Blackest Night: Titans #3

"When Doves Cry"

Writer: JT Krul
Art: Ed Benes
Color: Hi-Fi Design
Letter: Rob Clark Jr.
Cover: Ed Benes, Rob Hunter & Rod Reis
Variant Cover: George Pérez
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Editors: Brian Cunningham & Eddie Berganza

Our main cover shows a frightened, beat-up Dove surrounded by a handful of Black Lantern zombies. It's not a particularly original pose, but it is effective. And as we'll see inside, this confrontation is the key of the whole miniseries.

I got this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. It is fitting that George Pérez was brought in to draw the zombie versions of so many of the characters that he and Marv Wolfman either created or popularized. Of course, Phantasm doesn't actually appear in this issue, but who's counting?

Our story begins with Donna Troy continuing to wrestle with the happy memories of her family against the horrific sight of her deceased husband and son attacking her as zombies. Donna (still in her pajamas) is still buried in the Titans Tower with Wonder Girl and Kid Flash. And although our heroes have been cautious to not move too much to worsen the cave-in, the zombie Terry and baby Robby have shown no such caution and are fast approaching.

Donna tells Bart to get her costume so she can fight the zombies. Cassie tells Donna she shouldn't fight because she's injured, but Donna insists that this is one battle she has to fight.

Outside, Beast Boy finally frees Cyborg and Starfire from Omen's illusions by turning into a stegosaurus and smacking both Omen and Terra. Beast Boy quickly alerts his friends to the new Black Lantern zombies, and they immediately begin battling Pantha, Wildebeest, Tempest, Aquagirl and Dolphin. But Beast Boy still has a hard time fighting Terra, who tries once again to remove his heart, seeing the fear and love in it.

Suddenly, Donna punches her zombie husband up out of the ground. Bart and Cassie emerge right behind her, with Bart noting the death of Garth and worrying who else has been killed by the Black Lanterns. Donna finally manages to put aside all her conflicting memories and the manipulative words of the zombies and run her fist through Terry's chest before grabbing baby Robby and tearfully snapping his neck.

Perhaps inspired by this, Beast Boy launches an all-out attack on Terra, hitting her as a cheetah, lion and bear. He says he realizes this zombie isn't the real Terra, but he also finally admits that deep down, he always knew the real Terra was a traitor. Seeing Gar's heart consumed by rage, the zombie Terra mockingly says he's still in love with her. Beast Boy says he knows, as he rips Terra in half.

The zombie Garth attacks Bart with a shower of ice shards, saying this should remind him of the icy chill of being beaten to death by the Rogues. Garth also notes that Bart should have stayed dead, but "he" wanted Bart back. And then Dove comes out of nowhere to attack Garth (don't ask me how she went from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and back so quickly).

Omen haunts Cassie with images of Robin and Superboy fighting for her love, but Donna quickly saves her by snapping Omen's neck. But to Donna's horror, the zombies Terry and Robby have quickly reformed. Dove is also heartbroken by this sight, and collapses to her knees in despair, saying the zombies can't be stopped. The zombie Holly attacks Dove, and tries to remove her heart. But the Black Lantern can't identify the white emotion in Dove. And as Holly touches Dove, the zombie begins shrieking in pain. The Black Lantern ring says "connection severed," and soon all that's left of Holly is a smoking pile of dust.

All the other zombies suddenly stop fighting our heroes and immediately head toward Dove, identifying her as their only true threat. Dove quickly begins to figure out what's going on, and she advises the Titans to stay away. As the zombies close in on her, she manages to emit a large blast of white energy, which disintegrates all the zombie except for Terra, Hawk and Garth. Exhausted by this, Dove momentarily falls unconscious, where she sees a vision of the original Dove, Don. He urges her to not give up on the original Hawk, Hank.

When Dove wakes up, she sees the three remaining zombies have fled, and no one really has the heart to chase after them just yet. Donna asks Dove what she did, and Dove isn't quite able to explain it, other than she knows those zombies, including Holly, are now gone. Donna says they should go stop those three runaways, but Bart suddenly receives a super-speed message from his grandpa Barry Allen. He tells the others that, according to Barry, dead heroes are rising all over the world.

While Bart relays the rest of Barry's message to Donna and Cassie, Cyborg pulls Beast Boy aside, urging him to not let these head games get to him. Gar admits he chose to look past Terra's treachery and believe she was a good person deep down because he loved her. Vic says it's a good thing to hope for the best in people, but Gar just chose the wrong girl. Gar confidently says the right girl for him is still out there, and he'll find her eventually.

Donna gathers everyone together, saying they need to get Dove to the front lines of this war. She also tells Dove to stay close to her, saying she can feel the Black Lantern power spreading in her, and she needs Dove to kill her if she becomes one of them. As Donna looks at her teammates, one of her eyes becomes a Black Lantern eye, enabling her to see their emotions. Dove is pure white, but everybody else is a mix of colors. Beast Boy, rage, hope and will; Starfire, rage and love; Cyborg, will and rage; Wonder Girl, hope, rage and fear; Kid Flash, hope and fear.




This was a pretty good miniseries. Ed Benes is a solid artist (even if he's obsessed with scantily clad, overly sexualized women). And J.T. Krul has a good handle on these characters. Of course, this story focuses mainly on Donna Troy, Terra and Hawk and Dove — characters I care very little about — I did like the little bit of Bart we got here. He and Cassie, the youngest of this group, are understandably still full of fear after all of this. But Bart's quick conversation with his grandpa has given him a great amount of hope to balance out that fear. And that brings me to the best thing about this miniseries — it lines up perfectly with the main Blackest Night series. And it made its publication deadlines (a rarity at DC in this era).

Let's check out the new ads:

Red-hot adventure. Subzero rescue. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident – The Graphic Novel.

The Soul. A new way to roll. KIA.

Naruto Shippuden available for the first time on DVD. This was a fantastic series that unfortunately suffered from a prolonged, meandering ending.

Tekken 6. This is your fight. For Xbox 360 and PlayStation.

The dark knight. The man of bronze. Batman/Doc Savage Special.

The Authority and WildCats. Can they save their harsh new world?

The DC Nation page is by Simona, talking about Catwoman.

What mattered the most was remembered the least. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for Nintendo DS. I'm slowly making my way through these games. They don't make a lick of sense, but they are kind of fun.

Next time, we'll see exactly what Barry told Bart in Blackest Night #4.