Teen Titans #22

Dark Titans

Scott Lobdell Writer
Jesus Merino Finished Art
Eddy Barrows Thumbnails
Pete Pantazis Color
Travis Lanham Letters
Howard Porter Cover
Anthony Marques Asst. Editor
Mike Cotton Editor
Eddie Berganza Group Editor
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

I feel like this series is hanging on by a thread. If Barrows is the regular artist, then why isn't he doing covers anymore? And why are his credits diminishing from penciller to layouts to thumbnails? He still gets his name on the cover, though. At least Lobdell didn't need someone else to write the dialogue for him this time. Anyway, this is actually a pretty decent cover. The Teen Titans don't look too great, but, hey, Trigon! The past couple of covers ignored this, but Trigon is attacking the Teen Titans! That should be a huge deal!

Our story opens in New York City, with Beast Boy as a monkey riding on Red Robin's back, providing an obnoxious recap to this obnoxious story. Trigon showed up, went away, sent his sons, then came back. Beast Boy leaves out the part where he and Raven attacked the Titans, because Lobdell has decided to pretend that didn't happen. He does make a joke, calling out Red Robin's stupid "Project Six" by saying it's time for Project 666.

Even though we didn't see it last issue, Trigon also possessed Solstice along with Kid Flash, Superboy, Wonder Girl and Bunker. Trigon gleefully boasts of how fun it is to possess superheroes, which leads me to question why he didn't do that right off the bat. Red Robin and Beast Boy head straight to Trigon, leaving Raven to take on all the Titans herself. Luckily, she's able to create several "soul self" copies of herself, which can easily subdue the Titans. And I do mean easily.

With Kid Flash, Raven senses an evil that found its way into his soul long before Trigon possessed him. Kid Flash, who has constantly claimed to have known absolutely nothing about his past, oddly says that he did what he did only to protect his family, implying for the first time ever, that he knows exactly what he did in the future.

Anyway, Red Robin ends the fight by shoving his indestructible wings through the back of Trigon's skull and out his eyes. Seriously. This doesn't kill Trigon, but it does seem to hurt him enough that he decides to retreat for the second time this night. Everybody wakes up, free of Trigon's possession, and Solstice talks about how horrifying it was to have that evil inside her. Kid Flash turns the angst up to 11 by saying Trigon's evil felt comforting and familiar.

Suddenly, a group of suits emerges from a portal, led by a black woman who looks like Amanda Waller but isn't? These people claim they've just performed a psi scrub on the area, removing Trigon and the Titans from everyone's memories and causing them to believe the damage was caused by a freak earthquake. They also explain that the two dozen soldiers Psimon killed weren't actually there — it was all an illusion from Trigon. The random mysterious organization takes Psimon away, though, and refuses to explain who they are.

Several hours later, our heroes, including Beast Boy and Raven, are unwinding on Tim's yacht. Raven accepts Tim's offer to join the team, but nobody says anything about Beast Boy staying. Raven explains that Trigon had been tempting Red Robin before his invasion, causing him to force the team on the yacht, get into a pointless battle with the Suicide Squad and make out with Wonder Girl and Solstice. Raven praises Tim for breaking free of Trigon's control, then leaves to have some alone time. And by alone time, I mean reporting to Trigon that she has joined the Titans just as he asked her to.

Once Raven is out of sight, Kid Flash punches Tim five times and barricades himself in his room. Solstice runs to his door, telling him not to blame Red Robin, since he was under the influence of Trigon. Kid Flash says he doesn't blame him, but her, and says he's giving her a few hours to come up with an excuse for making out with Red Robin. Suddenly, a blue portal opens in Kid Flash's room. An obscured figure steps out, calling Kid Flash Bar Tor, saying today he will pay the price for his multitude of crimes. Kid Flash is confused by the familiarity of that name, and the man says his real name is Bar Tor, which he shed when he tried to escape the law by retreating to the past. Bar continues to profess ignorance of all this, but before he can do anything, a whole bunch of hands emerge from the portal and start pulling him in.

Well, it took almost two years, but we've finally found out this character isn't Bart Allen at all, but some punk named Bar Tor. I wonder if this was Lobdell's plan all along, or if the lackluster response to this version of Bart prompted him and/or DC to say he's not really Bart. However it happened, I actually am glad for it. This "Bart" has been a bland, disappointing facsimile of the original Bart Allen we all know and love. So I'm glad that Lobdell hasn't been altering Bart even further than Geoff Johns did.

Of course, I knew all this before I started reviewing this series. If I didn't know that, I probably would have felt betrayed to find out the character I thought I was following for 22 issues is actually someone else. As it stands, I'm only mildly interested in Bar Tor — in the sense that he's one of the alternate versions of Bart Allen, like the kid we saw in Impulse Annual #1. I do have to say, however, that Trace Wyndham is a better name than Bar Tor. In fact, Bar Tor is perhaps the stupidest name we've encountered on this blog.

And as for the rest of this issue? Bleh. What a waste of Trigon. His grand plan immediately falls apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny. And as is the case with all of Lobdell's writing, it feels like he lost interest in the main plot and his countless subplots halfway through. The deus ex machina team cleaning up everything at the end was probably a new low in Lobdell's laziness and lack of focus. Oh well. We'll just keep marching forward through this pile of mediocrity.

Channel 52 talked about my absolute least favorite aspect of the New 52 — the Joker's daughter. Ugh.

Next issue: "The End of a Titan!" (But not the one you think!)