Teen Titans #21

The Brothers Trigon

Story: Scott Lobdell
Dialog: Tony Bedard
Layouts: Eddy Barrows
Finishes: Jesus Merino
Letters: Dezi Sienty
Color: Pete Pantazis
Cover: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Alex Sinclair
Assistant Editor: Anthony Marques
Editor: Mike Cotton
Group Editor: Eddie Berganza
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

Our cover is perfectly mediocre. The wanted poster idea could easily have applied for almost any other issue in this series. But now that Trigon has arrived, this doesn't feel like the right time for it. Unless the takeaway from Trigon's attack was that he wanted to blame the Teen Titans for Psimon's murder of 24 soldiers. And I kind of think that's not really the case. So this cover actually has nothing to do with this story.

Our story picks up with Trigon's three sons arriving in Times Square, New York City. Raven confirms that these are her brothers, while Red Robin orders the team into "Pattern Six," which is apparently code for Superboy to smash the ground. Superboy's attack launches the three demons into the air, allowing Bunker and Wonder Girl grab one of them and pull him away from the group, while Kid Flash and Solstice do the same, leaving everybody else to take on the one remaining son of Trigon.

Kid Flash rushes the demon to Midtown, stupidly asking if he has any special powers, while pummeling him. The demon responds by taking control of Kid Flash's body, which would be a big deal, but ... it wasn't. Solstice hit Kid Flash in the head with a rock, instantly turning him back to normal. Of course, Kid Flash takes full credit for using his super speed to break Suge's possession (I guess he learned the demon's name while being under his control for 30 seconds). And then Kid Flash kisses Solstice, which I guess is officially for the first time.

They regroup with the others, who have easily defeated the other two sons of Trigon. Suddenly, Trigon appears out of nowhere and instantly has chains around the necks of Bunker, Superboy, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl, who all bear the purple eyes of possession.




I'd say this series has really fallen apart lately, but it frankly was never good to begin with. But the past few issues have especially felt like no one cares anymore. And that's completely insane, since this is Trigon — one of the biggest bads in DC history! But everything feels so ... blah. And then a shocking ending that was so random, I swore I must have skipped over a page. Oh yeah, I guess Kid Flash finally kissed Solstice, but so what? Their romance has never felt genuine or compelling.

Next time, we'll officially close the chapter of the Smallville Bart Allen with a special issue of Smallville: Season Eleven.