Broken Frontier

The latest incarnation of the Teen Titans reaches its anniversary fiftieth issue as a host of Titan creators, past and present, join in the celebrations.

The team holds a memorial service for fallen comrade Bart Allen and share their memories of the departed Flash in a series of flashbacks to his time as Impulse and Kid Flash. Elsewhere, members of the Justice League are being attacked by a menace that may have ties to the Titans’ past and future. All this and a recap of events in last week’s Blue Beetle….

Teen Titans #50 pulls out all the stops in order provide a landmark issue with something for fans of all versions of the team. The framing sequence allows a number of writers and artists the opportunity to revisit not only classic eras in Titans history but also characters from the pages of Young Justice, a team book that played a huge part in shaping many of the major players in the past fifty issues of this title.

Perhaps the most anticipated return to these pages is the team of Marv Wolfman and George Perez, who give us a short tale from the days of their New Teen Titans run. Focusing on Wally West’s relationship with Barry Allen it’s a poignant, if slight, tale that neatly serves to counterpoint Bart’s respect for Wally with Wally’s idolization of his mentor.

What this issue does underline is what a unique and much-missed contribution Bart made to the DCU as Impulse, and how much of an error of judgment his rapid mental aging and new personality these last few years may have been. With so much casual death at DC these days it’s become increasingly difficult to avoid becoming desensitized to it, but the various writers do a pretty good job at reminding us of just why we should be so affected by Bart’s passing.

On a less positive note the small army of creators involved makes this a very disjointed read. This isn’t helped by a somewhat needless seven pages recapping the salient points of last week’s Titans guest appearance in Blue Beetle #18. The flow of this issue was choppy enough without being broken further in this way. Watch out for the cliffhanger ending though, which I’m sure will play into the bigger picture of events elsewhere in the DC line in the months to come.

It may feel a little stilted in places but there’s plenty on offer here for the nostalgist wanting a trip down memory lane, or for Impulse fans who want to say one final farewell to a character that, in all honesty, essentially vanished from the DC Universe the moment he became Kid Flash. Long-term Titans fans will find all the excuse they need to pick this up in the form of the four pages of sumptuous George Perez art!