Teen Titans #100

Family Reunion

J.T. Krul -- Writer
Nicola Scott -- Penciller
Doug Hazlewood, Jack Purcell & Greg Adams -- Inkers
Travis Lanham -- Letterer
Jason Wright -- Colorist
Nicola Scott & Doug Hazlewood with Wright -- Cover
Phil Jimenez & Jeromy Cox -- Variant Cover
Rickey Purdin -- Asst. Editor
Rachel Gluckstern -- Editor

Our cover shows our current team triumphantly, and angrily, charging forward. It certainly is an explosive image, although I wish our heroes weren't so angry — especially Superboy with the angry glowing red eyes of hate. But this really is a decent cover, choosing a fitting pose for the conclusion of this series. There's a million creator names listed on the cover, but that's because this issue includes eight pages of random "pin-up" images celebrating the history of the Teen Titans.

Our variant cover is an even more fitting image for this issue — not just as the conclusion of this particular Teen Titans series, but the conclusion of this Teen Titans continuity as a whole. And Phil Jimenez is one of the few artists who can comfortably cram 50 characters on one cover. There's a 90% chance your favorite Teen Titan is on here, and they won't look half bad, either.

Our story picks up with Headcase using the Golden Gate Bridge to attack Titans Tower. Luckily, our heroes are joined by a dozen of their former teammates to protect the tower from Superboy-Prime and his team of villains. Prime is personally beating on Superboy, blaming him for somehow being responsible for repeatedly pulling him back to this world. So, with no evidence whatsoever, Prime has deduced that the only way for him to get back home is to kill Conner.

Supergirl, Bombshell and Blue Beetle work together to take down the Golden Gate robot, Tim and Damian team up to decapitate Indigo, and Speedy and Ravager knock out the Persuader. Miss Martian is immediately overwhelmed by Sungirl's fire, but Solstice helps her escape. Beast Boy subdues Zookeeper and has Argent create an energy cage around him.

For at least the third time in his career, Red Star launches an all-out attack on Prime, seeking revenge for Pantha and Wildebeest. And, as usual, Prime easily brushes the Russian off. And he would have killed him, too, had Wonder Girl not shoved Prime through the wall of the tower. They end up in the hall of fallen Titans, and Prime punches Cassie into the statue of Kid Devil. Seeing how this unnerves her, Prime mocks her for letting so many Titans die on her watch.

Bart has spent all this time running around in circles with the fake Inertia. But even though Bart was sure last issue this isn't the real Inertia, he begins to have doubts about that now. He eventually grabs hold of this Inertia's wrist and begins to drag him along, just as he had done many times in his virtual reality machine. Bart admits that each time he killed the VR Inertia, it felt better and better. And now he embraces the chance to inflict pain, destroy "Inertia" and avenge himself, reasoning to himself that this imposter deserves it.

Luckily for Bart, Raven was nearby and able to use her powers to not only see Bart's intentions, but give him a warning message to stop. And luckily for us, Bart is not too far down the path of revenge, and he does stop. He looks down at the injured "Inertia" with remorse and sadly admits aloud that he could have killed him. Raven praises Bart for controlling his emotions, and he darkly replies with, "We all got our demons inside." Bart then quickly pulls Raven out the way of a psychic blast from Headcase, saying, "Your boyfriend is crazy for you." Raven pulls Headcase into her soul-self and finally expose him to her whole demon side.

Superboy is naturally upset to watch his friends battle three clones of himself. So he tells Rose to get the box from his room. The bald Superboy clone breaks her arm on the way, but Rose manages to find the box, revealing a Kryptonite stake. She promptly jams the stake through the clone's heart, killing him instantly. Rose tosses the Kryptonite down to Damian, who uses it to kill the other two Superboy clones.

With that, the only villain left standing is Superboy-Prime, who is still duking it out with Wonder Girl. The rest of our heroes join the fight, with everybody getting in a hit. And I mean everybody. Amazingly, they are able to knock Prime out. Ravager and Damian both suggest they finish Prime once and for all, but Solstice, Miss Martian and Tim object to the idea of murder. Conner points out that locking him away won't do any good, so they need to find a more permanent solution. Tim suggests the Phantom Zone, but Conner had something else in mind. So Superboy and Supergirl fly Prime out to the Source Wall, telling him this isn't a prison — it's the end.

Later, Conner catches up with Rose in his room, and from the window, we can see the Golden Gate Bridge has already been rebuilt. Rose supports Conner's decision and empathizes with him being manipulated by Prime, referencing her own history with her father. Conner tells her he keeps the Kryptonite stake for himself, just in case somebody takes control of him again. And now he entrusts it to her.

Beast Boy catches up with Raven, and they finally have a frank and honest discussion that ends with a kiss. Everybody else eventually joins them outside, with Cassie teasing Conner about his old haircut, and Rose angrily shoving Bart aside, calling him freckles. And poor Bart utters the last spoken words of the issue — "What'd I do?" — as the Teen Titans form one last pose in the sunlight.

And that's that. The end of this era of the Teen Titans. Next issue will be in the post-Flashpoint world and nothing will be the same. So ... was this a fitting conclusion for this group? I ... guess so? It was certainly a big, bombastic fight with lots of guest stars. But none of those guest stars really did anything. And we never found out where half of those villains came from. And everything wrapped up way too easily — that is by far the weakest Superboy-Prime has ever been. So weak, in fact, that I almost want to consider this an out-of-continuity story. But what does it matter? The continuity is over, anyway.

The biggest problem with this last story was the rushed nature of the whole affair. Bart had a rather compelling moment with the fake Inertia, but we never had time to explore who or what this imposter was. Truthfully, this complaint applies to all the villains in this story, if you really look into it. And what was the deal with Superboy's piece of Kryptonite? Why did he take it away from Wonder Girl? Just because they're not dating anymore doesn't mean he can't trust her anymore to stop him if he turns evil.

On a whole, it's hard to look at the J.T. Krul run without thinking of his unfulfilled promises. Ravager was supposed to be looking for her mother. The new Aqualad was supposed to join the team. Superboy sort of ... almost fell in love with Ravager. Solstice had a big, in-your-face introduction, but we never learned where her powers came from. And Bart's mad dash to remember all futuristic technology resulted in just one invention — his virtual reality chamber. However, I was quite happy we were able to spend a little bit of time exploring Bart's trauma. So I guess I should appreciate what we did get, and, on a whole, I will have to say Krul's run was mostly satisfactory.

Next time, we'll finally, officially say goodbye to this world with Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #3.