Do not trust.
We look into two hidden chapters from the Injustice-verse
and with a huge disparity in quality, sadly.
Both these story serve as universe building rather than
adding any crucial details that would serve the main plotline.
Even then when it’s enjoyable to see more mystical
characters and items, the second story is opposite in all respects – throwing
continuity and logic out of the window in favor of cheap thrills and moments.
SPOILERS FOLLOW………….
First off, we see Bruce taking Rose/Dr Occult (two mystics joined in one body) into his team
and tasking them with keeping Raven and an injured Wonder Woman out of the
game.
Then, we’re taken on a whirlwind tour of the magical world,
as Dr Occult/Rose exchange mystical items till they get what they need to take
down their targets. John Constantine, unknown to them, decides to take an
interest in their actions and follows them.
Dr Occult attempts to attack Raven in her sanctum, but is
killed by her – leaving Rose with a few hours before she also dies due to her
connection with the late Dr Occult.
John Constantine though is the wildcard and using Raven’s
own energy which got stored in the mystical item Dr Occult attacked her with –
manages to knock out Raven.
A dying Rose is persuaded by Constantine to finish the task and go to Themyscira
to take out Wonder Woman, while he finishes taking care of Raven. Aside from
Wonder Woman attacking her, Rose manages to complete her task and plunges Diana
into a mystical deep sleep (as seen in Injustice Year Three).
Attempting to go back to Raven’s Sanctum, she instead finds
herself on an island in the middle of nowhere. Spending her last energy telling
Batman that the job is done, she dies before she can warn him about Constantine
– who actually transported her there.
Taking the ‘mystical corresponder’ with him, Constantine
mentions that he hopes Batman wins but that he can’t get involved – as he’s now
a family man. To add insult to injury, he loots Rose's mystical items in the hope that it will keep him and his family hidden. Didn't work out too well, did it John?
In the second story, we go back to before Injustice started
as the Titans gather in Metropolis to eat, but Bart Allen aka Kid Flash and
Garfield Logan aka Beast Boy are killed in the ensuring explosion.
Learning that Superman killed the Joker, Connor Kent
confronts him and finds him too far gone.
Teaming up with the Titans, he attempts to send Clark to the Phantom Zone but is fatally injured and is
used as a bargaining chip to keep the Titans out of the ensuring conflict – by
trapping them in the Phantom Zone.
There are several things wrong with the second story. We’re
given something we don’t need and instead of answers, we are left with more and
more questions.
Who is Connor Kent in this reality, if Lex is best friends with
Superman (in the main reality, Lex crafted Connor as a hybrid of Superman's and his DNA to replace the Man of Steel)?
Why has Bruce never mentioned Tim Drake’s disappearance in the main
series, alongwith the rest of the Titans (especially since Nightwing was close to
Starfire like in the main reality). Does no one care about the Titans?
And Clark’s actions border
on psychopathic long before Tom Taylor made him as such. That fact that he
would go to such lengths feel abrupt and jolting – it almost feels like the
writer just had no idea where to take these characters.
SPOILERS END………………..
While the first story by Ray Fawkes contributes to universe
building and also serves as a reminder of a particular character’s role in Year
Three, the second by Brian Buccellato is unnecessary and actually contributes
to a convoluted story that brings up more questions than it gives answers.
The artwork is spectacular by Xermanico and Sergio Davila,
but I wish the stories had been as good.
So, I give it 6.0 out of 10.
+Some good universe building in the first story
+Great visuals
-Serves as filler
-The second story convolutes the universe instead of
improving it
-A particular out-of-character moment is very haphazard
It's actually Starfire, not Star Sapphire, that you're talking about. But other than that, yeah, I totally agree with you about the second story. And it makes even less sense if you've really been paying attention to the continuity of the game and the comic series as established by Tom Taylor. For instance, in the game, Cyborg said that most of the Titans died in the Metropolis incident. How could he be saying that if it was only Beast Boy and Kid Flash who died in Metropolis and he knows it? Also, if Superboy has any Kryptonian DNA, as this issue implies, then Superman grieving over the lost opportunity to meet another Kryptonian, or at least someone as strong and invulnerable as himself, with his unborn child's death, as seen in Chapter 11 of Year One and Chapter 14 of Year Three, doesn't make sense if he's known about Superboy's existence before the Metropolis incident. It's almost enough to make me want to throw this story into the discontinuity bin.
ReplyDeleteCorrected. Though this brings me to one of my concerns of the series - Carol Ferris has been severely marginalized in this series, playing the damsel in distress for Hal's character development. I wish we got more from the other Spectrum Corps.
DeleteBrian totally muddled up things instead of what was his original focus - showing the Titans place in this universe. I would have gone with Starfire as a Superman loyalist alongside Raven and Cyborg after Jericho, Beast Boy, Bart Allen, Aqualad and Tim Drake are killed in the Metropolis incident.
Rose Wilson leading the rebel Titans (including Wonder Girl, Roy Harper and Wally West) will get decimated by Raven and co, especially Rose who gets tortured by Raven (leading to Deathstroke's revenge issues in the game) through with some fatalities on Superman's side as well - including Starfire.
This short and mediocre story really insulted the Titans, I feel. They deserved a much larger focus.
I agree with you about this story, but I don't know about your "Civil War" solution. I'm not so sure that it would have made Cyborg's "most of the Titans died in Metropolis" comment make much more sense and I don't know if it would have made sense that these rebel Titans weren't with the Insurgency. And as for Raven torturing Rose, the reason why Deathstroke joined the Insurgency in the game was because the Regime made it personal for him when Raven and Cyborg tortured him, so I don't think that it would make much sense if Deathstroke had declined to join the Insurgency up until that point when he had personal beef with the Regime from much earlier.
DeleteWhat I would have done was make it so that most of the Titans are in Metropolis and while some of those Titans (including Donna Troy, Jericho, and Tempest (Garth)) do die, some other Titans (preferably Red Robin (Tim Drake), Wonder Girl, Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm), Beast Boy, Wally West, Miss Martian, and Artemis) manage to survive somehow, but the Justice League thinks that they're all dead, with only Batman knowing that those surviving Titans are alive. And then Batman orders Red Robin to have the surviving Titans remain officially dead after Superman kills the Joker and they go into hiding and start operating covertly. And over the years, they find themselves at war with many of the super-villains that their mentors are neglecting, with their civil war and all, and they start recruiting new Titans, starting with Superboy, who is created soon after the Metropolis incident by Cadmus (having nothing to do with Lex Luthor) from the DNA of Superman and Lois's dead unborn child and is discovered, rescued and recruited by the Titans when he is a few months old.
Either way, I agree that this story would have been a lot better and made much more sense continuity-wise if it was done much differently and I hope that, at the very least, nothing from this story is touched upon in later issues or else I feel that it would mess up much of the logic of the rest of the continuity.