Teen Titans #21 - "The Brothers Trigon"

[perletwo]

In which the Titans take on Raven's three demonic half-brothers, and we get a better look at what nU!Raven can/will do in action.



First off, about half the splash page that opens the issue with Red Robin and Raven. I include it because something funky's going on with her costume again. Now it has leg braces?



Anyhoo. The brothers demand Raven come back with them for a word with Daddy. Tim tells Raven to stay right where she is and calls the team into play for attack pattern six, which knocks them on their big red butts if only briefly. One of 'em retaliates with a blast of hellfire.





Elsewhere, Kid Flash takes on a second brother and gets briefly possessed; Kiran provides backup, and it turns out demon dude can't handle a mind running at 875 mph; Bart kisses Kiran in celebration. (Poor Kiran looks a little nonplussed at suddenly being the femme fatale of the team.)



Elsewhere again, Wonder Girl and Bunker take on the axe dude, and while Cassie tells Miguel to fall back as her armor was made to fight Trigon's forces, it's really Bunker who comes through by dropping a literal ton of bricks on him. "always wanted to try that," he slurs, "did it work?" "If a crushed skull was what you were going for, then, yeah."

Back at starting point, Tim uses his "wings" to cut off demon dude's hands, but they grow right back. So Raven tries something a little more radical.



"Give it to me straight, Raven - Trigon's not gonna just look the other way while we throw your brothers in demon-jail, is he?" asks Tim. "If I've learned one thing in my long dark existence, it's that Trigon never gives up once he marks a realm for conquest."

Trigon shows up well in agreement on the last page splash panel, and suddenly, inexplicably, he has Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Bunker - hey, weren't they standing right here a second ago? - on the ends of chains and demonically possessed. Hooboy.



Next: Dark Titans!

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

story and art seem to be getting a bit better than the last few issues...

i had the impression that Raven was still "evil" but is she actually just lonely? her motives seem confusing... i think i read that she was only playing along with Trigon? (but i havent had the money to keep up so im not sure.)

also a couple of notes. the costume for raven i am okay with, the head thing not so much.

Maybe it's because of the shading, but raven seems to be a person of color, is this the case?

[perletwo]

Lobdell did the story and Bedard did dialog for this issue, which may account for some of the difference. Likewise Barrows did breakdowns and Merino did finishes.

Trigon's interpretation, last issue, was that he has thoroughly corrupted Raven and she's playing around with the Titans because she's lonely. But her remarks to Beast Boy a couple issues ago strongly suggest to me that she has A Plan.

Looking back at the last few issues, I'm pretty sure it's just the shading, she's been pretty pale up to now. What is very inconsistent is how the art suggests her age: in some depictions she's very puppy-fat teenagery, and in others she's got the solid bone structure of a half-starved thirtyish supermodel. You can kind of see that progression here, even.

The headpiece is ridiculous and must be stopped. Bad enough it looks like it's eating her head; it actually grows up around her head like it's eating it!

[zabilac]

I-I like her new headdress. *hide in shame*

[ruhig_knight]

I will admit that Gar/Raven was not one of my favorite pairings and would be perfectly okay if that romance isn't re-visted again in the reboot (or ever) BUT if Lobdell/DC/whoever does do it I am especially not looking forward to the possibility of a Tara/Gar/Raven love triangle. This Tara so far doesn't seem like her pre-reboot, Judas Contract self and cares about Gar but Gar thinks she's dead and will no doubt be angsty and vulnerable ugh. Oh god and please don't let that tie into why NuTerra will become a traitor/villain/whatever.

[perletwo]

Agreed on pretty much all counts. But I think what it'll end up being is Gar subbing out for Wally circa New Teen Titans, where there are strong residual feelings but any relationship potential is ruined by her having used her powers to manipulate his emotions in the beginning.

I would like to see Raven in a relationship, though, preferably with someone a little older than the Titans as she has years more life experience in Trigon's dimension than her physical age. Maybe a self-destructive fling with Jason Todd. Or, I dunno, the new Batwing dude Fox Jr.? One of Waller's lieutenants, like Steve Trevor or Vibe's handler? They seem like they'd be comfortable with a certain level of moral ambiguity.

[ruhig_knight]

Here's hoping. Depending on some anti-GarRae crew, many headcanoned that Raven's powers were involved in their pre-reboot relationship, if only for how inconsistent and frustrating it was.

I don't mind Raven in a relationship (as long as it isn't Gar or written really problematic, obviously) but at the same time I would much rather writers actually focused on herself before they complicate things with romance (she really does need more solo stories that didn't directly involve Trigon in some way. Or her relationship with Gar).

And I know It's almost impossible but I'd love if her old relationship with Joey was revisited in this universe (and was all but seemingly forgotten pre-reboot. Oh the ranting I could do on that). However with Joey sorta-dead, "evil crazy" ghost-like it'll be even more difficult (unless I don't know, Raven reaches out to him &gives him a new body like pre-reboot?). Though they could still both angst over their fathers and also siblings now. Age-wise he's already older than the current crop of Titans and Deathstroke's Forever Evil oneshot might hopefully shed some more light on the Wilsons, but Joey's definitely different than before...sadly.

[perletwo]

I admit I haven't been following the Deathstroke family because, well, Liefield. But I get the impression nU!Joey is kind of a fusion of Joey and Grant's personalities? Is/was there still a Grant in the nU? Either way, what's this Joey like? I've recently picked up a few older NTT issues & am reminded that old Joey was perfect to the point of ridiculousness originally.

[ruhig_knight]

Well to keep it as simple as I can (really the Wilson family Nu history makes the Bat Family's make sense by comparison) NuJoey is more of a "in name only" case or even Grant with Joey's name (who was wasted potential and died with Addie for Slade man angst). Yes, Liefeld was no doubt a painful mess on so many levels, but sadly the writer afterwards didn't get to fix much of that mess. In fairness, last January had DS and Superboy solicits concerning Slade meeting his kids but that never came to be, having the family drama only in the last couple issues of Ravagers and Deathstroke, so it was more of an editorial thing. There Joey had a power-up grade (Possess multiple people w/o eye contact), very likely never was mute (Really nice after the Oracle controversy that even lesser-known disabled characters had their disabilities erased:/) and was pretty much a megalomaniac with daddy issues who Slade killed. Again. But didn't really die & in similar position like in the beginning of Johns' TT.

So yeah, not only did DC erase another PwD and everything else that made him stand out, but pretty much tossed out Jericho's being "odd one out" of his military family and being his dad's polar opposite, which I admittedly wished they focused a bit more of in the older comics. Or at least focused more on that angst instead of hammering into the villain role like in TTv3/Tv2 story lines.

One throw-away line may be a clue to him being this way via experimentation but it's moot with DC sometimes. Especially when it comes to how they treat certain characters :/

[kurenai_tenka]

I'm still not over BB being red. Whhhyyy

[perletwo]

coz red is XTREEEEEEEM!!!!!!11!1!

[kurenai_tenka]

NEEDS MORE POUCHES

[md84]

In-universe, it's because his animal based powers are connected to the Red, which is the embodiment of animal life like how the Green, the source of Swamp Thing's power, is the embodiment of plant life and how the Rot is the source of decay.

But seriously, there's already too much red in the Titans' costumes as it is. Wonder Girl, Superboy, and Robin have red costumes too.

[theflames]

I like the logic behind it, so I'm not bothered by the change, especially since it's a nice way to show some coherent-ness in the DC Universe. But yeah, too much read in the team.

[icon_uk]

Except associating red with life doesn't really work for me, since not all animals bleed red.

In fact the most prolific creatures on the planet are insects and they don't even have blood in the first place, well, not as we use the term.

[theflames]

No I don't think that's it -- he's red, because his powers are *deeply* connected to 'The Red', you know, the energy that connects all animals, gives people animal related powers etc

Since unlike Animal Man or Vixen he's actually transforming into these animals, I imagine 'The Red' is *a lot* more focused in his body, and so perhaps that energy shows through...

[icon_uk]

Yes, I get that, but I'm asking why are we referring to "the Lifeweb" as "The Red" in the first place?

[theflames]

I thought that's what it's being called now? That or the 'Morphogenetic field'

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/The_Red

[kurenai_tenka]

I thought it was something to do with that, but still, it's a really distracting change (and surely the green is considered 'iconic' enough to keep).

The over-saturation of red is everywhere in the New52, it seems.

[jlroberson]

This is the first time I've seen it.

THAT is Raven's costume now?

Oh @#%* that.

[perletwo]

And you can't even really see the feathered pixie boots!

[akodo_rokku]

Man, this comic is such a mess. Things just kind of happen from page to page without much context to each other. Oh and Tim's random EVOLness from a few issues seems to have been completely forgotten -- much like Skitter, and the random mysterious dude who was screwing with Tim and Bunker's minds early in the series.

I'll admit I skipped most of Lobdell's 90s X-Men career. Was he *ever* better than this?

[perletwo]

Yeah, it's like Skitter never even existed. But Tim was asking Raven about his random EVOL at the end of last issue, just before this action sequence started, when she exhibited a random burst of EVOL herself. They sure aren't making the big deal of it promised in the solicits for this series, though.

I skipped most of the 90s, comics-wise, so I wasn't really acquainted with Lobdell until the nU 52. His dialogue is AWFUL. (It's better this ish because Tony Bedard is on dialogue, but in previous issues things...have not hung together very well.)

[thefiretonight]

The best thing he did in the 90's was Generation X, IMO. He did create some fan favorite X characters like Blink, M, Marrow, Chamber and Cecila Reyes. Probably the most well known stuff out of that era was Onslaught and the idea of Heroes Reborn.

[darkblade]

That second page. For a second I was very confused as to why Devil Dinosaur was in Teen Titans.

[thefiretonight]

So it's pretty obvious Lobs is putting all his effort into Superman and none in here. Pretty much what happened with RHatO. He seems to favor one job over another.

[superfangirl1]

I didn't think Raven and Beast boy knew each other that well in the DCnU?

Also the art really nice here.

[perletwo]

No, you're right - they just met at the beginning of this action-arc, when Raven took control of him at the end of the last issue of Ravagers/repeat of the same scene in Teen Titans #19. Presumably she's been watching him for a while, but that doesn't explain why he's so familiar with her here.