Teen Titans #90

Shedding Some Like on the Subject

J.T. Krul – Writer
Nicola Scott – Penciller
Doug Hazlewood – Inker
Sal Cipriano – Letterer
Jason Wright – Colorist
Rachel Gluckstern – Editor
Scott & Hazlewood with Wright – Cover
Karl Kerschl – Variant Cover

Our cover puts our heroes in the middle of a horror scene in a high school. It's kind of an obvious setting that has been surprisingly overlooked for much of this series. These guys are high school age, so they really should spend some time battling some kind of threat in the hallways. Poor Kid Flash is down for the count, as Robin is naturally first to strike out at whatever presumably tore up those lockers. It's a fine cover, but it does illustrate one of my problems with Scott's work. She always insists on drawing every single one of Bart's muscles, making him very tense and stiff, even when he should be relaxed because he's unconscious.

Our variant cover puts Kid Flash front and center, with Robin, Beast Boy and Superboy trying (and failing to keep up). I love Kerschl's style and I think he drew a fantastic Wally West here. But I don't really blame Kerschl for this. That's the way Bart looks in the comics right now. I don't know who decided that, but that's what happened. His hair is now red, instead of brown, and his eyes are every other color except his original yellow. I guess things like this happen to characters who don't have their own series to anchor down their looks and personalities.

Our story begins at Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan, where Kiran is reading a book by the fireside, while her parents have taken a lantern to return to the dig site once more. Even though they've essentially uncovered everything by now, Vijay and Rani's fascination is now bordering on obsession. Kiran sees her father's lantern go out from a distance, and she assumes he forgot to fill it with enough oil for this nighttime expedition. So she walks out to them, but can only find the lantern abandoned on the ground. Kiran then somehow produces a stream of light from her hand, as she begins to panic about her missing parents.

In Titans Tower, Wonder Girl and Raven are coming through their databases, trying to figure out who is the Barney kid they fought yesterday. The computer is running a facial recognition program, but is unable to find anything on the social media sites. Raven isn't surprised by this, speaking of the "tidal wave of loneliness" she felt in Barney.

Robin and Ravager are training in the gym, and Ravager finally realizes that the way she sees Robin — as a little ball of hate trying to atone for the sins of his parent — is the same way everybody else sees her. So she awkwardly tries to reach out to him, but he immediately shuts her down. Meanwhile, Beast Boy finds Superboy up on the roof and asks him if he's been out all night and has just come back, or if he's preparing to head out right now. Conner says he stayed at the tower all night because Cassie asked them to stay close. He said he liked the way the Titans used to run, essentially as a weekend-only club, and he laments that this current 24-7 setup is putting a strain on his Smallville life. Gar brightly says that Conner should be thankful he's fast enough to easily commute between San Francisco and Smallville, but that doesn't really cheer Conner up.

Speaking of fast, Bart suddenly comes streaking across the bay, returning from a trip to the library. The computer's facial recognition program was running too slow for him, so he decided to check out the library's catalogue of yearbooks from all the local schools. Unfortunately, Bart chose to politely wait for the library to open at 10 o'clock, so he wasn't able to discover Barney's identity earlier.

Anyway, Bart has identified yesterday's threat as Barney Venton of Walker High School, and Cassie astutely realizes that school is likely Barney's first target. Sure enough, Barney has done just that, storming into a hallway deserted except for a jock and his pretty girlfriend. Barney shoves the jock's head into a locker, but even though the locker door crumpled, the jock didn't seem to be injured. The girl tells Barney not to be a spaz, so he backhands her, but nearly breaks his hand against her steel-like skin.

Barney is too determined to exact his revenge on these popular kids to pick up on the clues, and he unleashes a powerful psychic blast that destroys the entire row of lockers, but still fails to injure the boy and girl. Doctor Caligan fortunately arrives just then and explains that he had worked on those two, as well. He promised to help the jock become the best football player ever and to help the girl preserve her perfect skin forever. Caligan leads the three teens into the cafeteria and explains that he views the entire school as a petri dish filled with specimens to study. And, with Barney's help, he wants to put this experiment into an isolated environment for observation.

By the time Raven teleports the Teen Titans to the school, Barney has already begun burying it. Luckily, our heroes manage to slip inside just in the nick of time. Surprisingly, they find the hallways empty. Bart takes off to scout out the area, and Damian complains about sitting around and doing nothing while Kid Flash zips around the school. Cassie says it'll only take Bart a few seconds and that he'll radio them when he finds something. Beast Boy adds that Bart isn't compelled to do everything alone and is actually a team player.

Just when Bart begins to wonder if it's spring break at the school, he finally finds a girl lying on the ground. But when Bart tries to check on her, the girl electrocutes him with an exposed wire from a power box Bart didn't notice. The Titans hear Bart's cries over the radio, and Robin immediately springs into action. Cassie asks Conner to go with him, but Conner stubbornly refuses. So Ravager offers to stick with Robin. Wonder Girl then comes up with an impromptu plan, telling Ravager and Robin to take the west wing, while Beast Boy and Superboy take the east wing, and she and Raven head directly to Kid Flash.

The girl who knocked out Bart notes that he's "kinda cute," but suggests taking him to Dr. Caligan to get rid of his freckles. (And I silently scream to myself that Bart's not supposed to have freckles!) Raven and Wonder Girl show up, and the girl asks Cassie if she can have her boots. Cassie immediately punches the girl in the jaw, only to learn firsthand of her skin of steel. As Cassie battles the girl, she has Raven take Bart away to her astral plane to keep him safe.

Beast Boy and Superboy, meanwhile, report that all the classrooms are empty. But when they head into the gym, they find Barney and the jock waiting for them. As Superboy battles the jock, Barney begins tossing parts of the bleachers at Beast Boy, who easily dodges the planks of wood by turning into a wolf. Cassie hears this fight over the radio and tells Raven to go help the boys, but Raven decides it'd be better to teleport all three of them to the gym.

Raven once again tries to reach out to Barney, but he refuses to listen. In fact, he only gets angrier at her appearance and destroys the entire gym floor. The boy and girl both fall straight to the basement, but Superboy and Wonder Girl stay in the gym by flying, and Beast Boy turns into a large bird to catch Raven. Robin hears this over the radio and offers his and Ravager's assistance, but Wonder Girl tells them to try to find the students in the cafeteria.

So Robin and Ravager head straight to the cafeteria, complaining that it's clear on the other side of the school. Damian admits he feels much more comfortable in the alleys of Gotham than the hallways of a school, and Rose says she wouldn't go to school even if somebody paid her to. The two of them are too wrapped up in their conversation to notice Dr. Caligan lurking in the shadows. Eventually, they make it to the cafeteria, and find the entire student body has been turned feral. And this actually makes Robin and Ravager happy, as they were both hoping for a good fight.




This is a pretty good story. It's frustrating that the boy and girl who also were given superpowers weren't given names, forcing me to keep referring to them as "the boy and girl." And Dr. Caligan's motivations are still unclear. Was this all a trap to lure out the Teen Titans? Because I don't think he really needed to study the result of his feral serum — that's how this whole adventure started. But, at the root of this story is the very relatable feeling many high schoolers feel of wanting to strike back at all their bullies and people who made their lives unbearable. As well as the general pressures of adolescence, that can so easily be manipulated.

I was a bit bummed that Bart was so easily knocked out. And what's taking him so long to recover? I thought all speedsters could quickly bounce back from just about any injury. As for the rest of the team dynamics, Conner and Cassie are still being stupid. But Damian and Rose are actually forming a cute, if violent, friendship. Luckily for Bart, Damian is still too young for Rose.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at Superboy #3.