Teen Titans #3

Better to Burn Out ... Than to Fade Away

Story by Scott Lobdell
Pencils by Brett Booth
Inks by Norm Rapmund
Colors by Andrew Dalhouse
Cover by Booth, Rapmund and Dalhouse
Letters by Dezi Sienty
Assistant Editor Katie Kubert
Editor Bobbie Chase

Our cover shows Red Robin meeting the next new member of the Teen Titans, Bunker. And, as usual, this initial meeting is a fight. Even though we already know Bunker is a good guy, who will join the team. Heck, they don't even really fight each other in this issue, anyway. But why should Booth and company let that stop them?

For the third-straight issue, our story opens on Kid Flash, who is exactly eight seconds into his escape attempt. Sometime between last issue, he learned that he has been kidnapped by an organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E., which is apparently kidnapping other metahuman teenagers ... even though he's only seen one other prisoner so far. And that prisoner is Solstice, who begged Kid Flash to help her last issue, but has now suddenly changed her mind and is telling Kid Flash to save himself, claiming it's too late for her. Kid Flash refuses to leave her behind, and decides, for some reason, that he needs something to hold her with. So he quickly finds a firehose, beats up a few more guards, and types in numbers on the lock pad until the door to their freedom opens.

Kid Flash rushes Solstice out into the middle of a blizzard. When she asks where they are, he obnoxiously cites the Farmer's Almanac to deduce they're somewhere in the Antarctic. And just like a cartoon character who doesn't fall until he realizes he's run off the cliff, Kid Flash doesn't trip until Solstice questions the traction of his sneakers (he should only have one, but the art is a bit unclear). Bart's trip is devastating, as it sends the two of them tumbling into a large ravine.

Kid Flash hopefully asks Solstice if she can fly, and to his surprise, she can. And to his great intrigue, she notes that she can "still fly," implying that N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has been experimenting on her. Kid Flash starts asking a bunch of questions, but Solstice complains his thoughts are too much for her head, and she falls back down on the snow.

Exhausted and freezing, Kid Flash can only weakly crawl forward, when he suddenly discovers a street right in front of him. It has a cobblestone road and is lined with flower and dress shops. Kid Flash doesn't know where the street came from, but he knows he has to get inside before the snow piles up too deep.




That two-page spread with Kid Flash running around to save Solstice and stopping to go to the bathroom was rather clever. And I do like the concept of this mysterious street, since I know what's happening there. Otherwise, I am a bit frustrated with how inconsistent these first three issues have been, and I always, always hate it when characters suddenly know things that they shouldn't know — or didn't know last issue. And I discovered another aspect of Booth's art that I hate. He draws really ugly signs. Normally, this is tolerable, as it's just buried in the background. But in this case, with this mystical street suddenly appearing to save Kid Flash and Solstice, those storefronts became much more significant.

We have one new ad for the Superboy series, also written by Scott Lobdell. It's nice that he can keep Superboy and Teen Titans in the same continuity.

Next time, we'll finally see Superboy meet the Teen Titans in issue #4.