Saturday, February 9, 2013

Pre-Crisis Primer: Calm Before The Storm

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.


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