Teen Titans #97

A Call to Arms

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 Solstice fully unleashing her powers. What's interesting, is that for the first time, her powers are presented negatively. Her trademark smile is gone, and all her teammates are blinded and seem to be in pain. Raven has been completely out-of-her-mind insane since being abducted by the Wyld, but maybe, just maybe, she was right when she called Solstice evil. Or not.

Our story picks up with our heroes battling the numberless army of demons. Even though they all were soundly beaten by them before, and they should theoretically still be weakened by Rankor's cages, they're actually doing a good job now. Robin explains this as the team being "caught off guard" before, but ready now. Wonder Girl claims she always performs better in rematches. Ravager, who complained of having her sword stolen last issue, suddenly has her sword back and is dueling the demon who stole her identity. The demon stabs Ravager in the shoulder, and Superboy kind of freaks out. He heat-blasts the demon into oblivion, and checks on Rose, showing off his scratched, shirtless torso.

Bart tries to joke with Beast Boy about whether this army of demons should be called a horde or a gaggle, but Beast Boy has turned back into his Monkey King form and is very serious right now. He tells Raven to pull herself together. She whines about not being able to, but Beast Boy continues to push the issue until she finally unleashes a large purple blast. I'm not exactly sure what this accomplished, but it did seem to at least open up a direct path to Rankor for our heroes.

So they attack the 10-headed giant. Bart runs circles around Rankor's throne to keep him distracted, while the others mainly try smacking the giant's arms and legs. None of their attacks seem to do anything, until Solstice finally topples the giant with an enormous blast of light directed at its chest. Rankor rises from the rubble, angrily stating that he is everything in this realm. He cause the ground to begin to crack and shake in threat of a volcanic eruption, so Robin orders Raven to teleport the team away.

So Raven takes the Titans, Cassie's mom and Kiran's parents back to the forest, right next to the portal they initially came through, which is conveniently still open. However, Kiran's parents immediately notice that Raven left their daughter behind. Beast Boy is furious, but Raven claims that she meant to bring Solstice back and doesn't know what happened. Robin tells Superboy and Wonder Girl to retrieve Solstice and for the rest of them to go back through the portal. Beast Boy insists on staying, so he and Robin begin arguing about that for a bit.

Solstice, meanwhile, is still battling Rankor, thinking about the story of Rama. Eventually, there is an enormous eruption of lava, conveniently just beyond the spot in the forest where our heroes are arguing. Kiran's parents cry out in distress, but Solstice soon appears, walking untouched through the lava.

Back in Pakistan, Kiran embraces her parents and Bart tries to check on Rose's injured shoulder, but he quickly learns that she only wants that kind of attention from Superboy. She coldly dismisses Bart, calling him "Lightfoot," before rushing to Conner's side. She asks how long it took him to realize the demon was impersonating her, and he falsely says he figured it out right away because the disguised demon was actually nice to him. Ravager begins to stammer, saying she can be nice — in her own way.

While Bart and Gar join Kiran's family in celebrating their safe return, Tim checks on Raven, who's depressed that Gar thought she tried to harm Solstice (which she literally tried to do last issue). Raven says Solstice's powers are having an unexplainable effect on her, so Tim optimistically says they'll try to find the answers together. Everybody heads back onto the T-jet, and even though Kiran was just barely reunited with her parents after they were held captive for two days in a demonic realm, she decides to leave them right then and there and join the Teen Titans.

Well, we're finally done with that overly drawn-out story. A story in which our heroes were inexplicably being beaten to a pulp and captured in record time, suddenly saved the day by ... punching a little bit harder, I guess? A story that put Solstice front and center, but never once explained where her powers came from and showed her ditching her parents five second after rescuing them. A story where Superboy and Ravager suddenly became a couple for no reason and Raven's inconsistent insanity only grew worse. A story that randomly gave Beast Boy a big "Monkey King" moment, but didn't have anything for him to do at the end. A story that I am more than happy to move past without any additional comment.

This probably could have been the last issue of Teen Titans before Flashpoint reset everything. But it would have been a very unsatisfying way to end a series that has, for the most part, been a pretty good one. So next time, we'll begin the mad scramble to reach issue #100 before the New 52.