Teen Titans #29: Raging Teenage Hormones, Homicidal Lunatics, and Other Such Marvelous Delights

Writer Adam Glass continues to prove, month in and month out, why he’s the best Titans author since Geoff Johns’ heyday: he gets that more than any other superhero team, the Titans are all about the interpersonal relationships. Forget the X-Men, the Titans are where the real soap opera’s at!

But despite the soapiness of this issue’s major plot points, Glass’s Teen Titans continues to ring true because these kids’ problems are so easy to identify with. Even matron figure Red Arrow has a great moment where she takes her mask off this issue, openly admitting that all of her problems stem from her mother (the assassin Shado).

And yet, Glass never forgets that while these subplots are critical hooks for building reader investment in the characters themselves, he has to move the overarching plot forward too, but this is where this issue stumbles just a bit. You almost wouldn’t know this is part of a crossover with Christopher Priest’s top-tier Deathstroke because the issue is so invested in the many subplots that have been slowly building for the last few months. For a regular Teen Titans reader it may feel pretty natural, but for someone foreign to the book coming in cold, it may feel like too much of a detour.

And what about Deathstroke? Slade Wilson isn’t in much of this issue, but his shadow looms over everything. He’s in both Robin and Red Arrow’s heads, and they’re the supposed leaders of this ragtag group. By the end of the issue, the reader is left with the unsettling feeling that Deathstroke must be behind what’s gone on. It couldn’t just be that Robin finally got too cocky for his own good… right?