Teen Titans #92

On the Shoulders of Titans Part II

J.T. Krul – Writer
Georges Jeanty – Penciller
Rob Hunter – Inker
Jason Wright – Colorist
Sal Cipriano – Letterer
Ricky Purdin – Assistant Editor
Rachel Gluckstern – Editor
Nicola Scott & Doug Hazlewood w/Wright – Cover
Special thanks to Fabian Nicieza!

Our cover is almost the perfect example of what to do for a crossover. The guest of honor is placed front and center, with the regular cast heroically posed behind him. The only real knock here is Raven is conspicuously absent, but otherwise this is a pretty decent cover. Yeah, the background is quite bland, but that's OK because I'm just excited to see Tim actually working with his old friends again.

Our story picks up in Istanbul, with the Teen Titans battling an army of Calculator robots in front of a nightclub. Most of the civilians have fled away, and the half-dozen robots we saw previously has suddenly multiplied into several dozen. As Tim and Damian fight side-by-side, we see both of them feel a bit awkward and resentful to be working together with the Teen Titans. For everyone else, though, it's just business as usual.

Superboy has taken to tossing robots high up in the air as they explode, and Damian prepares another android for him, ordering the "Clone Boy" to take care of it. Kon asks Tim how he puts up with the "little snot" and Tim says he actually tries to avoid him as much as possible. Kon says he refuses to call Damian Robin, since Tim will always be his Robin. Tim mockingly says that Kon will always be his Clone Boy, so Kon suggests trading both of them in for Batgirl.

Wonder Girl suggests they gather up all the robots into one big pile to help further protect the bystanders, but Raven worries about the gigantic explosion the bombs will create. However, Kid Flash is easily able to contain the blast. The real Calculator, meanwhile, is watching all this from his monitor room. He's not too surprised to see the Teen Titans are destroying his creations, and he is filled with hatred at the sight of Wonder Girl, as he blames her for the death of his son, Marvin.

Our heroes enter the nightclub and are a little surprised that nobody noticed the massive explosion that was just outside the building. Tim has tracked the robot's signals to somewhere beneath the club, but Raven is unable to isolate the Calculator's emotional signal because there's too many people around them. So Superboy simply blasts open a hole in the ground with his heat vision. All the partygoers flee the nightclub, and Wonder Girl helps Superboy tear open the reinforced door protecting Calculator's hideout.

The Calculator, however, smugly says his middle name is "Contingency," as he unleashes several more robots, much larger and stronger than the other models. Tim urges his teammates to find the robots' weak points, and Damian naturally mocks that suggestion. Ravager notes that Damian seems to be ramping up his snark factor for his brother, which prompts Damian and Tim to simultaneously say they're not brothers. But the two Robins do manage to work together to take one of the robots down.

Wonder Girl, however, is trapped in one of the robot's tentacle arms and brought forward to the Calculator's monitors. He shows her videos of how he kidnapped and tortured Kid Eternity in a vain attempt to be reunited with Marvin. After Kid Eternity's powers were drained, Calculator killed him. Wonder Girl becomes enraged by this news and manages to break free from the robot, but is promptly blasted from behind by another robot with heat vision. The rest of heroes are quickly becoming wrapped up in the tentacle arms, and Tim points out that if they take out the Calculator, they'll be able to stop all the androids. Damian is able to get one hand free and toss a batarang at the Calculator's computer, instantly shutting down the robots.

Cassie immediately grabs the Calculator, intent on avenging the death of Kid Eternity. Ravager and Damian encourage her to kill the villain, but Tim convinces her not to. So Cassie tosses the man aside, and weeps in Raven's arms, saying she's failed so many times. Damian helps the Calculator up and shocks everybody by stabbing him in the gut with his batarang. But everyone is even more shocked to see that the Calculator was also a robot, a fact that even surprises the Calculator bot himself. Damian boasts to Tim that he isn't the only detective around here and that he knew this truth all along. The Calculator begins shouting that he's a real person, and Cassie says he isn't, but she hopes he can feel pain as she pushes him onto his damaged computer, creating a small electrical explosion. And Cassie seems to have gotten her wish, as the Calculator does scream quite a bit as he's destroyed.

Wonder Girl then asks Tim why he stopped her if he knew it was a robot all along. Tim tells her that she didn't know that, and he didn't want her to think she had actually killed a real person. Kon asks how it didn't it was an android, and Tim can only speculate that it was programmed to be delusional, much like the real Calculator. Kon offers to completely melt it down, but Tim wants to keep it, saying they might be able to use it to track down the real Calculator. Kon notes Tim's use of the word "we," and Bart jumps in, too, with, "What do you say, Tim? Titans together?" But Damian interrupts this touching moment by asking to be taken back to Gotham. He complains that these "fools" get in his way too much, then adds that they still have a Robin.

So the Titans do drop Damian off in Gotham, but Tim tries to convince him one last time to stay. But Damian says it's rather obvious who they prefer to have around. Tim notes that Damian doesn't exactly make it easy for people to get along with him, but Damian scoffs at the notion of jumping through Tim's hoops, adding that he thought the whole point of the Titans was to be yourself. Tim concedes that in Damian's case, he could probably try to be a little less like himself. Damian says he did try, and takes off into the night.

When he reunites with Batman, Dick observes some pleasant changes in Damian from his short stint as a Teen Titan. Damian's more patient, less violent, and even picked up a few new moves. But Dick doesn't say any of this to Damian, only that he's sorry his time with the team was a bust. Damian says it's not Dick's fault, adding that he's already got one friend here in Gotham and that's more than enough for him.




I'm glad that Krul is going back to almost forgotten moments and characters like Marvin and Kid Eternity. Anytime a Titan dies, that should have powerful, lasting consequences on the team for a long time afterward. However, I do kind of wish he would take some time to address all the dangling plot threads from Felicia D. Henderson's run. Yes, I know it sucked, but I still would like to know what happened to Blue Beetle, Miss Martian, Static Shock and the rest.

Anyway, this story wasn't too bad, enough if it was a bit rushed, and all our heroes suddenly became incredibly incompetent against those robots. And the whole bit with the Calculator being a robot was slightly lame, as neither Tim nor Damian explained how they actually knew he was a robot. It was a rather contrived setup to give us a "shocking" moment with Damian and an "emotional" moment with Cassie wanting to kill a man. And let's not forget about the rather dismal art to this issue. Half the time Superboy looked like a 60-year-old former boxer who had his nose smashed in one too many times.

OK, so there were a lot of problems with this issue. But the main takeaway was Tim' return to the team! Yes, he has a kind of lame costume now (although his mask is more practical) and an even lamer name, Red Robin (I'll never accept that), but he is back! And I actually liked Damian's hasty decision to quit. He is still just a kid, after all, and it makes sense for him to become jealous of the love Tim is receiving that he clearly is not. Sure, these Titans aren't bad guys and they'd eventually learn to work with Damian. But he's not ready for that yet, so he's retreated back to the comfort of home.

Next time, we'll finally check in on the whole Flash family (albeit briefly) in The Flash #9.