Blackest Night: Titans #2

Bite the Hand that Feeds

Written by: J.T. Krul
Pencils: Ed Benes
Inks: Scott Williams (pages 1-6) & Ed Benes
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Rob Clark Jr.
Cover by: Benes, Hunter, & Pete Pantazis
Variant Cover by: Brian Haberlin
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Editors: Eddie Berganza & Brian Cunningham

Our cover shows Donna Troy holding her deceased son, who looks like a normal, healthy toddler in her eyes, but in the reflection of the mirror is revealed to be one of the Black Lantern zombies. This is a pretty fun and creepy image, even if it's not 100 percent accurate with the story inside. One interesting thing to note, though, is the baby's teeth. Last issue, Donna was lamenting that Robert died just after growing his second tooth. But now that he's been revived by this unholy evil, he has a mouth full of teeth.

I got this image of the variant cover from mycomicshop.com. It shows the original, zombified Hawk attacking the new Hawk. For some reason, this comes off as rather silly to me. I guess the Zombie Hawk's face looks more goofy than scary.

Our story picks up in Titans Tower, with Donna examining the strange baby carriage that suddenly appeared in her room. But the carriage is empty, except for a rattle with the Black Lantern symbol on it. Suddenly, Donna's deceased husband, Terry, approaches her, holding baby Robert in his arms, casually talking about how the boy wants his mommy. Unlike Beast Boy's initial encounter with Terra, there is no psychic manipulation going on, and Donna clearly sees her family members as decaying zombies. But she's too surprised and confused to react in a rational way. Believing this must be a dream, Donna automatically takes Robert into her arms. The baby immediately sinks his teeth into Donna's neck, as Terry explains this isn't a dream, but a nightmare.

Outside, Starfire and Cyborg are battling Zombie Omen, who has created a bunch of illusions of herself, while Zombie Terra has trapped Beast Boy with some rocks. Terra wants to pull out Gar's heart, but only when it's overwhelmed by a single emotion. Right now, Gar is feeling love, fear, rage and hope, which is thwarting Terra's attempts for the moment. Beast Boy turns into a marten to slip out of the rocks, then a hawk to fly above Terra and land on her as a mastodon. Gar still tries to talk to Terra, but she only repeats her desire to take his heart.

Terra's hand begins to glow black, which sends a lot of pain through Gar's body. But Starfire saves Beast Boy in time, hitting Terra with the full blast of her star bolts, completely incinerating the zombie. Kory apologizes to Gar, explaining that the creature she just blasted wasn't really Terra, and Gar actually tells Kory she did the right thing. They both then turn to help Cyborg, who is caught in a psychic trance by Omen.

In Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Dove can only stand helplessly by as the Zombie Hawk removes Hawk's heart from her chest. Consuming the rage within that heart brings the Black Lantern power levels up to 57.03 percent. The Zombie Hawk then turns on Dove, but is unable to recognize any emotions in her. As Dove battles Hawk, a black ring flies onto Holly Granger's finger, commanding her to rise. So now Dove has two zombie Hawks to fight.

Back in the tower, Donna is pushing away her zombie son that was trying to kill her. With tears in her eyes, she begs her family to stop, saying she doesn't want to hurt them. Luckily for her, Bart and Cassie were still in the tower and hadn't gone to bed yet, and they just happened to hear Donna's screams. Bart rushes in and pulls Donna out into the hall, telling Cassie that she was being attacked by something straight out of the "I Am Legend" movie. As Bart and Cassie examine the black, festering wound on Donna's neck, the zombies see the fear in Bart, the will in Cassie and the hope in Donna.

Outside, we see that Omen has put Cyborg in a paradisiacal psychic state, where he's fully human and relaxing in the bright sun. Omen does a similar thing to Starfire, sending her back to her wedding with Dick Grayson. The Zombie Terra, meanwhile, repairs herself, quickly regaining the form she had when she began this attack. Terra opens up the earth beneath the tower and begins pulling it down. Our heroes inside the building feel like an earthquake is hitting them, but Bart says he didn't feel any early vibrations, meaning the epicenter of the quake must be directly underneath them.

Unfortunately, Bart was apparently too surprised and confused by this to get Cassie and Donna out before they become buried in the Earth. Cassie asks him to find a path out, but Bart worries about using his powers in such an unstable environment, saying he'd be like Gar in a china shop. If, you know, Gar was a bull. Donna tries to explain to Cassie and Bart what happened, struggling to convince herself that her zombie family members aren't actually her family. But as she talks, the spreading black infection on her neck and face causes her to collapse in pain and her eyes to turn into the Black Lantern symbol.

Outside, Beast Boy is trying in vain to free Starfire and Cyborg from Omen's illusions. And as Terra gloats over finally being able to kill the Titans, she's joined by zombie versions of Aqualad, Aquagirl, Dolphin, Pantha and Wildebeest. Garth's appearance is especially troubling, as he was alive and well when this whole Blackest Night thing began.




I really don't have much to say about this issue. The horror story is continuing, but I don't have a particularly strong emotional connection to most of these characters. And there really didn't seem like there's any reason for Bart to be here. And frankly, I am kind of mixed on the bit of Bart we did get here. On one hand, I do like using Bart to show us how scary all this is. Zombie babies are downright creepy. But on the other hand, I feel like Krul just does not have a great handle on Bart as a character. Being able to feel approaching earthquakes is an odd ability that I've never seen brought up before. And in the time it took Bart to explain that, he could have — and should have — pulled Cassie and Donna out of the building. It was an odd moment.

Well, let's check out the new ads:

got milk? with Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. In the 2008-09 NBA season, Paul was an All-Star, First-Team All-Defense, Second-Team All-NBA, and led the league in assists and steals.

Will the betrayal of one, mean the end for them all? Bleach: The Movie 2.

Prepare for an all-out brawl. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up for Wii and PlayStation 2.

2009 Design Scholarship Challenge, announcing winner Shane McCallion.

A world divided. A journey uncharted. Aion for PC DVD-ROM.

Justice League of America. A new era begins with James Robinson and Mark Bagley.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds collected as a hardcover graphic novel.

The dead have risen! ... And no one is safe! Blackest Night. (Gotta love ads for the very thing you're reading.)

On the DC Nation page, Ian Sattler promotes the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies movie.

Next time, in case you haven't got enough horror, we'll check out a special Kid Flash story in DC's Halloween Special '09.