Teen Titans #94

The Power of Myth

J.T. Krul Writer
Nicola Scott Penciller
Doug Hazlewood Inker
Jason Wright Colorist
Carlos M. Mangual Letterer
Scott & Hazlewood with Wright Cover
Rickey Purdin Asst. Editor
Rachel Gluckstern Editor

Our cover shows our team battling the big, fat, ugly demon (apparently named Viradha), who started beating up Wonder Girl at the end of last issue. I guess for a fight against a big, fat, ugly demon, this cover is alright. Superboy looks pretty bad, but that's typical for Scott. Red Robin and Raven are notably absent, and Wonder Girl's inclusion kind of contradicts the story. She was kidnapped last issue, and everybody's trying to save her ... so really, none of the others should be on the cover, and it should just be Wonder Girl. Meh. At this point, who cares? We're just stalling until Flashpoint.

Our story begins with Solstice briefly recapping the legendary Hindu epic, Ramayana, which tells the story of the god Vishnu being reincarnated as a man named Rama and defeating the demon Rankor. And based on that quick glimpse of the demon they battled, Solstice believes this legend has somehow come to life, and Wonder Girl (and her parents) have been taken to the realm of demons. As she talks, we get a shot of Wonder Girl fighting, and losing to the demon Viradha.

Bart tells Kiran he doesn't think her theory is too far-fetched, referencing their own history with strange encounters. But he also does theorize that Wonder Girl could have been taken through a dimensional portal, merely teleported away, or taken somewhere through time. Ravager asks Tim's opinion, who can only say he hopes this isn't time travel as he examines the area of Cassie's disappearance. Bart quietly asks Kon if he thinks Tim is brooding more than usual, but Kon thinks he's just looking for clues, or his new mask just makes him look grumpier.

Kon asks Rose what she thinks, but all she does is complain about how boys overthink things too much. Beast Boy can tell Raven has been quieter than usual since they landed in Pakistan, but when he reaches out to her, she only melodramatically complains about her burden — her curse. Tim silently blames himself for not insisting that Helena Sandsmark stay back at the camp, and he even thinks he should have paired up Titans differently on their scouting expedition.

Tim eventually finds a clue — the word Rama etched into the stone. He confirms with Solstice a part of the legend, where Rama built a bridge of floating stones to reach the demon's island. Kiran is impressed that an American is familiar with Hindu mythology. And somehow, someway, Tim uses this stone to teleport the Teen Titans to the realm of demons.

Bart immediately finds Wonder Girl's lasso, and rather obviously notes that she wouldn't ever leave it behind. Ravager finds an enormous footprint and speculates (correctly) that the demons here are even bigger and badder than they one they've already faced. Superboy flies up to get a better look at the area, but is only able to see miles of wilderness obscured by dark clouds. Tim picks up Cassie's trail leading deeper into the forest, and Bart offers to run ahead and find her. Tim holds him back, saying they don't know anything about this realm, and they can't afford to risk losing another teammate. Bart, who apparently learned nothing from rescuing Raven from the Wyld, angrily reiterates the obvious: "She's in trouble."

Tim's cooler head prevails, and everybody begins trekking through the forest, unable to prevent themselves from drawing parallels from the Ramayana and their current situation. Ravager even goes so far as to say Solstice is their "Rama." Kiran rejects this, saying she's no hero and certainly not a god. So Ravager turns to Superboy, calling him the "alpha dog" of the team. Kiran, however, offers up Beast Boy as a potential candidate, saying his green skin reminds her of Rama's blue skin in the legend. Raven does not participate in this conversation, choosing to hang in the back and mope. Bart is moping, too, once again complaining to Tim that he could have covered this entire forest in a few seconds. Tim insists it's too dangerous, and right on cue, our team is ambushed by a pack of demon dogs.

Tim quickly learns that the demons are vulnerable between the eyes, but Bart, who's taking on three demons at once, boasts about his attacks of quantity over quality. Everyone seems to be handling the demons fairly well, except for Raven, who has a complete meltdown. She panics, and runs away, forcing Beast Boy to turn into a gorilla and try to save her. Solstice also jumps in to help, but that only makes matters worse, for some reason. Raven's been complaining about Kiran's emotions this whole time, and now it's too much for her, culminating in a massive psychic blast that knocks everybody down.

All the demons retreat, dragging away Red Robin while everyone slowly gets back to their feet. Ravager also was separated from the group, and is beaten by a demon that transforms into a duplicate of her. The fake Ravager then joins up with the others, and Beast Boy tries (in vain) to comfort Raven, calling this area the "Disneyland for demons" that is undoubtedly bringing out the evil within her. Raven uncharacteristically lashes out at Gar, saying, "Just leave me alone. You're so good at that these days."

Bart asks what they're going to do, and Gar says they need to keep an eye on Raven to make sure she doesn't hurt herself or anyone else. Bart clarifies his question, saying Tim is gone and they're nowhere closer to finding Cassie than when they first got here. So Beast Boy naturally falls into the leadership role, telling Bart to conduct a 300-mile search, but not to try to take on any demons himself. Meanwhile, the rest of them will continue heading south, since Tim had them going that direction. Bart loves this plan, and immediately takes off.

We then see Tim and Rose being dragged to cages positioned alongside the throne of Rankor. Cassie and Helena are in two of these cages, but it's unclear if Kiran's parents are here, as well. Rankor refers to the cages as chambers, saying the vessels inside them will feed his hunger and open the way to the world beyond.




This is what I was afraid of. A repeat of the meandering Wyld kidnapping story. There are a couple of little differences, but the main beats are exhaustingly the same. Instead of following up on old storylines Krul introduced, or explaining where Solstice got her powers from, we're splitting up the team and tormenting everybody with boring arguments about how there's no time to lose, yet it's too dangerous to split up. And we've traded out Beast Boy's obsessive worrying about Raven for Raven's incredibly annoying meltdown. And I'm sorry that your demon side is "acting up" Raven, but let's not forget that you were the one who broke up with Beast Boy and has continually been pushing him away. And despite that, he keeps reaching out to you. Over and over again. So you don't get to yell at him for leaving you alone.

The Wyld storyline suffered from an overly convoluted method to transport our team to the other dimension. This story went to the other extreme in that regard. Our team suddenly, somehow teleported to a realm of demons without any explanation offered or requiring seemingly any effort on their part. Why can't we have a happy medium between those two extremes?

I'm really frustrated by Bart's stupidity here. When he read the entire San Francisco public library, he undoubtedly must have come across the Ramayana. So how come Tim is the only one who knows anything about this classic myth? I was frustrated when Geoff Johns made Bart an insufferable know-it-all, but it's been quite a while since we've seen that side of Bart. All I'm asking for is a couple of lines to indicate that he's familiar with the story. And maybe it wouldn't kill Krul to mention rescuing Raven from the Wyld? Like Bart could tell Tim the benefits and drawbacks they had with their strategy from that mission. But what do I know?

Next time, we'll head back to The Flash #11.