Titans East (Teen Titans #43-47) and World War III #2

[zechs80]

So you survived Robin OYL and Supergirl #14. Now can you endure the next chapter of Cassandra Cain's villainous career, Titans East?!


Be warned there will be a TON of scans featured in this entry. This story isn't for the timid either!

Once more prepare yourself for more:

So here we are at Titans East, the event DC promised we get true answers as to why Cass went evil! And it's the turning point for Cass's EVIL career.. well with one more surprise road bump (more on that at the end).

There's a lot of Titans East to cover (so much like Raven's hypno-ass, Rose/Jericho scenes, Titans East attack on the Titans, and Cassie's teenage angst over Kon). So I'm only including the Cass portions since it makes things so much easier. That starts when Cyborg and Miss Martian pay latest Titans traitor Bombshell a visit. It doesn't last long though when some unexpected guests drop in:





Thankfully, Sean McKeever did a great deed for the world and retconned this death. So one less death on EVIL Cass's hand. With this the Titans East strike and all the Titans save for Rose and Jericho get caught. Each are put through their own little hell. Which leads us to Tim's:






So there we have it folks! The answer as to why Cassandra is evil! She was hopped up on Slade juice. .... Ew. As to how this all happened. Well during this time period DC promised us more answers and to get those we had to look at 52: World War III for them. The thing is though.. we don't really get a full answer or shown the scene where Slade captures Cass. Just this:






We do get one extra panel of Cass in Slade's cross hairs or something when the Martian Manhunter's mind extends throughout the Earth. My friend could only find this part. However, of course Beechen had to add his own little part to Cass's missing year that kind of negates a little what Harvey was the protector of Gotham making it more she made it safe (with help from Alfred).

So with part 2 Beechen himself returns to write Cass once more. Why? Because his Robin was so successful they gave him the Teen Titans job after Geoff decided to leave. Even more Geoff and Tony Daniels decided to leave midway through this very arc (Daniels to go onto Batman and Geoff.. I think just to focus on his GL stuff). The next time we see Cass and Tim it's like this:



No wait. That's a fan edit.. OR IS IT? No really it is, but it looks exactly what's going on. Plus it always cracks me up. So with the REAL panel:




However before Cass can inject Tim and they can have evil naughty Bat incest, Rose/Jericho vs. Slade busts into the room. Which leads us too:






Cass gets the better of Rose again, but notices Tim is now starting to get loose:





And so ends part 2. When part 3 starts up Daniels has left the penciling duties to another. Plus more and more we get see Beechen's writing bleed through:




So where are Cass and Tim? Why breaking free Titans trapped in their personal little hells. They free Miss Martian and Kid Devil before trying to bust Cassie out next:





Wow Tim, way to be a dick.



Cass is knocked out when the original Titans (with Bart) show up. Most of the Titans East get knocked for a loop leaving Slade the last villain left standing and the final target for all the heroes:







Wow Dick. Way to be a dick. And actually that's Cass's final appearance in the story. Slade decides to get the hell out of dodge and with the dust settled two Titans East members are missing:




So where is Cass? Is her EVIL career done now that she's been cleansed of the Slade juice? Well during part 3, Cass made a surprise appearance elsewhere in Beechen's own Robin. Fans assumed this took place before Titans East. I mean the way Cass acted and the scenes played out. It had to be Titans East right?

*sigh*

That's right, Cass continued to be EVIL even after this storyline. WHY?! Beechen deemed it so. Really he did when he explained it all away in his Batgirl mini. So yes.. when I post tomorrow you get Cass's final EVIL appearance and Beechen explaining the entire situation of Cass's EVIL career.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

okay, you are one of the few (there have been others) who has stated clearly what exactly your problem with Beechen's stories was and I thank you for that, most people just yell and scream and say they don't like it because he is a hack and so on and so forth, but hardly give any direct reason as to why they believe what they do. AND you go about it with clear and direct language. as well as a comparison to another story that made sense.

I see your point of view, from a psychological point of view i can see how and why Beechen did it and why his mind it worked. and really thats one of the main reasons i give him the slack that I do, because from a psychological point of view, some of the things he did made sense (let me stress SOME, because there are things even I was like "Wait what?") really my main issues with his stories were not just Batgirl, but the whole batclan. i could have taken one or the other and been "Okay, i'll work with this" but the combination of both (Dick's dickishness, and everyone elses seemingly indifference to her behavior made me roll my eyes everytime it occurred.)

To me it seemed after everything she went through in the end of her run, and her seemingly being both neglected and overlooked by the rest of the batclan during 52/Infinite Crisis made it to me, in my mind possible. throw in the manipulation by Deathstroke and it made more sense. all that taken into account after the fact it made sense she would be "Pissed" at DS.

HOW EVER all that said... i do agree, his writing itself was very... it wasn't good. motives and actions were never clear beyond "Arg i'm mad!" and "Arg! Vengeance!" and "Arg you betrayed us!" and "Arg! you Abandoned me!" ect...

Beechen is complicated for me... i liked alot of what he did. I liked his Robin run. I liked most of the Teen Titan stuff. i was able to bare what he did with Cass because it made some kind of sense to me... but at the same time, there was stuff he did with Cass, and the other characters (the above Arg montages) that i didn't like, so i have never been able to fully hate him, or love him. so i tend to defend him, mainly cuz hardly anyone does.

See he had the "Stuff" for an interesting story to tell, but not the "Filling" if you get what i mean? or to put it another way, he executed it badly, and like many was annoyed with his mini because he COULD have elaborated on it. instead we had a lot of Cass "Doing stuff" and not alot of "Cass thinking stuff" if he had put us IN HER MIND, or HE had done the same, then it could have been great. but it wasn't. of all the places to show us WHY she did it, THAT should have been it.

I hope this illustrates my point of view (sorry its not as consice... i am very hungry and need to shower and eat... :D hope some people can see where i am coming from.