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

[jaybee3]

I don't know if they still exist there but he was commenting at the DC message boards (on a thread in the Shazam section) about his and Geoff Johns' 3-issue JSA arc (where we got Black Mary again in her FC costume, the Wizard came back to life, Black Adam and Isis were turned into statues and B/M were depowered) shortly after they came out which was a few years ago now.

He said that originally it was planned that Freddy was to be included (as was Uncle Dudley), the Wizard maybe was going to stay dead and that it was basically to re-set the status Shazam quo to pre-Infinite Crisis (where all 3 kids were Marvels) but last minute Editorial changes/dicates (coming I assume from Didio himself since by all accounts he has been personally responsible for all the Marvel Family darkening like the Dead Wizard, Black Mary and greenlighting Winick's Trials of Shazam over Johns & Alex Ross's more traditional With One Magic Word...Shazam pitch) changed everything. The Wizard came back to life, Billy and Mary were de-powered and they left it there. Ordway said they were constantly changing both the art and the story to the very last minute (but that he was happy with how it turned out given the time constraints).

[jlbarnett]

has anyone ever asked Didio what his issue with Captain Marvel is?

[jaybee3]

People have asked him about it (what the heck are they doing to the Marvel Family and such) and he usually gives the same canned response he gives to every other unused character. Despite the fact he's pretty much wrecked the Shazam franchise (and made Mary Marvel basically radioactive) I don't get the feeling Didio has anything "personal" against the Marvel Family. He never cracks jokes or mocks their fans the way he does when someone asks about Cassandra Cain or more recently Wally West. Greg Rucka said that Didio was opposed to killing off Isis and Osiris in "52" despite the fact that both character were created for the sole purpose of being killed off (and what do you know - both have since returned to life)!

I go back several years ago when Didio publicly said he felt the Marvel Family "sensibility" didn't fit into the modern DCU (i.e. Didio's own dark, grim post-Identity Crisis DCU) and I think a lot of the decisions he has made regarding them in order to make them darker and not as fun (in other words - more like Black Adam, who Didio/Johns/etc. love) and he simply doesn't realize that you can't do that to these characters without fundamentally ruining them.

Hopefully they've learned their lessons for the DCnU. If there's one franchise that could actually benefit from this reboot it's the Shazam one.

[flint_marko]

What did he say about Wally?

[jaybee3]

I can't remember anything specific off the top of my head but if you go back to some CBR/Newsarama articles (pre-DCnU announcement) whenever Wally West's name came up at conventions Didio (or one of the other editors) would crack a joke instead of actually answering the question (one response was - and I quote - "at least we didn't kill him").

..

[thepinkperil]

As much as I am loathe to say it, Didio isn't the one with the problem. It's TPTB. Rumors have circulated for years the higher ups at Warner actively dislike the Marvels and many other light-hearted aspects of the DCU. It makes for more drama if the goody-goodies get all full of angst and darkness.

You know, the target demographic can't relate to happy characters. So they shove the fun to the Johnny DC line and let it die there. At least Tiny Titans has survived, knock on wood.