New comics 11/17/04

Apparently it was Evil Alternate Timeline week at DC, thanks to both Superman/Batman and Teen Titans. I know that alternate timelines are 90% of the time worse scenarios than the regular timeline -- otherwise, why would they be alternate? -- but why do the heroes more often than not turn out to be fascists? (This isn't a new meme, either. All of DC's 1991 Annuals were based around the tyrannical future of 2001; and in 1993, Dan Jurgens did it in his short stint on Justice League America. As it happens, Scott is also concerned about time-travel stories.)

Anyway, prepare to clutch your chest in horror as I give thumbs-up to this week's Superman/Batman #14! You'll figure out who the villains are soon enough, and it could turn out to be a steaming pile, but it's a suspenseful setup to what could well be an entertaining romp through DC history. The "heroes" of the piece are revealed on the last couple of pages, and I'm excited to see them work together. I don't know why he did it, but for some happy reason Jeph Loeb has dialed back the infamous dueling narrative captions; and Carlos Pacheco draws a very pretty book. This has a lot of promise, and if the rest of the story is as good, I will wonder why Loeb didn't put the same kind of effort into the first 13 issues.

Teen Titans #18 continues the "Titans Tomorrow" storyline as the Teen Titans uncover more of the Old Titans' history. The centerpiece of the issue, as indicated by the cover, is a fight between Old Tim and Teen Tim. There are more cryptic references to a "crisis" that somehow turned our heroes into amoral arbiters of totalitarian justice, and I was disappointed not to see any more nuance than "the world is an evil place and we have to be just as bad." I'm reserving judgment until next month's conclusion, but the fact that the last page appears to duplicate an upcoming episode of the "TT" cartoon gave me a little pause.

Batman: Gotham Knights #59 is a standalone story about Mr. Freeze and Batman trapped under ice while a collapsed building burns around them. It's by the guest team of Robbie Morrison and Charles Adlard, so it's well-crafted; but I don't know how consequential it is. Much of the dialogue is of the "we're just the same on the inside" variety, with each saying the other is too cold (in the impersonal sense). Batman does show a bit of humor, which as you know earns points with me.

JLA #108, by Kurt Busiek and Ron Garney, continues the Kryyme Syndicate (hey, that's how I wish they'd spell it) story by focusing entirely on the Syndicate. Busiek does play spot-the-allusion (referring to the "Loring Gang out of Ivy Town," for example), but the only time he gets too cute is when he makes the Mirror-Lucius Fox a ... what? Gangsta? It's dangerously close to stereotype, whatever it is. He does a better job re-establishing the interactions between these evil versions of the JLA, and adding (I think) the notion that they keep their Earth a little chaotic simply so they won't get bored. Garney draws a suitably creepy evil Earth, and he has a good grasp of the Syndicate. Since the villains end up attacking the Weaponers of Qward, the issue runs the gamut from "business as usual" to more cosmic battles. Hopefully next issue they'll actually meet the JLA again.

Fantastic Four #520 continues (or starts, depending on whether you believe the cover) the Galactus storyline, which sadly will be Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo's last on this book. As the group deals with Johnny being Galactus' new herald (and having switched powers with Sue to boot), there are a couple of flashbacks to earlier episodes in their relationship. Reed yells more here than he has in a while, which is a little jarring but not out of character. Meanwhile, aboard Galactus' ship, Johnny gets a graphic demonstration of just how powerful he has become. I can't say I'm crazy about this storyline, but it's handled with what has become Waid and Wieringo's trademark flair, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Wonder Woman #210 finishes the "Stoned" arc with a one-on-one fight to the death between WW and Medousa at Yankee Stadium. That's pretty much the whole issue. The fight is broadcast on global TV, so there is the possibility that whoever watches could catch Medousa's gaze and be turned to stone. Of course, this means that Diana must fight Medousa without doing the same thing; and the measures she takes range from clever to "holy crap!" This incarnation of Wonder Woman has been a global icon since the beginning, but Greg Rucka has planted her firmly on the international stage more than possibly any writer she's had since George Perez. Drew Johnson does a whale of a job showing that both combatants give as well as they get. This title evokes for me the glory days of Simonson's Thor.

Rucka also wrote Adventures of Superman #634, his second Mr. Mxyzptlk story. As with the first one, I really hope these end up having some point. This time Mxy puts on a Superman costume and runs riot through the DC offices (represented in photos of editor Eddie Berganza and honcho Mike Carlin). His industry in-jokes aren't that funny, and his role in the actual story is basically to give Superman a breather from fighting the Parasite twins. Of course, this is because he's an omnipotent being and could provide a deus ex machina ending to the whole thing. Rucka clearly has a vision for Wonder Woman; too bad one hasn't coalesced so far for Superman.

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Star Wars Ate My Brain

Since the new Revenge of the Sith trailer signals the beginning of 6 months of Star Wars hype, here are my thoughts on how everything we've seen so far fits together. This is entirely from the movies, because I don't have time to read all the novels, comics, etc.

At the time of The Phantom Menace, some 12 years before the end of the Old Republic, the Jedi Knights have about 10,000 members scattered around the galaxy. The Jedi are governed by a 12-member Council, which itself is apparently headed by Yoda and Mace Windu.

The Jedi have developed many rules. Children who grow up in the Republic are tested for their Jedi potential; and if they pass, they're presumably taken from their parents at a very young age (at 9, Anakin is already too old) and given several years of training. We see Yoda administering lightsaber training to these "younglings" in Episode II. "Taken from their parents" is an important part of the training, because the Jedi Code seems to forbid any kind of emotional attachment beyond simple friendship. We will see that Anakin gets into trouble precisely because he forms these kinds of attachments.

Once the youngling-training is complete, the "padawan" is apprenticed to an experienced Jedi Knight. (There are three Jedi ranks -- Padawan, Knight, and Master -- but ordinary folk use the generic "Jedi Knight.") The padawan then spends several more years learning from the master. When the time is right, the padawan takes "the trials." Passing the trials earns the padawan the rank of Jedi Knight.

The evil counterparts of the Jedi are the Sith. About a thousand years ago, around the time the Republic was formed, the Jedi had fought their last battle with the Sith. Conjecture around the time of Phantom Menace's release stated that once there were a number of Sith, perhaps comparable to the number of Jedi; but infighting (literally) winnowed down the ranks to two -- a master and an apprentice. The basic nature of the Sith pretty much guaranteed that master and apprentice would share an uneasy truce, with one always looking to pick off the other. Still, there would always be only two, because the master and apprentice would gang up on anyone who tried to challenge them.

There are other beings in the galaxy who know the Jedi arts and are neither Jedi nor Sith, but by and large the movies aren't concerned with them. This accounts for Asaaj Ventress, the bald woman in the "Clone Wars" cartoons.

Both the Jedi and the Sith tap into the Force, a mystical energy field created by all living things. Say it with me: It surrounds us, and penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together. The Force has a "will," a good side, and a Dark Side. In a gross physical manner, it can be manipulated for good or evil by those who have been properly trained.

The differences between the good side and the bad involve states of mind. Anger, fear, and aggression lead to the dark side. The dark side is also "quicker, easier, more seductive," but its users pay a price, becoming "consumed" by it. By contrast, the good side is described in terms of peace and calm.

A life-form's access to the Force is facilitated by the much-reviled midichlorians -- microscopic creatures who live in symbiosis within one's cells. Apparently, the more midichlorians you have, the greater your access. The Old Republic's Jedi considered midichlorians an important factor in deciding whether to train potential padawans.

Into this mix comes 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker, a mechanical prodigy who has built (among other things) his own protocol droid and his own pod-racer. The immaculately-conceived Anakin lived with his mother on the distant planet Tatooine, away from the influence of the galactic superpowers. When the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn discovered Anakin, he sensed a yooge amount of Force potential, and sure enough, Anakin's midichlorian count was higher than Yoda's. It turns out that Anakin is the "Chosen One" who's destined to bring balance to the Force.

But wait -- what does that mean? In hindsight, we see that Anakin does bring balance in at least one sense: he allows the Republic to become a totalitarian Empire and hunt down the Jedi Knights so that there are only two Jedi left. While the Jedi Council is hesitant to train Anakin, the fact that they allow his training -- and apprentice him to the relatively green Obi-Wan Kenobi (the late Qui-Gon's apprentice) -- shows that clearly they're not concerned about Anakin turning on them and imposing an iron will upon the galaxy. This can't even be explained by the resurgent Sith clouding the Jedi's precognitive powers, because the prophecy itself was known to the Jedi before the Sith's re-emergence.

This leaves us with the probability that "balance" is, all things being equal, a positive development, even if the prophecy itself is as vague as it seems from the dialogue. George Lucas has said "balance" refers to Anakin coming back from the Dark Side -- but how does that help the Jedi or, for that matter, the galaxy as a whole?

Because midichlorians are themselves life-forms, one of their primary functions is to reproduce. Thus, they will tend to favor behaviors which encourage their reproduction. Qui-Gon theorized that the midichlorians were somehow responsible for Anakin's immaculate conception. If this is true, then Anakin was ultimately destined to serve some greater purpose for the midichlorians. Obviously, one of their biggest needs is to ensure their own survival as a species.

Putting this all together, it would seem that the Force, through the midichlorians, immaculately conceived Anakin as the Chosen One who would bring balance; thereby facilitating both the prosperity of the midichlorian species and the ability of all living creatures to access the Force. Why, then, would Anakin seek to destroy those individuals with the highest midichlorian counts?

The answer lies in the practices of the Jedi Order itself. Anakin explains to Padme that the Jedi forbid attachments in favor of a sort of universal compassion. In other words, by not allowing themselves to be "attached" to anyone, the Jedi can't "play favorites." We see this not only in Obi-Wan's refusal to allow Anakin to go back for Padme during the Battle of Geonosis, but also in Yoda's discouraging Luke to break training and rescue Han and Leia from Bespin. Obviously Jedi are also forbidden to marry. This is not to say that Jedi can't have friends or show emotions. Obi-Wan weeps when Qui-Gon dies, warmly embraces Dexter Jettster, and calls Anakin "a good friend." Yoda also speaks of "old friends long gone."

However, Anakin's history shows him moving from one strong attachment to another. Leaving Tatooine in The Phantom Menace, he misses his mother; and by the time of Attack of the Clones Obi-Wan is like a father to him. His mother's death starts his slide towards the Dark Side, and his romance of Padme further distances him from the Jedi Order. All the while, he moves closer to Palpatine, who encourages Anakin's feelings of superiority. Decades later, the sight of his son tortured by the Emperor in Return of the Jedi snaps Anakin back to the good side and gives him the strength to kill Palpatine. Thus, emotional attachments are both Anakin's downfall and his salvation.

There was no way Anakin was going to be a normal Jedi. Being born outside the Republic, the Jedi didn't find him until he was 9 years old. He didn't receive the years of training that "younglings" did. Instead, he went straight to being the apprentice of a just-promoted Jedi Knight. Again, and perhaps most importantly, he wasn't able to sever the bond with his mother that other Jedi apparently could. (I still think one of the most pivotal moments in the cycle comes when Qui-Gon uses the Force on the "chance cube" to make sure Anakin -- and not his mother -- is freed by winning the pod race. Qui-Gon isn't content to let the will of the Force decide, and I wonder if the Force doesn't have some karmic retribution in store for him.) In a very real sense, the Force didn't reward Anakin much for being its instrument.

Luke's history of attachments is almost a parody of Anakin's. Like Anakin, Luke never knew a real father, and has an idealized version of one -- first as a space-pilot and then as a Jedi Knight ("I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father"). Luke feels responsibilities (and probably attachments) to his aunt and uncle, but these are negated when the Empire kills them. By this time, though, he has started to bond with Obi-Wan, no doubt transferring some of those pent-up ideal-father feelings to him. Luke is never alone -- when Vader kills Obi-Wan, Luke has started to form friendships with Han and Leia. Luke's desire to save his friends causes him to battle Vader unprepared; and Luke' s anger with Vader for suggesting Leia could be turned to the Dark Side fuels an explosive attack which nearly sends him over the edge. What brings him back is the idealized vision of his father, coupled with the potential he still sees in Vader -- "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." What saves his life is the love he shows to Vader, which inspires Vader to return to the good side.

Therefore, both Anakin and Luke are all about attachments, but for the most part Luke's are celebrated while Anakin's are punished. Of course, Luke doesn't know any better. He received even less training than Anakin, had no formal apprenticeship, and probably only got a crash course in basic Jedi skills during his short time on Dagobah.

Still, Luke doesn't know because neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan told him. (If they did, we didn't hear about it.) I know that's because Lucas hadn't invented the Jedi Code yet, but remember, the originals now have to build on the universe developed for the prequels. Even now, Yoda's warning about Luke leaving early sounds more like pragmatism than a denial or disapproval of Luke's attachments. In fact, both Yoda and Obi-Wan discount the possibility of Luke turning Vader back to the good side, wanting him to reach his full Jedi potential before ever facing Vader.

All of this makes me think that the Jedi Code accumulated over time not so much out of the will of the Force, but for the good of the Jedi Order. Having Anakin be the Chosen One who ends up destroying the Jedi reinforces this notion that the Order had stagnated, and was itself in danger of becoming arrogant or even corrupt. Even if that hadn't happened, though, the Jedi might well have died out as a result of their own practices.

Again, for purposes of this discussion I am assuming that the Force does not favor its Dark Side, but that the midichlorians act in their own self-interest. All things being equal, the midichlorians wouldn't favor the Dark Side either, since it tends to lead to the deaths of their host bodies. (A Sith could "farm" living beings for their midichlorians, but so far we haven't seen that situation.) Along the same lines, the midichlorians probably aren't too fond of the "no attachment" rule, since it would prohibit reproductive acts for those Jedi whose cultures link reproduction to romance. In the straight-laced Star Wars galaxy, I'm guessing that's true for many cultures.

Jedi are obviously not incapable of having children with each other, but it would seem to indicate expulsion. Obi-Wan comments to Anakin in AOTC that his "commitment [is] not easily broken," which allows for the possibility that it another attachment, such as a marriage, would break it. Contrast that with the end of Jedi, which finds Luke's sister Leia ready to settle down with former skeptic Han Solo. As the daughter of Anakin Skywalker, Leia should have a fairly high midichlorian count herself, and her union with Han seems certain to produce children who will form the next generation of Jedi. (Of course, this is exactly what happens in the novels and comics; and even Luke gets married, but that's outside our discussion.)

So the bottom line is that Anakin was sent to enslave the galaxy for 20 years, and participate in the deaths of millions, or even billions, just so he could have children who'd overthrow him, and thereby allow future generations of Jedi to breed? Kind of looks like it. At least, that's what I believe the most practical application of "the balance of the Force" to be. Hey, survival of the fittest isn't pretty. Besides, while the midichlorians are acting in their own self-interest, maybe the Force really wants to share itself with more people than just the Jedi. Allowing those with high midichlorian counts (i.e., Jedi) to breed with more normal beings is as good a way as any to insure that everybody "feels the Force," even a little bit. This is what I think is meant by "balance" -- not the balance between light and dark, necessarily; but shifting the balance of power from an elite group to the populace at large. There will be Jedi in the future, but they won't be so removed from those they protect.

I realize I'm dodging the whole issue of Anakin's redemption, much like I avoided talking about Hal Jordan's insane killing spree. The short answer is that at least in Anakin/Vader's case, clearly his religion allowed for his redemption. He had done his job, and the Force rewarded him with the same kind of afterlife existence it granted to Obi-Wan and Yoda. Besides, he didn't have much in the way of happiness during his life, spending the last 26 years of it trapped in a cybernetic life-support system.

Honestly, I don't expect Episode III to address the deeper metaphysical issues. I think Lucas prefers to leave that to what's already been seen in Return of the Jedi. However, at the very least I don't believe Revenge of the Sith will be exclusive with anything outlined here. That's better than nothing, right?

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The Incredibles vs. The Polar Express

The Incredibles has made, and will probably continue to make, lots more money for Pixar and Disney than The Polar Express, its fellow holiday-period animated movie. I'm no movie-industry analyst, but clearly a big part of Incredibles' success is its pedigree -- people love Pixar movies, and many times, the Disney marketing machine is irresistible (in the juggernaut sense).

Still, even without the marketing, Incredibles (which I have seen) just looks friendlier and yes, "cuter" than Polar Express (which I haven't seen). I know that PE was created using the next phase in "Gollum technology," and it's an incredible technical achievement, but that's not why people go to movies. If The Polar Express had been animated more traditionally, I feel certain it would be a bigger hit.

Superhero comics have to be careful not to follow the same allure of technique and "realism" as The Polar Express. To me the striving for realism is more of a defensive argument that superheroes do too matter and can so tell dark, depressing stories that aren't all "Pow! Zap!" fight scenes.

Right now the superhero books which give me the biggest kick are Fantastic Four, by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo, and Wonder Woman, by Greg Rucka and Drew Johnson. While both sets of creators have produced some ho-hum issues, FF is more often than not a zippy pastiche of wit, slapstick, familial relations, and sci-fi adventure; and WW melds the character's roots in mythology with modern-day diplomacy and traditional superheroics. Both books are at least superficially grounded in the "real world" -- Waid had the Fantastic Four try to institute "regime change" in Latveria, and Rucka has shown Diana at the White House -- but both err on the side of fantasy and thus don't limit themselves unnecessarily.

Contrast that with the Batman line, which tries so hard to live up to the legacy of Frank Miller (and live down the legacy of Adam West) that it ends up ignoring all the Giant-Prop-type fun stuff which made the character popular in the first place. Leave it to Grant Morrison -- in a JLA book, mind you -- to invest Batman not only with a "sci-fi closet," but also with the Knight and the Squire, a pair of groupies (for lack of a better term) straight out of the '50s Bat-books.

From what I can tell, the Polar Express movie is a weird hybrid of live-action movement and computer-generated imagery. Its technology frees its creators to make fantastic scenes, but that technology also limits its characters to what the human actors can portray. In this way it can only be a more vivid depiction of live-action. Its human characters aspire to look "realistic," not like stylized animated humans. Because The Incredibles is full-on computer-generated animation, it is less restricted and more viewer-friendly.

Likewise, superhero comics shouldn't try to be a weird hybrid of other media -- they should stake out their own territory and occupy the field. I know this isn't a groundbreaking thesis, but it bears repeating.

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Regrets, I've had a few...

(By the way, thanks Blogger for being completely inaccessible last night.)

Re-reading Identity Crisis #s 1-6 on Saturday, and doing Internet "detective work" over the weekend, it's become clear to me that I wasn't reading the right comics growing up. Otherwise I'd have this whole thing figured out.

For example, while I knew that the Calculator appeared in a series of Detective Comics backups in issues 462-67, in which he fought individual members of the Justice League before a big team-up/throwdown with Batman in #468, I was more focused on collecting the Englehart/Rogers/Simonson run, which started right after the Calculator issues. (By the way, Calc fought IC stalwarts Elongated Man, Atom, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Black Canary.) So I haven't read the Calculator issues, to say nothing of the whole arc, since their publication in the mid-'70s.

Lucky for me I was reading Justice League of America back then, and today still have the issues referenced in IC #3, which by their ads took place right around the time of Iris Allen's murder. However, I wasn't reading Flash, so I don't know how much of this "Captain Boomerang body-switching" hoo-hah comes from the comics of that period.

Finally, while I was paying enough attention to Suicide Squad to pick up the issues dealing with the Justice League's investigation of Ray Palmer's death, I didn't otherwise read SS. If I had, I might have been aware that Blacksnake, a rogue agent who used Ray's size-changing technology, was killed in the issue after the "Atom arc" ended -- so he couldn't be the IC murderer. I would also have known more about the character of Nemesis, another Batman back-up feature (this time from Brave and the Bold) revisited in Suicide Squad. Like the Human Target, Nemesis was a master of disguise, and spent many an adventure impersonating someone else. Nemesis (a/k/a Tom Tresser) also had an evil twin, whose deeds inspired Nemesis to "balance the scales of justice" by doing good.

I'd like to think that someone -- maybe even the twin -- is using Nemesis' skills and equipment to impersonate Ray Palmer on the last couple of pages of IC #6, but then I ran across someone named "Metamorpheus" (?) who was also a Suicide Squad shape-changer. At that point I figured if Brad Meltzer would use characters as obscure as Bolt, Slipknot, Merlyn, and the Calculator, Metamorpheus wasn't out of the question either.

I still think the whole thing is a big blackmail plot designed to use the knowledge of their secret identities to control the heroes. (I did get that from those few Atom-related SS issues I read.) It could even have been a holdover from the Luthor administration, in the same vein as the "Bruce Wayne, Murderer?" scheme. The killer does seem to be appropriating the styles of different Suicide Squad members (Dr. Light, Slipknot, Captain Boomerang, Atom), so it makes sense that s/he got the technology from the government's files on the Squad.

Regardless, while I might revisit Identity Crisis in the few weeks before #7 comes out, I'm willing to throw up my hands and admit that Brad Meltzer read more DC comics of the '70s and '80s than I did. I don't think there's any shame in that. Obviously, reading more DC comics provided more of an opportunity to make its shared universe cohesive and "real." The idea behind Dr. Light's "conversion" came from Meltzer's observation that he was a criminal mastermind in Justice League and a nitwit in New Teen Titans. Meltzer has reconciled those disparate interpretations by saying Light was lobotomized.

I'm not saying I'm any less of a fanboy that Brad Meltzer, either; far from it. It's just funny to me that as much effort as I've put into catching up with the back issues of Justice League, Green Lantern, Batman, and Detective over the past several years, I just wasn't interested in the comics Identity Crisis spends more of its time referencing.

Now, if someone wants to lend me those old Flash and Suicide Squad issues, I'd be happy to take another crack at this....

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Must There Be A Supergirl?

Johanna comments on Superman/Batman #13:

No matter what's been done to her [...], people still feel an unexplainable attraction to the idea of a young blond female Superman. Maybe this try, the fifth? effort in the last few years, will last.

I'm with her. Now that Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner have returned Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El permanently to the DC universe, what is there for her to do?

Introduced in Action Comics #252 (May 1959), the original Supergirl started out as Superman's "secret weapon," developed into a sometime sidekick, and at the time of her death 26 years later was her own person, equal in power and ability to her cousin. I was never much of a Supergirl scholar, and didn't follow her beyond her appearances in the Superman books. If it weren't for Who's Who, I probably wouldn't have known she had a solo book in the 1980s. Therefore, my frame of reference for her is in relation to Superman; but in my own defense, it may well be that many fans' frames of reference are similar.

Accordingly, it seems like Supergirl's biggest contribution to the Superman mythology was her relationship with him. As an actual blood relative, she was the only other human survivor of Krypton to be a regular and friendly part of his life. This gave them a unique, special bond which made her death in 1985 that much more painful.

In one respect, her death was a sign that Crisis on Infinite Earths pulled no punches. Superman would have been killed had Supergirl not saved him; and the Anti-Monitor was powerful enough to kill a nearly-omnipotent Kryptonian. Supergirl's death also signaled the "back to basics" movement which characterized the immediate post-Crisis DC books. If Superman really was the last son of Krypton, DC was saying that had to mean something; and it meant further that no one but Kal-El should have survived. Period, paragraph, end of story.

Accordingly, the cover of 1988's Superman #21, showing Superman pressed into a wall by the red-booted woman who threw him there, was supposed to raise hackles in those Superman fans who knew that no way, no how, "read my lips," would DC bring back Kara Zor-El.

Of course, DC wasn't bringing Kara back. Instead, this Supergirl hailed from a "pocket universe," whose Superboy died in battle with our Earth's Legion of Super-Heroes, and could no longer protect his adopted planet from the villains in his Phantom Zone. The pocket Earth's Lex Luthor created a "protomatter" duplicate of the deceased Lana, endowed her with super-powers, and sent her to our Earth to bring back Superman and stop the Kryptonian criminals. After the fight, Superman brought this "Matrix" Supergirl -- the sole survivor of her universe -- back to live on the Kent farm.

Matrix, who could change shape, posed as Clark while Superman took an extended trip into space, but by 1991 decided she liked being Supergirl on a more permanent basis. She protected Metropolis during Superman's apparent death, and got suckered into a romance with Lex Luthor's heir. Beyond those plots, a miniseries which separated her from Lex, and a brief stint with the New Titans, nothing much was done with her.

However, in 1996, Peter David literally fused Matrix with elements of the pre-Crisis Supergirl to create a quirky, funny version of the heroine. The focus shifted to Supergirl's new "secret identity" of Linda Danvers, a wild young woman who was engaged in shady doings before waking up to find she was Supergirl. If that weren't enough, Linda soon discovered she was an "Earth Angel" with a divinely appointed purpose and new powers to boot. Linda was somewhat world-weary, which distinguished her immediately both from Kara in the early years and Matrix in the immediate past. Instead, she was presented (much like the Jack Knight Starman, come to think of it) as a reluctant hero with a legacy thrust upon her.

Linda's final story arc teamed her with Kara Zor-El, just landed on Earth by an accident of Hypertime. Linda ended up taking Kara's place in the Earth-1 timeline, eventually falling in love with Superman and marrying him. The cost of setting everything right -- including returning Kara to her own history -- compelled Linda to give up her Supergirl identity and hide herself away, never to be seen again. (Fans immediately speculated that Linda became the title character of Peter David's new Fallen Angel book.)

Almost immediately thereafter, though, Steven T. Seagle and Scott McDaniel introduced a new Supergirl (the third, by my count) in the pages of Superman. She was Cir-El, Superman's daughter from the future, and if I had paid closer attention to Seagle's time-twisting mechanics and ultimately confusing storyline, I could tell you more about her. Anyway, at the end of the storyline (around Superman #200), she was gone too.

And now Kara's back, a fresh-faced innocent with a bare midriff and Amazon combat training, ready to be -- what? Perky in the cause of justice, I guess. Because she's Superman's newly-discovered cousin, he immediately bonded with her and sought to protect her. Never mind that this Superman hasn't emphasized his Kryptonian heritage nearly as much as his ancestor; or that until very recently, Krypton was portrayed as a cold, emotionless society which wouldn't have produced the wide-eyed naif presented here. No, this Supergirl seems assembled from a wish list of retro-Silver Age sensibilities, and her relationship with her cousin established by fiat.

Of course, I can understand how the old Silver Age trappings are coming back. I didn't mind the changes Mark Waid made to the revised legend in Superman: Birthright. I just resent the idea of Kara Zor-El springing forth whole from the head of Jeph Loeb. The story was conceived to bring Supergirl back, and the justifications came later.

This Supergirl obviously doesn't have the decades of history her Earth-1 counterpart did. This is not to say that she won't -- but I'm not sure that this married Superman, with the Kents still alive, has the emotional need to bond with her. So much has been done with him to establish his connections to Earth, and contrast them with the distinctly alien Kryptonian culture, that it would be a stretch now simply to assume that Kara can provide, and Kal needs, the same kind of bond.

Speaking of Birthright, it may now be editorial policy that Krypton is/was closer to its Silver Age incarnation than its Byrne revisions. Ironically, that also undermines the effect this Supergirl could have had. Imagine a "Supergirl From Krypton" story where Kara is a true child of a Byrne-style Argo City. Byrne's Krypton was well-meaning at best and intent on "bringing order" to Earth at worst. Instead of a grumpy Batman who doesn't like Supergirl because he hasn't been able to figure out everything about her, we could have had a Batman who is legitimately concerned she's the herald of an invasion, contrasted with a Superman who attempts to "humanize" her as his upbringing did for him. The fact that this was so clearly the "real" Kara Zor-El removed a lot of suspense from the story, because DC wouldn't do anything bad to her again, would it?

I'm not opposed to a young woman with Superman's powers and heritage; I'm just not sure what kinds of stories she can tell. I almost hope that DC uses this to cajole Peter David into bringing Linda Danvers out of retirement. It was Linda's bond with the other Kara which drove her out of super-heroing -- how will she react to seeing this new Supergirl flying around? That's the story I'd like to read.

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New comics 11/3/04

Yesterday was a pretty light day -- JLA Classified, Detective, and Superman/Batman. Apparently Astonishing X-Men and Star Wars: Empire also came out, but somehow I didn't get either and I haven't missed them.

I want to start with JLA Classified #1. Boy, did this feel good. There was very little of substance -- just a big fight between the Ultra-Marines and Super-Gorilla Grodd -- but a lot of it set my old geezer heart a-flutter. To me it took the elements of a '60s Justice League of America story and didn't quite update them as much as extrapolate from them. Grant Morrison takes probably his biggest liberty with Batman, giving him the sci-fi gadgetry you figure he would have had if (as in the '50s and '60s) he were traveling into outer space and through time on a regular basis. Morrison also reintroduces the Knight and the Squire, a pair of heroes from the '50s Batman's "Club Of Heroes." (The CoH was a kind of United Colors Of Batman, with every country having its own version of the Caped Crusader. The last time any of these folks showed up in a DC book was as Kingdom Come in-jokes.) What I love about this issue is that Morrison doesn't try to deny Batman's goofier adventures, he embraces them. Ed McGuinness' art also seems more disciplined here than it did in the Superman or Superman/Batman books. It still has a lot of energy, but it's more focused.

The Batman-centered week continued with Detective Comics #800, the last for a while by the team of Andersen Gabrych and Pete Woods. (There's also a moody backup by new writer/artist David Lapham, coming on board next month for a year's tour.) The story is a routine tale of Batman tracking drug dealers, but it highlights how Gotham City has changed in the wake of "War Games." I've talked before about the dopey "urban legend" conceit, so I'm glad it's officially gone. This issue plays on the new "public outlaw" Batman, with onlookers gaping at the Batmobile and the authorities openly skeptical of Batman's motives. It also catches us up with the various Batman family members, allowing Batman a few actual human moments with Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon (who calls him "son"), and Catwoman. Again, I hope the Bat-office allows its hero more of these types of character bits. To me they're more "realistic" than the standard "Batman is a jerk" paradigm.

And finally, there's Superman/Batman #13, finishing up the Supergirl saga. I'll skip the running complaint about Loeb's dueling narrative captions and just say that this part felt very forced and anticlimactic. The arc's basic plot was sound -- Kara Zor-El comes to Earth and everybody wants to decide her future for her -- but the execution left a lot to be desired. Also, who could have guessed that Amazon formal dress involved bare midriffs? S/B is very frustrating because its heart is in the right place, but it is so eager to explain itself that all the joy is sucked out. Both this Supergirl story and the JLA Classified arc include elements familiar to longtime fans, but where Loeb takes pains to delineate them, Morrison throws them in without stopping.

I don't know why, but I still feel compelled to pick up Superman/Batman every month (or, more accurately, whenever it comes out). It's a guilty pleasure, I suppose, and the ideas behind it are good. Loeb has a year left on the book, so on balance it's worth it to me to see where he's going with his 25 issues. I wonder if the next writer will bring in the Super-Sons.

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Okay, Let's See If I Can Relate THIS To Comics

Haven't quite stopped to catalog them all, but it feels like this elections' results have produced in me every negative emotion possible. Therefore, I am looking for something positive out of the next four years, at which time I will probably have to deal with the impending presidency of Jeb Bush.

Anyway, here's the comics part.

Is a President's second term good for comics? In other words, a second term indicates a certain amount of comfort and security on the part of the electorate. Does a creative mind react to that state of relative ennui by trying to shake it up?

Roosevelt's second term (1937-41) saw the birth of the superhero. Eisenhower's second term (1957-61) came at the beginning of the Silver Age. Nixon's second term (1973-74) was arguably too short to produce much that was noteworthy (Kirby had already finished his "Fourth World," and Marvel was entering its "dark" period), but I could be wrong. However, Reagan's second term (1985-89) definitely produced a reaction in comics, with Watchmen and The Dark Knight being the most obvious examples. Clinton's second term (1997-2001) may be too close to our own time to judge, although it was in the middle of the "anti-grim-&-gritty" phase.

I'm not sure how to deal with two other Presidents, Truman (1945-53) and Johnson (1963-69), who served out the terms of their late predecessors. You could say that their (re)election signified the same kind of satisfaction on the part of the electorate, but the 1948 and 1964 elections were the first time they'd been at the tops of their tickets. Truman's second term would have been from 1949-53, and Johnson's from 1965-69. I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but it was a late night and early morning....

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Let's see how I can relate this to comics...

It's my birthday! Today I am (gasp!) 35 years old.

Looking around the Internet to see what was noteworthy about November 1, I found that Larry Flynt, Marcia "Mrs. Krabappel" Wallace, ILM's Dennis Muren, Lyle Lovett, and Toni Collette (among others) share my birthday. Also, while my sainted mother was recovering from delivering me, "Suspicious Minds" hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Wikipedia also tells us that November 1 saw the public debuts of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, Othello, The Tempest, and the Aricebo Radio Observatory; and that ten years ago, George Lucas put pencil to yellow pad to begin developing the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Today would also have been the 124th birthday of the legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice. He was famous for the kind of florid, yet elegant, prose that would be right at home in the old NFL Films highlight reels, not to mention the pulps and early adventure comics of the '20s, '30s, and '40s. I wonder if "faster than a speeding bullet" and "criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot" owe anything to Rice's columns?

The phrase "it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game" was adapted from one of his poems. That's a good bit of advice, especially on your birthday!

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An Effective Beginning For Rebirth

Walked into the ol' comics shop this afternoon and asked, "Did you sell out of Green Lantern?"

"Yes."

"Did you save me one?"

"Yes."

As it turns out, one customer bought 20 (!) copies, one bought 10, and a few more bought 3-4 each. I thought that would happen around the country; but who knew there were that many Hal Jordan fans in Lexington?

The book itself was pretty good. Its main flaw is the tendency of each major character to speak in detailed paragraphs:

GUY: I don't miss the Guardians and their stupid rules. I don't miss always havin' to prove I'm the best one out there. And I sure as hell don't miss bein' forced to live up to some higher code of universal ethics. [His "tattoos" appear.] My Vuldarian powers. Laced in my genetics. They've brought me back from the brink of death. Even during that interplanetary war crap. That and my good looks made me stand out on my own. They made me more than just another Green Lantern. I'm Guy Gardner, Warrior. Screw the Corps.

In fairness, that's probably necessary thanks to all the baggage these characters have accumulated over the years. This issue works in Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Green Arrow (and the "Archer's Quest" storyline), the Justice League, the Justice Society, Carol Ferris, Coast City, and a coffin with a familiar symbol.

Because this is a Geoff Johns script, I'm going to assume that all the references and homages I picked up were intentional, starting with the Abin Sur-like spaceship crash that begins the issue. Johns has definitely done his homework, mentioning Hal's love of baseball and the evolution of John's character. I thought Carol Ferris was still married, however.

The focus is on the Spectre, obviously. Strangers feel the need to confess their sins to him; and he visits some righteous ironic vengeance on old foe Black Hand. In that spirit (sorry), Guy suffers what you might call a "reversal" (again, sorry). There's also a mysterious appearance in Southern California.

The art, by Ethan Van Sciver, is fantastic. I hadn't thought I'd like it, but it reminds me of Brian Bolland -- especially his Batman.

Look, I would have bought this book anyway. I'm still skeptical that Johns can pull off this particular rejuvenation. Nevertheless, this issue is a good start.

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Gods' Gifts To Women: New Teen Titans #s 10-12

The plot of New Teen Titans #10 is straightforward, dealing with Deathstroke's theft of the Promethium plans, but it takes a little bit to get going.

Following an introductory scene with Deathstroke, his assistant Wintergreen, and a visiting scientist ("Dr. Benson Honeywell," har har), we skip ahead "several days" to the theft of a nuclear weapon from an aircraft carrier. Abruptly ("before you start asking too many questions," the narration says), it's page 4 and we're back with Changeling, on the trail of the Promethium documents. Cyborg's question about a family portrait leads Gar to recall his origin and early days with the Doom Patrol.

It's a bit of DC history which, for the most part, John Byrne has just erased. Gar Logan's parents were biologists, and while exploring Africa, Gar contracted a rare disease called Sakutia. Instead of killing him, it colored him green and gave him the power to turn into any animal (which would also be green -- and in the early days, have a shock of green human hair. Perez since lost the green human hair bit, but restored it for the flashbacks in this issue). At age 10, his parents died in an accident. At age 11, the DP's Niles Caulder found Gar. Ultimately, the DP's Rita "Elasti-Girl" Farr married Steve "Mento" Dayton, and they adopted Gar.

However, the Brotherhood of Evil took over the small town of Codsville, ME (population 14) and threatened to destroy it unless the DP surrendered themselves. The Brotherhood killed the Doom Patrol (except for Gar and Dayton, who weren't there), but the town was saved. As it turned out, Cliff "Robotman" Steele did survive, and Steve Dayton's now out looking for the rest of the Patrol.

Following a message from Cliff -- whose brain is in a robot body, but you knew that already -- Gar explains to Vic that he hadn't talked with Cliff in a while because he didn't want to be reminded about the DP's death. However, his friendship with Vic inspired him to get back in touch with Cliff. I know I keep mentioning the nuances and subtleties of Cyborg's character, but here's another example of the organic ways in which these characters are becoming intertwined. They have gone beyond superficial sniping and smart-aleckry (if that's a word) and are becoming real friends.

Back to the plot. Over a couple of transitory pages, Sarah Simms is kidnapped and terrorists (including "Boris Battinov," ho ho) slip silently into America.

Next is an extended fight between Starfire and Deathstroke, which Deathstroke wins. Starfire alludes to not having to hold back against Deathstroke, but when he pulls the old "drop a building on some bystanders" routine, she stays behind to save the innocents and lets him escape. A couple of pages later, during the debriefing at Titans' Tower, we learn that Deathstroke planted a hidden speaker on Starfire. He reveals that he's kidnapped Sarah and the Titans can save her by surrendering themselves to him at the Grand Canyon. There he plans to demonstrate the power of Promethium on the Titans.

Cyborg explodes with rage, but Raven calms him. Gar is fired up too, seeing this as just like what happened to the Doom Patrol.

"Eighteen hours" later, the Titans' T-Jet lands at the Grand Canyon. The hostage exchange is made, and Deathstroke strolls into a cavernous auditorium (which I didn't know the Grand Canyon had, but I've never been there) to conduct the auction. As the assembled nogoodniks watch, a bomber drops the warhead on the unconscious Titans. Deathstroke notes that their deaths will satisfy his contract with The H.I.V.E. Once the smoke clears (literally), Deathstroke opens the bidding, but the H.I.V.E. representatives electrocute everybody else and offer him their accumulated gold so that the H.I.V.E. won't have to pay anything. Deathstroke shoots the two H.I.V.E.'rs instead.

Just then, the Titans appear. Since Deathstroke asks, Robin explains how they defused the warhead (the stolen nuke from the aircraft carrier) and faked the explosion. Once Robin figured out that the plans were for something which hadn't yet been perfected, he deduced that Deathstroke's men stole the nuke from the carrier. Speaking of said men, Deathstroke orders his hired army to attack the Titans.

Perez doesn't spend much time on the Bond-film-like fight between mercenaries and Titans, focusing instead on Changeling's lone pursuit of Deathstroke. While the Titans mop up the 500 mercenaries, Deathstroke kills Changeling. To Be Continued....

Issue #11 finds the T-Jet streaking into the Bermuda Triangle, location of Paradise Island. There the female Titans (males can't set foot on the island without robbing the Amazons of their powers and immortality) will watch as Changeling is healed with the magical Purple Ray. (He won't set foot on the island, because he'll be on a hospital bed.) We say farewell to the guys, headed for Africa on the trail of Robotman.

Changeling's comatose body (he was put in suspended animation) is Purple Ray-ed, but the beam's solar collectors are mysteriously sapped. Wonder Girl flies off to investigate. She discovers that the Greek Titan Hyperion, re-energizing himself with the sun's rays, is the cause. Hyperion and his fellow Titans have been imprisoned in Tartarus, underneath Paradise Island, since their children the Greek Gods overthrew them lo, those millennia ago. Wonder Girl tries to stop him, but nothing doing. He causes her to fall in love with him, and I have to say without any salacity that Perez draws orgiastic women pretty effectively. (As we'll see, Donna's seduction has deeper consequences.)

Raven ("Donna is in trouble") and Starfire ("Trouble? It looks to me like they're in love!") confront Hyperion and are rebuffed. Hyperion takes Donna into Tartarus, where they defend themselves against (and end up killing) the Old Titans' guards, three Cyclopes.

On the island, Queen Hippolyta, now in battle armor, rallies the Amazons. Underneath, Hyperion tells Donna the familiar children-kill-their-parents stories of Greek mythology. As the Old Titans took over from their parents, so the OTs' children, the Greek pantheon, imprisoned them. Thus, once again a couple of familiar themes return for this story: the parent/child conflict (inverted here, with Bad Children), and the Absent Relative. This issue's absent relative is Hyperion's wife Thia, seen ultimately in one of the first post-Perez storylines.

Honestly, the rest of the issue, and most of issue #12, is a big fight between the Old Titans (led by Cronus) and the Greek pantheon (assisted by the Amazons, Raven, and Starfire). I always dread reading these issues, because it's a lot of trying to keep up with who's fighting whom and which god is which. Despite Perez's distinctive designs and skill with action sequences, it's still a big jumble. (A quick note: Obviously this story was all undone by Perez's 1986 renovations to Wonder Woman. However, while he changed the Greek pantheon's look -- to make it clear these weren't the pre-Crisis gods -- he kept the Old Titans' designs the same.)

This is not to say I didn't discover something new in the reading. While I knew that Marv Wolfman was an admitted Star Trek fan, I never quite put together that issues #11 and 12 were basically "Who Mourns For Adonais?" until now. In that episode, the Greek god Apollo traps the Enterprise and says he'll give the crew all kinds of luxurious living if they worship him. He is especially smitten with the beautiful Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas, and magicks up a fancy dress for her. Hyperion does the same things with Donna, right down to the new dress. The goddess Athena even gets a speech right out of the James T. Kirk repertoire:

Yes, there would be peace and tranquility, but mankind's will would be destroyed. Your new golden age would bring beauty, but at what cost? The answer, Cronus -- is man's freedom! They have a divine right to be free, not to bend to your thinking, Titan. If they want peace, that is their right. If they are foolish enough to demand blood, that too should be theirs to decide.

Starfire also gets in on the oratorical action, encouraging the Titans to "[f]ight to make [Tartarus] the paradise you seek" like it was Ceti Alpha VI. The whole thing ends up with everyone going back to their appropriate stations in life, and the parents acknowledging that their children must supplant them.

Donna is at the center of all this, naturally, and she gets a couple of good moments which help redeem these issues. She refuses to fight Queen Hippolyta, her adopted mother, thereby setting her apart from the other Bad Parent storylines; and when she returns home, she runs to the arms of Terry Long. That last bit helped ground the larger storyline in the book's character-driven roots. In other words, the past couple of issues weren't an outgrowth of subplots, but they helped reinforce those subplots. When the book returned to the guys, on the trail of Robotman, the subplots likewise came back in force.

Next: The Brotherhood of Evil!

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New comics 10/20/04

There were a couple of accidental themes this week -- vampires (because I got Essential Tomb Of Dracula Vol. 3 and Jimmy Olsen Adventures Vol. 2, featuring the "Transilvane" stories) and the future of Tim Drake. To be ornery, I'm saving Tim for last and starting with Star Wars.

Star Wars Empire #25: Written by Ron Marz, art by Joe Corroney. Continued from last issue, Han is in the clutches of a criminal who wants to torture him for information about the Rebels and then turn him over to Darth Vader. No, not that one -- this is before Empire. Seems that an old friend, who happens to be both cynical about the Rebels and female, sold him out. The whole thing is rather by-the-numbers and a little too neat -- why would they let Chewie just sit around the Falcon waiting for something to happen, instead of detaining him too? -- but a couple of things caught my eye. First, the femme fatale's ship is called Emerald Twilight, and second, nothing bad happens to our heroine. It's a little surprising, given Marz's reputation. I suppose my own cynical side would say he can't stuff someone in a space-refrigerator every month. Corroney does a good job with the likenesses, really pulling off an accurate Harrison Ford. Marz has been a decent writer these past few months, and I'm interested in the period covered, but I don't know whether this is worth $2.99 a pop.

Fantastic Four #519: Written by Mark Waid, pencilled by Mike Wieringo, inked by Karl Kesel. Also continued from last issue, Reed finds a way out of Zius' (Dr. Zius! Dr. Zius!) ... I hesitate to call it "trap" for Sue. Let's say "dilemma involving Sue." Anyway, Reed's solution is, shall we say, unique. It also has the virtue of rehabilitating the FF's reputation live on TV. Waid handles the whole thing with an almost farcical air, and the last-page cliffhanger had me laughing out loud.

Adventures of Superman #633: Written by Greg Rucka, pencilled by Matthew Clark, inked by Andy Lanning. It's two months since Lois was shot, and she's being mothered to death by Ma Kent and Ma Lane. Meanwhile, Ruin's lackeys/proteges are kept in check by a spartan diet of hoboes. Superman questions Xlim and figures out that Ruin's been able to block his powers -- using lead to stop X-ray vision, etc. Supes finds Ruin's hideout, we think, but is he too late...? I liked Clark fine, but I don't know if Lanning is a good inker for him -- maybe a little too fine of a line. Rucka's dialogue between Lois and Clark is very natural, so much so that I noticed that I wasn't noticing anything, if you know what I mean. Like his Wonder Woman, this book is starting to pick up steam.

Firestorm #6: Written by Dan Jolley, pencilled by Chris Batista, inked by Dan Green. It's the final fate of Ronnie Raymond as Jason uses Firestorm to joyride across town and up to the Moon. There Batman and J'Onn J'Onzz tell him Raymond is gone, and warn him they'll be watching if he abuses what he's been given. Jason behaves like you'd expect a teenager to, which in a way made Ronnie lucky he had an adult riding shotgun or he'd have gotten in bigger trouble. I haven't enjoyed a teen-hero book this much since those early Statics.

Robin #131: "War Games" Act 3 Part 4, written by Bill Willingham, pencilled by Thomas Derenick, inked by Robert Campanella. This wasn't a bad issue, because it had its own plot which just happened to fit the larger "WG" story. It contrasts Tim's return to duty with Spoiler's rematch with Black Mask. I would have liked it more if Willingham didn't lay everything out so clumsily. His Black Mask sounds like that guy from "The X Files" who wanted to give Scully a manicure, and his Tim makes a big deal out of being bright and cheery while using baroque phrases like "truly dire." The art is up to the task, but it's nothing special.

Batman: Gotham Knights #58: "War Games" Act 3 Part 5, written by A.J. Lieberman, pencilled by Al Barrionuevo, inked by Francis Portella. Spotlight on Tarantula as the GCPD decides to make her the poster-child for captured vigilantes. Batman gets Spoiler to Leslie's hospital and Black Mask orders every crook in town to converge on "the north end." Honestly, I don't quite know why Batman's so concerned with Tarantula and her charges. It's not like she's done anything to earn his trust. (Huntress got a lot more flack than Tarantula has.) Lieberman didn't do much to offend me this issue -- not like the last few months, at least -- and the scenes with Batman and Spoiler are kind of touching. She was Robin, after all.

Batgirl #57: "War Games" Act 3 Part 6, written by Dylan Horrocks, pencilled by Mike Huddleston, inked by Jesse Delperdang. Batgirl saves Onyx from rampaging hoodlums as Black Mask continues his trek across the city. That's basically it. The last page is the best one. It's a lot of big panels and clean, soft lines. I don't know that the Batgirl/Onyx/thug bits deserved their own issue, but at least it's in Batgirl's own book -- not like having Tim come back in Detective, or anything....

Teen Titans #17: Written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Mike McKone, inked by Marlo Alquiza. Yes, it's another "the future has gone into the toilet and our once-pure heroes are now fascists" story, but I've gotta say it's one of the better ones. Future-Tim grows up to be Batman, and much is made of how the Adult Titans (not calling themselves "Justice League?") give him the same deference their former mentors gave Bruce Wayne. Actually, they defer to him more, because they trust him more than the Leaguers trust Batman. Future-Tim is also more ... punitive than Batman, crossing in the first few pages a couple of his mentor's lines-in-the-sand. The art is suitably moody, even with McKone's tendency to put a sheen on everything; and Johns' script doesn't let the plot lag. It's all setup for the next issue or two (or however long this will take), but it's good setup, not hindered by continuity or emotional manipulation like the last JSA.

Identity Crisis #5: Written by Brad Meltzer, pencilled by Rags Morales, inked by Michael Bair. The series is full of momentum (like a runaway freight train, perhaps), and this issue boasts a few big sequences. There is another Justice League/villain fight, some bonding between Captain Boomerang and his son (although why use the sharp boomerangs?), a scene between Ray Palmer and Jean Loring that falls flat thanks to redundant narration, and a genuinely suspenseful climax that finds a hero racing to save a loved one. I didn't like this issue as much as I did #4, but on balance IC hasn't been disappointing.

Beware of SPOILERS from here on out.

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Now, about Tim: I don't know who's in charge of these kinds of things at the DC offices, but this week gave us three looks at the youngster. Let's see if they add up to a cohesive whole.

Obviously, Robin finds Tim back in the saddle and feeling good about himself. He gets to share a scene with his dad, who's calmed down after shoving a gun into Bruce Wayne's face this past spring. I haven't read Robin regularly in a long time (since #50, maybe), but it always seemed to me that Jack Drake was an important part of Tim's independence from Batman. Tim couldn't move into Wayne Manor like his predecessors, so his superhero career was theoretically something he could keep at arm's length. This also meant that Tim was stuck being Robin, for all practical purposes, as long as Jack didn't know about Tim's double life. Obviously Tim couldn't hide being Batman from his dad.

I've argued before about the nature of the Robin identity. It started as a focus for Dick Grayson's vengeance and grief. It served a similar function for Jason Todd (both versions). However, Tim saw it as a way to keep Batman sane. I don't know if he was alluding to Tim's origin, but Bill Willingham in Robin #131 had Tim acknowledge that Stephanie Brown also helped "lighten up" Batman. I've also mentioned that while Tim initially saw Robin solely in relation to Batman, almost from the beginning of his career he's been the most independent. Jack is a big part of that.

I can't remember who said it, but the argument has been made (and reinforced by Teen Titans #17) that Tim doesn't want to be Batman. (I'm not forgetting about the vision of Tim as Batman in the early Grant Morrison JLA story -- but I will point out that it was Bruce's vision, not Tim's.) Tim wants to be an adventurer until he's ready for a normal life, and then he wants normality. If Jack doesn't survive Identity Crisis, one of Tim's major ties to that normality will be gone, and Tim will have to make a choice between the Batcave and the real world. With Tim moving to Bludhaven by January, the waters are a little muddier -- is he moving in with Dick Grayson, is his dad getting away from Gotham, or something else? -- but that still suggests he's no closer to Wayne Manor than he was before.

The alternate future of "Titans Tomorrow" plays into these various theories. Tim asks "What would make me want to be Batman?" Obviously the death of Bruce Wayne might, but Tim would probably then expect Dick Grayson to take over before he would. Again, Jack Drake's death would remove another "normal" element of his life.

Furthermore, it may seem self-evident, but if Tim becomes Batman, he wouldn't have a Robin to keep him mellow -- and if he saw Batman killed, he might not want to make another impressionable kid his sidekick, in order to spare them such an horrific possibility. We'll find out in the next couple of months, but it could very well be that a career as Batman would be the worst thing that ever happened to Tim.

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Previews

Here's the thing about Previews: each month I go through the thing and put the lucky issues into a spreadsheet so I can track my purchases. Thus, a new Previews just means "data entry" to me, not "smartmouth blogging."

Still, when in Rome....

DC Solicitations For January 2005

Batman: That's a scary cover. Good. Batman needs to beat up on a grinning death's-head instead of a crazed surgeon or armies of nameless gangbangers. I don't hate Winick either. Although his Green Lantern and Green Arrow both turned out average (I only read his first arc of GA), his Scarecrow/Penguin arc was decent, and the Bat-books could use a heavy dose of superheroics after all the "gritty reality" of the past few months. Same goes for Detective -- good to see Robin and Batman back together. (Although Robin's moving to Bludhaven? Merde!) I care very little for Hush and Poison Ivy, so once again Gotham Knights falls victim to the soft bigotry of low expectations. I'm torn about the Riddler story in Legends, because I like the Riddler, but I couldn't stand those weird backups in the past few Detectives. Nightwing I'll buy because it tells the flashback story of Dick's last case as Robin (should my Titans essays work up to "The Judas Contract" in time for this, folks?), but I have long been disenchanted with Chuck Dixon. Good thing I'm enchanted with Gotham Central.

Superman: There are reasons for me to get each of the main Superman books -- I'm still moderately intrigued about the Azzarello/Lee stuff in Superman; I like Rucka on Adventures; and I like the art in Action. However, the blurb for Superman/Batman #17 --

What happened to Bruce Wayne? And how do Ra's Ah [sic] Ghul, Sgt. Rock & Easy Company, and The Haunted Tank all fit into this?

-- almost makes me think I stumbled into some misbegotten solicit for one of John Byrne's Generations books.

I'll wait for the trade of Superman: Strength, purely as an economic decision; just like waiting for the Secret Identity trade.

Regular DC Universe

Adam Strange: How big of a nostalgic fanboy must I be to have sentimental feelings about L.E.G.I.O.N.?

Bizarro World: Oh yeah. The first volume was one of the funniest things I'd ever read (along with World's Funnest).

Birds Of Prey: Hey, this is out from under the Bat-mantle! How'd that happen? Not sure if I'll be getting this one by January -- it could be another "paperback" situation.

Firestorm: Ooh, Lorraine Reilly (take that, Superman alliteration freaks!) and Killer Frost! Speaking of nostalgia, you dedicated readers have no idea how close you were (and may still be) to an issue-by-issue recap of The Fury Of Firestorm....

Flash: Peter Snejbjerg illustrates the secret origin of Heat Wave as Geoff Johns continues to "grittify" a bunch of guys who were once famous for all having the same tailor. Hooray.

Green Lantern Rebirth: A cover I am not ashamed to love.

GL Archives: By the time they get to #9, I'll have the entire Silver Age GL run. Then I can read them to my grandchildren, who will beg me instead for manga.

JLA Classified: Grant Morrison blah blah Grodd yadda yadda yadda Ultra-Marines. Oh, the Justice League's in this too?

JLA: The Crime Syndicate (which really should have a Bill & Ted heavy-metal-type spelling, like "Kryyme Syndikaat") impersonates the League? It's a plot worthy of Gardner Fox himself!

JSA: Because I have never worn high heels, I wonder: would these help or hinder one's crimefighting?

Wonder Woman: Same question.

WildStorm

Majestic: So, let me get this straight. The WildStorm universe is just like ours, except it has slightly different heroes? And Majestic, who's from the WSU, can cross over to the DCU, and vice versa with Superman? (Kind of like Superman did with Icon and the Milestone heroes?) Didn't DC say it was out of the parallel-universe business oh, about 20 years ago?

Planetary: Occasionally I think about waiting for the paperbacks on this one, and then I remember that thing about having to read them to my grandchildren.

DC Direct: At least he's not wearing those stupid elf booties.

Some coming attractions for this humble site: First, sorry I seem to have gotten out of the habit of blogging each week's comics. Based on past history, an omnibus "War Games" post seems likely at the end of the month. I'm working on another New Teen Titans essay, and there's definitely one more (the Brotherhood of Evil arc) after that. You won't get rid of those so easily, as I would like to go all the way through the Wolfman Era, which ends in 1996. I do intend to finish the Supreme Power issues (#5-12 are left), although I won't be picking up the series anymore. I also want to do more with the '50s Dynamic Duo in which you-all seemed so interested.

By the way, went to Keeneland on Saturday for my 10-year law school reunion. Two horses in the 5th race caught my attention: #3 "Mr. Spock," and #10 "Quidditch Player." I bet on both to win, of course, but Quidditch Player came in third and Mr. Spock didn't finish in the money. Those were my only novelty bets for the day, and the other educated guesses did about as well as I expected. Yes, gambling on horse racing is evil, but since I neither smoke nor drink, it's my only contribution to one of the Commonwealth's signature industries.

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I'm OK, You're OK, But That Puppet Wants To Kill Us: New Teen Titans #s 7-9

In a late 1988 interview (Amazing Heroes #156, January 1, 1989), George Perez observed that one of his objectives, "still somewhat nebulous, is to establish why the hell the Titans exist. They always seem to be a group of characters sitting around a table waiting for a safe to fall on them." As we've seen, just 6 issues into its history, taking care of Trigon fulfilled the group's stated purpose. Fortunately, Perez and Marv Wolfman were able to find fertile ideas in their heroes' own backyard.

Issue #7 offered a very simple tale. The Titans, fresh from Azarath, find that the Fearsome Five has broken into Titans' Tower to try and re-integrate Psimon. The Tower has a dimensional doohickey which will do the job. Both groups soon learn that the Tower was designed and built by Cyborg (Victor Stone)'s father, Silas Stone, as a gift for his son and his new friends. (The Tower was apparently built in around a month, because the Titans haven't been together that long -- but this is comics....) Dr. Stone has been hiding in the Tower for a while, and the Five take him hostage. Psimon is restored, the Titans beat the Five, and Dr. Stone is rescued. The fight turns out not to be the point of the issue.

In the denouement, Cyborg still resents his father's attempt to "buy" his affections, but reluctantly listens to Silas' explanation. Silas regrets trying to force Victor to science and away from athletics, because that just made Victor resent him. The accident that crippled Victor (and led to his cybernetic parts) also killed Victor's mother. What Victor never knew was that the accident also gave Silas terminal radiation poisoning. This completely changes Victor's perspective. He and his father reconcile during one last month together.

Clearly, to this point Silas has been a Bad Father, but the revelation about his illness instantly reverses Cyborg's feelings about him. While the turnaround might be seen as emotional manipulation on the creators' part, the larger point was the challenge to Cyborg's expectations. Cyborg's distrust of Raven is also a theme in this story. After she saves his life with her empathic healing powers, he begins to warm up to her; and when Silas wants to talk, Raven convinces Cyborg to listen.

Because much of the issue is a running battle, there's not much plot. The creators make up for this with some clever character interplay, between Robin and Changeling, and Cyborg and Wonder Girl. Perez has some fun with Changeling in this issue -- he's happily munching on a hotdog at the beginning, and after he dispatches Shimmer, whistles innocently in the background when the angry Mammoth demands to know who hurt her. Wolfman also institutes a couple of running catchphrases here -- "hiring yourself out as a homewrecker," and "green with envy" (referring to Changeling) -- which for him would apparently never grow old.

Issue #8 was entirely devoted to character studies. Donna Troy's dispute with one of her photography clients ends when Koriand'r arrives and agrees to model for the client. (Kory sports big '80s hair, hip-hugger bellbottoms, sunglasses, and a crop-top. She looks like a refugee from a Mariah Carey video.) Donna and Kory meet Donna's boyfriend, the older man Terry Long. (I picture Terry played by Timothy Busfield with a perm.)

At Titans' Tower, Robin says goodbye to Raven and scoots off for Gotham. (Around this time, in addition to working with Batman, he was part of a circus, perhaps the one which also employed the Flying Todds.) Raven's soul-self heads off to Manhattan University to see if she wants to take some classes. Once there, the soul-self stops terrorists who have planted bombs in a campus building -- but since a caption announces she can't live without her soul-self for more than 5 minutes, I think we can guess how long it takes for the bombs to be neutralized....

You wouldn't think a sequence with a big black bird-shadow would be that exciting, but it's effective. Perez uses Kirby Krackles to show the soul-self enveloping bad guys. He speeds up the action with small panels and quick cuts between Raven's physical body and her racing ectoplasmic form. (Apparently it can't teleport.) When her deadline passes, Raven travels through a hell-dimension, giving Perez a chance to play with more layouts. One page contains four vertical panels showing her soul-self's progress, and a fifth panel in the center with Raven's physical body; all overlaid with a page-filling white-space profile of Raven. Very Neal Adams. Ultimately she figures out that the hell-dimension is a manifestation of her own fears and the "forces within me that seek to tear me asunder!" She emerges whole in Titans' Tower and realizes 1) that the Azarites couldn't have conquered their fears like she did, because they wouldn't fight for themselves; and 2) she never has to go through that again.

Cyborg and Changeling are up next. The two are in Victor's shabby apartment, with Victor telling Gar that he's decided to stay there. Silas' death helped Vic let go of his resentment about his "borgification," but he's not ready to rebuild his life just yet. Gar gets a call from his adopted father's business manager, Vernon Questor, relating that two Dayton Industries officials have been found dead. Gar leaves for Dayton's estate, first changing into a rhino to scare off a couple of potential car thieves.

Vic goes to see his old girlfriend, but she ostracizes him because of his cybernetic parts. There's no it's-not-you-it's-me business; she makes it clear it's not her. (She tries to say it's her parents too.) Vic responds that this is only her problem (and her parents'), and he's not going to "destroy [his] life by bein' bitter." Walking through the park, Vic encounters a group of kids playing baseball. His metal parts are mostly covered by clothes and a hat (with the art obscuring them further), so when a ball bounces off his head, Vic is worried that the kid who retrieves it will get too good a look and be scared of him too.

To his great surprise, the kid is envious of Vic's metal hand -- his own prosthetic hand isn't "real neat." The kids playing ball all have prosthetics, and Vic meets their teacher, Sarah Simms, before going off to play ball with his new friends. Again, a challenge to Cyborg's expectations adds another facet to his character.

In Blue Valley, Wally West has a heart-to-heart with his parents. It is a deliberately corny scene, with Wally (as the "man of the house") even carving a turkey at the end. The Wests are nothing but supportive, although they acknowledge that super-heroing is dangerous work. It's ironic, and a little sad, that although Wally never had Bad Parents in his Titans appearances, first his mom and then his dad would be decidedly negative characters in his Flash series.

The issue ends thematically as it began, with Starfire modeling for Donna's client. Terry's there too, and the love which he shows for Donna warms Kory's heart as well. She returns to the park at sunset, strips off her street clothes, and soars into the air, happy to have found a new home. In this issue (and a little in the last one), Starfire really sounds like her cartoon counterpart, with the same kind of overly-happy, slightly stilted voice. I hadn't realized how close the cartoon had come until I started re-reading these old stories.

Issue #9 is a goofy story. The Puppeteer, an old Green Lantern villain, has reformed and found his way onto the Dayton Industries "Promethium Council." Promethium is a perpetually regenerating material, named for Prometheus' perpetually-regenerating liver. It could regrow body parts, and cars coated with Promethium would be indestructible; but bombs made with it would never run out of energy. In other words, it's a perpetual-motion machine, which is a scientific impossibility -- or at least implausibility -- even for comics.

Anyway, with such a valuable and dangerous invention, who better to work on its development than a former super-criminal? "Mr. Dayton has a rather -- uhh -- liberal policy regarding hiring ex-convicts," Questor explains. After three Dayton executives are murdered (and Gar Logan is attacked) by killer puppets, Gar calls in Robin to get to the bottom of things. Robin naturally wants to question Jordan Weir, a/k/a Puppeteer, but before he can, he and Gar are attacked by a Westworld-like robot. (Here I thought of a joke I'm surprised didn't make it into the book. When the robot starts shooting, Robin yells "Gar -- duck!" I wanted Gar to reply "Duck? Why not 'Elephant?'" Yeah, not that great, I know.)

We then learn that The H.I.V.E. is behind the attempts to steal Promethium plans. It went after the Titans so early (in issue #2) because sooner or later, Gar Logan would have gotten his colleagues involved in protecting the plans. That helps close a plothole from #2, although it sounds like circular reasoning.

Meanwhile, at Sarah Simms' school, Raven and Cyborg are entertaining the kids. Raven explains that her healing powers can't make their prosthetics obsolete. Sarah kisses Cyborg on the cheek. As they leave, Raven remarks that Cyborg is a lot more refined than he lets on. "Mebbe I gotta look like a blasted robot, but do I gotta talk like one, too?" he responds. Clearly, Wolfman and Perez have invested Cyborg with a fair amount of nuance, which makes him an appealing character. Of course, on the next page, he exclaims "Christmas!" to show his comfort with slang....

He does this because he's attacked by a Batman puppet, which fixes a mind-controlling device on him. Zombie Cyborg throws a tree at Raven, but she teleports away. She then sends her soul-self to Blue Valley (flying there takes "minutes") to get Kid Flash. He races to New York, musing "I still haven't decided what I want -- to be Kid Flash or just plain Wally West." He's also concerned about his secret identity here, suggesting that his future decision to abandon it for his Flash career helped "integrate" his heroic and civilian lives. But that's reading too much into the intentions of two writers and two books 6 years apart, so let's move on.

Wonder Girl and Starfire get a little scene with Terry Long that doesn't amount to much plot-wise, but it establishes that Terry's 29 (i.e., at least 10 years older than Donna) and he likes shirts which expose his chest hair. (It was 1981, remember.)

Kid Flash arrives in New York and is immediately "puppetfied" by Cyborg. Wonder Girl and Starfire show up and are soon zapped as well. As usual, Perez does a good job with the fights, moving the action along through changing perspectives and varying panel layouts. As with #7, the skill invested in these action scenes helps make up for the underlying plot holes.

Raven finds Robin and Changeling at a Dayton Industries board meeting. She's been followed by the Zombie Titans, who attack. Changeling turns into a snake and wraps around Kid Flash's neck. The speedster starts spinning faster and faster, trying to throw Gar off, and eventually breaking the mind-control hold. Kid Flash then frees Starfire by spinning her at super-speed. Robin knocks out Cyborg by kneeing him in the groin (where he's unprotected? Wasn't he an athlete? Shouldn't he know to put on a cup before going to face Trigon?). Raven's soul-self frees Wonder Girl. Kid Flash tracks the vibratory signature to the Puppeteer's lair, and the Titans destroy a small army (literally) of puppets. In an appropriate nod to an old Flash story, there's a Flash puppet in the melee. The Puppeteer escapes, but a H.I.V.E. sniper has him in his sights.

Finally, while all this was going on, Deathstroke steals the Promethium plans. To Be Continued....

These three issues presented standalone stories (only last-page cliffhangers linked #8 to #9, and #9 to #10) which effectively brought closure to many Titans' subplots. Cyborg overcomes his resentment of his father, and by extension his part-mechanical status. Raven faces her fears and begins learning to enjoy life. Starfire accepts her new home on Earth. Kid Flash struggles with his desire for a normal life even as he plays a major role in defeating the Puppeteer. Just 9 issues into the book, and already the characters' inner motivations are shifting. Wolfman and Perez wanted their stars to be dynamic, not just physically, but in terms of story.

Still, as the old character beats are retired, new ones take their place -- romantic possibilities with Sarah Simms and Terry Long, Changeling's involvement in his adoptive father's company and the corresponding absence of said father, Changeling and Cyborg's developing friendship, and Starfire's concern about losing her warrior's edge. All of these would figure prominently in the coming months.

Next: More Deathstroke, older Titans, and Paradise Island!

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The Dynamic Duo, '50s-Style

One of the conceits with the Golden Age (and the old days of Earth-2) was that those adventures took place virtually in real time. If a comic was cover-dated June 1954, the story within was presumed to occur in June 1954. (This informative timeline was derived using just such a methodology.) Under this theory, the 24-year-old Batman first appeared in 1939 and the 12-year-old Robin in 1940.

Most fans know that the Batman stories of the 1950s and early 1960s contained heavy doses of science-fiction and fantasy. This was a bit of self-censorship, reacting to the public's fears about comics' evil influences. The trend ended when editor Julius Schwartz took over Batman in 1964; and by and large it has not returned.

If these "atypical" stories are part of the Batman canon at all, they're part of the character's Golden Age/Earth-2 incarnation. However, since at least the 1970s, that Batman's history has been viewed through a more modern filter, in order to make sure that the dark, gothic elements of the character predominate. That's all well and good, but if we know that Batman and Robin were active into the 1960s, what were their adventures like if not what was published?

I'd love to see a period piece covering the post-war adventures of Batman and Robin, especially focusing on the changing relationship between the two. If Dick was 12 when he became Robin, he would have been 18 in 1946 and 30 in 1958. (Bruce is about 13 years older.) Dick's "modern" counterpart famously dropped out of college and had a semi-public split with Batman -- why didn't the original version? What happened when Dick reached "playboy" age himself? Did Bruce's 1948 confrontation with Joe Chill help him let go of the "grim" Batman? If the rest of the Justice Society was driven into retirement, how were the globe-trotting Batman and Robin viewed? Did they evolve from mysterious vigilantes into pillars of the community, as the comics of the period suggest? (I wouldn't entirely discount the weird sci-fi or time-travel stuff either.)

Some of this ground has been covered by John Byrne's Generations stories, but Byrne has Bruce marrying earlier and retiring earlier, with Dick taking over as Batman (which he never did on Earth-2). Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier is closer to what I'm picturing, but his version of Robin started much later than 1940.

The way I see it, here are two orphaned men whose lives were changed forever by very similar tragedies. Each was able to help the other focus his grief into a personal crusade which led to a lifetime of adventure. During a period of over 20 years, while the world changed around them, their relationship progressed from paternal to fraternal, and eventually they saw each other as equals. It's a story that perhaps could only be told with the Golden Age/Earth-2 backdrop, and I think it's worth telling.

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Trigon, Take Me Away! New Teen Titans #s 3-6

In their first couple of issues the new Teen Titans fought extraterrestrial slavers and super-powered assassins. The stakes were about to get a lot higher, as the Titans finally learned the reason they'd been brought together -- and the circumstances behind that revelation almost broke up the team.

Issue #3, "The Fearsome Five!," opens with a nighttime scene on Donna Troy's apartment balcony. (The improbably-affordable apartment -- another Monica Gellar parallel -- was subsidized by Queen Hippolyta.) Starfire relates the origins of her slavery: her father, the ruler of her home planet Tamaran, gave her to the Gordanians in order to prevent the Gordanians' masters, the Citadel, from invading. The Bad Father strikes again! (So does Wolfman's long-term plotting. Just as Grant "Ravager" Wilson had an unseen brother, Koriand'r mentions a sister who doesn't appear in the flashback.) There is another Bad Father moment between Cyborg and his dad about midway through #3.

Meanwhile, let's meet the titular villains, starting with the brick-wall-like Mammoth and his sister, the "matter transmuter" Shimmer. They speak in Conversational Exposition -- "[w]ith a simple pass of my hand, I can transmute the very fabric of this wooden door into easily passable water vapor!" Mammoth also refers to himself in the third person. The siblings sit down with Dr. Light and two other new characters -- the diminutive genius Gizmo and the visible-brained psionic Psimon.

(I'm sure I'm not the first to point out that while "Psimon" may look clever on the printed page, it wouldn't sound that way. We learn later that Psimon's name was Simon before he got his powers, so he apparently decided to "change" it. Of course, it doesn't sound different at all, unless he pronounces the "p," in which case he sounds like those little kids in the old Wile E. Coyote cartoon who talk about "puhsychiatrists" and "puhsychoanalysts.")

Light's not yet in his "goofy" post-lobotomy phase, because he wants to kill the Titans to announce the group's power. The other Fivers aren't crazy about this plan, because it can only bring the Justice League and every other super-group down on their heads. They just want to get rich. Still, Puhsimon says the clash is inevitable, because the Titans are on their way.

Sure enough, Raven's alerted the Titans that the Fearsome Five is out to get them, so the Titans launch a pre-emptive strike. The sides seem equal until Shimmer transmutes the walls and floor into ether, knocking out the Titans. (One wonders why she didn't do this earlier.) The Five split the scene, "nudged" to leave by Psimon's mental suggestion.

Raven confronts Trigon (the demon from last issue) about the Five, accusing him of "controlling" them. The group then assembles at their new headquarters, the T-shaped Titans' Tower on an island in New York's East River. Nobody knows who built it or who invited them there. (In fact, we will get glimpses of the mysterious builder over the next few issues.) Raven basically says hanging around is pointless, because she's got a bigger threat for them to handle. Specifically, while meditating, she saw a vision of Trigon conquering the Earth. In her vision, even the Justice League was defeated by Trigon's lackey Goronn. The vision also told her the Five wanted the Titans to defeat the JLA; and because the League will "unleash" Goronn on the world, Raven agrees.

Similarly, Psimon reveals his origin to the Fearsome Five (after zapping Light with a mental bolt). Seems that "yesterday" (!) he was zapped himself by Trigon, who gave him his powers and a mission involving the Titans. (I can't get over "yesterday!" Good thing he got zapped in plenty of time to make it to that meeting!) Psimon sends a giant-floating-head-gram to Titans' Tower and challenges the Titans to a rumble, which the Titans accept. Everybody except Raven and Kid Flash races off to battle, and Raven laments that they should all be "trying to convince" the JLA -- never mind that two pages earlier, she wanted the Titans to fight and defeat the League. Semantics, I suppose.

The Five defeat the Titans. Raven relates this to Kid Flash, who speeds off and is likewise dispatched. The issue ends with Raven heading off to call in the Justice League.

For a very long time issue #4 was possibly my favorite single issue of any comic. It has a lot to recommend -- the JLA, the origin of Trigon, the beautiful temple of Azarath, and a real cliffhanger ending. It opens with the League (Atom, Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman) following Zatanna to a demon-dimension -- lots of narrow rock ledges, roiling orange skies, and lightning -- where a group of sorcerers are apparently up to no good. The sorcerers seem more powerful than the League, but Raven still shows up to convince the heroes to leave the sorcerers alone. No such luck, so the sorcerers blast the JLA.

Raven teleports to Azarath, a peaceful place filled with gleaming architecture -- sort of Paradise Island crossed with Asgard and filtered through a bird theme. Raven tries to convince her mother, Arella, that the people of Azarath must help stop Trigon from conquering Earth. Arella says for all they know, the conquest of Earth was preordained, and Azarath is pacifistic and wouldn't intervene anyway. (This is the first time we see Raven without her hood. While she looks 99% human, she has a red jewel in her forehead and "earrings" which are apparently little free-floating bursts of light. Anyway, no hood makes Raven appear more vulnerable, which is appropriate considering the mood.) Arella teleports Raven back to Titans' Tower.

There she runs into the Titans, who show no signs of ever having met the Fearsome Five. (Their memories have been erased, though, because we see from the Five's perspective that they planted a bug in Cyborg's arm.) Raven tells the Titans she brought them together to defeat Trigon, a nigh-omnipotent demon who at the age of 30 ruled his entire dimension. Somehow, the JLA has made it possible for Trigon to come to our dimension. The Titans respond to this by heading off to attack the Justice League. Raven figures out that the Fearsome Five have hyp-mo-tized the Titans into going after the JLA.

The Titans board the JLA Satellite and prove pretty effective against the Leaguers. Batman deduces from fighting Robin that he's being mind-controlled, but the League still can't stop the Titans. Raven teleports aboard and stops the fight by presenting the Titans with an illusion of the Leaguers, crumbled into dust. (This is the payoff for the illusion Raven visited on Grant Wilson at the end of #2.) This breaks the mind-control, so Raven takes the Titans to the demon-dimension, where the sorcerers are still working on their project. The Justice League isn't far behind, and Zatanna traps the Titans while the rest of the League goes after the sorcerers. (The League wants to stop them because their spells were disrupting Earth's ozone layer.) The sorcerers free the Titans, and the two groups go at it again, but Trigon blasts everyone and announces that his flunky Goronn is coming to Earth.

The Titans and JLA pick up and dust off. Batman wants answers. Robin tells the League they "blew it" -- the Titans were trying to help the sorcerers stop Trigon from getting into our dimension. Zatanna says Raven told the League the same story weeks before, but it didn't wash with them. Zatanna detected an incredible evil within Raven, and tells Kid Flash that Raven manipulated his mind to make him love her (after he first turned her down). Raven says these things are all true, but so is her story -- Trigon is coming, and she needs help to fight him off. On a powerful last page, Perez shows each group abandoning Raven, her anguished pleas, and the disembodied, flaming eyes of Trigon watching everything.

Let's pause here a minute to review: Raven knows Trigon wants to attack Earth, so she goes to the JLA. When they refuse to help her, she assembles the Titans as Plan B. Meanwhile, Trigon creates Psimon so he'll have a way to control the Fearsome Five. Dr. Light wants to kill the Titans, but it's not clear whether this is his idea or Psimon's. Raven has the Titans attack the Five before the Five can attack them. The Titans lose, but the Five have plans for them. Psimon goads the Titans into a second fight, and again the Titans lose, but this allows them to be hypnotized into attacking the JLA. Thus, both Raven and Psimon want the Titans to take out the JLA. This is either redundant overplotting or masterful manipulation, but the bottom line leaves only the Titans in Trigon's way.

Issue #4 showed the book continuing to improve. It featured two fights between the Titans and Justice League, some spectacular (if briefly-seen) designs for Azarath, and a suitably apocalyptic demon-dimension. Trigon was finally seen full-on -- a massive, red-skinned, four-eyed demon with pointed ears, stringy brown hair, and antlers. There were even a couple of Bad Parents in Batman and Arella (who were also proxies for the JLA and Azarath). Most significantly, having the JLA artist draw the League in this book really cemented the Titans' status as one of DC's A-list teams. Perez drew both teams as equals, such that it almost seemed like an issue of JLA. Nowhere is this more evident than in the last panel on page 23: Robin stands up to Batman and dresses him down, with each man representing their respective teams. This amazing show of strength and unity made the next couple of pages' revelations that much more shocking.

So many words, and we're still only halfway through the story! Issue #5 featured guest pencils by Curt Swan, who did an admirable job introducing both Goronn and Trigon, but whose figures couldn't help but be less dynamic than Perez's. (This is doubly ironic considering Perez's admiration for Swan.)

The issue begins with Raven apparently teleporting the Titans back to Earth. (I say "apparently" because it's not quite clear; but it's not a big deal.) The other Titans abandon her and (apparently) truck back to Titans' Tower. Trigon then has Goronn attack Raven. Raven sends her soul-self (basically an ectoplasmic bird-shaped shadow which operates in principle like the Doom Patrol's Negative Being) to warn the Titans, who've made it back to Titans' Tower somehow. It's never explained how the Titans got back to Earth, or how Goronn made it to Earth.

Logistics aside, suffice it to say that Raven's in one spot and the Titans are in another. The Titans have enough time for each member to work through their emotions about Raven's lies before her soul-self arrives. Raven (speaking through her soul-self) convinces the Titans that she's in trouble. After a brief struggle, the Titans subdue Goronn. Robin remarks that this battle was the first they fought as a team. They also believe they've defeated Trigon. Raven corrects them just before Trigon's flaming eyes zap the Titans.

Trigon strides down out of the clouds. He looks about 10 feet tall. Turns out Raven is Trigon's daughter (his only surviving child) and she inherited from him the evil Zatanna sensed. Ladies and gentlemen, the ultimate Bad Father!

Psimon flies in, amazed that Trigon breached the dimensional walls. Trigon "dissipates [his] atoms" as punishment for trying to double-cross him (presumably by sending the Titans to help the sorcerers). Trigon's two extra eyes then fry Goronn as punishment for getting beat by the Titans.

Speaking of which, Trigon's blast sent the Titans back to their headquarters. There, Raven says she'll explain everything. There's an odd moment here -- while Wonder Girl muses about the "critical moment" which will decide the future of the team "forever," and oh by the way there's a 10-foot-tall demon ready to destroy New York, she gets a drink? The next panel even shows WG taking a big swig! (Was it Gatorade, for her deep-down body thirst? We may never know.)

Raven does explain the group's founding purpose, noting especially that Robin, despite his lack of powers, has the leadership skills necessary to pull the group together. Changeling does a quick recon and spots Trigon headed for Manhattan. The Titans race off to confront Trigon, except for Raven, who's off to Azarath again. Kid Flash has had enough, vowing to quit the team once this crisis has passed. Each of the other Titans also gets at least a paragraph's worth of narration about their emotions as they head off to battle. In particular, Cyborg confesses to Changeling that he's the only one in the group not used to cosmic menaces. It's a nice bit which doesn't come off like a typical "reluctant hero" trope.

Needless to say, the Titans are virtually powerless against Trigon. In Azarath, Raven again fails to convince her people to help. Trigon appears in Azarath, and Raven summons the Titans there too. While the Azarites watch, the Titans once again are defeated. Despite Robin's James Kirk-like speech about peace and freedom, Azarath still won't help. Ultimately, Raven offers herself to Trigon if he'll spare the Earth. (Starfire begs Raven to reconsider, citing her own slavery.) The issue ends with Trigon taking Raven back to his dimension.

Obviously the character of Trigon owes a lot both to Galactus and Darkseid. There are strong Galactus/Watcher/Silver Surfer parallels with Trigon, Arella/Azarath, and Raven. I hesitate to compare the Trigon/Raven relationship with Darkseid and Orion's, because Orion never got down on his knees and begged Darkseid to spare the Earth. Still, Orion wasn't full of the same kind of pathos with which Wolfman and Perez have invested Raven.

Issue #6 opens with Trigon and Raven touring the futuristic-medieval-style dwellings of his subjects. (Perez is back, this time inked by Pablo Marcos.) When a little girl says she's frightened of Trigon, he makes an example of her with his "death stare." Raven uses her empathic healing powers to restore the girl's health, but Trigon checkmates this by disintegrating the girl. Trigon then displays more evil qualities by disintegrating a disobedient planet and turning his attention to Earth. Raven realizes she's been tricked but can't teleport away.

Back in Azarath, the Titans learn Arella's origin. Basically she was seduced into a devil-worshiping cult and tricked into marrying the "handsome" version of Trigon. She escaped the cult, but was homeless, helpless, and suicidal. At that point she was whisked away to Azarath, where Raven was raised in peace and taught to control the evil within her. Arella volunteers to lead the Titans to Trigon's dimension (and "capitol planet"), thereby giving up her life in Azarath (once you leave, you can't come back).

The Titans encounter Trigon almost immediately upon arriving. This time the "fight" lasts one small panel. Meanwhile, Arella has rescued Raven. Trigon sends dragons out into the skies to look for Raven, and they surrender before more "thousands" of innocent lives are lost. Arella fights off Trigon while Raven makes her way to the Titans' dungeon. Fortunately, Trigon hasn't thought to remove Robin's utility belt, so Raven frees the Titans with a Bat-lockpick.

Trigon gets up on a raised platform and opens a doorway to Earth's dimension. The Titans concoct a plan to stop him based on Kid Flash's super-speed vibrations, Cyborg and Starfire's power blasts, and the sapping of Trigon's will through Wonder Girl's magic lasso and Raven's and Arella's magic. Kid Flash opens another dimensional door, and while Trigon is distracted, Cyborg and Starfire knock Trigon through it. However, Arella follows Trigon through the gateway as it closes, saying she has to prevent Trigon from coming back. The End.

The "Trigon Saga" told a densely-plotted, cosmos-spanning story at breakneck speed. It boasted an omnipotent villain, a new supervillain team, a Justice League appearance, a Titan's origin, and the near-dissolution of the group itself. It also shows the group finally coming together as a team, not only in combat but also in terms of interpersonal relationships. Cyborg and Changeling have a moment of bonding (over the "cosmic thoughts"), Kid Flash confronts his true feelings for Raven, and the group as a whole comes to terms with any lingering distrust it might have for its mysterious organizer. Although the plot is a little thick, there isn't much waste -- even something like Starfire's origin, which might seem unrelated at first, is necessary for understanding Raven's sacrifice at the end of #5. Likewise, Arella's sacrifice at the end of #6 is another example of how peace eluded her throughout her troubled life. Finally, the appearance of the Justice League is hardly gratuitous, inasmuch as it answers the fanboy question of where the JLA would be during Trigon's invasion. Yes, Raven's first thought was to enlist the League's help, but when that backfired, she got the next best thing. Her selection of former Teen Titans isn't just a thin disguise for marketing, but it makes sense in terms of the story. Instead of Batman, the Flash, and Wonder Woman, Raven got their teenaged proteges; and instead of Green Lantern, Zatanna, or Firestorm, she found Cyborg and Starfire. Conversely, I could see the plan which defeated Trigon being carried out by the Titans' JLA counterparts.

These four issues were a benchmark for the series in many ways. Future epic storylines would also feature villains with familial connections to the Titans, special guest stars, and "secret origins." The series still hadn't reached its high-water mark. Nevertheless, with the defeat of Trigon, the purpose behind the group's founding was ostensibly fulfilled, and its creators were almost compelled to draw on the members' backstories for new menaces.

Next: Shorter stories replace the epics, but there's still room for the Fearsome Five and Deathstroke!

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