Teen Titans #94: Solstice and the Teen Titans

[ficticons]

One of the reasons I started reading Teen Titans with the current arc was because I'm interested in a relatively new character, an Indian girl named Kiran (also known as Solstice).

Six scans from Teen Titans #94.


The issue - titled "The Power of Myth" - begins with Kiran.



I'll discuss her summary at the end of this post, but Kiran is right about what happened to Cassie and Helena. There was a page last issue that hinted at Cassie vs. demon; in this issue we see that despite a good effort, the demon is too much for her to handle alone.




Love the dig at time travel there. :P.

Tim's being hard on himself, though. There weren't any problems with how he'd organized the teams for the search they were doing, unless you count Rose needling Bart, who seems rather starstruck by Kiran. The teams were Kiran and Gar; Cassie, Helena, and Raven; Bart and Rose; and Tim and Kon.

And suggesting that Helena stay at her camp wouldn't have worked. Cassie *did* try it (out of Tim's earshot, which is probably why he's thinking it here), but Helena refused to sit back while her colleagues - Kiran's parents Vijay and Rani - were missing.




I was amused - although not very surprised - by the fact that Tim's read "a few translations" of the Ramayana. I also really like Kiran's snark.

They manage to enter the demon realm. They know they're on the right track when Gar sees Cassie's lasso - "she wouldn't leave it behind, not ever," Bart says - and Rose finds a giant footprint.

Sorry for the width of the next image, but IMO the two pages are best seen as originally presented.




During the fight:



"I can't take it!"

A wave of psychic energy - which Raven couldn't control because a) she has an as-yet-unexplained negative reaction to Kiran's powers, b) they're in a demon realm, or c) some combination of those - sends both the Teen Titans and their ambushers flying in all directions.

Rose and Tim end up captured. Tim's the only one that's missed, though, because a shape-shifting demon goes back to the group disguised as Rose.

Now, back to Kiran's summary of the Ramayana - I found it interesting. It's not exactly the story I know - for example, in the version I read there isn't a "demon realm" that's particularly different from ours per se (AFAIK it's just a different country), the stones needed to cross the sea into that realm didn't have anything written on them, and the demon king was called Ravan(a), not Rankor.

Krul could be adapting the story to suit Teen Titans' needs, like numerous other writers have done with other mythologies.

Or maybe it's just the version of the Ramayana I read? For example I didn't know, until after some online searching, that the "Tataka" Kiran mentions here and that we see last issue isn't something Krul made up.

Anyone with a wider knowledge of Hindu mythology have any ideas?

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

On what the deal is with Solstice affect Raven:

Raven says that she's radiating more than light...what if she's radiating emotion as well? Positive emotion. That has a bit to do with why everyone likes her right now, they're feeling happier just by being around her. But, with Raven's whole "I can't feel emotions else I unleash an army of hellspawn lead by my demon father" deal make it hard for her to be around someone like that.

[pyrotwilight]

That's certainly how it appears to be working between the two. Raven doesn't really enjoy being near her in the regular world but it's worse in the Demon Realm since the magics there and flood of emotions from the realm AND Solstice makes her go bonkers and get emotion filled, which is bad for her powers, yep.