Titans #37 & #38

[flint_marko]

So these are the last two issues of Titans, by Eric Wallace and Travis Moore. After the Flashpoint reboot, Ryan Choi will be alive again and Lian will apparently have never been born, so I don't know how much of this will be sticking.



Deathstroke uses the Methuselah Device to cure the dying Jericho.


Osiris asks if the machine could restore Adam as well. Slade says he doesn't know, but he thinks it's worth finding out.

Ink, Jade, and Osiris want to use the machine. Roy and Cinder don't.





Titans #38 begins with Ray Palmer meeting with Ryan Choi's girlfriend, Amanda, before his funeral. It's revealed that's she's recently given birth to their son, Ichiro.


Slade's reasoning doesn't really make any sense; it's not like his Titans were a public superhero team using the name of its heroes like the Dark Avengers.

Roy punches Slade, saying he's nothing like him and that he's realized the ideal Slade's been trying to corrupt is still important to him, which is why he'll be leading the Titans from now on. Slade kicks him and tells him to "keep your damn team, Roy. I've had enough of you all."

Cinder flies into the Methuselah Device, causing a plasma annihilation reaction with its heart. Osiris grabs Sivana and flies out. The others prepare to leave, though Deathstroke is missing.

Jade tries to stay behind, asking Roy what good is living without Lian.





Roy shakes his hand. "How about we take it one day at a time?"

Ray speaks at Ryan's funeral.



"Crazy town."

And that's it; the series is over. While it wasn't the greatest series, I'm glad Osiris never became an evil villain like I had feared. He generally remained a sympathetic character, at worst being an idiot for trusting Slade (though who knows, maybe the Methuselah device would have restored Adam?).  I just hope the Black Marvel Family will still be around post-Flashpoint.

Comments

[propagandor]

But Ryan hoi's girlfriend was Giganta, the next door neighbour was his best friends widow (the baby being Ryan's godson)

[shadowpsykie]

they got somethgin wrong? out RAGEOUS!

[aaron_bourque]

. . . wow, the revelation that their loved ones could be returned to life is apparently inspiring less shock and more ... vacancies.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; "So you're saying you can bring people back to life . . . in a universe where no one stays dead forever? Are we supposed to be surprised? Because, duh, COMIC BOOKS, fella."

[pyrotwilight]

Well it's usually random, I don't think even in the DCU that death can be "fixed" quite so easily or regularly.

[espanolbot]

Ah, but this is the DCU. No one stays dead forever... except their children.

For example, Lian, Wildcat's kid (nonKitty one), Donna's son...

[pyrotwilight]

Roy: Guess it's just us.

Joey: So what now?

And then they made out.

[nezchan]

It's not even subtext there, is it?

I suppose Roy could have asked how he felt about red jackets with short pants...

[lieut_kettch]

CONTACT! But in a good way...

[jlbarnett]

I bet Jericho will be an Outlaw. And they'll keep most of this incontinuity, despite the fact they're getting rid of the reasons they were put in this situation.

As for Deathstroke, I wish writers would stop examing the motivations of characters they right as just plain crazy. It always comes off so damn annoying.

[jaybee3]

A whole better idea for this title could have just been Roy and Jericho recruiting other disenfranchised and seemingly abandoned Titans (like Osiris for one) for their own pro-active team. A sort of Outsiders but without the Batman element and more a "Titans" element.

Instead they went with making it a book about Deathstroke, other villains no one cared for/liked and calling it "Titans". What a waste.

to fail....

[silverzeo]

Not to sound like a bastard, but if the reboot is going to happen that Cry for Justice didn't happen... why not actually have Roy go through with it till he actual learns whats he is doing his wrong. Roy went one HELL of a depression and he just gets over it like that? No haunting images telling him thats wrong. He just needed time to get over it... like a child's tantrum? Even though Superboy Prime still holds his and he is YOUNGER than Roy, though to Prime's credit, he is dealt one serious trauma after another..

And oh god, my expectations for Osiris must be as plausible as Tana Moon, let alone any other character from Superboy's book, coming back and actual connect with the kid again. He and the "real" Guardian teamed-up in the War of the Supermen, and they didn't mention ONE of their adventures with Cadmus together, Conner didn't bring it up did he? Outside of Countdown, we got Dubliexx geting killed and having an psycho clone and Serling at Star Labs with Livewire....

Re: to fail....

[icon_uk]

Yeah Roy's "Okay, I'm all better now" was a serious "HUNH?" moment.

[ian_karkull]

Ryan Choi's girlfriend, Amanda
Wait, who..? Also, why on earth would Ryan's son have a japanese (sounding) name..? Honestly, so much fail in one sentence..

Osiris never became an evil villain
How do you figure? He goes along with everything Slade says, tries to kill the main heroic character, then flies off with the main villain of his franchise to kill the wizard. He couldn't possibly become more villainous if he stopped to kick a puppy on his way.

Either way, I'm glad this boring unpleasantness is over, though I would be gladder still if it didn't spawn two more likely terrible titles.
People seriously need to stop trying to give depth to Deathstroke by examining his motivations. They keep rehashing the same story over and over again and it consistently gets worse.

[flint_marko]

Roy was trying to destroy the machine that could save Black Adam.

And the whole reason why Osiris has been putting himself through hell this past year trying to save Adam and Isis is because Shazam turned them into statues. If Osiris is justified in killing anyone, it'd be him.

[mullon]

Oh man, he got dissed by Tetch. That's a special kind of suck right there.

And one of these days someone needs to count up all the times Raven's just been used as a teleportation device.

[icon_uk]

But only since her resurrection, IIRC they were consistent with her being unable to teleport anyone except herself in her New Teen Titan days.

[jaybee3]

The series was dreadful and it was apparent early on (so dreadful that people were giving a hard time to Didio & Co. at cons after the first issue was at). It also made no sense.

So let me count the ways on the Osiris story alone:
a) How did Osiris have the power to take away Freddy's powers? It was never explained.
b) When the heck did Osiris talk to Billy and Mary? Not only did we not see that (and given how important Billy/Mary are to the Marvel mythos and the fans of the franchise it would have given sales of the book a little lift) but during the "Shazam" one-shot this fact was never brought up. I refuse to believe that Billy/Mary would have turned away Amon (as Wonder Girl did) either especially after the way Mary was treated in Countdown/FC. Not to mention the fact that in Wallace's own Blackest Night one-shot starring Black Lantern Osiris we were clearly shown Billy and Mary concerned that Amon might have have returned.
c) Wasn't the whole point of "Trials of Shazam" was that Freddy became "Shazam" and that Captain Marvel WASN'T his name (in fact it was a name Billy chose for HIMSELF not one anyone with the power gets). James Robinson even mocked the fact that no one knew what to call Freddy anymore in Cry for Justice.
d) The Wizard Shazam is also the SOURCE for Osiris' power - or did he forget that? Isis gets her powers from a amulet but Amon gets his powers from Black Adam who got his from Shazam. But then DC itself doesn't know what its doing when it comes to the Marvel Family's powers. In JSA, Ordway & Johns (under Editorial Edict, per Ordway on the DC message boards) had the Wizard take away Billy and Mary's powers willy-nillly which is something we were told in the past he couldn't do - that's why Black Adam had to be exiled rather than killed/depowered. We were also told Freddy's powers didn't come from the Wizard at all - so how could Osiris take them away.

And after all DC has put through Roy through and him getting involved with Deathstroke and killing people with dead cats and all we have him suddenly learning the lesson of his ways in the last issue and moving on? WTF? What was the point then (yeah, yeah, I know all this is going to be retconned away starting last month but still...).

I think "Titans" is the quintessential example with what is wrong with the Didio-era DC writ small (Countdown was it writ large). Post Blackest Night which was a HUGE, HUGE success for DC (even in non-comics media), there was a huge opportunity for some of these characters.

The return of Osiris in Blackest Night should by all rights be used to right the ship on the Captain Marvel/Shazam franchise (the fact that Freddy was dismissed so easily is very telling that DC knew that Winick's Freddy/Shazam idea was dead in the water) by having Billy/Mary/Freddy helping Amon find the Wizard to restore Isis (and Black Adam). I would have bought the heck of that book. But no, the put him here and turn him into a killer (where all he wanted to be was a hero) and a lackey to Deathstroke where he was routinely insulted and mocked by his "teammates" even though as someone with the power of Shazam Osiris is one of the most powerful beings on the planet and could kill them all very easily. Another plot point dropped was that of Black Adam's dead brother-in-law (and then wife) coming back to life. Considering how Black Adam literally started a World War because of their killings and considering that several (real) nation such as China authorized Isis' assassination (something August General in Iron admitted in 52) their return should have put the world (and every hero) on alert but no....like I said a wasted opportunity (and Wallace even said that Marvel Fans should read this crap book to find out the next developments in the Marvel Family story - except without any actual Marvels in it).

I'm not even going to go into how Roy was used and abused and Lian killed off seemingly for no other reason than this piece of junk. It would have made more sense if there was to be a follow-up to the detested CforJ or Rise of Arsenal to make Titans the Roy Harper book with him getting together a group of disenfranchised former Titans members to go all Outsiders on crime, instead of making it a villain book starring: "Deathrstroke & His Unlikeable Lackeys".

[flint_marko]

Do you have a link to Ordway's comments?

[auggie18]

Wasn't Amanda that college girl who flirted with Ryan, like, once, before he started dating Giganta? Wasn't his relationship with Giganta a part of the evil Titans/JLA crossover thing? Why do I expect anything even approaching quality from this book? I try to stay positive, but my god. He just, he just couldn't care less! THIS IS TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE! AUUUUUUUUGH! AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!


*sobs*

[flint_marko]

Wasn't his relationship with Giganta a part of the evil Titans/JLA crossover thing?

They mentioned the beatdown Giganta gave Dwarfstar in Secret Six, but that's it.

[star_of_airdrie]

This makes me happy because it appeals to the evil me and the nice me:

The nice me is happy that it is addressed that calling Slade's group The Titans was LAME...

The Evil me likes the idea of Philly being blown up. (Like M.O.V.E. being bombed and left to burn but better (and I saw that from my dorm... good times, good times...))

[wizardru]

Confused me is trying to figure out where "The Outskirts of Philadelphia" actually IS. Because from that skyline, they should be standing on I-76 along the Schuylkill River. But I can forgive: they generally got the skyline RIGHT, something that rarely happens. And they're clearly using a very recent reference photo, as I can see the new Comcast building alongside Liberty Place and even the funky new building by 30th Street Station.

(And I say this, speaking as someone who is looking at those buildings right now).

[icon_uk]

Wow... I have to respect a series that can fail quite so consistently and still come up with entirely new ways to fail.

THAT'S the motivation for the name "Titans"? THAT'S the reason they killed one of the lowest profile heroes around? THAT'S... well, you can imagine the rest.

[feyandstrange]

I guess I'll have to flip through this in the store to see Ryan's funeral. I mean, hey, at least they didn't entirely forget all about him, and I hear he might be back in DCNu at some point? But they could easily screw that up, as evidenced with this whole Amanda WTF son business. (But why do I even expect continuity.)

...nonono. I can pick it up in trade later if it doesn't suck, but this is it, I'm cancelling everything as of September. Even Simone.

[filkertom]

I appreciate all of your eloquence on this. See, I have not encountered this particular miniseries before -- and, being a Titans fan of the Wolfman/Perez vintage, I read this and was reduced to WUT I DON'T EVEN.

What the hell has happened to the DC I once loved?

[icon_uk]

It's not even a miniseries, it's what the Titans series mutated into two or three years ago.

Coming to it fresh I can't even imagine what your mind would be making of it. Let's just say that Roy becoming addicted to a drug made out of dead children wasn't even the worst element of this clusterfuck that keeps on.... clustering. This is actually approaching the coherent, relatively speaking.

[misterbug]

Roy, you enormous dick. Of course this is all about YOU.

I don't exactly see why they didn't bring back Lian and then punch out Slade. All they needed was a bloody piece of Supergirl's cape to bring back Jericho, right? What exactly is morally wrong about bringing back to life someone you loved?

[icon_uk]

Dunno how this machine thingie works, but possibly the same reason Tim trying to clone Kon was wrong. Even if Timmy got his boyfriend back, it wouldn't be him, it would just LOOK like him.

Jericho I'll give a pass to as Joseph's power has to do with being an immaterial phantom retaining all his memories.

Of course, this might also have had more impact if we hadn't seen Sivana use the exact same concept to bring back Shimmer from the dead about seven years ago in The Outsiders.

[skitster]

The cover! Is there an * there with "may not actually be to the death" written by it?

[pyrotwilight]

Well...it's the Death and Rebirth of the Titans name? I got nothing. *shrug*

[red_menace]

Didn't Deathstroke have this exact same "epiphany" a few years back in his Faces of Evil book?

[mrstatham]

Dude, he's getting old and he forgets these things. Besides, I'm sure we've had plenty of 'I hate my dad and don't want to turn out like him' moments from Rose in the same time.

[an_idol_mind]

It's kind of a pain that DC is leaving a lot of dangling threads as they prepare for their relaunch. I know they're pretending that it's not a reboot and all, but I'd much rather see them wrap up the old universe and give characters a decent sendoff than just pretend that the story will get continued...especially with folks like Roy, who will be back without his cyber-arm and without having been a father next month.

[fifthie]

Are Roy and Cheshire stupid?

They can totally know if Lian is in a better place. Just go ask Ollie. "Hey you died, how was it?" "Oh uh... pretty great actually. And like I'm pretty much an asshole, and Lian was a great kid, so yeah, she'd totes go there." "Okay cool, all right."

[icon_uk]

But that means, wherever she is, she's surrounded by assholes like Ollie

[ruhig_knight]

Really Slade? I'm pretty sure most people can tell the difference between Titans as in "adult Teen Titans who are heroes" and Titans as in "Deathstroke's team of villains who took the name as a middle finger to the hero Titans."

I'm glad Joey and Roy came out of this alive and not evil even though there's stillprobably Teen Titans 100 and definitely the reboot to look out for.

Also how did Joey's condition go from "unstable mind with voices in his head" to his entire body having a "cellular breakdown." Just..forget it.

As mentioned above, this should've just been a book about Arsenal, Jericho, and others being an Outsiders-esque Titans than...this.

[gamerguy]

Poor Osiris. I kept wanting him to be the new Captain Marvel Jr.
The art is pretty good; Roy is looking really nice if you ignore the arm and all. At least that's getting wiped out.