Teen Titans #23

Hello, I Must Be Going!

Written by: Scott Lobdell
Pencils by: Robson Rocha
Inks by: Wayne Faucher
Color by: Pete Pantazis
Letters: Travis Lanham
Cover: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira & Barbara Ciardo
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 essentially the image we ended last issue on. Except Kid Flash wasn't in his uniform. And the rest of the Teen Titans weren't nearby. And the portal didn't open in the middle of the city, but inside Bart's cabin on the yacht. But other than that, it's the same. All things considered, though, this is actually a fairly haunting image. The look of terror on Kid Flash's face, combined with the way too numerous hands makes things rather creepy.

Our story picks right up where last issue left off, with Kid Flash (not in uniform) being pulled into a portal by a dozen different hands. For whatever reason, he is unable to use his super speed to escape, but he does call out for help. Even though he barricaded his room last issue, and Solstice was literally knocking on the door at the time of the abduction, Wonder Girl is suddenly inside the room, in full costume, and wrapping her lasso around Bar's arm.

But Wonder Girl isn't strong enough to save Kid Flash, so Bunker lends her hand. When he fails, Beast Boy turns into a giant squid and begins pulling Bunker. Solstice finally arrives, but all she does is scream in Gar's ear. Superboy and Red Robin are next to arrive, also having taken the time to put on their uniforms before rushing to their teammate's aid. Red Robin wisely tells Superboy to target the portal itself, and he's able to dismantle it with his tactile telekinesis.

Bar thanks everyone for saving him, admitting he thought they'd be upset by the cheap shot he took at Red Robin just a few minutes ago. Tim admits he deserved to be punched for making out with Solstice and Wonder Girl while under the influence of Trigon. Raven finally arrives (apparently it takes her quite a while to put on those stupid feathers that cover her eyes) and she darkly says that certain grudges are healthy.

Raven does say something useful — that she can sense that portal came from the future. Bar says he knows he did something wrong, but claims he can't remember it. Bunker expresses his belief, but Raven doubts him. At Red Robin's suggestion, everyone changes back out of their uniforms to finally unwind from their lengthy and bizarre encounter with Trigon.

Beast Boy swims with Bunker in the yacht's pool, Superboy and Wonder Girl leave the yacht for a bit to kiss and makeup after Cassie cheated on Kon (but he's totally fine with it), and Red Robin takes Raven to his central computer, showing her all the Titans' secrets. He says he envisions Raven becoming the leader of the team one day, and I sincerely hope he is still being mind-controlled to some extent, because he is acting horrendously stupid right now. At one point, Tim mentions N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and when Raven asks what it stands for, Tim only says, "Honestly? I hate that question." That's right, kids, Scott Lobdell created this a secret organization with a ridiculously long acronym that he never named. Even two years later, he still is unable to come up with something serviceable, and only angrily dismisses those who ask that most basic question.

Anyway, Kid Flash goes out for a run across the water, followed closely by Solstice. Bar tells her about his troubling experiences with Vibe and the Flash, and she gives him a cheesy little speech about how he is a good person no matter what happened in his past. And then Bar kisses Kiran, completely forgetting about being mad at her for cheating on him with Red Robin.

Bunker then gathers the team together to randomly announce that he suddenly has a boyfriend, who just so happened to wake up from a long coma. So Miguel is leaving the team to return to his boyfriend, and for no reason at all, Beast Boy is going to travel with him. Well, the real reason was Lobdell never wanted him on the team and couldn't find a natural way for him to leave.




Anybody remember when Eddy Barrows actually drew an issue of this series? Because I don't. However, it was nice to see longtime Impulse inker Wayne Faucher return, even if he didn't have particularly thrilling pencils to ink. But yeah, this story is just as bland as ever. The romance might be the worst aspect of it. I mean, Kid Flash had a legitimate reason to be angry at Solstice, and now, all of a sudden, he's back to kissing her without even a conversation about what happened. Of course, the only reason this issue stayed on the yacht rather than following Bar Tor to the future is because of the upcoming Forever Evil event. So I do feel a little bad for Lobdell. Just when he finally gets around to revealing Kid Flash's origin, he gets hit with another company-wide crossover.

Instead of Channel 52 this issue, we have two pages showing all the covers for the Villain Month gimmick of Forever Evil. We won't be reviewing any of those issues, but we will take a quick peek at the main Forever Evil series.