Teen Titans #34, Annual #2
“Endings...And Beginnings”
Here's where Teen Titans really starts
to screw with the readers.
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| Even the lighting knows Terra is up to no good. |
Picking up from Bruce having fired him
and dissolved their partnership as well as his own growing rift with
the Teen Titans, Dick Grayson, as Robin, has gone AWOL and is working
with District Attorney Adrian Chase to put away Anthony Scarapelli, the crime boss responsible for taking children and forcing them to mule
drugs for him in the “Runaways” story from Teen Titans #26-27. At
the end of that story, Scarapelli was released on account of evidence of any wrong doing
being sparse.
Another personnel problem within the
team concerns Terra, who, despite the Titans making an attempt to
celebrate her 16th birthday, feels she isn't part of the
team because they haven't shared any aspects of their personal lives
with her including their secret identities. Kid Flash and Cyborg
express concerns over what Terra has told them about herself, citing
inconsistencies in her story and questions they have that she can't, pr refuses to,
answer.
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| Nobody draws piles of rocks like George Perez |
Any and all teenage drama is
interrupted by a challenge from Deathstroke the Terminator, a master
assassin who was contracted to kill the Titans by the criminal society
H.I.V.E, but so far has failed to do so (obviously). Deathstroke's
challenge: face him in combat or people die. The Titans wouldn't
be good heroes if they let people die so we get ourselves a fight
scene to break up the angst! With a last-minute save by Terra,
Deathstroke is defeated, but escapes to terminate another day.
Meanwhile, Robin's personal war against Scarapelli claims a victim:
DA Adrian Chase's apartment is bombed. Results: Chase and his family
are incinerated.
Enraged, Robin steps up his game
against Scarapelli and soon finds he has a new ally: someone who's
not afraid to use lethal force and has begun assassinating members of
Scarapelli's gang. As Robin becomes more and more frustrated at
what's happening around him and his inability to bring Scarapelli
down, not only for what he's done in the past but also the murder of
DA Chase, he's intercepted by the Titans who manage to convince him
to accept their help and to stop isolating himself. Robin has
friends!
On the flip-side, Scarapelli also has
friends of his own, namely a super-criminal group hired through someone we meet for the first time: The Monitor. In the books I've
assembled, this is the first appearance of The Monitor, a man who
trades in super-villain services and armament. He'll be a very
important character in the upcoming 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' and
his appearance here are the first seeds of this story.
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| I love floppy pirate boots. |
Digression aside, back on Earth, the
newly-hired criminal group engages the Titans in battle while Robin
takes the fight right to Scarapelli. Because it's a comic-book plot
line, the criminal has now made it easy for the heroes to crack down
on him what with the hired assassins and all. If Scarapelli just laid
low, he'd have been fine as lack of evidence of wrong-doing kept him
snug and safe. During this final-conflict-of-epic-proportions, it's
revealed that Robin's gun-happy ally is none other than Adrian Chase,
obviously not dead, obviously angry about his dead family, and now
sporting a snazzy costume and the creative moniker of Vigilante.
In the end, Robin is unable to convince
Chase that justice should prevail in this case and he murders Scarapelli before escaping into the night.
We'll probably be seeing more of Vigilante in the future.
But what of Deathstroke? After escaping
from the Titans, The Terminator has a rendezvous with a date: Terra.
Indeed, Terra has been spying on the Titans for Deathstroke to gain
as much info as she can so he can destroy them from the inside out.
The underage new recruit is a spy. Shit just got real.
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The plot is out of control in these
issues, hence the incredibly long synopsis. A lot of elements are
important for both story threads going on in other titles at the time
as well as threads for the future in both Teen Titans and the
upcoming Crisis story. Sadly, for as much actually happens, and as
thrilling as the revelations are for future stories, the actual story
contained in these two issues is the weakest of the Titans
stuff so far. The central conflict regarding bringing down a
criminal lawfully when there is no real evidence of wrong-doing is
tossed aside for a standard super fight. Chase's transformation into
the murderous Vigilante is also glossed over with no real motivation
besides the cliché 'he-killed-my-family.' Plus where does a guy who
was just blown up with his afmily find the time to put together a
snazzy outfit and become a killer?
Every aspect of this story that is so
promising in the first chapter falls apart in the second chapter.
Entertaining comics for sure, but just not very stimulating beyond
by-the-numbers fare.
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