Teen Titans #27

State's Evidence

Written by: Scott Lobdell
Breakdowns: Scott McDaniel
Pencils: Tyler Kirkham
Inks: Art Thibert
Color: Arif Prianto
Letters: Taylor Esposito
Cover: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund & Andrew Dalhouse
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 depicts a scene that in no way, shape or form appears in this issue. Kid Flash certainly does not "fall," requiring his teammates to protect him. I will, however, give credit to Booth for putting Raven and Superboy off in the distance, removed from all the action. Which makes sense, since this Superboy really isn't Superboy and Raven is still secretly working on Trigon's over-convoluted plan. Can we count Bar Torr as the third secretly evil Titan? Last issue, I would have said no, but this issue ...

Our story picks up in the latter part of the 30th century, at Echo Headquarters, located in a remote corner of the universe. After learning the truth of Bar Torr's past, the Teen Titans couldn't even bear to look at him anymore, and have split up to go off and be angsty. Solstice is with Red Robin, who seems to forgive her for killing people during the Culling, but not Bar for killing people during his war against the Functionary. But Tim does hope Bar gets a fair trial, even though I don't understand why he's having another trial. He already had one and he confessed to everything, spilling all the secrets of his rebellion in exchange for witness protection. The Functionary sent him back in time with a lazily conceived fake identity. And it didn't work — Bar's rebels were able to track him down and seek revenge on their former leader for betraying them. And now that Bar's back in the future, he's getting another trial because ... reasons?

Last issue ended with Bar remorsefully begging his friends to understand that he's changed since the war. But in this issue, he seems to have pulled a complete 180 on his attitude. Wonder Girl visits him in his new handcuffs, and for some reason acts like the name "Bar" is completely different from "Bart." Anyway, Bar is uncharacteristically manipulative with Cassie and warns her of an impending war.

Fake Superboy secretly laments not being able to kill all the Teen Titans yet — I guess he's still too weak now or something — so he continues to pretend he's a good guy. He asks why they don't just bust Kid Flash our of his prison, but Red Robin reiterates his belief that Bar was not justified in killing people during war. Besides, he points out that they're ill-equipped to overthrow this futuristic government.

Brain 3 then leads them to the trial, which I guess is ostensibly to see if Bar has reformed during his inadequately provided witness protection and can be set free ... I think ... nothing's particularly clear here. The dialogue in this issue also repeatedly stresses the enormous amount of corrupt politicians who have shown up at this trial, although the art does a poor job of conveying that.

In Bar's opening statement, he says he didn't wage war for himself, his family, or all the people starving and suffering under the Functionary's rule, but for justice. Yeah, I know all the things he said fall under the category of "justice," but Bar (Lobdell) isn't a very good speechmaker. After speaking on the nature of freedom for a bit, Bar concludes his remarks by saying he's "guilty as hell."

Suddenly, the roof of the tribunal blows up and a bunch of people are sucked up into space. I think the roof quickly re-seals itself, trapping some people in it, but once again, clarity is not this issue's strong suit. Bar's handcuffs are teleported away ... somehow ... and he explains that this attack was all part of his master plan, stemming from when he turned himself in after his sister was wounded. Bar says he gave a few months of his life to "Bart Allen," knowing that when he returned to the future, it would create the trial of the century, turning many of his enemies into sitting ducks. Of course, Bart's initial trial already was the trial of the century, but hey, Lobdell just has to make everything needlessly complicated and inefficient.

Bar's rebellion has extended to many of the guards, who have released and armed the prisoners. As Bar's army marches upstairs to finish off the rest of the corrupt dignitaries and politicians, Solstice stupidly says, "This isn't war — it is a slaughter." Red Robin also idiotically stands in Bar's way, saying he won't let him kill all those people, so Bar orders his men to kill them all.




If Bar had planned this attack back when he first turned himself in, you'd think that truth-telling memory probe would have picked that up. Instead of, you know, showing that Bar was distraught over the collateral damage his rebellion was causing. Anyway, this is all a result of Lobdell not knowing what kind of story he wanted to tell and changing his mind every other issue. He could have made this Kid Flash the New 52 version of Inertia — Bart Allen's evil clone that took his place and, over the course of pretending to be a hero, actually became one by accident, leading to incredible emotional conflict. Lobdell could have told the story that Todd Dezago never finished. Of course, Lobdell would have screwed it up, so I'm glad he didn't attempt that.

What he did attempt was a deep conversation on the necessary evils of war, but such a topic was far too sophisticated for him. I don't understand how Red Robin or any of the Teen Titans could see the Functionary as anything other than pure evil. They brutally murdered Bar's parents because they believed in religion. This thrust Bar onto the streets and into a daily kill-or-be-killed scenario. How could Red Robin justify Solstice killing people in the Culling but not Bar killing people in an actual, all-out war? And how come nobody called him out on this? Bar was reduced to a pure evil villain this issue because Lobdell lacks any nuance.

Next issue: The final sentence of Kid Flash.