Titans #19

[uadlika]

I don't believe any of this beyond the cover was ever posted here. In light of current events I thought it might be wise to post.

Context: A day in the life of Red Arrow. Lian is ticked because he promised he'd pick her up from school and didn't because he's too busy fighting Lady Vic.

Lady Vic appears to be winning.






RIP Lian. And fuck you DC for messing up one of the best relationships that you had. You better fix this soon so that Lian can grow up to be kickass as Jade Arrow dammit.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go call my dad.



Tag wranglers: char: lian harper, char: speedy/red arrow/roy harper, char: speedy/mia dearden, creator: j.t. krul

Comments

[jlroberson]

Take away his arm, take away his kid. And why? No real reason.

James Robinson is now my least favorite comics writer.

[aulayan]

Don't blame just James (Heck it may not even be his fault)

This whole mess stinks of editorial, big time. There have been a few rumours here and there that Editorial wrote more of it than James did.

[jlroberson]

Okay, knowing DC, I can grant him some slack over that possibility. So I can just go back to hating him for ruining LOEG. ;)

A little song.

[salad_barbarian]

Take his arm, take Lian,
Take the story in a direction I can not stand.
I don't care, it doesn't matter to me,
I don't consider it in continuity.

[iondan]

Honestly the destruction of Star City would've been enough to push Ollie and likely even the other arrows over the edge. Lian's death strikes me as more off a ploy to get the blog-o-sphere talking, it definitely drums up stronger reactions than Coast City redux.

[auggie18]

Ugh, Lady Vic. And DC seriously better retcon this or...

or...

Damn, I don't have any threats.

[dorksidefiker]

I continue to disbelieve the illusion.

[majingojira]

This incident just confirms for me the fact that modern comics really have no arc. Thus, they have no direction.

They exist only to perpetuate. There is no end goal. No reward. No denouement.

What we have is Act 1 and Act 2 of a 3 act story, and we're continually repeating Act 2. The efvents of Act 2: A Minor triumph followed by an epic shit being taken on the character in question.

The fact that the focal character can change on the whims of fate makes arc storytelling even more impossible.

And because there is no arc storytelling, our favorite heroes of Marvel and DC will never go anywhere.

[jlroberson]

It's kind of like: the point in an old-school video game is not to win but to keep playing.

[q99]

The thing is, arcs *are* possible. A character's story can end, either totally or to pick up a new one. Passing through different stages of their life.

Good writers can use that, but yea, a lot of the time they just get stuck in act 2.

[majingojira]

Indeed. Why do you think I follow writers instead of characters?

[fifth11]

Yeah, I need to start doing that.

[majingojira]

Of course, even then, you have to pick and choose which of their works you want to read. Be it genre or just "Wait, this is a bad story!", not everything a favorite writer does will be good or liked.

For instance: I follow Paul Dini's work, but he also worked on the abomination that is Countdown.

[sistermagpie]

I remember when this came out everyone was already worried that Lian was in danger. I guess she's here to prove superheroes can't have families. Which is just an awesome. (not)

[jelly_ace]

Oh, poor Roy.

*Sniff*

[sweettart1823]

*goes off to cry again*

[milleniumrex]

What was the point of this issue? Do you think Krul even knew what was coming at this point? I don't think so.

[uadlika]

What was the point of this issue?

To retroactively twist the knife harder?

[majingojira]

Pretty much.

[silverzeo]

Was Lilian's death editorial or story driven? Editorial is usually for BS reason like money while story driven... they think darker heroes are always better.

Come to think of it, who though all those dark elements in Thundercats: the Return editorial or story?

[majingojira]

Has there been any official word on it at all?

[aulayan]

There's never official word.

[aulayan]

Editorial. There's usually a way you can tell. All these tie-ins. The tie-ins pretty much show "Editorial" hands. If it was just story-driven, done by writer, the tie-ins tend not to take shape, there tends not to be a million miniseries etcetera.

[ladymirth]

I'm a little pissed that Roy had such a hard time dealing with Lady Vic. Dinah and Dick were able to deal with her almost off-hand during Dixon's run on BoP and Nightwing (or was that Grayson's?).

I refuse to believe that Lian will stay dead. She's too much of a fa favourite, being an integral part of both the Arrow family and the Titans.

I really want to see Ravager's reaction to Lian's death. She used to baby-sit her back when she was a normal teenager best friends with Argent.

[perletwo]

IIRC, this whole issue was part of the lengthy solo-story "Titans Who Doubt Themselves" series, which may account for some of the difficulty.

omgomgomg RAVAGER. How could I forget that? And she doesn't even have anybody handy to kill/maim/torture for it, thanks to Ollie!

[sailorlibra]

OH FUCK THIS. I MEAN, REALLY? WHY DO YOU HATE US SO MUCH, DC? WHY?

[thebigapricot]

The solicits for this came out in August so I assume that Lian's death must have been planned since before that.

Fuck you DC, just fuck you.

[jaybee3]

Didio has been talking up "big changes" in Green Arrow and GA being "the one to watch" since the last half of 2009. This was clearly planned for a long time (as was the Titans issue above written obviously to with Lian's death in mind - it was J.T. "Rise and Fall of Arsenal" Krul wasn't it?)

Robinson should take heat because CfJ sucked but if you read it straight it appears to pretty obvious that whatever Robinson had originally planned in issue 1 (and this mini was started at least 2 years ago when he just got back into comics) was derailed pretty quickly (i.e. Batwoman with a one-panel cameo, Freddy Freeman never actually appearing till issue 7, etc.).

What I think is the worst however is the timing since they clearly planned to kill off a little innocent child at the same time proclaiming DC is entering a "Brightest Day" faze. Which makes the whole thing all the more tasteless. Of the original Titans who had kids - Donna, Roy, and Garth - ALL of the kids have been killed. ALL OF THEM. As much as I complain about Marvel's editorial decisions at least Franklin and Val Richards are active and kicking (even if they don't age) and so are the Power Pack kids. DC? Nope. Only Damien is around and after Grant leaves the Bat-books I wouldn't place money on him making it either.

[lamashtar]

I know Robinson said that CFJ was supposed to be darker than the regular universe...but that excuse doesn't fly when all the darker elements affect the regular universe. All the crap that happened in CFJ shouldn't be necessary to be referenced just to deal with continuity.

[q99]

There's more to dark than randomly killing people too.

[arysteia]

Thanks a lot. Now I feel worse. D: D: D:

Seriously though, this is lovely. And screw you some more DC.

[shadowpsykie]

oooh i actually love the whole Jade Arrow thing. an hommage to her father and mother.

and as sad as this was... i kinda liked blackcat's comic conscerning it "Quantumn sense tingling"

[star_of_airdrie]

Okay, rip his arm off, it's a battle wound, or not, but kill his kid... that sucks beyond the telling of it.

DC, go to your room and think about what you've done!

[dimwit90]

I refuse to believe this death happened and will continue to do so until the end of time, amen

[star_of_airdrie]

I prefer your reality