THE NEW TEEN TITANS (VOLUME 2) #3, #4, & #5

"SOULS AS WHITE AS HEAVEN...AS BLACK AS HELL!"
"TORMENT!" | "THE TERROR OF TRIGON!"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Co-Artist: Romeo Tanghal
Letterers: Bob Lappan (#3), Todd Klein (#4), John Costanza (#5)
Colorist: Adrienne Roy

The Plot: (issue 3) The Titans and Arella return from Azarath to Earth, to find Manhattan being remade in Trigon's image. Raven confronts the group and sends them separately into struggles against their own dark sides and their deepest fears. One by one, the Titans are overcome or give in to their anger.

(issue 4) One at a time, the Titans kill their dark sides, thus losing their souls to Trigon. But when Raven summons them back to Earth to serve her father, Lilith reveals that the Titans actually serve her. She then sets them against Raven, and the dark Titans kill their former teammate. Then, their task complete, the Titans return to normal just as Trigon appears to avenge his daughter.

(issue 5) The Titans assault Trigon but are easily defeated. Then, as Trigon prepares to destroy Earth and return to his dimension, Lilith reveals to Arella that she has been possessed by Azar, Raven's mentor, this entire time. Azar directs the Titans to attack Trigon again, while she and Arella restore Raven's body to life. Raven acts as a conduit for all the deceased souls of Azarath, which unite to destroy Trigon once and for all.

With Trigon's death, Raven's soul moves on to another plane and the world is restord to normal -- with the exception of Titans' Tower, which was destroyed by Trigon during his fight with the Titans.

My Thoughts: It occurs to me that over the course of these reviews, I've compared the Wolfman/Pérez TEEN TITANS to both a novel and a TV series. I suppose both ideas are apt in their own ways. If we look at this long run of issues as a finite novel, then it's fitting that it concludes the same way it began -- with the Titans going up against Trigon. It works as a way to bookend the story by bringing everything full circle.

In TV show terms, you might look at this as the big movie that closes out the series. And, before I go any further with this analogy, I should really give some credit to mortsleaM, who comments sometimes over at Gentlemen of Leisure (and who has dropped a line here at least once, as I recall). He has frequently compared Chris Claremont's X-MEN run to a long-running TV series, and is probably, though I didn't realize it at the time, the source of my conceptualizing these TITANS stories in the same way.

In any case, this story arc feels much more like a movie than anything before, owing mainly to the fact that there are no real sub-plots to speak of running throughout it. Wally's diminishing speed is mentioned, of course, as are a few other plot points from the past, but with one single exception in the first issue (a two-page check-in with planet Tamaran), there are no "Meanwhiles" or "Elsewheres" setting up future developments. The arc is entirely self-contained, which really adds to the illusion that it's a feature film version of the TITANS "TV show". It does feel perhaps a bit "decompressed" as a result, but when that's the exception rather than the norm, I can live with it.

I assume the creative team knew that Pérez was on his way out as of this arc, because all the stops are pulled out to make this the most epic storyline in TITANS history. Certainly "The Judas Contract" was a big deal, and the original Trigon story and the Citadel arc circa issue 25 both involved "big-screen" action -- but they all pale in comparison with Trigon's invasion of Earth and the Titans' duels with their dark sides, culminating in what appears to be a pretty definitive death for Trigon and the noble demise of Raven, as well. I know both would return in subsequent years, but looking at this run as I am, as a sort of finite "novel", this feels about as epic and definitive as you can get, with Raven fulfilling the destiny she set herself on back in issue 1 when she formed the Titans.

Pérez's artwork remains strong as ever, though sadly he's no longer inking himself. Romeo Tangal is, as always, an excellent match for Pérez, but after the series' first two issues, nothing can look quite as good as Pérez on Pérez. Nonetheless the artistic experimentation continues, as the Titans' dark sides are drawn entirely in gray tone and the battles within their souls are presented with full-bleed red backgrounds behind the panels. Then, when the real-world Titans are possessed by their dark selves in the real world, they're presented as red-on-black color holds, which looks really cool. It's exciting to see Pérez (and Roy) engaging in the sort of experimentation that the higher quality format allows, rather than playing it safe and drawing everything the same as he would have in a normal comic.

Oh, and get this -- apparently Marvel and DC both decided that the Statue of Liberty was undergoing repairs in 1984, as Pérez draws the same gigantic scaffolding around the thing here that featured in several Marvel comics of the same era. Must be one of those little in-jokes between creators you see from time to time. From what I gather, this fictional concept was so influential that the City of New York actually went ahead with the repairs in real life after seeing them depicted in all these comics.

I guess, in the end, it comes as no surprise that Wolfman and Pérez have churned out another epic fully deserving of the name. At this point, these guys can do no wrong.