With a mob of brainwashed citizens trying to rip them apart, the Teen Titans must find a way to save the Neverland members and save Beast Boy. Will the team save the day, or fall under the pressure? Find out in Teen Titans!
Teen Titans #19
Author: Benjamin Percy
Penciller: Scot Eaton
Inker: Wayne Faucher
Color: Jim Charalampidis
Letters: Corey Breen
Publisher: DC Comics
!!! Spoiler Warning!!!
What You Need to Know:
Damian Wayne became the leader of the Team Titans on his thirteenth birthday and since then the team has been through absolute hell and back trying to recuperate after the supposed death of Tim Drake. They have had to deal with Damian’s family issues as well as the appearance of an alternate realities Tim Drake who ended up being an evil Batman set to kill anyone who caused his time to turn to travesty.
Now after everything the team has had trouble picking themselves up; with the T-Tower destroyed and the team not sure how to stay together, Beast Boy meets a new friend named Joran who seems to be very interested in Gar. Is her interest in Beast Boy trouble for the team? It seems so when the team finds Gar and Joran turns the entire crowd into mindless zombies along with Gar as her personal sidekick. Will the Teen Titans get through this, or is this the end for the young group of heroes?
What You’ll Find Out:
Damian begins his chase after Joran who is riding a winged Beast Boy who looks like a green version of Damian’s pet Goliath. At the same time, the team is trying to fend off a bunch of brainwashed civilians without hurting them.
Joran monologues to Damian about the scenarios in which Damian probably isn’t proud of and even Damian admits he has made some mistakes and just wants to move forward.
Back with the rest of the team, Kid Flash is the only one that may help the brainwashed members of Neverland. He knows he must vibrate the chips implanted in their head but he’s nervous about hurting anyone due to his amateur knowledge of the speed force. Raven convinces him that he can do it and finally breaks their tension with a kiss before Wally goes racing off to save the young adults.
After being hit with Damian’s mystery gas, (hopefully someone knows what it was because I can’t seem to find information on it.) Gar and Joran go plummeting into the water while Gar flips through different forms. Afterward, Gars mind control gets juggled and he starts to wonder what has happened. After a touching story on Joran, we find out that Damian hacked Joran’s VR chip and has her mind lost in her own fantasy.
After a touching scene where Gar goes to see Joran in jail to show his affection for her hasn’t ended, We see the team finally enjoying themselves even with a destroyed T-Tower in the background. Care-free, the team only enjoys themselves for so long as the issue closes with a look at Brainiacs ships landing on earth, leading up to the events of “No Justice!”
What Just Happened?
In this finale to a Beast Boy-centric arc, we see some heart and action as the team get ready to face their biggest challenge yet. Percy has done a great job building Gar’s complex relationship with the team and how his social personality is just a front for depression due to such extreme conditions throughout his life. The relationship between Gar and Joran was an unexpected surprise after the conflict and I was really impressed to see him still interested in her as a person. This seems to be a new popular trend in comics where the Bat/Cat effect happens and the hero and villain become friends or lovers. I really like seeing this because it usually makes for more complex characters with great development.
The art was extremely well done all through this series and Scot did an awesome job with this issue. His pencils along with Faucher’s inks and Charalampidis’ colors blended really well, I highlight the Kid Flash panel as my favorite because it reminded me of 80’s, 90’s type comic art in all the right ways. Even with Brainiacs overly buff arms I still felt the intimidation looming over the team on the last page makes me super excited for what’s to come.
Rating: 9.5/10
Final Thoughts: Percy and the art team did an amazing job putting Beast Boy in the center of attention during this arc and this issue closed off the story flawlessly. Joran was introduced as a complex villain that would work perfectly as a recurring Beast Boy villain and maybe even the villain of a Beast Boy mini-series. Hopefully, we get to see Percy work with this team again after giving us some of the best times with the Teen Titans team since the beginning of the New 52!
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