Blackest Night: Titans #1

When Death Comes Knocking

Written by: J.T. Krul
Pencils: Ed Benes
Inks: Rob Hunter, Jon Sibal & JP Mayer
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Rob Clark Jr.
Cover by: Benes, Hunter, & Rod Reis
Variant Cover by: Brian Haberlin
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Editors: Eddie Berganza & Brian Cunningham

Our main cover shows Beast Boy grotesquely making out with his deceased girlfriend, Terra. It's disturbing. It's creepy. It's perfect for this story. It's the kind of horrific cover that you can't bear to look at, but you also can't pull away from.

I took this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. It's another creepy closeup of Terra, but without the perverse kissing of Beast Boy, it lacks the impact of the main cover. And just to clear things up, this is the original version of Terra — not the Terra that Bart hung out with for a little bit during his brief stay with the New Titans way back when. This Terra betrayed the Teen Titans and then died in a big fight with Deathstroke. But Garfield Logan genuinely loved her and refused to believe she was actually evil, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Blackest Night was a massive event. Not only did it have its own eight-part main series, and nearly every monthly title at DC had one or two issues tie into this event, but there were also a smattering of three-part miniseries like this. For better and worse, this event will dive deep into every major character's death in the DC Universe.

Our story begins on Heroes Day during Blackest Night #1. We see that Deathstroke is mourning the death of his oldest son, Grant, by tracking down and killing members of H.I.V.E., who hired Grant to take down the Titans, which led to Grant's death. Red Star is mourning his wife, Pantha, and their son, Wildebeest, by drinking a bottle of vodka. And Ravager is celebrating Heroes Day by having sex with a random man and kicking him out of the room immediately by threatening him with her sword.

At Titans Tower in San Francisco, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, Dove, Hawk, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Donna Troy and Geo-Force have gathered to commemorate all the fallen Titans. We get a repeat of Bart's conversation with Cassie about him wishing to take down all the statues, and Cassie responds by saying the return of Bart and Conner is a good start for the Titans. She admits she used to think death was the end, but after looking into Conner's eyes, she now believes that anything is possible. Donna points out that she also has cheated death several times, but laments how the "normal" people never come back, mentioning her toddler son, who was killed in a car crash.

Starfire wonders aloud why they have a statue of Terra the traitor, and as expected, Beast Boy protests this. He argues that Terra's mind was poisoned by Deathstroke, just like Ravager's was. Cyborg says Terra wasn't drugged, but Gar refuses to listen to him and walks away. Hawk and Dove are having a similar debate over the original Hawk, who technically died a villain. As they talk, we see a bunch of Black Lantern rings are trying, but failing, to resurrect the original Dove. However, the grave of the original Hawk is empty.

Hawk and Dove return to Washington, D.C., but are quickly led into a trap by the zombie Hawk. Bart is the last to leave the Titans' hall of statues, taking time to gaze at the statue of Omen, whom he saw die in that terrible Graduation Day story. Donna returns to her room to look at photos of her deceased family. Beast Boy takes a long, solitary walk out by the bay, while Starfire and Cyborg creepily watch him on the security monitors. And Cyborg has the gall to place all the blame on Starfire for upsetting Gar.

Suddenly, Beat Boy is approached by Terra. She looks alive and well, and is eager to give him a big hug. She explains that she faked her death all those years ago and chose to stay away from the team because they suspected her as a traitor. The stunned Gar asks why she chose to come back now, and she mentions the return of Conner and Bart. Terra then pulls Gar in for a kiss, while another zombie watches from the bushes, identifying the emotion of love in Gar's heart.

Turns out, it was a good thing Starfire and Cyborg were spying on their friend, as they were able to see what was happening and swoop in quickly before anything too bad happened. The zombie hiding in the bushes was Omen, who was using her psychic powers to make Gar see Terra as healthy and alive, instead of the rotting corpse we saw on both covers. But even when the zombie Omen is attacked and her mirage fades, Gar is still hesitant to pull away from the zombie Terra, who is now saying she's here to collect Gar's heart.

Donna is awoken from her sleep by the sudden appearance of a baby carriage in her room and the voice of her dead son calling out to her. And after a lengthy battle with Hawk and Dove, the zombie Hawk manages to thrust his hand into Hawk's chest to pull out her heart.




This was a pretty interesting comic. I don't have a very strong connection to all these characters, beyond the tenuous relationship they had to Bart. But I do like the idea of people being attacked by the zombies of people they care deeply about on the very day they were thinking most about those people. As for Bart, he still doesn't have too much to do in this story, beyond feeling a little survivor's guilt and wondering about the nature of death and rebirth. While we ponder on those metaphysical questions, let's check out the new ads:

The battle begins! Smallville Season 8 on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Batgirl. A new ongoing series by Bryan Q. Miller and Lee Garbett.

Magog. Exploding from the pages of Justice Society of America. A new monthly series by Keith Giffen and Howard Porter.

The Brave and the Bold by J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz.

The DC Nation page shows a blond man lounging on a beach chair under an umbrella, on top of a massive pile of skulls and bones. The caption reads, "On vacation! Be back soon!" I don't know who the blond man is supposed to be.

Next issue ... Black Lantern Hawks!