Sunday, April 17, 2022

Teen Titans 2

 
 
Teen Titans 2
Rogue Targets
DC Comics
2016
 
 
The second post-New 52 Teen Titans volume involves a lot of interpersonal drama, but I'm not sure it all actually makes sense by the end.
 
Initially, the Titans are enjoying their fame after saving New York from STAR Labs' stolen doomsday weapon. Wonder Girl meets with the vigilante girl gang operating in her name, Raven continues hanging out with the band using her name and trying to copy her magic in their songs, and Red Robin confronts Manchester Black about his claim that the stolen weapon was only the second worst thing STAR ever built.
 
And then all those plot threads get dropped and are never picked up again, because Kon-El Superboy is accused of murdering 20 people, triggering national outrage and a national manhunt. The one survivor claims he's innocent. Also she turns out to be an alien, and all the dead people are supposed to have been aliens of the same species in disguise. She doesn't seem to know who did commit the murders or why they've framed Superboy though.
 
Martian Manhunter tries to arrest Superboy, but the Titans help him escape. Wonder Girl and Power Girl become disillusioned and go join the new team Manchester Black has secretly been training even longer than he's been working with the Teen Titans. The new team tries to capture Superboy, but again, the remaining Teen Titans prevent the capture. Raven reads Manchester Black's mind, and comes away believing that the alien conqueror Despero somehow framed Superboy from inside prison, so Red Robin decides that the Titans will go break into the prison.
 
Inside the prison, Beast Boy, Bunker, Raven, and the alien witness, Chimera, deal with an apparent riot, while Red Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash from MB's other team head down to the secure basement to confront Despero. They end up trapped in some kind of psychic vision that they believe is caused by some other villain named Harvest, who seemingly kidnaps Superboy and vanishes.

Upstairs they realize the entire riot is a fake psychic vision caused by Doctor Psycho, who was attempting to steal Raven's powers by entering her mind. The moment he does, he gets knocked out by a vision of her demon father Trigon, making his whole plan come to naught.
 
Manchester and the rest of his team arrive. He orders them all to stop the riot and arrest the Titans while he goes to the basement to confront Red Robin and Superboy. Instead he goes to meet with Despero, and confesses that he deliberately let Raven read his mind so he could deliver the Titans to Despero. Except then it turns out that this Despero was an illusion created by Chimera (who was copying Doctor Psycho's powers), and Power Girl beats him up.
 
Then on the last page, some other hero I've never heard of shows up and knocks all the Teen Titans unconscious and announces to their uncomprehending, unconscious bodies that he's arresting them.
 
Unanswered questions at this point - did Manchester Black ever meet with Despero, or was that first meeting an illusion created by Psycho to lure Raven to him? Was this other psychic criminal, Harvest, actually in prison (and responsible for framing Superboy), or was that also Doctor Psycho? And if so, why? Did Manchester Black only recruit the Titans so he could deliver them to Despero? And if so, did he fake the whole STAR Labs' break-in and doomsday weapon disaster from last volume, or just take advantage of a real crime because it gave him a good opportunity? And what's going on with the Wonder Girls Gang and the Raven Band?
 
And the biggest question of all, are the writers even aware of all the plot holes and unexplained, seemingly unmotivated events they've set in motion?

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