Saturday, September 28, 2019

Teen Titans #20


Only Begotten

Scott Lobdell Writer
Eddy Barrows and Patrick Zircher Penciller
Beber Ferreira and Patrick Zircher Inkers
Alex Sinclair and Pete Pantazis Colorists
Travis Lanham Letterer
Barrows, Ferreira & Sinclair Cover
Anthony Marques Assistant Editor
Mike Cotton Editor
Eddie Berganza Group Editor
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

Our cover shows an evil Red Robin standing triumphantly over his fallen teammates. And the "X" on his cowl is reminiscent of Red X from the Teen Titans cartoon. Exciting, right? Well ... turns out this cover is as empty and hollow as the Red X character that never got a backstory. Nothing remotely close to this scene happens this issue. And I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to quickly drop the whole "evil Red Robin" plot. However, I will actually compliment an ad on the cover for once. This Man of Steel ad is sleek and unobtrusive — essentially the exact opposite of those old Arrow ads.

A word of warning as we begin this story: I had so much whiplash, I went back to issue #19 six times to see if I missed anything. And I can only conclude that Scott Lobdell failed to go back to issue #19, even though we have a rare editor's note urging us to go back to last issue. So, if things feel out of place, don't blame me!

Our story begins in the chaotic Times Square in New York City. Trigon is gone (he apparently vanished in a tiny flash of light I missed in the background of the final panel of last issue). Psimon is no longer unconscious and Raven is no longer evil. In fact, she's joining the Titans in berating Psimon for killing two dozen soldiers. But Solstice's words carry more weight than Raven's, and Psimon tries to kill her, prompting Kid Flash to nearly beat him to death.


Bizarrely, Red Robin decides that Raven is good now, completely overlooking the fact that mere minutes ago, she was ordering Beast Boy to capture and nearly kill them. A news copter soon shows up, but Raven somehow obscures the media's vision to make up for the grief she caused. Beast Boy wakes up and recognizes the Titans as the ones who saved him from Harvest.

Without warning, Raven attacks Wonder Girl, spouting off Trigon's creed. But a single punch seems to knock her back to her senses, and Red Robin says he also feels like he hasn't quite been himself lately. He's then interrupted by the arrival of Trigon's three sons, who all look like him, but are human-sized.




The bulk of this issue details Trigon's and Raven's backstory, but I don't care about that. Kid Flash has been waiting 20 issues for his origin, but whatever. This series sucks. Plain and simple. When the writer and three editors don't care about what happens from issue to issue, why should I?

Channel 52 talks about the Green Team and Superman's fight with Orion.

Next time, we will review the one and only appearance of this version of Bart Allen in The Flash.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Teen Titans #19


Trigon-ometry

Plot by: Scott Lobdell
Dialog by: Scott Lobdell & Tony Bedard
Pencils: Eddy Barrows
Inks: Eber Ferreira
Color: Alex Sinclair
Cover: Barrows, Ferreira and Sinclair
Mad Variant by Ward Sutton
Assistant Editor: Anthony Marques
Editor: Mike Cotton
Group Editor: Eddie Berganza
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

We have now reached the post-Siegel lawsuit era, meaning all comics with Superman, Superboy or Supergirl will be forced to carry that obnoxious "By special arrangement" line. I don't know how that benefits the Siegel family in any way that the "created by" credit doesn't. And while we're here, why does Lobdell frequently need someone to help him with the dialogue? Was DC unhappy with his writing or was he just lazy?

Our cover is actually one of the surprise covers that worked. You can't get much bigger than Trigon! Plus, he has an evil Raven and Beast Boy at his side. Yes, Raven's New 52 design is horrible. And yes, Beast Boy being red is inexcusable. But his monstrous, gigantic tentacles reminds me of Bart's very first adventures with the New Titans way back in the early '90s. So I guess that's a nice callback. I just hope Lobdell doesn't butcher Marv Wolfman's work too much.


We have also entered the era of DC not digitizing their variant covers. Luckily, this policy will eventually be reversed, but it's going to be a bit rough for a while. I went to comicvine.com for this fun homage to Mad magazine. Yeah, the characters look a bit rough, but that's the Mad style. And I love how it features the "Big Four" — Bunker and Solstice are superfluous characters who won't survive the next reboot. In fact, it's a minor miracle they haven't already gone the way of Skitter.

Our story opens with Wonder Girl justifiably furious with Red Robin for lying to them and needlessly endangering their lives with a fight against the Suicide Squad. Cassie has Tim by the throat, but he's not backing down. Kid Flash is trying to pull Wonder Girl off him, but failing miserably. Luckily, everybody else is able to calm Wonder Girl down by politely asking her to let Red Robin explain himself. Unluckily, Red Robin refuses to answer any questions and angrily gives his teammates an ultimatum to follow him or quit.

Before anyone can figure out how to respond to this, Wonder Girl senses the arrival of Trigon (her armor is apparently connected to him). The gigantic demon is riding a three-headed horse through Times Square, New York City, when Wonder Girl catches up to him. She gets in one hit, but he shrugs it off and hints that he knows Cassie's real father, but doesn't say who it is because this is a Lobdell comic. Superboy and Bunker coordinate a strike, and Kid Flash whisks Kon away before he's hit by Trigon's eye-beams.


Trigon then somehow turns Bunker's own bricks against him, while grumpy Red Robin has chosen to merely observe Trigon for now. When Kid Flash moves against Trigon, he's shown memories of his past that still don't explain anything, and for some reason cause Kid Flash to collapse in teen angst. Solstice comes across the New 52 version of Psimon, and tries to comfort him. Beast Boy and Raven show up, and Beast Boy turns into a tentacle monster to capture the Teen Titans and Psimon. Some soldiers show up, but Psimon promptly kills them all with a psychic blast. Psimon then tries to kill Beast Boy, but Beast Boy crushes the air out of Psimon, so they both end up just knocking each other out.

For the first time this issue, Red Robin demonstrates an iota of compassion over the deaths of the soldiers. But then he (and Superboy) immediately turn this into a conspiracy theory, believing that Trigon's plan all along was to goad Psimon into killing a crowd of people in order to slander the reputation of the Teen Titans.




Well that was an underwhelming entrance for one of the most powerful villains in the DC Universe. Everything just felt ... blah. I was no more engaged in this fight than that nobody Grymm. Heck, Harvest was more engaging than Trigon, and it pains me to say that. And a big reason for that is Barrows' art. He doesn't do a good job of staging fights or conveying size and scale. The death of the soldiers was clearly supposed to be a big moment, but we barely saw them — just little blips in the background. Why can't we get some decent creators on this book?

Channel 52 reports on Trigon's appearance, incorrectly saying he battled a green grizzly bear. Don't you just love how nobody at DC knows what's going on?

Next: Nevermore.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Justice League of America's Vibe #3


Trial by (Flash) Fire

Sterling Gates Writer
Pete Woods and Fabiano Neves Pencillers
Sean Parson and Fabiano Neves Inkers
Brad Anderson Colorist
Carlos M. Mangual Letterer
Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse Cover
Kate Stewart Assistant Editor
Brian Cunningham Senior Editor

Just when we thought we were done with Brett Booth, he comes roaring back with this foldout cover. Believe it or not, DC actually dubbed this gimmick "WTF" covers (ostensibly to stand for "What The Fifty-Two" ... sure ...). Every comic published in April 2013 had a foldout cover with a "shocking reveal." Whatever. I guess the occasional gimmick is necessary and mostly harmless. Same with this particular cover. It's fine. Booth normally does a fairly decent job on covers.

So apparently in addition to managing Belle Reve Prison and the Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller also runs the government organization called A.R.G.U.S. and her own team of heroes called the Justice League of America (not to be confused with the regular Justice League). I have no idea if this issue is supposed to happen before or after the Teen Titans broke into Belle Reve, and the creators of this comic don't seem at all concerned with matching up with any continuity in the Teen Titans series. For all intents and purposes, this is a completely different Amanda Waller.

Anyway, Waller has recruited Vibe with the express purpose of taking down the Flash, so she's decided to give Vibe some training by pitting him against Kid Flash. Vibe is sent to Manhattan with a handful of A.R.G.U.S. troops, and they quickly locate Kid Flash apparently searching for something in the subway tunnels. Vibe immediately blasts Kid Flash with a "vibrational burst" as he calls it. This really throws Kid Flash for a loop, and he promptly retreats.

Vibe manages to separate himself from the A.R.G.U.S. guards, and tracks Kid Flash's energy trail. Once he's alone, Kid Flash grabs him, demanding to know how he effected his speed in a way that no one else has ever before. But when Kid Flash touches Vibe, he sees images of his past that don't really tell us anything we don't already know (or had already suspected). On the plus side, though, there weren't any major contradictions from the tiny bit of information Scott Lobdell has slowly been leaking out in Teen Titans.

Vibe also saw these flashbacks, and is surprised to learn that Kid Flash is a human from the future. Kid Flash tries to retreat again, but Vibe blasts him again, demanding to know why this "criminal" doesn't go by a more villainous name like Anti-Flash or Reverse Flash. Kid Flash insists he's not a criminal, and manages to escape when a fortuitous subway train passes by. Vibe keeps tracking Kid Flash, though, and finds him examining an odd hole in the ground with the Flash symbol on the bottom of it.


Kid Flash says he's dreamed about this location and believes it was where he was sent to from the future — although he still has no idea who sent him back in time or why. Vibe decides to try to help out by touching Kid Flash again, hoping that a more controlled view into his timeline will give him the answers he's searching for. But when he touches him this time, there's a large electrical discharge that destroys a bunch of the electronics back at A.R.G.U.S. headquarters in Detroit for some reason. Kid Flash is infuriated by this, saying he can't risk letting Vibe and his cohorts learning more about him. He knocks Vibe down, tells him to stop working for the bad guys, and runs away for good this time.




This wasn't a bad issue, but it wasn't particularly good, either. I was a bigger fan of it back when I reviewed it for my New 52 Flash blog, but now I'm rather indifferent toward it. Mainly because I know this story isn't going to go anywhere. We're most likely never going to see Vibe again, and when we finally do get to Kid Flash's origin, I doubt it'll have anything to do with this mysterious hole under the streets of New York. So what was the point of all this? I mean, other than providing a ridiculous excuse to knock out the power of A.R.G.U.S. to advance the plot in Vibe's book.

Kid Flash acted completely different here than he does in Teen Titans. And Amanda Waller's involvement with both the JLA and Suicide Squad is insane. How many secret organizations can she run at a time? Maybe if she focused on taking down the Teen Titans or the Justice League, she'd actually succeed, instead of splitting her time between so many teams and secretive organizations. Just saying.

Channel 52 reports that Catwoman has been kicked out of the Justice League of America and sent to Arkham Asylum.

Next time, we return to Teen Titans #19.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Teen Titans #18


To Belle and Back

Written by: Scott Lobdell
Pencils: Eddy Barrows (pages 1-16) and Rodney Buchemi (pages 17-20)
Inks: Eber Ferreira (pages 1-16) Rodney Buchemi (pages 17-20)
Letters: Travis Lanham
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Asst. Editor: Anthony Marques
Editor: Mike Cotton
Group Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover by: Barrows, Ferreira, & Sinclair

Our cover shows this series has once again fallen prey to an external event elsewhere in the DC Universe. The past 17 issues of Teen Titans never acknowledged the existence of Damian Wayne, even during Death of the Family. But now it's forced to pay tribute to Damian since he died. The rain and lightning is a bit melodramatic and cliché, but the most perplexing thing is Tim's face. It doesn't look like he's mourning at all.


And the black-and-white variant makes it even more clear that Tim Drake is not upset by Damian's death, but is actually quite gleeful. At least that's the impression I'm getting — who knows what new artist Eddie Barrows is intending. On one hand, it makes a little sense, considering the insane and evil Tim we met last issue.

Of course, this cover completely contradicts the first five pages of this issue. Tim seems to genuinely be distraught over Damian's death and has a touching conversation with the memory of Damian, before being comforted by Alfred. So I really have no idea what's going on.

One week later, Superboy rejoins with the Teen Titans on their new yacht in Pier 22, New York City. But Superboy's back to wearing his stupid Harvest/Tron uniform, and he flies down onto the boat from the sky in broad daylight, putting everyone's secret identities at risk.


Look closely at this page. It's a perfect example of Barrows' incredible sloppiness. Kid Flash starts running from the bottom of the page to the top, but his speech bubbles flow from the top to the bottom. So did he speak backwards while running, or was he just randomly running backwards? Ugh. Don't worry, the next page displays the sloppiness of our three editors. Superboy tells everyone about his experience during H'el on Earth, and there's an asterisk in his speech bubble, but no accompanying editor's note referring us to those specific issues. So there's lots of sloppiness to go around.

Anyway, Tim tells Kon he's welcome to stay as long as he likes, and he tells everyone to suit up. Five minutes later, our heroes head five floors below to what Superboy stupidly calls the "Fortress of Attitude." It's just the monitor room that Tim didn't let anyone in last time, so I don't know why everyone's so excited. Nor do I know why there's a giant image of Damian Wayne on the main monitor. Nor do I understand what Tim is talking about in his opening statement: "In the time since we started the Teen Titans, at least four superpower teenagers are either dead or missing." Does this include everything that occurred during the Culling? Because that story kept implying that tons of teenagers were being killed left and right (even though we really only saw Artemis die) and even more disappeared without a trace, like Skitter — remember her? Scott Lobdell doesn't.

During Red Robin's briefing, there is no mention of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. or Harvest or Skitter. Only a teenager named Tabitha Munse, shown fighting the guy who secretly "boosted" Solstice's and Kid Flash's powers during Death of the Family. Solstice recognizes this guy, but for some idiotic reason chooses not to tell anyone this. Tim says Tabitha is being held by the government, while three separate agencies try to figure out how to weaponize the metagene (how many secret societies are doing the same thing as N.O.W.H.E.R.E. but aren't part of N.O.W.H.E.R.E.?). Red Robin creepily launches the boat before anyone has a chance to agree to the plan, prompting Kid Flash to remark how this feels like a kidnapping.

Our heroes ride the yacht to Hoboken, where a helicopter waiting for them takes them to Belle Reve Prison, which is apparently only 72 minutes away. The Teen Titans break into the prison and are immediately attacked by three members of the Suicide Squad — Deadshot, Harley Quinn and King Shark. Red Robin confronts the unfortunately slimmed-down Amanda Waller, while the rest of his team essentially fights the Suicide Squad to a standstill. At one point, Deadshot is standing over Kid Flash, saying, "You're not so fast when you're paralyzed, eh?" But I have no idea when or even if he paralyzed him.

Before the fighting gets too out of hand, Waller calls the Squad off, and tells Red Robin he's going to regret the deal they just made. Kid Flash asks him about the girl they were supposed to save, but Tim admits there never was a girl, promising to explain on their way back.




The good news is Brett Booth is gone. He'll come back a bit later to do some covers, but I don't think we'll have to suffer through his interior art anymore. The bad news is Eddy Barrows is not an improvement at all. It's a bland, uninteresting style, and for some reason Tim Drake is combing his hair like the 1950s Robin. It's also a shame that we're still stuck with Scott Lobdell as writer and this ineffective editing team that can't keep anything straight, let alone bother answering any of the questions that have been raised. Instead of tracking down Harvest or Skitter, we're jumping into a Trigon story in an obnoxious, roundabout way. And how is nobody calling out the drastic change in Tim's personality?

Channel 52 talks about Vandal Savage and Flash getting trapped in Iron Heights Prison.

Next time, we'll visit the clunkily titled Justice League of America's Vibe.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Smallville: Season Eleven #39


Haunted Part Eleven

Writer Bryan Q. Miller
Artist Jorge Jimenez
Colorist Carrie Strachan
Letterer Saida Temofonte
Cover Artist Cat Staggs
Assistant Editor Sarah Gaydos
Editor Kristy Quinn
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Our story opens with Impulse confronting the Black Flash, who is standing over a staggered Superman. The Black Flash notes that Bart's speed is pure, prompting Bart to joke that he should "accept no substitutes." Bart then runs right past the monster, saying "BRB," and scoops up Clark. But he's not just running Superman to safety, he tells "Stretch" that he needs his speed, too.

When Bart drops Clark off in the desert, Superman tells him this is not the time to be a hero. But Bart says he knows how to stop this, saying a "few little birdies" told him how, implying that he did actually talk to those figures in the Speed Force. Bart refuses to elaborate on this comment, though, so Superman says he won't let him face this alone. Earlier in this story, Bart had complained about always being alone, but his recent experience with the Speed Force has changed his perspective, and he now tells Clark that he never really has been alone.

Bart takes off, saying he'll be back in a flash. Clark chases after him, remembering the conclusion of their first encounter. Bart asked Clark to come with him to find other heroes, but Clark wanted Bart to stay in Smallville with him. So Bart challenged Clark to a race, promising to stay if Clark could catch him. Clark couldn't keep up then, and he can't keep up now. He begs Bart to slow down, but Bart says, "Not this time, amigo," as tears run down his face. Bart then runs right up to the Black Flash and offers to give him all the speed, before smugly saying, "Smell ya later."


There's a huge crash of lightning, creating a large explosion that sends Superman flying back through the air. When the smoke clears, all Clark can find is a large crater in the ground, shaped like the Flash symbol.

Later, Superman puts Impulse's old red hoodie on display in the JSA Brownstone. Jay Garrick is there, too, saying he should have done what Bart did a long time ago. Clark tells him not to blame himself, and they talk briefly about the nature of heroism and sacrifice. When Emil Hamilton shows up to tell Clark that Bart somehow cured his vague radiation problem, Jay leaves, casting a regretful glance at his old helmet.




So six days after Wally West sacrificed himself on Young Justice, Bart Allen sacrifices himself in Smallville. So how's that for symmetry? In the space of one week, we end the stories of two of our alternate versions of Bart (well, technically Young Justice only went on a six-year hiatus, but you get the idea). This Bart's demise certainly was bold and heroic, but it didn't really feel like a death scene. It was so ambiguous that I have to suppose that Bryan Q. Miller had plans to bring Bart back and explore some of the Flash mythos he hinted at. But he never did, and he had quite a few issues of Smallville after this.

I did like this issue, even though I had no idea what happened. Are we to assume that Barry, Wally and others from the Speed Force told Bart that the only way to stop the Black Flash was to gather all the speed across the world and then sacrifice himself? Did he take the Black Flash into the Speed Force or just vaporize him? We'll never know. But we did get to enjoy some touching flashbacks — even if Carrie Strachan suddenly decided to make Bart blond in all those scenes (I had just assumed he bleached his hair for Season Eleven).

So goodbye, Smallville Bart. I was just beginning to like you. And sadly, your premature departure means we're now left with only the New 52 Bart, who we'll next see in Teen Titans #18.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Young Justice: Invasion – "Endgame"


Director: Doug Murphy
Writer: Kevin Hopps

Our story opens on Rimbor, with the seven framed members of the Justice League finally reaching the end of their monthslong trial. Surprisingly, none of these heroes sought to gather any information to clear their names before heading into the trial, despite the fact that this group includes Batman, the world's greatest detective, Wonder Woman, a beacon of truth, Superman, an investigative reporter and Green Lantern, a space cop. Luckily for them, the teenagers they left behind did all the work for them, and Miss Martian and Superboy are able to deliver a cheesy little speech to clear their names.

For some unknown reason, Superboy and Miss Martian hurry back to Earth before the Justice League members, ensuring that once again they will be forced to save the world without its most powerful heroes. And the final crisis the Team needs to deal with this season is Black Beetle's plan to destroy the planet with several nasty devices planted all across the globe.

On June 20, 8:16 EDT (just one day after the summit), all the heroes who are on Earth gather in Metropolis to figure out how to stop this threat. Bart is standing next to Wally, Barry and Jay, as they listen to Captain Atom explain that Black Beetle's devices are magnetic field disrupters (or MFDs for short), which are protected by drones. Captain Atom says each drone is the equivalent of a beetle warrior, but that quickly proves to not be the case.

Anyway, Blue Beetle has identified 20 MFDs around the world, and 40 heroes have answered the call, meaning they can conveniently split into teams of two. Lex Luthor has joined the fight, providing our heroes with an anti-Reach virus software, which he has loaded into 20 "eggs" that Blue Beetle has created. All our heroes need to do is touch the egg against the MFD to disable it.

Sounds easy, right? Well ... it actually is. The drones provide minimal resistance, and the MFDs shut down immediately upon contact with an egg. So the episode only shows us a couple of the MFDs being shut down. Until the Atom discovers from the Watchtower that there was a 21st MFD they missed.

In Taos on June 20, 6:47 MDT, Impulse and Blue Beetle are standing triumphantly over their disabled MFD when Blue is suddenly able to locate the missing device. It's in the Arctic and was apparently shielded from his previous scan by the Earth's magnetic pole. He sends the coordinates to the Watchtower, but unfortunately there isn't a zeta tube in the Arctic. So the Flash decides to just run up there, which worries Impulse.

At the North Magnetic Pole on June 20, 13:48 UTC, Impulse shows up right behind the Flash. I've checked with two separate time zone converters, which both indicate that 6:47 Mountain Daylight Time would be 12:47 Coordinated Universal Time, meaning it took Barry and Bart a full hour to run to the North Pole. But the episode plays it as if it took just a few seconds for the fastest men on Earth to reach the Arctic, as Barry is in the middle of his sentence while Bart races from New Mexico. This is another instance of this show being too precise for its own good. The only way this scene makes sense is to say it's 12:48 UTC instead.

Anyway, Bart reminds his grandpa that they need to be in squads of two and says they'll crash the MFD's mode together. They find the device in an ice cave, but realize they're too late — the MFD is surrounded by a field of blue energy, which they call "gone chrysalis." Luthor confirms that their little eggs are useless now, as the ball of energy grows into a large tornado. Barry asks Luthor what to do, who responds, "Run." Barry stupidly thinks Luthor was telling him to run away, but Lex clarifies that Flash and Impulse should be able to negate the chrysalis by running counter to its energy flow. It is a bit annoying that Barry Allen, a police scientist and experienced speedster, would need someone else to explain his powers to him, but here we are.

Wally and Artemis are following this conversation from the Watchtower, and Artemis worries if Impulse and Flash will be able to generate enough kinetic energy. Without saying a word, Wally teleports down to Earth. Kid Flash quickly joins the racing speedsters, acknowledging that even though he's not as fast as them, he can still add some kinetic energy. He also admits that he can't let the "new kid" take credit for saving the world. Bart and Barry are happy to have the company, and promptly begin lapping Wally.

Before too long, Nightwing, Artemis, Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad and Blue Beetle arrive in the bio-ship. The scarab tells Jaime that Earth's magnetic field is stabilizing, but it warns him, "The Kid Flash is in danger." Wally's slower speed is making him an exit valve for the chrysalis' energy. The scarab predicts that in 16 seconds, Wally will "cease."

Barry notices all the energy bolts hitting Wally, which is somehow making him transparent. He tells Bart they need to slow down more and draw some of the energy away from Wally. But it's no use. Barry tries to touch Wally, but his hand goes right through him. Wally laments that Artemis is going to kill him, not to mention his parents. He asks Barry to tell them he loves them, then simply fades away.

The energy tornado completely fades away, leaving behind an exhausted Impulse and Flash. Aqualad helps up Flash and Miss Martin helps Impulse. Artemis sadly asks where Wally is, and Barry puts his hands on her shoulders, telling her that Wally loved her. Artemis falls to her knees and sobs, while M'gann comforts her and everybody sadly looks on in silence.

On the Watchtower on July 4, 21:16 EDT, the reunited Justice League and Team celebrate the long overdue departure of the Reach. Captain Atom turns over chairman duties to Black Canary, and Nightwing puts Aqualad in charge of the Team. Bart pays respects to a hologram statue of Wally, while wearing one of Wally's old uniforms. Artemis tells him he looks good, but Bart confesses he feels like a fraud. Artemis says it's good of him to honor Wally's legacy by becoming Kid Flash, and says Wally would be proud.

Bart notes that Artemis is wearing her old Tigress uniform, so she explains that Artemis was Wally's partner and she currently needs some distance. Bart asks if she's going to try to be Tigress as a hero, but she coyly responds, "As a blonde." Virgil Hawkins becomes the first of the runaways to accept the Team's invitation, going by the hero name Static. Robin and Wonder Girl officially become a couple, and Superboy and Miss Martian get back together ... sort of.

Everybody's called together, and Batman announces the Team will now operate out of the Watchtower, side by side with the League, not because Mount Justice was destroyed, but because they deserve it. The League then leaves, and Aqualad addresses the Team. He puts Superboy, Miss Martian and Beast Boy on Alpha, tasked with helping B'arzz O'oomm on Mars. Tigress, Kid Flash, Bumblebee and Guardian are Beta, ordered to investigate LexCorp bringing out the Reach soft drink under a new name. The rest of the Team is Gamma, set to track Vandal Savage's next move. But none of them seem to realize that Savage has taken Warworld to Apokolips, where he makes a deal with Darkseid himself.




And on that cliffhanger, this show will be canceled ... until it was miraculously revived on the DC Universe streaming service six years later. We'll get to Season 3, but it will take a while.

Anyway, this was a pretty decent episode that simultaneously displayed all the strengths and flaws of the show. First, the animation. Miss Martian and Superboy looked very strange and jumpy on Rimbor. But all the action scenes were top notch. Then there's the dialogue. This show absolutely loves to have multiple people deliver a speech where they seamlessly trade off every other sentence. It always feels unnaturally rehearsed, and it gets really obnoxious when you pick up on how often the show does it. Again, the Superboy/Miss Martian speech was the low point of the episode. But at the end, Wally's final words were practically perfect.

The main conceit of the show is for the teenage sidekicks to step up and save the world themselves. This requires the heavy-hitters of the Justice League to be kept busy elsewhere, giving room for our heroes to do their thing. I didn't review the first season on this blog, but I felt like it managed to come up with plausible reasons for the Justice League's absence from episode to episode. This season felt like a contrivance. Yeah, I get that the Justice League wants to be responsible and go through the intergalactic legal means, but it doesn't make any sense for them to show up so ill-prepared, and then only be released because of one extremely cheesy speech from a couple of teenagers. And how convenient that they took their sweet time coming back to Earth, arriving just after the crisis had been averted. Of course, that had to happen, because if Superman was there, he would have been able to help take down the final device and possibly save Wally. Wait a minute ... Captain Marvel was there and he could have done that, too. Why didn't he? I mean, beyond the show not wanting to pay his voice actor.

But at the end of the day, this episode was all about Wally, the only hero we've seen die in the line of duty on this show. And that's a big deal since he was a founding member of the Team. Of course, in this season, he was mostly retired, choosing to only show up on occasion for a couple of missions and to yell at Dick (who STILL never faced any consequences for his disastrous decisions). It was fitting that Wally, the reluctant hero, was able to find his courage at the end and make the ultimate sacrifice. And you know what, even six years later, I still get a little teary eyed when I watch this scene. It was handled so beautifully. I think it's good to occasionally kill off a major character, just as long as it means something. And it certainly meant something here. Reminiscent of Barry Allen's classic death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, with the exception that Wally was not alone when he went. And even though this version of Wally often drove me nuts, I have to say his death was much more effective than the two "deaths" of Bart we've covered on this blog.

The one drawback of Wally's death is the pressure it put on Bart to become Kid Flash. As I've said before and I'll say again, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being Impulse. But after Wally's casual suggestion the last episode, and now his death here, how can Bart NOT be Kid Flash? It's an unfair position for him to be in. At least he had the decency to say he felt like a fraud wearing that suit.

All in all, I am a huge fan of this show. They finally brought Impulse to life on screen, and handled him wonderfully, thanks to the fantastic setup by Peter David and the superb performance of Jason Marsden. It's just a terrible shame that we only got him for half a season, then had to wait half a decade for the next story.

In the meantime, we'll just have to make do with the Kid Flash of Teen Titans and the Impulse of Smallville. Next time, Smallville's Bart will finally confront the Black Flash.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Smallville: Season Eleven #38


Haunted Part Ten

Writer Bryan Q. Miller
Artist Jorge Jimenez
Colorist Carrie Strachan
Letterer Saida Temofonte
Cover Artist Cat Staggs
Assistant Editor Sarah Gaydos
Editor Kristy Quinn
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Our cover shows Superman in his speed outfit, which is reminiscent of the electric blue Superman circa 1997. Superman is surrounded by lightning, crying out in pain, and kneeling on the ground, which has fractured in the shape of the Flash symbol. It's a pretty cool cover — probably my favorite of this series so far.

In the Watchtower, Chloe tracks Impulse's location, which oddly is essentially everywhere. That's because Bart has decided to finally let loose and run faster than he's ever run before. Naturally, this intense burst is taking him all around the world — Egypt, London, Rome, etc. But there is a method to his madness. Bart is actually collecting speed from every outbreak. We see him absorb the energy from the speed storms in France and India, all while pushing himself to go even faster. As his eyes begin to glow yellow, something odd happens. Three figures — two male, one female — call out to Bart, saying they need to talk.


It's unclear whether Bart talks with these figures. In any case, he eventually makes his way down to Las Vegas, where Superman is losing his fight with the Black Flash. Impulse arrives on the scene with lightning crackling from his eyes, promising to give the monster speed.




This was a pretty cool issue. We finally got to see this version of Impulse get serious and go all out with his powers. And Jimenez really had a fun time drawing these running scenes, flirting with his more kinetic, cartoony style I enjoyed so much in the New 52 books. But he didn't quite stray from the style he has going on this series, and was able to make Bart look quite intimidating and powerful on the last page.

So, the buildup to the fight was great, but once again I feel like this series is just teasing me. We saw three figures in the Speed Force. Barry, Wally and ... Jesse Quick? XS? Who knows? I don't. And I don't think I'll ever find out, as much as I'd like to. It's incredibly frustrating to be this close to unlocking the secrets of the Smallville Flash family, but unable to do more than scratch the surface. I actually think it'd be better not to have these references to Barry, Wally and Max if there never was any intention of showing them.

And speaking of Bart, Wally and Barry, next time, we'll see them all in action once more in the final episode of Young Justice: Invasion.

Friday, September 13, 2019

Young Justice: Invasion – "Summit"


Director: Tim Divar
Writer: Greg Weisman

In Santa Prisca on June 19, 00:00 ECT (Ecuador Time), members of the Light and the Reach meet in a large cavern for a secret summit, hence the episode title. It's been less than a week since Blue Beetle and Green Beetle went off mode, and the Ambassador demands to know how the Light lost control of the Biaylan temple. Aqualad steps forward to address this question, after Vandal Savage personally vouches for him and says he entrusted him with the security for this summit. Kaldur essentially, but diplomatically, puts the blame on the Reach for not telling them the full history of the scarabs. He argues that if the Light knew the significance of the temple, they would have made protecting it a higher priority.

The Light recounts all the Reach's recent failures, but the Reach insist they'll get things back under control soon. Black Beetle has been removed from his post on Warworld to track down and kill Blue and Green. But first, he has to serve as the Reach's security at this summit, and remind the Light they're just working for the Reach. Black Manta takes issue with the prospect of being a slave, and their arguing quickly breaks out into a fight.

Aqualad is able to stop the fighting, but not before Ra's al Ghul gets a close look at Tigress' glamor charm. As the conversation turns to the Justice League's seemingly unending trial on the planet Rimbor, Ra's rips off Tigress' medallion, exposing her as Artemis. Everyone's able to quickly put together that this means Aqualad is also a traitor, and the Ambassador orders Black Beetle to kill both of them. But before he can, Deathstroke shoots Aqualad and Artemis, saying the Light takes care of its own.

As Kaldur dies in his father's arms, he plays a prerecorded video explaining how the Light had been manipulating the Reach from day one. He walks them through each step of their deception beginning with the Justice League's mind-controlled attack on Rimbor, which served as bait for the Reach, and ending with the Light willingly surrendering control of the temple to remove Blue and Green Beetle from Reach control. When the video ends, Vandal Savage says with his death, Kaldur has done more to damage his plans than any living creature in 50,000 years.

The Ambassador angrily threatens to destroy Earth with the Warworld, but Savage reminds him that the Light has the crystal key. At this, Aqualad stands up, saying that was the last bit of information he needed. Artemis reveals she also faked her death (for the second time this season) and that Deathstroke was actually Miss Martian in disguise. The rest of the Team arrives and some of them, including Impulse, were disguised as the Light's soldiers.

Savage admits the Light has been guilty of underestimating the young heroes, so he summons Klarion the Witch Boy, who promptly teleports himself and Savage away. Ra's al Ghul tries to stop the fighting, but a vengeful Black Beetle stabs him in the back. Al Ghul's faithful bodyguard, Ubu, promptly takes off with his master, saying he'll be resurrected.

For the first time since "Bloodlines," Bart gets to run alongside Wally West, who has once again come out of retirement for this crucial mission. Wally seems to have finally come around to Bart over the past four months, and even says he thinks Bart should change his costume to something with a little more yellow and red. He says both he and Artemis will return to retirement once the invasion is over, and someone needs to carry on the family tradition. Bart says it'd be so crash to be the next Kid Flash and vows to make Wally proud.

At Wally's behest, Bart removes all the weapons from the Brain. But he only has a split second to bask in his accomplishment before Monsieur Mallah throws the gorilla Beast Boy into Bart. Fittingly, Aqualad knocks out Black Manta, and Blue Beetle pins the Ambassador and the Scientist to the wall. The Ambassador orders Black Beetle to rescue them, but the Reach warrior instead declares the Ambassador unfit for office and leaves him behind, escaping with the Scientist.

With all the fighting wrapped up, Aqualad can only focus on all the villains that escaped, but Nightwing calls this mission a success, pointing out the villains they did capture, plus the fact that the whole summit was recorded and can be used to clear the Justice League. Dick even goes so far as to call it the best day they've had since he, Kaldur and Wally first broke into a Cadmus facility five years ago.




Yes, this episode was a lot of standing around and talking about EVERYTHING that happened this season. And it can get a bit tedious to have back-to-back episodes that do this. But we're almost done with the season and, for better and worse, this is how the show runners chose to structure the story. Despite that, we did get some great action here. Impulse didn't have much to do, though. And I don't totally buy Wally's change of heart. It feels like the creators suddenly realized that we're on the penultimate episode of the season, and it's time to start wrapping things up. It really would have gone a long way to have just a couple of scenes of Bart with Wally between this episode and Bart's debut.

I'm also not a fan of Bart eagerly jumping at the chance to be Kid Flash. There's nothing wrong with being Impulse. You can still honor the Flash legacy by being Impulse. And this show never gave us the impression that Bart felt bad about being called Impulse. I place all the blame for this on Geoff Johns. He forced Bart to become Kid Flash and stripped him of all his unique personality quirks. And so the show decided to follow that same boring, sad path. Sigh. At least we got to enjoy a handful of episodes of Impulse.

Next time, we'll return to one version of Bart who remained Impulse into adulthood.

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Young Justice: Invasion – "Intervention"


Director: Mel Zwyer
Writer: Peter David

In Blüdhaven on March 30, 6:21 EDT (hours after our heroes were rescued from Warworld), the bio-ship brings everybody back to their temporary headquarters. Impulse confronts Nightwing, saying he knows finding the missing crystal key is important, but he says they need to focus on Blue Beetle. Nightwing turns on the news, which just happens to be talking about Blue, who is about to be presented with a medal by the United Nations for taking down the Warworld "singlehanded."

Robin angrily derides all this good press for a traitor, but Bart says they can't blame Jaime, claiming he's as much a captive of the Reach as they were. And Bart says they need to set Jaime free before he conquers Earth and enslaves all mankind.

In Metropolis on June 13, 20:28 EDT, Blue Beetle easily defeats the Toyman before hamming it up for an interview with Cat Grant. But during all this, we learn that Impulse was right — Jaime is not in control of his actions. The Reach Ambassador is essentially using Blue Beetle as a puppet from his command ship in New York City, even controlling his voice. But what the Reach doesn't realize is that Impulse and Batgirl were spying on him during all this.

Meanwhile, Miss Martian heads down to Poseidonis to finally break up with the insufferable Lagoon Boy (see screenshot).

In El Paso on June 13, 20:40 MDT, the Reach has sent Jaime home, who loathes having them pretend to be him in front of his family. Batgirl suddenly shoots a grappling hook around Blue Beetle's ankle, which holds him in place just long enough for Impulse to run up the cable and hop onto Blue's back. Bart vibrates Blue's jetpack until it shuts down and he crashes on the ground, where Batgirl has a knockout gas bomb waiting for him.

But Blue is not knocked out (you'd think Impulse would have told the Team that scarabs don't need to breathe) and he staples Batgirl to the wall. Impulse starts zooming around Blue Beetle, repeatedly knocking him down. Eventually, Blue's scarab figures out Bart's pattern and staples him to the wall, too. Jaime begs to go home, but the Ambassador orders him to kill Batgirl and Impulse.

Right before he delivers the killing strike, Rocket places an energy force field around Blue Beetle. Before he can break out, Zatanna reinforces Rocket's bubble with her magic. Zatanna then frees Batgirl and Impulse, while Jaime silently mocks the Reach for falling into this trap. Our heroes load up into Sphere, pulling Blue Beetle in the magic/energy bubble behind them. And all the Ambassador can do is shout idle threats.

In Bialya on June 14, 5:19 UTC+2, our heroes arrive at their destination — a secret underground lair controlled by Queen Bee and the Light. Rocket worries that she can't maintain the bubble around Blue Beetle and deal with Bee's soldiers, but Impulse says he can easily handle them. Zatanna slightly steals Bart's thunder by taking away the soldiers' guns, but she lets him knock them out. Impulse easily breezes through the troops, until he runs into the large, super strong woman known as Devastation. She lifts Impulse up by his ankle, while Mammoth and Shimmer attack the others on Sphere. Zatanna and Batgirl are able to redirect the three villains into taking each other down a hole Shimmer created, which Batgirl seals up with some fast-hardening foam.

Our heroes head deeper into the caverns, reaching the ruins of an ancient temple. Impulse asks Zatanna if she has enough power for this, and she admits she doesn't, but can summon the power from those who do. They then place Blue Beetle in the middle of the temple and begin a ritual. Suddenly, Green Beetle attacks.

Rocket is still maintaining the bubble around Blue, and Zatanna is in a deep trance, leaving just Sphere, Impulse and Batgirl to deal with Green Beetle. Bart worries about their odds, but Batgirl reminds him that this Beetle comes with his personal kryptonite. She throws a small explosive at Green's feet, and Impulse promptly whips up the flames into a large inferno. But Green phases through the ground and pops up behind Batgirl and Impulse to knock them down with a sonic blast.

A little lizard falls on Green's head, then quickly transforms into a large elephant. Green pushes Beast Boy off him, but Bumblebee grows into size right in front of him and blasts him in the face. Wonder Girl ensnares Green in her lasso from behind, and Robin swoops in with a kick. The Reach Scientist says they need to send in Black Beetle to help, but the Ambassador refuses to take him away from Warworld.

As Green Beetle fights back, Zatanna calls upon the powers of Isis of the scarab. A small scarab flies off the temple's wall and attaches itself to her forehead and the image of a large mystical woman appears behind her. Zatanna then rebuilds the temple, including a very large scarab that casts everything in a blue light. Rocket drops the bubble around Blue, who immediately aims to shoot at Zatanna, who chants, "Esnaelc eseht snoipmahc!" Green frees himself from Wonder Girl's grasp and also aims at Zatanna.

But before the Beetles' blasts can reach Zatanna, Impulse grabs the lasso still around Green's waist and throws him in front of both his and Blue's energy blast. Both the Beetles are knocked down on the dais as a beam of light engulfs them. The Beetles scream out in pain, and the Reach loses connection with them. Once the ritual is complete, Impulse catches Zatanna and asks if it worked. Zatanna decides not to take any chances and casts a spell ordering the Beetles to reveal who controls their scarabs.

Blue Beetle turns back into Jaime Reyes, and Green Beetle turns into B'arzz O'oomm. They both say they're free of control from the Reach. And Robin even pulls up some sort of electronic reading that shows there's no external signal interacting with the scarabs. Bart congratulates Jaime and offers a high-five, but Jaime walks right past him to give Zatanna a hug. The scarab also congratulates Jaime, but Jaime questions aloud if it's really happy. Bart thinks he's talking to him and swears he is happy by this. The scarab explains that it never liked being a slave of the Reach, and Jaime says he believes it. Bart answers this with, "Of course you do." And he finally gets his high-five.

As everybody flies home, Jaime asks them how they knew how to cure them, saying that temple wasn't even on the Reach's database. Batgirl says she and Bumblebee came across it months ago on another mission. She noticed the scarab imagery decorating the place and recorded a holographic file of the hieroglyphics. Dr. Fate was able to translate the runes, which revealed a mystic ceremony the ancients had used to cleanse the scarab of the Reach's control when it first landed on Earth 4,000 years ago.

Zatanna explains that the magic used in the ritual are of human origin, meaning that Dr. Fate couldn't use his Lord of Order magic on it. While Zatanna prepared that ritual, Batgirl and Robin went digging through the files of the late Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetle. Kord recorded that an archeologist named Dan Garrett was the first to discover the temple and the scarab in 1939. The scarab fused with Garrett, making him the first Blue Beetle of modern times. When he passed away, he left the scarab to his protege, Kord, who discovered it was alien technology and refused to let it fuse with him. He locked the scarab away and opted to become the second Blue Beetle without any superpowers.

The Light tried to steal the scarab, and Kord was killed in a fight with Deathstroke and Sportsmaster. Jaime happened to be riding his skateboard past Kord Industries when it exploded, which sent the scarab right to him. Jaime admits he wasn't what the Light or Reach had in mind that day, then asks why everyone kept all this from him. Zatanna says it took her several months to learn the ritual, and Jaime realizes she couldn't risk letting the Reach find out about the temple until she was ready.

Jaime then incredulously asks Bart how he managed to keep his mouth shut. Bart seriously reminds him that making sure he stayed a hero was the main reason he came back to the past, so he was motivated to take his mouth "off mode." He then playfully advises Jaime to not get used to his silence.




These kind of episodes are equal parts thrilling and frustrating. It's great to finally have everything come together and answer all questions. But it's also a little too convenient how neatly everything fit together. And it's frustrating to learn how much crucial material took place off screen. We were given no indication that Bart, Batgirl and Zatanna were secretly working on this plan until this episode. We saw that Bart suspected Green Beetle early on, but that was it.

But at the same time, I can't be too mad, since this episode does help explain everything Bart did since "Bloodlines." Bart didn't know exactly how to help Blue Beetle, other than stay as close to him as possible. When Green Beetle got involved, Bart started distancing himself from Jaime, and this was probably when Zatanna and Batgirl filled him in on their plan. It's unclear if anyone actually knew Blue was under the Reach's control when Mongul invaded. We know at least Bart suspected, but we're not sure if he told anyone. He for sure didn't tell Nightwing, and at the end of the day, everything did work out. You could even argue that it would have been impossible to stop Mongul without Blue Beetle and the Reach, despite their nefarious intentions.

All in all, this is very tight storytelling. I can't find any plot holes or continuity errors. But I am sad that this show likes to keep so many crucial moments off screen. Episode after episode, it seems like our heroes have no idea what's going on. And then at the very end, in one massive exposition dump, they reveal that they knew everything the whole time and had a plan for it. Sadly, next episode, "Summit," will be another one of those times.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Teen Titans #17


Grey Matters: Prologue to A Tale of Light and Dark

Plot by: Scott Lobdell
Scripted by Fabian Nicieza & Scott Lobdell
Pencils: Eddy Barrows
Inks: Eber Ferreira
Color: Alex Sinclair
Letters: Travis Lanham
Cover: Booth, Rapmund & Dalhouse
Asst. Editors: Darren Shan & Anthony Marques
Editor: Mike Cotton
Group Editor: Eddie Berganza

Our cover shows an unusually despondent Red Robin sulking in front of the New 52 version of Raven in all her blind glory and some strange glowing boy. I have no idea who that boy is supposed to be, and I have a sneaking suspicion we'll never find out. My speculation is that Lobdell and Booth had something planned with this opposite of Raven, but either got distracted or lost interest in the idea. As crazy as it sounds, this book now has four (4!) editors on it, yet it remains as directionless as it was since issue #1.


We're still getting black-and-white variants, for whatever reason. This seems to emphasize Red Robin's unhealthily tight abs and unusually low utility belt. It also perpetuates the false notion that this issue is some sort of epilogue to Death of the Family. It's not.

We don't know how the Teen Titans met up with Red Robin after he was kidnapped by the Joker. But he seems perfectly fine now, and everyone even somehow managed to change into civilian clothes for their limo ride back to New York from Gotham. Everyone except Kid Flash, who chooses to run alongside the limousine, instead. He also scouts ahead to their recently rebuilt penthouse at Lexcorp Tower (wasn't it Lex Towers?). Kid Flash reports a startling fact: All their stuff is gone, even the dust. But Tim explains that he somehow found the time to move all their possessions into a massive yacht he wants to serve as their new base.


Tim tells his team he didn't hire a crew to protect their identities and not put innocent people at risk. The boat is enormous, but Kid Flash and Bunker have to share a room, while Wonder Girl and Solstice are bunkmates. Tim seems to get his own for now, with no mention of Superboy or (heaven forbid) Skitter rejoining the team. Tim shows off the war room, equipped with the next phase of the surveillance tech he used to track them all down back when he cared about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. However, he forbids anyone else from touching the computer for now, hinting that he has something special in store.

Everyone heads to bed, but Kid Flash has a hard time falling asleep. He tells Bunker that before he joined the Teen Titans, he spent six months in a group home, with no memory of his life before that. But Miguel gives a sappy little speech about focusing on the here and now, and Kid Flash is able to fall asleep. But Tim can't fall asleep, and he uncharacteristically kisses Solstice in front of a huge full moon. Solstice is surprised by this, but then she happily returns the kiss. Later, Tim heads to his room, and Wonder Girl pays him a visit — a visit that ends with them kissing.




This is a stupid series. It doesn't know what it wants to be or where it wants to go. Granted, the Death of the Family and H'el on Earth events did throw a wrench in things, but you can't blame everything on that. We have dozens of unresolved plot threads dangling throughout these 17 issues involving Amanda Waller, some guy who can "boost" our heroes' powers, some detective from the future who knows Kid Flash's past, and so many more pointless things I've skipped over. Because they never go anywhere. And before answering anything or wrapping anything up, Lobdell just goes back to throwing more stuff at us, like the stupidly designed Raven.

I'm glad everyone's forgotten about Skitter — she was a worthless character. But it's criminal that Superboy continues to be ignored after everyone witnessed him literally being torn apart atom by atom. But instead of hunting for him, or Harvest, or even telling us how Red Robin got away from the Joker, we're going to launch a new, strange story with an apparently evil Red Robin. It sure is a good thing we now have four editors to keep Lobdell focused.

Next time, we'll begin the month of March with Young Justice: Invasion.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man #17


Titan

Dan Jurgens Story and Pencil Art
Ray McCarthy Finished Ink Art pages 1-17
Karl Kesel Finished Ink Art pages 18-20
Travis Lanham Letterer
Hi-Fi Colors
Anthony Marques Assistant Editor
Mike Cotton Editor
Eddie Berganza Group Editor
Jurgens, McCarthy & Hi-Fi Cover
Firestorm created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom

Our cover shows Firestorm battling Kid Flash, Red Robin and Solstice. (This issue does not explain the absence of Wonder Girl, Bunker or Superboy.) As is the rule of The New 52, these characters are fighting each other on their first meeting — even though they're all heroes. This cover is also a clear indication of how dated Jurgens' art is. Red Robin's hair is atrocious.

I'm working under the assumption that this story takes place before Death of the Family. Solstice, Kid Flash and Red Robin are in his penthouse at Lex Towers in New York City, watching Firestorm repair Mount Rushmore on the news. Kid Flash dubs Firestorm as Red Robin's obsession of the hour, but Tim insists that someone that powerful bears watching. He then answers my questions from last issue, by saying he believes N.O.W.H.E.R.E. could target Firestorm since he's under 18. Solstice draws attention to the fact that Firestorm in no way, shape or form looks younger than 18, but Red Robin insists he is, based on "the way he moves" and the few sound clips of his voice.

So these three Teen Titans head out to meet Firestorm at the scene of a S.T.A.R. Labs facility he accidentally destroyed. Of course, instead of just talking to him like normal people, they attack him. Kid Flash kicks things off by throwing Firestorm into the pond we saw on the cover, and Red Robin even has the gall to address Firestorm as a soldier from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. Naturally, Firestorm does not respond to this kindly, and he blasts Solstice. This earns him 200 punches from Kid Flash, so he turns Kid Flash's boots (feet?) into flippers.


Red Robin throws a bomb at Firestorm and Solstice hits him with a blast of her energy, until Firestorm knocks all three of them down with an even larger display of energy. With the Titans no longer attacking him, Firestorm tries to rebuild S.T.A.R. Labs. Red Robin says he knew he'd do this and that he's not a threat, which begs the question why Red Robin treated him as a hostile and led an all-out attack against him.

Anyway, Firestorm fails to reconstruct the building from the pile of rubble. The Titans approach him peacefully this time and almost sort of offer a half apology. Firestorm turns Kid Flash's boots (feet?) back to normal, and Red Robin warns him about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. He even offers Firestorm a spot on the Teen Titans, but Firestorm refuses, opting to merely give them his phone number. Which basically ensures that we'll never see him again.




I am thoroughly convinced that Dan Jurgens created this issue with the express purpose of showing the world that Firestorm is a teenager. Jurgens can't draw teenagers to save his life, and I think he realized this, so he had to bring in DC's most famous teenagers (well, only three of them for some reason) to explicitly state that, yes, Firestorm is under 18. Beyond that, there was no point to any of this. Red Robin knew Firestorm was a good guy — I mean, obviously — but he still gleefully took part in a pointless attack, where somebody could have seriously been injured. Ugh.

With this issue, we are introduced to DC's new house ad/editorial feature — a two-page mock newscast called Channel 52, starring Bethany Snow, Ambush Bug and Calendar Man. This edition talks about the Teen Titans fighting Firestorm, the arrival of Raven (we'll get to that) and the death of Robin (Damian Wayne).

Next time, Teen Titans #17.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Young Justice: Invasion – "The Hunt"


Director: Doug Murphy
Writer: Brandon Vietti

On May 27, 6:36 UTC (one day after the defeat of Mongul and the betrayal of Blue Beetle), the Warworld is still orbiting Earth. The Reach has the crystal key, but the Justice League is guarding the key chamber, preventing them from taking control of the battle station. The Reach also have taken Mongul into captivity, placing him in a red cell that keeps him completely immobilized, right next to Despero, Superboy, Wolf, Batgirl, Impulse, Bumblebee, Wonder Girl, Guardian, Robin and Beast Boy. Arsenal, however, remains on the run, being hunted by Reach soldiers throughout Warworld.

In Taos on May 29, 20:08 MDT, we see the four teens the Reach experimented on have formed their own team of sorts. There's the electricity-wielding Virgil Hawkins, the energy-blasting Asami Koizumi, the teleporting Eduardo Dorado Jr. and Jaime's old friend, Tye Longshadow, who can create a giant psychic projection of himself (as seen in the screenshot). They mostly spend their time destroying billboards and advertisements for the Reach and Blue Beetle ... until Lex Luthor gives them a father box, explaining that it can teleport them inside Warworld and lead them to Superboy, so they'll be able to rescue the captured heroes.

On May 30, 3:36 UTC, Nightwing and Miss Martian have decided to take a break after spending hours flying around the Warworld in the bio-ship and failing to locate any of the missing heroes telepathically. Nightwing decides to return to the scene of Blue Beetle's betrayal, kicking himself for not spotting the evidence of Blue's defection. Miss Martian blames herself for not actually probing Green Beetle's mind, saying she was too scared to do so after her incident with Aqualad. Nightwing admits that she wouldn't have done that if he just trusted her with the secret that Aqualad was a double agent. But M'gann refuses to blame Dick, further absolving him of facing any consequences for his disastrous decisions. Suddenly, Sphere returns to the Warworld and prepares to help Nightwing and Miss Martian find their teammates.

The four teens are the first to find our captive heroes, but they're soon greeted by Black Beetle. Naturally, they don't stand a chance, but Arsenal soon joins them and helps even the odds by freeing Mongul. During the fight, Deathstroke arrives via his own father box and steals the crystal key. By the time Nightwing and Miss Martian arrive, all our heroes have been freed. They decide to let Black Beetle and Mongul continue fighting each other and load everyone on the bio-ship.

Nightwing offers the four teens a spot on the Team, but Arsenal interrupts to talk about Blue Beetle's betrayal. Bumblebee points out how they wouldn't have been captured if Arsenal didn't blow the airlock, so Nightwing finally does the responsible thing by kicking Arsenal off the Team. The four teens see this as a grave injustice, considering how Arsenal helped them rescue everybody, so in protest, the five of them teleport back to Earth via their father box.




This is the second time this season Impulse has been kidnapped by the Reach, and it's getting kind of ridiculous. At least this time it was only a couple of days instead of a whole week, but still. Anyway, this was still a fun episode. It was great watching the beginnings of Static Shock and several updated members of the old Super Friends show, including El Dorado, who will play a bigger role in the next season. I'm glad that somebody finally called Arsenal out on his recklessness. But I'm quite upset that Nightwing continues to magically avoid all blame for basically causing all the problems our heroes have faced on this show. What, is he just too cute and charming for anyone to be mad at?

Next time, we'll return to the obnoxiously titled The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man.

Smallville: Season Eleven #35


Haunted Part Nine

Writer Bryan Q. Miller
Art Jorge Jimenez
Colors Carrie Strachan
Lettering Saida Temofonte
Cover Art Cat Staggs
Assistant Editor Sarah Gaydos
Editor Kristy Quinn
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Superman's fight against the Black Flash in Las Vegas doesn't exactly go well for the Man of Steel. True, Clark's new containment suit does allow him to somehow absorb excess speed from individuals caught in the speed storm. But far too many people are still dying. Eventually, the Black Flash does confront Superman, noting again that Clark is not "of speed," but decides to consume him anyway.

Bart, meanwhile, is still hanging out at Jay's house on the edge of the Salt Flats. Somehow, Bart can see a huge flash of light caused by Superman clashing with the Black Flash. (Note: You cannot see Las Vegas from the Salt Flats, so this is either some Speed Force thing, or a geography error.) Bart finally decides enough is enough, and tells Jay he can't let someone else fight his battles for him.

Before Impulse takes off, Jay tells him he had heard his name before. The first time he woke up with super speed, he heard the names of Max Mercury, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart's and his own. He says they're all part of something bigger, bound by the Speed Force. But Bart insists that he's always been alone, and now the only kind of family he has needs his help. Bart takes off with his customary "smell ya later," to which Jay responds, "Godspeed, son."


Oh, man! This comic series did not just tease me with Max Mercury's name! You can't do that! Not without intending to follow up on it. What happened to the Flash family? Where are all these speedsters? And no, we're never going to find out. I would say that this series ran out of time before being able to answer those questions, but I don't think that's the case. Smallville: Season Eleven lasted for a surprisingly long time. If Bryan Q. Miller and company really wanted to explore the Flash family, they had plenty of opportunities to do so.

Next time, we'll return to Young Justice: Invasion.

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Smallville: Season Eleven #34


Haunted Part Eight

Writer Bryan Q. Miller
Art Jorge Jimenez
Colors Carrie Strachan
Lettering Saida Temofonte
Cover Art Cat Staggs
Assistant Editor Sarah Gaydos
Editor Kristy Quinn
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

At Jay Garrick's hermit cabin in Utah, Superman is arguing with the retired Flash about his statement that Bart has to die in order to stop the fatal speed storms. Jay refers directly to the Speed Force, saying it burns you up, one way or another, and the Black Flash is just its messenger. Clark argues that Bart didn't choose to owe anyone anything, and Jay says none of the speedsters do, but once the lightning hits you, your life isn't yours anymore.

Bart, however, is not participating in this conversation, being completely occupied with a dark cloud of lightning across the Salt Flats that only he seems able to see. Clark asks Jay why there weren't any speed storms before Bart, so Jay speculates that the Black Racer is hungry and desperate. At this point, Bart joins the conversation, and the three of them reason out that the speed storms are the Speed Force's way of trying to create more speedsters. But most people can't handle that speed and are killed.

Jay says he wasn't the first speedster and Bart won't be the last. Bart angrily asks why Jay didn't "close the circle" by racing the beast and preventing it from trying to make more speedsters. Jay calls their powers a curse, but Clark says a curse can become a blessing if you don't let your power own you. Jay's reminded of Carter Hall by that line, so Bart asks him when he last saw Hawkman. Bart says he didn't even know Hawkman, but he still went to the funeral. Jay admits he's not proud of his life since the JSA disbanded. Bart calls him a coward, and before he can get too worked up, Clark pulls him back and calms him down.

This tense moment is interrupted by Superman receiving a call from the Watchtower, reporting a "category five" speed storm in Las Vegas. This one isn't slowing down and the body count is increasing by the minute. Impulse starts to take off toward Vegas, but Clark catches him by the collar and ignores Bart's protests. He slings the speedster over his shoulder and tells the Watchtower they still haven't come up with a solution for the speed storms.


Luckily, Emil Hamilton of S.T.A.R. Labs has an idea. When Superman was irradiated, they considered launching him into the sun. That plan was scrapped, but they still have the containment suit they built for it. With a few quick modifications, the suit now should make Superman as fast as Impulse, giving him a chance to confront the Black Flash and save some lives. S.T.A.R. Labs sends the suit to the Salt Flats via rocket, and Superman throws it on, heading down to Vegas for round two against the Black Flash.




Not much to say about this one. It's still pretty good, and I still like the references to the show, like Bart admitting that he never did know Hawkman even though he attended his funeral. Jay kept referencing the idea that other speedsters are out there, but I still don't expect any sign of Barry or Wally.

Next time, we'll see how Clark's fight goes in issue #35.

Friday, September 6, 2019

Young Justice: Invasion – "War"


Director: Mel Zwyer
Writer: Jon Weisman

On May 26, 12:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, four hours ahead of Eastern Time), Mongul has taken his large, planet-like ship known as the Warworld to destroy Earth to prevent it from falling to the Reach. He even goes so far as to tell the Justice League that if they knew what the Reach had in store for them, they'd thank him for putting them out of their misery. He opens fire on Earth, but the Justice League is able to deflect the missiles.

While the Justice League keeps Mongul occupied, Blue Beetle's scarab is able to bypass Warworld's security and sneak the Team inside. Alpha Squad (Superboy, Wolf, Wonder Girl and Arsenal) is tasked with taking down Mongul. Beta Squad (Impulse, Blue Beetle and Beast Boy) heads to the key chamber to take the crystal that enables Mongul to control the Warworld. Gamma Squad (Bumblebee, Guardian and Sphere) is sent straight to Warworld's power source. Delta Squad (Robin and Batgirl in the bio-ship) is aiding the Justice League outside, while in camouflage mode.

Beta Squad makes its way down a hallway (with Beast Boy as a hawk), but they're suddenly attacked by the Warworld's security probes — diamond-shaped floating robots that fire lasers. The probes are easy enough for our heroes to destroy, but there are a lot of them. The other squads also have to deal with the probes. Alpha easily gets past them, but is promptly defeated by Mongul, who retaliates by firing even more missiles at Earth, forcing the Reach to reveal their fleet of ships to protect their "investment."

Gamma reaches the power core. Sphere holds off the drones, while Bumblebee shrinks down into the machine to try to deactivate it without destroying Warworld and the Earth. And it turns out that Bumblebee is the real hero of the day. When she deactivates the power source, an electrical shock is sent back to Mongul, knocking him and turning all the probes and weapons off. Blue Beetle still takes the crystal key, though, for "safekeeping."

The Team reunites in a hangar to load up in the bio-ship to come home. They have a brief moment to celebrate their victory before Blue Beetle knocks out Impulse with the crystal key and starts systemically attacking his teammates. Arsenal panics and opens up the escape hatch, which pulls out Sphere and most of the oxygen in the room. Blue Beetle closes the hatch, and Arsenal is the only hero to get away, retreating back into the catacombs of Warworld. Blue stands triumphantly over his unconscious teammates and shows the Reach he has the crystal key.




Bart didn't speak in this episode, but he did accomplish a lot in this huge, shocking and fun ride. I loved the coordinated attack on Warworld — a perfect balance with so many different characters and missions, all working toward one goal. But all that is overshadowed by the betrayal of Blue Beetle. Jaime had Green Beetle supposedly fix his scarab a full month and a half before this attack. Bart did not seem happy by that, and it seems like he spent the next few weeks avoiding Jaime. Or at least not sticking by his side every single day like he was doing previously. Did he suspect something was wrong? We'll find that out soon enough. But if he did, one wonders why he didn't warn anybody and ask that Blue Beetle be left at home so he wouldn't betray his teammates. But then again, this is the same team that still lets the clearly unstable Arsenal go on missions, so I doubt Bart's warning would have prevented this. And you have to give credit to Blue — taking out the speedster first is sound strategy.

Next time, we return to Smallville: Season Eleven.

Smallville: Season Eleven #33


Haunted Part Seven

Writer Bryan Q. Miller
Art Jorge Jimenez
Colors Carrie Strachan
Lettering Saida Temofonte
Cover Art Cat Staggs
Assistant Editor Sarah Gaydos
Editor Kristy Quinn
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Our cover shows who I believe to be the Chloe Sullivan of Earth-2. I don't know ... it's incredibly complicated and I don't care about it since Impulse isn't involved. I suppose it's a fine cover, but I wish it reflected Bart's quest to find Jay Garrick instead.

Our story begins in Mumbai, out on the soccer field where Bart was playing with some boys back at the beginning of this tale. Unfortunately, we see the spark of energy threatening to ensnare a boy as he reaches for the soccer ball. That same kind of energy is also discovered in France, as police continue to cleanup the Brain's raid on the Louvre.

Luckily, Chloe and Oliver Queen are keeping track of these "speed incidents" at the Watchtower. Unluckily, they're unable to do anything to prevent these incidents from occurring, or the death toll to keep rising, other than report their findings to Superman.

Clark and Bart, meanwhile, have traveled to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to track down Jay Garrick. They find an isolated house on the edge of the salt, and Bart wonders if the old hermit who lives there can help them find the original Flash. Turns out, the old hermit is Jay Garrick himself, still wearing his old uniform.


Jay invites our heroes in, and learns that Bart was the one who stole his identity a few years ago. Bart admits to this, but adds that Jay's wasn't the only identity he stole. Fans of the episode "Run" will remember that Clark saw Bart using three fake IDs — Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West. Jay asks Bart why he was targeted, since they've never met before now, and Bart says he honestly doesn't know. He confesses he has no memories from before he woke up with his abilities. All he remembers is a big flash of light and those three names in his head.

Clark glares at his friend for omitting this crucial detail of his past, and Bart just sheepishly says he didn't want to make a big deal of it. So Clark launches into a prepared speech about Carter Hall, the Justice Society of America, and how they need Jay's help. Jay says he knows Bart's having problems with his speed, so Bart blurts out, asking what Jay knows about the Black Racer.

Jay avoids the question and begins hobbling around the kitchen with his cane, saying the feds broke his leg back when they rounded up the JSA. Clark points out that his leg must have healed in the decades since, but Jay angrily smashes his cup of coffee, saying he didn't want his leg fixed. Clark doesn't understand this, but Bart does — Jay has seen the Black Flash.

Jay admits this is true, saying the monster haunted him every time he broke into a run. It got so bad, Jay could even hear it whispering to him when he was sitting still. He tells Bart they only ride the lightning, not control it. Clark tells Jay about the speed storms that are killing people wherever Bart's been, which Jay identifies as a sign the Black Flash wants to "collect" Bart. Jay says he only survived by stopping running, and if Bart won't stop, then he needs to die.




This was an interesting, but slightly conflicting issue. First of all, I am absolutely thrilled to see the Salt Flats (although the issue did not explicitly identify them). The Salt Flats are near and dear to my heart, as I've spent many a summer cooking hamburgers for racers from all around the world, seeking to set new records on the fastest place on Earth. It's only natural that such a location would be a natural magnet for speedsters — an idea that Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato explored during their run on The Flash.

I'm also happy to see Jay Garrick, although I'm sad that Clark and Bart didn't have to put in much of an effort to find him. They went to the JSA museum, which I guess gave them Jay's address, and they went straight there. Oh well. The concept of Jay living in solitude and perpetual fear of the Black Flash is a heart-breaking, yet intriguing one.

The fake IDs bit was nothing more than an Easter egg back in Bart's debut on the show. But now, all of a sudden, we learn that those weren't random names Bart pulled out of a hat, but names that came to him through some kind of Speed Force dream. And since Jay is a real, living person in this universe, the implication follows that Bart and Wally must be real, too. I'm not counting on finding out anything about them, which is rather frustrating. But then again, the name of the show is Smallville, not Keystone (or Central City).

And last, but not least ... Bart's amnesia. I'm quite disappointed that this Bart is following the same standard of the New 52 Kid Flash. I'm sorry, but a mysterious, unknown, unremembered past is not an interesting backstory. It's a lazy one. Bart wasn't given a concrete origin in "Run" because the writers didn't have the time or energy to give him one. Scott Lobdell didn't give him one partly because nobody knew what was going on in the early days of the New 52 but mostly because he wanted to buy time to put it together over a couple of years, all the while giving the false impression that he had something concrete in mind by dropping little hints that actually didn't say anything. Whew! And now we're going to play the same game in Smallville? No! I was actually somewhat enjoying this comic!

Next time, we'll return to my most favorite version of Bart in 2013, the one in Young Justice: Invasion.