Tales of the Teen Titans 56-58
'Victor Victorious'
 |
| Heroes, heels, and Cyborg caught in the middle. Plus six members in the Fearsome Five. |
The last few Teen Titans stories, while
full of nice character development
and surprising turn of events
have been very short on action. This is not criticism, mind you,
because they've been top-notch stories, but the dearth of superhero
fisticuffs comes to end with this tale, steeped as it is in hot
good-guy on bad-guy violence. All this and we finally get to catch up
on what Raven has been up to since her mysterious disappearance.
Let's
deal with the ancillary bouts before moving on to the main event. Of
most significance with these issues is Raven's return to the title.
As dear readers no doubt remember (because
everyone loves minutia, right?) Raven has been battling the evil
influence of her demon-lord father Trigon (ah, comics) and losing.
After almost murdering teammates and enemy alike during the Titans
final battle with the H.I.V.E. In the aftermath of Terra's betrayal,
she's been missing, afraid to put her friends in any more danger.
Hiding in another dimension, she seeks out her mother who sacrificed
her freedom to keep Trigon imprisoned for all time. 'All time'
apparently being until she tired of the whole ordeal because the plan
has fallen apart. This is just the beginning of a long streak of bad
luck for Raven.
 |
| The greatest day of Gar's life to this point. |
On
the sub-plot flip side, Cyborg (real secret origin name, Victor
Stone!) gets his time in the spotlight. Never a fan of the mechanical
limbs and apparatus that saved his life after an accident in a lab
(caused by his father no less), Cyborg is contacted by Dr. Jenet
Klyburn (an associate of Cyborg's father) from STAR (I'm not typing
the periods after each letter) Labs about replacing his mechanical
parts with plastic prosthesis designed to mimic human form. As close
as he can get, Victor can look human again; something he's lamented
since becoming Cyborg. As things start to finally go Victor Stone's
way, let's check back on what the rest of the team's up to as all
this is occurring.
 |
| Cyborg lives in plastic form! |
The
rest of the team? Nightwing, Lilith,
Changeling, Starfire, Jericho and Wonder Girl? They straight-up kick
a lot of ass. This is the Titans time to shine. The Fearsome Five, a
qunitent of diabolical, dastardly villains led by Dr. Light
has suddenly become actually diabolical and dastardly, in addition to
devious, because they've divested themselves of Dr. Light and his
inane leadership. Now only having four members, and not letting such
a travesty stand, the remaining team members first seek to recruit a
fifth. The team consists of Psimon, a telepathic psychopath with the
unfortunate physical condition of a fishbowl for a skull and his
brain visible for all to see; Mammoth, a big, dumb brute character
who throws shit at people; his sister, Shimmer, a woman with the
power to transmute any element into another and the unfortunate
physical contribution of a Jeri-churl Afro hairstyle; Gizmo, a
bearded dwarf with the ability to create shit for evil purposes; and
finally new member Jinx, a sorceress with immense power as long as
she has contact with the ground, lift her up and she's powerless.
 |
| Fighting! Nightwing's arsenal of karate kicks is enough to turn the tide. |
The
Five assembled again, they put forth their great plan to...recruit a
sixth member (Sinister Six?). No mention is made of the name change
that should occur once nuclear-powered asshole Neutron is freed from
imprisonment. Individual he may be, The Five's plan for Neutron is to
ransom New York City for a shit-ton of money or have Neutron just
blow himself and the city away. I don't know why they just don't have
Shimmer transmute a lot of lead into gold but that's just me.
Naturally the Titans won't let this go without a fight, so fight they
do! One of those issue-long superhero slobber-knockers full of drama,
teamwork and untold amounts of property damage.Psimon manages to escape the long arm of the law though by being kidnapped by none other than the mysterious Monitor! Seems he needs Psimon's help to avert a coming Crisis....
 |
| This is why The Monitor had stayed hidden this whole time.... |
Linking
sub-plot to main plot some of the property damage happens to be
Cyborg's new plastic limbs as the aforementioned Neutron, being a
living fission reactor, was being held at STAR Labs when the Fearsome
Five freed him a result of which was the melting of Cyborg's new form
before he could show his new found humanity to his friends. Sad face.
Luckily for Victor, that his original metal chassis was still
retained. After a one-issue absence, Cyborg returns! At least he
learns a lesson from all this, I'm sure.
 |
| The Cyborg we know and love. |
With
the bad-guys thoroughly beaten up and humiliated, and the team mostly
reunited, they decide it's finally time to look for their missing
friend, Raven. I'm pretty sure they will absolutely hate what they
find.
I
love action comics.
No comments:
Post a Comment