THE NEW TEEN TITANS #21 & 22

"BEWARE THE WRATH OF... BROTHER BLOOD!" | "ASHES TO ASHES!"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Embellisher: Romeo Tanghal
Letterers: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: (issue 21) Raven and Starfire defuse a terror attack on Yankee Stadium. Meanwhile, Cyborg has made amends with Sarah Simms, but his peace is short lived as his ex-girlfriend, Marcy, calls him. She has joined a cult called the Church of Brother Blood, and is executed for attempting to escape while on the phone with Cyborg.

The Titans learn of Blood's church from Marcy's parents, and Robin, Wonder Girl, Raven, and Kid Flash go undercover to join up. But when Blood senses their presence while addressing his congregation, they are forced to fight. Blood defeats them all, but Raven's soul self escapes.

(issue 22) Blood takes Robin for interrogation and throws the remaining Titans into a dungeon. Meanwhile, raven's soul self recruits Cyborg, Changeling, and Starfire to come to the church and rescue their teammates. But Blood has called a local news station to the church for an interview, which catches the Titans' assault on camera. Robin and the others are saved, but Brother Blood is believed killed by Cyborg, in full view of the public eye.

Meanwhile, in outer space, a slave ship captained by Starfire's sister, Blackfire, heads for Earth.

My Thoughts: Wow, what a great two-parter! This has to be one of the, of not the tightest paced and most engrossing TITANS stories to date. And it's a great start to the second Omnibus, as well. After reading TALES #4, which closed out volume one, I took a couple weeks off from the Titans to focus on other things (though that obviously wasn't reflected by my posting schedule here). Picking volume two up after that brief period and launching into issue 21, I really and truly felt like I was reading the "premiere" of THE NEW TEEN TITANS' "second season".

Partly this is due to the unrelated teaser sequence starring Starfire and Raven, which just feels like one of those "let's show our heroes back in action" bits that you get when a TV show returns from its summer hiatus (though it is hinted that someone has hired the terrorists to test the Titans, this is not elaborated upon in these issues). But also it's the introduction of two major new villains in Brother Blood as the main antagonist of the piece, and Blackfire, appearing in the final scene to set up the next installment. If I didn't know any better, I could honestly imagine that this story was produced following an overlong break between issues.

Brother Blood is a particularly exciting new addition to the Titans' rogues gallery. He's got this gothic vibe to him, running a creepy church from an even creepier cathedral, complete with brainwashed zealots, sex-slaves, and sinister inquisitors under his control, but all of it is considered a legitimate religion in much of the world, and he even has a foothold in the United States.

Blood claims to be over seven hundred years old as well, though Wolfman plants immediate doubt about this, as Cyborg notes multiple times that Blood is far too afraid for his own life to be a true immortal. According to Wolfman's introduction to this Omnibus, he would not get around to revealing Blood's origin for a few more years. If that story isn't covered in any of these volumes, I may have to Google the guy to see what he's all about. He's a very compelling character.

Incidentally, in a funny little bit that's always amused me, John Byrne has told the following story several times:

"When I was designing the Master for ALPHA [FLIGHT], I could not get Brother Blood, the TEEN TITANS villain, out of my head. It seemed like every version I came up with for my guy looked like a variant on Blood. Finally I gave up and "settled" on the one you saw, which was the furthest I could get from the Pérez character.

"Years later, I saw George at a con, and mentioned this. He laughed. Bother Blood, he told me, was his attempt to design a 'Byrne costume'. So no wonder it stuck in my brain!!"

That never ceases to elicit a smile from me, because from the moment he steps into a panel in this story, Blood looks -- and, I would even argue acts, in terms of body language -- exactly like a Byrne character!

But back to the story at hand -- besides Blood and the emergence of Blackfire here, we also get reference to Zandia, the nation of criminals introduced in past issues, which is apparently secretly controlled by Blood. Last we saw the Brotherhood of Evil, they had interest in ruling that island nation. It will be interesting to see if this brings them into conflict with the country's most prominent citizen.

Thirty-plus years ago, these may simply have been the two latest issues of THE NEW TEEN TITANS. But now, in 2015, they work as a new beginning, a "season premiere" showing promise for a very exciting batch of stories. I know the second Omnibus ends with the famous "Judas Contract" storyline (one of the few NEW TITANS stories I've read), and it begins with this delightfully dark and moody two-parter. If the issues in between are half as good as those bookends, this should be a great run.