Teen Titans #17

Okay, that bizarre Legion story thing is out of the way, and this coming storyline is actually one of my all-time favs, the alternate dimension story!! As a kid I was a huge fan of the Marvel What If?! comics, and also loved the Age of Apocalypse story. So in theory, I SHOULD really enjoy these next few issues... But you know, DC gonna DC, so I'm not exactly expecting a blow away story.

Teen Titans #17(December 2004):

Summary: So we head ten years into the future, where we learn that the Titans are a more hardcore group, think more the Punisher than Spider-Man, what with murdering their enemies and what-not.

Look at that tiny hole in the gun!  What does it shoot, BBs?

As for our Teen Titans, they wind up at Titans Tower 10 years from now, and rapidly realize that something isn't right.

Considering Conner completely turns his back on Supes in this timeline, that's a good question.

That gets hammered home when they meet and battle against their older selves. Old Kid Flash, who seems to remember this moment, while his compatriots do not, manages to get a ceasefire between the two teams.

Old Kid Flash is kinda badass.

After talking to and learning how the younger Teen Titans were there, the older Titans tell them to rest for the night and that they'd figure out a way to send them back to the future the following day. Superboy decides to talk to his older self(Superboyman?) to ask him if having Lex Luthor's genes will make him evil, because he's clearly a moron. Before he can ask anything though, he stumbles across the older Titans torturing Deathstroke.

Thoughts: Dammit, Geoff Johns! There was SO much good here, but he had to go and ruin it all in the end! I mean, I was digging the story all the way through, and then Superboy happened across the torture scene. Which was so dumb! First off, we've established that the older Titans have Aqua-Lady/Girl/Lass/Woman, who is a telepath. On top of that, she has no problem figuring out from Tim's mind that he was Tim Drake, even though, you'd assume, Tim has had mental training, and/or something to baffle telepathy in/on his costume. So she has to be a relatively powerful telepath. Plus you have Raven, who can seemingly do whatever the situation calls for. On top of that, they have Superboyman and Beast Guy, who have enhanced hearing and smell. Plus, Tim as the Batman, who can do Batman-y sorts of things.

Yeah, you say that now, but wait like 6 years.  Battle for the Cowl anybody?

And yet, NONE of them could hear/sense Superboy wandering around?!? Plus, how dumb are the older Titans to decide to torture somebody while their younger selves are around? Especially since they know, and stated, that their younger selves wouldn't approve of such behavior. Why not send them back to the past immediately, or, I don't know, NOT torture somebody for the ONE night the Teen Titans are around?! Ugh... Plus, and I know this is nitpicking, but Superboy's hair was back to normal here, after he had grown it out during his time in the future. Now, I wouldn't even mention this(or honestly have noticed it!), had Bart not commented on it in the last issue... Why bring it up if you were just going to draw it how it always is here? That's just editorial sloppiness. Jeez, I really went on quite the trip here, didn't I? Um, bottom line? This was a really, really good comic, with a really dumb ending.