Teen Titans #95

How the Mighty Fall

JT 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 Ravager kissing Superboy, but Superboy is clearly not into it. And the mysterious shadow/colorful designs all over Ravager indicate some foul magic is at play here. Plus, if you remember how Rose got replaced by a demon last issue, then you know for sure that this isn't the real Rose. It's a rather strange cover, in that I'm not sure why such a small moment in the story is getting this much attention. Of course, this reminds me of that preview page Krul gave us when he took over, which showed Conner kissing a different girl, much to Cassie's sorrow. I don't think this is what he what he had in mind back then, but with the fast-approaching Flashpoint, this is probably as close as we're going to get to see that scene.

Our story picks up with Wonder Girl struggling, but failing to escape from Rankor's prison. As he mockingly explains to her, the nine chambers flanking his throne drain the prisoners' energy, fueling his efforts to restore his true form. Even though Cassie has experience with the Greek gods and countless other monsters, she finds she's completely powerless against this Hindu demon. But help is on the way, in the form of Kid Flash. Bart has quickly found Cassie, her mom, Ravager, Red Robin, and Kiran's parents, but instead of going back to tell the others, like Beast Boy told him, Bart stupidly tries to free everybody himself.

Bart fights his way past a couple of demons, and when Cassie sees him, she weakly asks him to save her mom first. But Bart chooses Cassie first, attempting to vibrate through the chambers. However, Bart finds some kind of magic preventing this, and Rankor mocks Kid Flash, before vomiting up a massive swarm of locusts. Bart's unable to blow the bugs away, and realizes that he made a major mistake by not listening to Beast Boy.

Bart also spots the real Ravager being held captive, realizing that the Ravager with the others is an imposter. But it's too late for him to do anything about that, as the swarming locusts also somehow drain his energy. So the best Bart can do is try to send some kind of signal out to his team. He grabs a torch and races around the area, creating the biggest fire he can, before the bugs finally cover every inch of his body and hold him in place.

Elsewhere, Beast Boy has finally decided to turn into a bloodhound to properly track the missing people. He complains that the demons are able to mix their scents with the Titans', but he's confident he has a lock on Cassie. Gar complements Kiran on being so composed in light of her parents' disappearance, and she casually brushes it off as change being the only constant in life. Kiran is, however, upset by Raven's treatment of her. So now it's Gar's turn to brush something off, as he blames Raven's behavior on their breakup.

The demon posing as Ravager hungrily gazes at Superboy's body, saying aloud that her lord will gladly feast on his power. Superboy, who has super hearing, didn't quite catch that, and the demon tries to cover up her weird behavior by acting afraid. Superboy's a bit confused by this, but he does want to help, allowing the demon to hold him close. The demon suddenly kisses Superboy, then hastily runs away when Superboy recoils in shock. Superboy chases after her and tries to console the fake Rose, believing she's just having a nervous breakdown in this demon realm.

But it turns out the demon led Conner into an ambush, where he's attacked by another demon with six arms. Superboy tries to protect the fake Rose, but she also attacks him from behind. In no time flat, the two demons have the Boy of Steel completely subdued. The other Titans finally catch up, and Solstice immediately attacks the demon impersonating Ravager. Raven idiotically scolds Solstice for attacking a teammate, until Solstice points out that the fake Ravager was obviously a demon.

Beast Boy turns into a bear to free Superboy from the grasp of the six-armed demon, and he tells Raven to get Superboy to safety. Solstice helps Beast Boy fight the six-armed demon, but that leaves the shape-shifting demon to turn into Raven to mock her. It just takes a couple of words about darkness and pain to trigger another Raven meltdown, but this time, instead of unleashing a powerful blast, she just faints harmlessly. The six-armed demon smacks Solstice and Beast Boy with Superboy's unconscious body, which buys him enough time to teleport away with the other demon, Raven and Superboy. Beast Boy and Solstice are left behind, sadly realizing that everyone else is gone.

With the addition of Kid Flash, Superboy and Raven, Rankor's chambers are now filled, and he announces to his demons that this will give him enough power to break free of this realm and take over the real world. All the chambers glow red, and the prisoners inside are electrocuted painfully. We then see that each chamber is on top of a large head, which is on top of an even larger body with 10 arms. And Rankor is sitting on the very top of this massive 10-headed, 10-armed beast, declaring himself restored.




I hate this story. I hate demons. And I really hate it when my characters act stupidly out of character and are portrayed as incredibly weak and stupid. Setting the Raven/Wyld arc aside, you'd think Bart would know by now that nobody can take on these demons alone. And he's more than experienced enough to know what to do in a situation like this. He's not a terribly proud person, and I don't think he's acting irrationally because of love or anything like that. He was briefly infatuated with Solstice a couple of issues ago, but he hasn't said anything about that since. It all came down to Krul looking for a way to capture the whole team and leave Beast Boy and Solstice to save the day. But Krul's execution was sloppy. Absolutely nothing involving Raven makes sense here. And why should I get excited for Solstice's big moment? I still don't know anything about her!

Next time, we'll hasten the arrival of Flashpoint with The Flash #12.