Teen Titans #96

Beast of Legend

JT Krul • Writer
José Luís • Penciller
Sandro Ribeiro and Jonas Trindade • Inkers
Carlos M. Mangual • Letterer
Jason Wright • Colorist
Scott & Hazlewood with Wright • Cover
Rickey Purdin • Asst. Editor
Rachel Gluckstern • Editor

I hate it when covers have ads on them. Because now, even eight years later, we have to be reminded of that awful Green Lantern movie that failed to launch an interconnected DC movie universe. Anyway, looking past that large and obnoxious ad, we see Beast Boy as a gorilla trying to rescue the Teen Titans. I think the "All ape!" line is quite ridiculous, and I wish the background was red instead of white, because the demon world our heroes are trapped on has red skies. But otherwise, this is a fine cover that basically shows what's going to happen in this issue.

Our story begins with a flashback of a slightly younger Kiran reading the Ramayana, and by reading, I mean looking at a book that has pictures next to blank pages with no text because our artists were too lazy to even put fake words on those pages. Kiran reads that Rankor has 10 heads with "each one more evil than the next," which makes absolutely no sense. The great Rama was nervous, but he found strength in his ally, the Monkey King Hanuman.

Kiran asks her dad why Rama chose to fight Rankor, and her dad says it was Rama's destiny, which can't be changed any more than a river can decide to flow upstream. Kiran asks if Rama knew he'd win, and her dad says he had faith in light overcoming darkness. He leaves the tent, taking his flashlight with him, but Kiran continues to read by producing a beam of light with her hand. And we still don't know how she gained that ability!

We then return to the present day, where Kiran's parents, the Teen Titans and Wonder Girl's mom are held in cages on top of each of Rankor's enormous heads. The gigantic figure of Rankor towers over an army of demons, and only Solstice and Beast Boy are free to save the day. For some reason, Beast Boy's fighting with a chip on his shoulder, determined to prove he's not a joke, which is not something anyone has accused him of being in a long time. Well, maybe Damian might have said that once, but why would Gar still be bothered by that?

Anyway, Beast Boy starts fighting the demons as a bear for a bit before realizing that it'd make more sense to turn into a bird and fly right up to his captive teammates. He turns into a gorilla, and just like Bart, he tries to free Cassie first. But when Gar touches the cage, he's electrocuted. Luckily, he's able to recover pretty quickly and sees that Solstice is still on the ground, becoming overwhelmed by the demon horde. So Beast Boy leaps off the top of Rankor and decides to turn into something that will make the demons fear him — a 20-foot tall gorilla/monkey hybrid.

Beast Boy steals one of the larger demon's golden club and easily saves Solstice, who says Gar looks like the Monkey King. So Solstice uses this, announcing to all the demons that the great Hanuman has returned to end their reign once more. Solstice then hops on Beast Boy's back as he climbs up Rankor and they both start freeing all the hostages with blasts of light and whacks with the golden club. In no time at all, everyone is free.

Our heroes retreat to nearest demon-free clearing to catch their breath. Superboy complains that Rankor drained their strength, and Robin observes that Rankor still has their power. Beast Boy was hoping that freeing everybody would take that power away, but Kid Flash explains that they were basically used as jumper cables for the behemoth. Superboy checks on Ravager, who whines that the demon who stole her identity also stole her sword. As Kiran reunites with her parents, Raven goes berserk once again, claiming that this place isn't the cause of their torment, but Solstice is.

Raven attacks Solstice with a blast of dark energy, but Solstice quickly protects herself and her parents with a shield of light. Beast Boy gets Raven to stop, and before anyone can discuss this random outburst, the demon army surrounds our heroes. Kid Flash says he stopped counting the demons after 3,000, and Solstice immediately flies her parents away to an isolated plateau. She promptly heads back to the fight, despite her parents' protests. Solstice says she now knows that this is her fight, so she flies right up to Rankor and says that even though she's not a god like Rama, her light will endure just the same.




I've had a hard time figuring out Beast Boy for a while now. Why is he still with the Teen Titans if he's not going to be the leader? Why does he still care about Raven when she keeps acting completely insane and pushing him away and then accusing him of not caring about her? And what are the extent of his powers? Felicia D. Henderson had Beast Boy turn into a phoenix and a fire-breathing dragon. But these transformations were very quick and dismissed as if there was nothing unusual about them. I'm sorry, but turning into a mythical creature is a big deal, and I think it should be treated as such. And if Beast Boy can easily turn into literally anything he can imagine, why doesn't he do that all the time? He could have helped our team so many times by becoming a giant dragon. What's holding him back?

I am a little torn on this story. On one hand, I do appreciate Krul for bringing in this classic Indian myth that many American readers are likely unfamiliar with. But on the other hand, I still don't and never will like demons. And, more importantly, Krul's buildup to this story was quite clunky. He never told us how Kiran became Solstice. And he basically made everybody act incredibly weak and stupid, just so we could get to this scene of Beast Boy being the Monkey King and Solstice being Rama. But there was absolutely no reason why those two weren't captured, as well. The demons inexplicably decided to leave them free. Luckily, we only have one more issue of this frustrating, exhausting story.

Next time, we'll officially begin Flashpoint. Sadly, Bart does not appear in the main series, but he did get his own three-issue miniseries, Kid Flash Lost.