Pre-Crisis Primer: Love Doesn't Need A Body

Teen Titans 28-31

“Terra”

Teen Titans goes for less realism this time around and goes right to those goofy villains I mentioned last time I reviewed this title. Also, major continuity alert: Terra joins the Titans in this story! Should we be celebrating?

Pimps.

This is a big crazy superhero brawl that introduces us to the seriously-named Brotherhood of Evil who are led by a disembodied brain and his lover/bodyguard, the psychotic French gorilla Monsieur Mallah. The team also features on its roster a man made of hot lava play-doh. Not exactly scary. The Brotherhood of Evil will shortly become jokes through out much of the DCU, culminating in a declaration of love and a tragic suicide in a future Doom Patrol title. Before this though, we have them trying to be scary and threatening. I should also mention that the Brotherhood boasts a man in a stupid costume who does electronic voodoo.They're pretty dumb if I haven't been clear enough; but it's comics so it's fine.

My favorite of the Ape bad guys.

Green shape-shifter (comics) Changeling convinces a cynical runaway terrakinetic (I made that up: moves the ground with her mind), Terra, to officially joins the Titans during this outing. She takes this opportunity to mock everyone on the team. With their snarky new teammate in town, and Changeling nursing a crush on the spunky blonde newbie, the Titans find themselves embroiled in a war between The Brain's Brotherhood of Evil (trying the same thing they do every night...) and the religious crackpot Brother Blood. 

Such an adorable couple.

 Aside from having a name that can't possibly be reconciled to any religion that wants anything to do with peace (most of them), Brother Blood likes to meditate atop a throne of  skulls. He does not have peoples best interests at heart. Regardless, when he and the Brotherhood go to war, innocent people do get hurt and that is when the Titans get involved. But of course getting the Titans involved is all part of The Brain's elaborate plan (would a brain in a fish tank have any other kind of plan?) to capture the Titan's resident empath Raven.

Raven is the 'magic-user' of the team. She comes from another dimension, her father is a demon named Trigon, and her powers are emotional-based; meaning she can heal, is attuned to the feelings of others, and is very reserved. The Brotherhood attempt to drive Raven bat-shit crazy and get the crap kicked out of them for their trouble. . Once the Titans come to rescue their kidnapped friend, a battle royale ensues and The Brotherhood is defeated. Raven is free of their influence (with a lingering sub-plot concerning her aforementioned demon-father that surely won't ever come up again) and Brother Blood is free to continue preaching in peace and skulls.

Raven's fantasy of Kid Flash. And she likes him.

Definitely a 180-turn in style and tone from the previous, grounded story. 'Terra' is big on action and short on ideas. A very fun read to a very good run of titles. I'm excited to see what's next for the angst-filled sidekicks.