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

[espanolbot]

Considering it was No Man's Land and Cass specifically that got me into comics properly after drifting around at the edges with the DCAU stuff for a while... this storyline didn't go down well with me. Obviously.

I put Cass' continued violence (and extremely damn clumsy) behaviour after getting dedrugged down to her still shaking off the effects of the serum personnally.

And I have to say, I have nothing against Beechen specifically as a writer, I really liked his stuff on the Teen Titans tv show, but after the debacle that surrounded Robin: Wanted (including Didio etc. being badgered at convention panels for a good three or so years after this story) they REALLY should have reconsidered giving the mini that has Cass officially coming back into the light to someone else.

Gail Simone for example, is just one of many writers in the DC staff that are actually fans of the character, as opposed to just writing it because they're told to use the character for some reason or another.

I suppose that the good thing is that we've now reached the point that people who started reading comics roughly the same time as me, if not a little time before, are now starting to be the ones actually writing them, for example Scott Snyder etc. so they could have Cass and Co. back in the comics.

I admit that it's kind of selfish of me to think this way, I mean there are probably tones of people who'd prefer the Bat Family to be trimmed down to Bruce, Tim as Robin, Dick as Nightwing, Jason as... Robin 2 or something and Babs as Batgirl, but I have my preferences, thank you.

Though apparently Geoff Johns is meant to be planning some Big Reboot or something event in October at the end of Flashpoint, that will either be a companywide restart of all the titles, or more of a OYL event which it'll be we'll have to see.

[ebailey140]

Not expecting Flashpoint to be a Crisis on Infinite Earths level changing the DCU thing. That was Infinite Crisis. This looks to be more Zero Hour. Johns isn't about to just undo the stuff he's done for the last seven years. The franchises that are in good shape, with solid directions like the Bat and GL ones, won't likely be affected that much. Franchises in actual need of a reboot of some sort, like the Marvels, on the other hand...

What Simone's plans for Cass were... Would have been better than what Beechen did, certainly (which falls into damning with faint praise territory), but still wouldn't have been consistent for Cass. It would have turned her into a completely different character, and wouldn't have been based on anything established about her. The idea of a deeply religious Bat driven by their Christianity isn't a bad one in and of itself, but I think it would work better for Helena or Jean Paul, who already have religion as part of their make up. It would just be having them behave in accordance with the symbols they wear, and would be natural progressions for them. With Cass, it would have been altering her fundamentally just for the sake of doing it.