Teen Titans #66

The New Deal Part I: Choices

Sean McKeever Writer
Eddy Barrows Pencils
Ruy Jose & Julio Ferriera Inks
Rod Reis Colors
Sal Cipriano Letters
Rex Ogle Assistant Editor
Gehrlein & Cunningham Editors

Our cover by Barrows shows a gigantic Robin acting in the "I Want You!" Uncle Sam role, surrounding by absurdly small images of former and potential Teen Titans. Robin's former girlfriend, Spoiler, is back, as well as Bombshell, the traitor we saw get killed by the Titans East — apparently she somehow survived having her throat slit open. Former Titan Speedy is here, and Klarion the Witch Boy, looking about eight years older than the Klarion who plagued our heroes during Sins of Youth. Anyway, this is a really lame cover with lots of dead space. We've seen countless versions of this recruitment-type cover, and this is one of the worst renditions I've seen.

Our story picks up with the Teen Titans after Final Crisis. The team has been reduced to four members — Robin, Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle and Red Devil (the former Kid Devil, who now appears to be going through a growth spurt and has a new costume). Wonder Girl also has a new costume — a shirt that very nearly covers her entire midriff — and she wears this new outfit to Metropolis to ask Supergirl to rejoin the team. However, Supergirl says she's already made another commitment.

So our four Titans meet up in their San Francisco tower to discuss who they should recruit to the team. Cyborg appears on their monitor and offers his two cents, although he refuses to officially return to the Teen Titans. So Red Devil uses his teleporting ability to visit all these potential recruits, but he has no luck. Speedy tells him she has her hands full dealing with Ollie, and Stargirl and Damage say they're already on a team — the Justice Society of America.

Bombshell, Spoiler, Traci Thirteen and Misfit are all just "hanging out" at Titans Tower, but none of them appear to want to join the team. Or so they say. Anyway, that night, Cassie visits Tim in his room and finds him looking at an old photograph of the two of them with Conner and Bart.

Tim really feels like they're on their own now without those two or any mentors. He asks Cassie what it means to be a Teen Titan, and she gives him an inspirational answer about being a beacon of hope to their generation. Tim's pleased by this answer, and he gives a very long-winded explanation for why he's quitting the team. It basically boils down to the fact that he's been unable to recruit any more heroes and that Batman disappeared (or died) after Final Crisis. Tim's worried about leaving Cassie, but she assures him she'll be able to lead the team without him and is fully supportive of his decision to quit. Cassie gives Tim a big hug, but her confidence fades away to sadness once Robin flies away.




This was a rather dull issue. Robin — who has been here since issue #1 — is leaving the team, but we barely felt any emotion with this massive decision. It should have been played up as a huge deal, but it just felt rather dull. I mean, Cassie didn't even give Tim a goodbye kiss. Are they done dating now?  In any case, I always like being reminded that the loss of Bart and Conner still weighs heavily on Tim's mind — as it should. And I did like the conversation of trying to find heroes with complimentary powers to build the new Teen Titans team — albeit said conversation was far too brief.

Next time, we'll skip ahead to a backup feature in Teen Titans #68.