Teen Titans #30 - the center cannot hold

[perletwo]

Time now for the latest issue of Teen Titans. You'll recall that the team 'ported back to the 21st century to find Bunker and Beast Boy fighting for their lives on Tim's yacht, which is apparently the worst-guarded secret headquarters ever.



The Light and the Way, in the course of bickering, helpfully reveal that they need Solstice's light to survive, and since Solstice is gone, the Titans realize all they need to do is run out the clock, as Cassie puts it.

Also, this happens:



....well. Anticlimax, anyone?

Bunker says he's not sure how long his psi-brick barrier can hold out, and he needs a miracle. He gets one in the form of a strangely articulate Skitter, who ...zaps, I guess... the brothers out of existence.

And then the mysterious black helicopter lady shows up again.



...i kinda think I love Celine's mom. She calls Celine to leave with her, but Skitter says she's already home, with the Titans, and launches into an explanation of her origins and what she's been up to since the Culling.



Earlier Tim pointed out that neither he nor Dawnstar had been able to find any trace of Skitter, and both took that to mean she didn't want to be found. Turns out Mom used the chaos of the Culling to contact the exoskeletal parasite part of Skitter, claiming to be its "sister," and brought Skitter home to "rehab." After which, Celine is now completely in control of the Skitter entity and ready to kick butt with the Titans again.

Tim tells her the Titans are kinda falling apart actually, and a newcomer says it's a shame he already planted that bomb then. This would be Grymm, the bad guy from Titans #6. They quickly knock Grymm out and find the bomb, but not in time to keep it from going BOOM. Who lives? Who dies? Tune in to Titans Annual #3 on sale next week!

Then we have a three-page postscript where we catch up with Bart and Kiran in the future. In LOSH the prison planet has always been depicted as an orderly network of cells and guards, but now, presumably due to the complete collapse of 31st-century tech at the end of the last Legion run, it's more like the arena in the Hunger Games. Kiran and Bart kill a starving thug who hoped to make them dinner; so for Kiran, same as it ever was, I guess. Ditto for Bar Torr:



Rounding out the issue is a short story featuring Bunker and Beast Boy's adventures while the Titans were time-jaunting. Miguel's lover Gabe has psychic/precognitive powers; a mysterious woman hired a metahuman hit man to kill them, ho hum; and the news that the Crime Syndicate killed the Justice League was what prompted Miguel and Gar to go check on the Titans.


...so, all that happened. *shrug* Reboot, anyone?

Comments

[polly1788]

so how much of this run is lobdell on some sort drug just coming up random ideas and throwing against the wall and how much of this is editorial. I mean seriously how does this stuff even get approved?

[shadowpsykie]

it really did seem like it jumped all over the place. there were things i really liked... but then other stuff was just like... wait what?

[capnduckman]

I... I just... UGH.

[coldfury]

Is that supposed to be Amanda Waller? Because I've been assuming it's Amanda Waller.

And MAN, did this book get off track a LOT.

[perletwo]

No, it isn't, but I thought that when she first appeared too, given how they've foxified the Wall in the nU. Celine's mom refuses to identify her organization beyond " "a transpatial initiative," which doesn't really fit with Waller's projects.

Hooboy, did it ever.

[icon_uk]

Actually, it sort of does tie in with Waller's group ARGUS, which was a core feature of the Vibe series, which was all about the influx of transpatial/transdimensional beings into the DCU and ARGUS being the team that keeps an eye on them (By which I mean imprisons them).

[perletwo]

OK - the only issue of Vibe I've read is the early one where Kid Flash guested. IIRC Gypsy escaped from one of those stasis tubes at the end of that ish. Has she turned up again anywhere since?

[jlbarnett]

wasn't that Vibe's thing and wasn't she is charge there?

[silverzeo]

... what was done in this book? Seriously, I think the first season of LoSH done more than this book. Almost nothing set up here had any pay off or reward for the readers, and just brought more and more confusion into other book, like with Starfire in the Outlaws book... they got away with mentioning the past Titans but not in the actual Titans book?

So far, the only real thing done here was explaining Skitter's sudden absence, which was just comes off as a cheap and rushed explanation about some purposely made vague story that is on par with LOST or Spider-Man OMIT... that reminds me... whatever happened to Skrull Freedom Ring in Secret Invasion? He was shot, but then disappeared...

[shadowpsykie]

is it weird that i actually liked the characters, but didn't care much for the stories?



let's hope the new series is better. it still has all the same characters. we still got Miguel, Tim, Cassie, Raven, and Gar. god i hope Celine is still around. They elevated her cool this issue and it would suck if they killed right after this....

[perletwo]

Nope, the characters have some awesome potential - Bunker in particular is a big hit, and Skitter was very intriguing (i'd love to see what she and Jaime Reyes/Khaji Da would make of each other). But the stories were all so rushed and disjointed they did the characters a terrible disservice. Superboy got shafted in this title due to the plots of his own and the other Super-titles. Raven at least has fared a little better, and she and Skitter are nicely set up now for the reboot with new status quo's. Maybe in the annual Gar will get a new SQ too, since we know he goes from red to green in the new series.

[silverzeo]

It's not too weird... even some shows and movies, no matter how big of suck they make, they do tend to have at least something or someone to give it some value...

[espanolbot]

Kiran Singh is still oddly caucasian, I see.

[big_daddy_d]

...The fuck did I just read?.. I also feel like I should be high looking at these pages.

[firstmoonie]

Forever cringing at Bar's dialogues.

Bart would never.

[gamerguy]

The thing with Bunker and his boyfriend was cute. Probably the best thing I've seen out of the series to date. I guess we can cross fingers for the reboot in a couple months.