DCU Comic Book Reviews

TEEN TITANS #53

Combine And Conquer

January 2008

Written by Sean McKeever

Pencils by Eddy Barrows

Inks by Rob Hunter

Cover by Ale Garza

Synopsis

In California, Wonder Girl and her future self are fighting a Starro-controlled Brimstone and each other as Wonder Girl refuses to kill her opponent, despite what her future self says.  At Teen Titans headquarters, future Lex Luthor has brought with him the future Titans Army to remove Blue Beetle and Ravager to keep their future intact.  Before future Titans Army can act, however, an army of Starros attack.  In Gotham City, Miss Martian wants to help Robin, but her future self fight tries to stop her by showing Megan the moment when their lives change.  The visions are so horrible Megan lashes out and kills her future self.  Megan then telepathically alerts Supergirl she is needed to help Wonder Girl.  Megan then goes to rescue Robin as Supergirl helps Wonder Girl defeat Brimstone by tossing him into pace.  Out there, she realizes it is a war.  In San Francisco, the Starros have managed to take over all of the heroes, except for Blue Beetle.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

As with the previous installment, I am having trouble warming up to this storyline, so I must admit that I found a lot of what was going on boring.  The events in this issue are repetitive as previous issues:  each of the various Teen Titans encounter and somehow overcome future versions of themselves, although they only overcome the physical threat and not the mental one of them possibly become killers in the fight.  So, really, the present Titans don’t really gain anything.  There are a bunch of fights, some won, some lost, but ultimately it doesn’t really mean much since the fights take the place of meaningful conversation.  Would be so hard to show the characters talking to each other, to come to some understanding on how came to be who they are, rather than needless fisticuffs?

Here is a gap in logic that McKeever has missed.  If the goal was to kill Blue Beetle and Ravager, why would they arrive en masse and then declare their intent to the very ones they want to kill.  Why not arrive in the shadows and kill them when they least expect it? You can time travel to the past, it is not like you would not be able to find them.

There are a couple of little tidbits that I liked, such as the changing memories of the future Titans Army when the future Miss Martian is killed.  I also liked the little twist that the future Miss Martian was using a device to help with her aversion to fire. 

When Supergirl is in space and sees something and declares it a “war,” is this related to the Starros and what they plan or is this related to the Sinestro Corps War.  My first reaction was to Sinestro, simply because that is the big war at the moment and it fresh on my minds.  Then, I thought that was stupid because I can’t quite figure out how Starro and the future would relate to Sinestro.  But I am uncertain if only because the explosion in space that Supergirl is looking at is a clash of yellow and green colors.  Frankly, I hope this storyline steers clear of Sinestro.