Teen Titans #29

Sentences

Scott Lobdell Writer
Scott McDaniel Breakdowns
Tyler Kirkham Artist
Arif Prianto Colorist
Travis Lanham Letterer
Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund & Andrew Dalhouse Cover
Robot Chicken Variant Cover by RC Stoodios, LLC
Anthony Marques -- Assistant Editor
Mike Cotton -- Editor
Eddie Berganza -- Group Editor
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

Once again we have a fun variant that I don't have easy access to, and since it doesn't include Kid Flash, I won't worry about it. Our main cover follow's last issue's trend of basically being a full issue behind. There's no question if Solstice will go too far — she already did go too far on the last page of Teen Titans #28. The only real question is whether Bar will continue to love Kiran after she insanely decided to kill a judge in cold blood, just to share Bar's sentence. There's also a gruesome aspect of this cover. Are we looking through the hole in the judge's torso at our "heroes"?

Our story begins with a little peek at Solstice's origin story. But, frankly, it's too little too late for me to care. In the present, Kiran and Bar are in adjoining cells. Shockingly, for the first time ever, we see Kiran in her human form. I was always under the impression that she was permanently stuck in her black energy form. Oh well. I guess there's always still time for a few more continuity-ignoring changes.

Anyway, the conversation between our two "lovebirds" is quite predictable. Bar sadly tells Kiran she shouldn't have thrown her life away for him, and Kiran melodramatically claims she can't live without him. One would think that Bar would be horrified and repulsed by Kiran's rash decision, especially after all the lectures she gave him about not killing, but he's not. One would also think that the Functionary would punish Kiran by not sending her to the same planet with her boyfriend, since, you know, giving somebody exactly what they want can't qualify as a punishment, but here we are.

Red Robin comes to say his final goodbyes, finally admitting that if he grew up in Bar's world, he might have done the same thing. This is quite frustrating since he spent so much time piously looking down on Bar's past in this story, and we still haven't seen anyone besides Bar acknowledge how incredibly wrong it is for the Functionary to murder people who believe in religion. Anyway, Tim and Bar share rather diplomatic farewells, but Kiran refuses to let Tim speak.

And with that, Bar and Kiran are blasted off toward the planet Takron-Galtos. I wish I could say that's the last we'll ever see of this most unsatisfying version of Bart Allen ... but it's not. This issue ends with Tim kissing Wonder Girl, who has apparently decided to dump Superboy after the Fake Superboy told her off page that he's going to stay here in the future (despite his repeated desires to return to the past last issue). Brain 3 sends Raven, Red Robin and Wonder Girl home, and they're immediately thrust into a battle with Beast Boy and Bunker.




It wouldn't be a Lobdell story without tons of inconsistencies. Really, it's just incredibly disappointing that all these people involved, the three editors, the three or four artists, and, of course, the writer, just didn't care. You especially can see that when a series is canceled. Everybody just goes through the motions, waiting for the end. And that's quite a disaster for DC. Teen Titans is one of their premiere teams. It was simply inexcusable for this series to be pulled after only 30 issues. Or rather, it's inexcusable that Lobdell was allowed to last on this series for 30 issues. Oh well, we only have one more of these to suffer through (there is also an annual, but Kid Flash doesn't appear in it — at least in a major, speaking role).

Channel 52 shows two uncolored pages of the next Superboy issue.

All Access provides a checklist of the upcoming Green Lantern crossover.

Next time, we'll finally conclude this disaster of a series with Teen Titans #30.