robin back to the old Titans Lair in Gotham County. They see that Blue Beetle has barricaded himself inside the Lair, which fortunately has an indestructible door protecting its entrance. The main Starro has also arrived, wearing five Sinestro rings. Most of the Starro-controlled Titans Army are trying to break into the Lair, but a few of them do break off to attack Miss Martian and Robin when Starro spots them.

Inside the Lair, Bart's clone has woken up, but is still in his cell. Blue Beetle tells him that more than 20 metahumans are currently banging on the door, trying to put them under Starro's control. He says he'll release Bart, but tells him he needs to help. Bart's clone says he might just wait for those metahumans to release him, and then he'll take his chances. Blue Beetle is shocked by this attitude, saying Bart should be a little concerned for the teammates he's spent years with almost as a family. But Blue Beetle doesn't know that this Bart is a clone, who just laughs at this appeal to family.

The Titans Army then breaks into the Lair by tunneling under the door. Blue Beetle says now would be a great time for Bart to change his mind, and the clone hesitates for a second, but ultimately agrees to help. As soon as Blue Beetle opens the cell, Bart's clone grabs him and rushes out of the Lair and throws Blue Beetle up toward Starro. Blue isn't happy about this, but he does attack Starro with an all-out energy blast from his arm cannons. Starro protects itself with a shield of yellow energy and begins to order its mind-controlled army to start attacking Blue Beetle instead of Miss Martian and Robin.

Blue Beetle sarcastically thanks Flash for screwing him over, and Bart's clone says he should thank the Flash Museum for keeping a working Captain Cold gun on display. (Why does the Museum always have actual, dangerous weapons out in the open? Just display replicas!) Starro is too preoccupied with Blue Beetle's attack to protect itself from being frozen by Cold's gun. Bart's clone then jokes that he does impressions, and says, "Up! Up! And —" as he runs and jumps right through the middle of the frozen Starro.

We then cut to Wonder Girl debating with her future self while passing over Kansas. The future Cassie tells her younger self that Supergirl will come between her and Conner when he reenters her life. Wonder Girl doubts this, but Conner's clone arrives to confirm this. Wonder Girl then creepily becomes romantic with the clone, saying nothing can come between them after that one time they had sex in the Kents' barn. But Wonder Girl quickly realizes that this Conner doesn't remember that because he's a clone.

Back at the Titans Lair, Starro's five Sinestro rings fly out into space, searching for replacements. All the smaller Starros on people's faces die and fall off, and Blue Beetle yells at Bart for using him to kill Starro. Bart's clone assures him that Starro is not really dead and will grow back. Robin accuses the future Lex Luthor of corrupting their future selves, but Lex says he's merely an advisor of the Titans Army, and the real leader is the future Tim Drake. Robin then demands to know why Lex brought this huge army back in time, and Lex happily explains that they want to kill Ravager, Blue Beetle and Supergirl.

Bart's clone grabs a random arrow and holds it to the back of Ravager's head, accusing her of having stabbed him in the back at some point in his past. Kid Devil and Blue Beetle attack Bart, but Red Devil goes after Blue Beetle, explaining that the last time he killed him, it was a quick and painless death, but now he plans to take his time. Miss Martian hits him from behind, and all chaos ensues. Naturally, our heroes wouldn't have a chance against this large army from the future, but Supergirl shows up just in the nick of time to turn the tide.

The future Tim pulls Robin aside and tries once again to explain that if he follows this path, he'll make the world a utopia. As Robin tries to argue, Wonder Girl shows up and tells Robin about her epiphany. The clones of Bart and Conner don't have any memories of them. And when Wonder Girl realized that this means she can never truly have her Conner back, her older self remembered that feeling, too, and actually fought to hold off Conner's clone long enough for Wonder Girl to get back to Robin. Wonder Girl says it's time to let Conner go, and she kisses Robin.

The future Cassie couldn't hold Conner's clone back long enough, and he arrived in Gotham County just in time to see Robin and Wonder Girl kiss. He accuses Robin of betraying him, and flies in to attack. But the future Tim jumps in front of Robin just in time and shoots a kryptonite bullet into the heart of the clone he created. As Conner's clone dies, the future Tim openly weeps, telling his "brother" he was acting in self defense. But before the clone actually dies, he fades away from existence. Bart's clone is the next to fade away, just as he was about to kill Ravager. He shouts out "No! Not fair!" as his arm harmlessly passes through Ravager's head. She turns to watch the clone completely disappear, and says, "'Bye again, Bart ..."

The rest of the Titans Army begins to fade away, and Red Devil warns his younger self not to trust Blue Beetle. But he disappears before he can actually say why. Lex Luthor lashes out at the future Tim, accusing him of having ruined everything. But future Tim says everything was ruined to begin with. Lex fades away, leaving Tim as the last one. He looks at Robin and Wonder Girl one last time, actually smiles, then fades away, too. With only our Teen Titans remaining, they regroup and agree to join in on the Sinestro War. (They presumably went off to fight Superman-Prime shortly after this event.)

Eight years from now, Tim and Cassie are sharing a picnic right in front of the golden statues of Bart and Kon on Titans Island. Cassie gives Tim a big kiss for his birthday, but Tim cuts the picnic short and heads down into an underground lab. He's greeted by Miss Martian, who turns into her "true self" — the white form with the long ponytail — and also kisses Tim for his birthday. They're then greeted by Lex Luthor, who says he's not a fan of time travel, but he became intrigued when M'Gann told him  how he could become the trusted advisor to Earth's next generation of super heroes in its entirety.

Lex sees that Tim has prepared a Batman suit for himself, and he asks Tim if he's going to take Batman's place, even though he hasn't retired yet. Tim says Batman's "sort of heroism" isn't enough anymore. Lex worries about the "others," but M'Gann assures him the rest will be easy since she's already convinced Tim. Lex asks about their "other birthday boy" and when his part begins. Tim leads him to a tube of a full-grown clone of Kon, and says it begins today. Next to the clone of Kon is one of Bart and two women (I can't tell who they're supposed to be). M'gann says she feels like she's been waiting her entire life for this moment.




The final page says, "Not the end ..." but I'm pretty sure this is the end. As far as I can tell, we never see this version of Bart's evil clone again. Which makes that final scene completely worthless on top of being absolutely infuriating. Was Miss Martian controlling Tim's mind to re-create those horrific versions of their future selves she remembers fighting? Why? Thankfully, it doesn't matter.

This main story itself was also full of holes and similar leaps in logic, killing an otherwise interesting idea of Tim creating clones of Bart and Kon. If all the Titans Army wanted to do was kill Blue Beetle, Ravager and Supergirl, then why did they go back in time to the moment of the Starro invasion? And why did they create an elaborate plan to kidnap and imprison the JLA in specially designed cells, but didn't have a basic plan for taking care of Starro or killing their three targets? Was McKeever trying to show that the elderly Lex was becoming senile, because his "plan," or lack thereof, was very unlike him. Look, if you just want to kill three people, then don't bring an entire army to those people, and refuse to instantly attack, choosing instead to give a long lecture about how you plan to kill them.

I've complained about how this story handles time travel before, but I will give the ending a pass. When Wonder Girl kissed Robin, he was finally able to let Conner go and give up on his dream of cloning him. When he made that decision, that entire future ceased to exist. I liked the interactions between Bart's evil clone and Blue Beetle, but the Bart-Ravager relationship was underdeveloped. All in all, this was a promising, but unfulfilling story, hampered by sloppy storytelling and inconsistent art.

Next time, we'll get a quick flashback of sweet, lovable Impulse in The Flash #235.