Hello and hello! I’m back with another tpb, and it’s a good one. And yes, it’s another one of those Geoff Johns’ ones.Teen Titans Vol. 4: The Future is Now
Writers: Geoff Johns
Artists: Mike McKone, Tom Grummett, and Ivan Reis
As stated above, the creative team is pretty much the same from before, with McKone doing the main stuff, Grummett doing filler, and Reis doing part 2 of the Legion Crossover. The volume has issues #16-23 including the Titans/Legion Special, so this is going to be a big one. So, let’s get to it.
Titans/Legion crossover – Part 1
We start out in Metropolis, and it’s the 31st century. Brainiac 5 and Superboy (?) are running while all hell is breaking around them in explosions. They run towards what looks like a time machine. They talk about what Superboy needs to do and Brainiac 5 wishes him luck.
We then skip to the San Francisco, Present Day. Conner is sitting in a restaurant waiting for someone. Also, apparently he doesn’t care about a secret identity since he pretty much in costume, but oh well. His date shows up and it’s Cassie. AWW!!! They talk some, mostly about their life and what not. Suddenly, Conner’s X-Ray vision acts up, and he starts to see everyone naked. Well…..hmm….Nope, I got nothing to say. All of the sudden, a big vortex opens up behind Conner and it sucks him in. Then, another vortex opens in the same place and Superboy (or should I say Conner) steps out and asks for help.
Would have been nice if he said "Come with me if you want to live."
Meanwhile, at Titans Tower, the rest are having breakfast made by Bart. They don’t take it well. Robin shows up, back from his retirement. Raven senses something’s wrong, but Robin tells her to shove it. Cassie comes in carrying Conner, who’s unconscious at the moment. They notice that’s he carrying Legion Rings. Suddenly, a figure with a big ax comes out of nowhere. He is the Persuader and he wants to kill Conner. He easily takes out the Titans. Fortunately, Cyborg gets the upper “hand” on the ax-wielding nut:
Cyborg - the world's greatest.....cyborg. Yeah, I'm not original.
Wonder Girl gets a hit in, which makes Persuader leave via a portal produced from his ax. Conner wakes up, tells them to put the rings on on, and tells them to follow him into the portal. Bart immediately recognizes the rings since he is from this time period. They end up in space. They’re protected from dying by the Legion Rings. The Titans then run into the Legion of Superheroes, and we have some conversations between the teams. It turns out that Conner has spent 5 months in the future when he got transported at the beginning of the issue. Anyway, the Legion needed help with the Fatal Five (?), so Conner was sent back to the present to get the JLA. He got the Teen Titans instead though. They all go to Legion World, a space station about the size of the moon, and it blows up. Darn.
They all go and try to stop the station from doing damage to the Earth. It then comes out that the Persuader has been using his ax to ……access other parallel universes to get other Fatal Five groups and instead of the Fatal Five, they are going up the Fatal Five Hundred.
…..Oh crap.
We are now on Earth in Metropolis. The Titans and The Legion are fighting against the Fatal Five Hundred. Persuader of the original Fatal Five has discovered that his atomic axe, known to cleave through any substance, can also cut through the cosmic barrier between parallel worlds. He has been recruiting the parallel counterparts to his teammates in the Fatal Five, and now commands hundreds of Emerald Emperesses, Manos, Tharoks and Validuses at his side. They aren’t doing too well against this big group. Raven is able to teleport the Legion and the Titans to the Legion’s well hidden hideout: a giant building shaped like an L. Nice hiding place. There they recuperate and talk some more. It turns out that Conner really likes it in the future and he is torn between heading back to the present and staying in the future. Cassie isn’t pleased. Bart also gets to catch up with his cousin XS and his mother. Aw.
Brainiac 5 comes up with a plan to return all of the parallel duplicates back to their respective realities. By bouncing vibrational signals off of Legion headquarters and the remains of Legion World, they can reset the molecular frequencies of the Fatal Five-Hundred, returning them home. (Did you get that, people? No? Oh well, it’s okay.) In order to generate enough vibrational power, Kid Flash and XS are required to run at top speed on the Cosmic Treadmill.
While Kid Flash and XS begin racing on the Treadmill, the Fatal Five-Hundred arrives and attacks Legion Headquarters. Brainiac, Gear and Invisible Kid keep an eye on the resonator, while the rest of the Legion and the Titans do battle with the villains. As the speedsters reach the chosen velocity (or 88 mile per hour, Ha), Brainiac activates the device. The vibrational frequencies begins to send the Fatal Five doppelgangers home, but the energy expulsion generated from the destruction of each of the Persuaders atomic axes is severing the Legion's connection to the space/time continuum. Superboy grabs the Atomic Axe of the last remaining Persuader and encases it within his tactile telekinesis field. He then tries to use the ax to get the Titans and legion back to the present because the Legion would be stuck in time, but Persuader fights them. A dimensional rift opens and the Titans are pulled into the timestream while the Legion is left in the nothingness. While the Titans are pulled through time, they see images of Starfire and Nightwing making out, Doctor Light, and Robin against a figure carrying a bow and arrow.
The Titans arrive back on Earth in the 21st century at the Tower. However, they realize they are not in the correct time. We then see versions of Superman, Batman, and Aquaman (or woman) get ready to go back to the Tower.
Titans Tomorrow: Part I
We start out in Gotham City, 10 years from the present day. The Gotham Police and the retired Commisioner Gordan are at Wayne Enterprises looking for a package. They find the package and it blows up, injuring some officers. It turns out that the person who supplied the purple package is none other than the Joker’s duagther and former Titan, Harlequin. Suddenly, Batman shows up, and it turns out that it’s Tim in the cowl. They fight, with Batman being real brutal and pushing her off the roof. The fight ends up going into the building, where Batman pulls out a gun and proceeds to kill the villain(?).
Dang! This dude is hardcore!
Meanwhile, at the tower, the team is realizing that all is not right when they see a statue of them where the statue of the original five Titans is. Raven then notices that there is no emotion or hope out there in the city. As they go in the Tower, they notice a room called the Hall of Mentors. There, there are statues of these Titans’ mentors. The big one to notice is this one:
(Sarcastic) Hmm…what does that mean?
In the tower, the younger team tells the older team their story. Batman (or how about Bat-Tim), who is the team’s leader, tells them that they will help them and shows them to their rooms. Beast Boy wonders where the older versions of Vic and Starfire are. In a room, our Tim and Conner talk about their older versions. Tim is peeved because he does end up becoming Batman, which is something he didn’t want. Conner leaves to find his older self and get some advice on that whole “I’m a clone of Luthor!!” thing. As he walks, his super-hearing kicks in. When he finds the older team, he sees that they are torturing Deathstroke. Deathstroke! You’re back!
Titans Tomorrow -Part IIOld Bart is on a roof talking to a hidden figure about the team. He tells the figure to tell Vic and his team to get ready for something. The figure then comes out of the shadow and kisses Bart. Aw. It turns out that the figure is Ravager. EH???
Oh! So she’s gone good now?
The remaining Teen Titans end up in Keystone City. Bart wants to visit the Flash Museum to see if the Cosmic Treadmill is there so they can use it to get back to the present day. The team discovers that the whole state is a Flash museum.
Wow, the Flash really does have a big ego!
Back in the Flash Museum, the young titans see random things, including a picture of Donna Troy. Is Johns hinting at something? Anyway, The Treadmill is not there and an alarm goes off. The young Titans go outside and find another team of Titans led by Vic: Titans East.
Titans Tomorrow - Part IIIWe’re in New York, 10 years from present day. The look and demeanor of New York is in contrast to how it is in San Francisco. People are actually happy. Titans East take the Teen Titans to their headquarters. We find out what happened to the country. The Titans as a whole split up when the Titans on the West Coast wanted to change the country to fit their needs. They succeed, but they had to hold to that power, so Dark Raven sapped the emotion from the West to do it.
The Teen Titans think that the only way to stop this future from happening is to break up when back. Rose tells they can’t break up the team. Old Cyborg tells them why: it’s what started this whole thing. See when the Teen Titans originally went back to the present day, they broke up. Because of that, they couldn't help the heroes during the Crisis. Plus, when they reformed a between the 10 years, they were influenced by other forces that made them darker than what they were. So, the Teen Titans decide not to break up and keep this future from happening.
Starfire finds out through Batwoman that she is still alive and with Dick (Nightwing) in this future. Suddenly, Flash comes in beaten up. He tells them that the Bad Titans have found them. We also find out the location of the Treadmill. Suddenly, the Bad Titans show up and the fight of all fights breaks out.
Quick! Cue the hard rock music!
Meanwhile, in the Batcave, Bat-Tim is about to erase Tim’s memories of the events. Luckily, Superboy and Captain Marvel show up to stop him. Bat-Tim takes out Marvel easily. Remember, he’s the Freakin’ Bat-Tim! Conner frees Tim and is then taken out via kryptonite ring. Robin and Bat-Tim fight once more. Meanwhile, the good Titans find the Cosmic Treadmill and both Flashes jump on to get it running. Back in the cave, Robin and Bat-Tim and Robin still fight. Robin somehow is able to beat his older self. Oh yeah! The rest of the Teen Titans get together, get on the treadmill, and are able to get back to the present time.
At the tower, in present day, the Titans get a chance to relax. Conner and Tim have a little talk about sticking together and lightening up.
We then go back to the future. We’re in Smallville, which looks weird with an ice glacier there. It turns out that Superman (Conner) has gone to get some advice from his father – Lex Luthor! Is this foreshadowing for what’s to come? Find out….soon!
Aftermath of Identity Crisis
Now I’ll talk a little about an event that happened around this time: Identity Crisis. I don’t have the miniseries, so I’ll link the summary and plot HERE. These next four issues pretty much tie up loose ends from the event and they involve Robin and Doctor Light. In IC, it turns out that the villain Doctor Light was nut and a really bad one at that. During the JLA’s Satellite Era, he raped Elongated Man’s wife, Sue Dibny, in the Watchtower. When the JLA (minus Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman) found them, they beat the crap out of the guy. They then vote on having Zatanna mindwipe the events from his mind, as well as remove certain aspects of his personality (the whole rapist thing and they made him less threatening). The only ones who knew about what happened were the JLA.
In the present day, Doctor Light begins to remember what the JLA did to him and he is peeved. Also, in IC, Robin ‘s dad, Jack, gets murdered by Captain Boomerang. We pretty much pick it up from there.
HidingThis issue starts out on the roof of Titan Tower. Robin, who was out looking for bad guys earlier, is spying on Vic and Starfire (Kory) talk. It turns out that Kory wants to leave the Titans and join the Outsiders, a team thatNightwing is leading. After the events of that last arc, she feels that she needs to be with Dick, who’s going through some stuff. Vic tells her to keep in touch, and she leaves. Robin walks up on Vic, when this happens:
And here's another sign Cyborg is cool: he beats up spies.
Anyway, Robin tells Vic that he won’t be coming next week because he and his father are going fishing. Plus, he needs a break because of that that last arc. Unfortunately, he and his father don’t get to go on that trip. His father died during that week. Tim thinks to himself that he finally knows how it feels to be Batman (they both are orphans), and the thought of that scares him.
Meanwhile, in Opal City, the Electrocutioner goes to the hospital to check up on another villain, Bolt. Apparently, Bolt had a package that he lost when two guys shot him and stole it? What was the package? Lex Luthor’s green Power Suit.
It’s that week and Robin’s back at the tower. He decides not to tell anyone about what happened to his dad. Why? “Bruce Doesn’t.” He checks in on the other Titans: Conner’s doing homework, Bart’s listening to music, and Raven is getting ready for high school and being annoyed by Gar.
Conner comes to Tim and tells him that he knows. He found out through Superman. Tim doesn’t want to talk about it, and he wants to deal with it on his own terms, like Bruce. Vic interrupts him (1984 style) and tells them and the rest of the Titans to get ready because they’re heading to Opal City.
I am Cyborg! The Great and Shiny!
In Opal City, we find the thieves while they’re playing with the power suit. The Electrocutioner shows up to get the suit from them. Suddenly, the Titans show up and they fight the Electrocutioner. The guy in the suit loses control of it and it begins to attack the Titans by shooting a kryptonite ray at Superboy and firing a missile at Beast Boy. Another figure called Warp teleports in and takes the guy and the suit. Meanwhile, Robin fights Electricutioner. He ends saying something about his Dad, and Robin completely loses it and proceeds to beat up the dude. Cyborg stops Robin and the team asks him what wrong. Raven tells him to not hold it in, so Robin tells them about his dad and that he needs to talk about it. His last thought is “For the first time in a week, I stop thinking like Batman, and start thinking like a Titan.”
Our first epilogue is of Lex Luthor. It turns out that he paid villains to get his suit back to him. He is now making plans for Conner. The second epilogue is of Green Arrow. He’s talking to Wonder Girl’s mom about having a kid as a superhero until he is attacked by Doctor Light. Oh #@#$.
Lights Out – The New KidThe issue starts out in Philadelphia where Doctor Light has Green Arrow hostage. He tells him that he is going to take his revenge out on the JLA by destroying the Titans and Arrow’s new protégé, Mia.
We then skip to San Francisco. Mia Deadren, the new Speedy, has been invited to Titans Tower to join the Teen Titans. She takes the secret passageway to get to the tower. When she gets there, she sees the team getting attacked by Cyborg. She suits up and uses a freeze arrow (Ha.) on Cyborg, which stops him instantly. The other Titans then tell her that it was a training exercise and that Vic was just training them. Oops?
Lights Out – The New KidThe issue starts out in Philadelphia where Doctor Light has Green Arrow hostage. He tells him that he is going to take his revenge out on the JLA by destroying the Titans and Arrow’s new protégé, Mia.
We then skip to San Francisco. Mia Deadren, the new Speedy, has been invited to Titans Tower to join the Teen Titans. She takes the secret passageway to get to the tower. When she gets there, she sees the team getting attacked by Cyborg. She suits up and uses a freeze arrow (Ha.) on Cyborg, which stops him instantly. The other Titans then tell her that it was a training exercise and that Vic was just training them. Oops?
Yep.....awkward.
Man, when everyone in the DCU is gunning for you, you know you're bad.
As the Titans fly toward Philadelphia, they talk about Light. He originally wasn’t that big of a threat when the Titans faced him. Robin talks about rumors that he heard about Light, that he wasn’t always a joke before he began fighting the Titans. When the Titans reach Philadelphia, they go into the building and Light ambushes them.
Lights Out - War and PeaceWhen everyone comes to their senses, Doctor Light is there. They all attack him. The rest of the issue is pretty much the fight. Light uses about every trick in his book to beat the Titans. He steals Conner’s Heat Vision, takes the light and shock from Wonder Girl’s Lasso, and he re-injures Bart’s knee. Raven feels all sorts of emotion from Light: Corruption, exictment , and a lot of hate. Light doesn’t hold back and eventually defeats all of the Titans. He takes Speedy to Green Arrow.
Meanwhile, Batman and Batgirl watch the fight from some location. All is not what it seems when Batman takes out a sword. Who could this be?
I wonder how he would do swinging around Gotham City with that.
Light tells Arrow that he will make him pay by watching him kill Speedy. Suddenly, a couple of women show up. They taunt Light, and then reveal themselves to be heroes and former Titans by turning into Hawk and Dove. They fight him, and then run. Light catches up to them and attacks them. Then Light runs into something that may make him pee his pants: 20-something ticked off Titans. They all take Light on.
Oh Yeah!
Dr. Light is a lot more aggressive than he used to be and he spares no expense at delivering the most lethal light blasts possible. One by one, the Titans try bringing him down. The Herald blows that horn of his, Harlequin sprays him with acid, and Starfire beats the crap out him. Unfortunately, Light easily beats them. They then all try to gang up on the nut when this happens:
Dang.
After the fray, Hawk and Dove talk to Raven. Superboy asks Cyborg about why Joker’s daughter is there. They wonder who is taking Doctor Light when suddenly Batman and Batgirl arrive shortly after the fight to take Dr. Light to Belle Reve. Cyborg goes to Green Arrow and asks him if the rumors are true. Vic then gets on Arrow for getting the kids involved with this as well. We then find out that someone broke in to the Outsiders’ headquarters. That may play into next time, I don’t know.
Back at the Tower, the Titans discuss rumors surrounding the fact that the old Justice League brainwashed Dr. Light and that he is only now returning to his normal psychotic personality. They decide as a team, that there is no room for secrets among them. Mia decides that it’s time to tell the group that she tested positive for HIV. There’s a little silence at first, but then they all break out with secrets of their own. Beast Boy is worried that he may become more animal-like in the future, Raven is still feeding on emotions, Cassie is worried about the whole Ares thing, and Bart wore Gar’s underwear once (Ha Ha!). Mia thought that she would be ostracized, but she was wrong. Everyone welcomes her as a permanent member of the Titans. Meanwhile, Tim looks at Conner and wonders when will he come clean and tell the others about his heritage.
We then cut to the Batplane, where Light is wondering where he is going. It is revealed that this is not truly Batman and Batgirl in those suits. It’s Deathstroke and Ravager in disguise (I knew it!) ! Slade says that they are taking Light to somebody. Who, you may ask? Find out..... eventually.
...............................................
So there's the end of the tpb. Is it good? Heck yeah, it's good! When you read something multiple times, it's probably good. The art as a whole is pretty good, as usual.
The crossover with the Legion isn't too bad. It's pretty much a quick arc. You don't learn much about the Legion, and if you're coming into the book without ant knowledge of the team, you may be bored with the whole arc. Fortunately, I kinda like the Legion and know a little about them, so I like it.
Titans Tomorrow makes up for some of the boredness and technobabble from the last arc though. It's fast paced, action-packed, and well characterized. Seeing what Tim and all the other Titans could become was a treat. Also, we get a glimpse of Conner under Luthor's influence.
The tie-ins to Identity Crisis were also well done. The issue about Tim was well done. I really don't own IC, but I have skimmed through it. The part about Robin's dad dying was probably the saddest part of the book. Seeing Tim deal with it here was pretty much needed. The Doctor Light part was also well done. We see Light for what he really is and it's real creepy. It was also a treat to see ALL of the Titans take on this one villain. This arc also sets up some stuff for later arcs and that "Crisis" I talked about long ago. Well, this is arw1985 signing out for now. May you all have a Happy New Year's Day!
Next Time: Countdown to That "Crisis".
Gotta pick it up now, thanks! :)
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