Teen Titans Review: Annual #2 Part 1
Lets get this review over with, shall we?
We start this issue with Bruce catching Damian red-handed.
Damian reacts by progressively getting more angry at Bruce as he receives flashbacks of Alfred:
This is not the only time in the annual that Damian will have flashbacks about Alfred, we get more panels like this later. I’m guessing Thompson is trying to make it clear that Alfred’s death is a major influence in the decisions that Damian is currently making.
I am grateful for the crumbs of decency Thompson gave us by making these reasoning more personal then, “Batman is a failure and his actions don’t work.”
But there is a few things this fails to address by making this his reasoning:
-> This only acknowledges the reason as to why Damian started killing but fails as a explanation as to why Damian started the prison (with Emiko) and why he brainwashed criminals (with the Teen Titans).
The prison and brainwashing started before Alfred died, so it doesn’t work add more substance to those actions.
-> Knowing that this is most likely occurring months after Alfred died just doesn’t work really well even as a explanation for Damian killing. I’ve said this before with @wesavegotham , but you really can’t use something that happened months ago as a trigger for why something starts doing something.
I mean, you could say that these feelings have been brewing within Damian for months and now we are seeing his feelings erupt but there still has to be a trigger as to why Damian started going down this path seemingly out of nowhere in TT #42.
I feel conflicted about these panels. On one hand it places most of the blame on Damian for the prison (which he and Emiko both started) and the mindwashing (which all the Teen Titan’s had a hand in), but on the other hand Bruce does blame the rest of the Teen Titans for following along blindly.
But the promblem with this is that the Teen Titan’s did more then just follow along blindly, they worked alongside him:
-> Emiko worked alongside Damian locking up criminals under Mercy hall and fully believed in Damian’s reasoning even defending Damian from Wallace.
-> All the Teen Titans were apart of the brainwashing not just Damian.
-> Damian alluded that he was going to start killing in TT #42 yet they decided to fully ignore it. They ignored something that could’ve prevented Damian from killing, so at this point they are as much at fault for killing Bother Blood as Damian.
“Following alongside blindly” means that they followed behind Damian without being aware what this could lead to. But they knew what they were doing was wrong and knew what this all was leading to but ignored it.
That is why I feel very conflicted, at this point, they should’ve been blamed equally for what they did and what they let happen under their noses.
Moving on, like the previous issues Damian is galivanting around trying to persuade the Teen Titan’s to his side while insulting the actions of Bruce as a hero. It paints Damian as the aggressor in this situation while Bruce and the Teen Titans are the victims in this situation.
Damian is constantly berating them, the Teen Titans are the concerned “friends” and Bruce is the concerned “father.”
As Bruce admits he is afraid, as I predicted last review, Deathstroke showed up going after the Teen Titan’s (specifically Damian).
I am assuming Damian immediately knows it is Slade, knows he is being specifically targeted and runs away so he can face Slade by himself.
I’ve talked about Damian’s and Slade’s dynamic before here, so I’m not gonna delve too much into it but Deathstroke appeared for the purpose I thought he would:
To (try) to challenge Damian’s beliefs and to be a literal example of what he could become if he is not careful
Because clearly his purpose isn’t to kill Damian and/or the Teen Titans (because he failed terribly at that (I’ll expand on that a little later).
The fight comes to a pause when the Teen Titans intervene to threaten both Damian and Slade of taking them to jail.
But then Slade does what he does best and taunts Damian (and the Teen Titans) by smiling and teasing him:
All the Teen Titans (including Damian) charge toward him full force. Slade manages to take down and slip by most of the Teen Titans but forgets about Damian for a spilt second.
Damian charges towards Slade’s blind spot and strikes him with his own blade (Yet again, not learning that you shouldn’t carry weapons when fighting Damian since he likes to use them against the same people who wielded them specifically if your name is Slade Wilson).
As Damian is about to land a killing blow on Damian he is stopped by Emiko who uses her bow to shield herself and Slade.
Damian ends up cutting into Emiko’s bow and into her shoulder:
This takes me into something else that bothers me. Damian doesn’t even apologize to Emiko for what he did to her. He didn’t even react to it until Bruce told him to put down the blade.
Damian drops the blade and walks towards Bruce. Bruce tries to reconcile this one of his one of his Bat Dad Hugs ᵀᴹ.
Damian again gets progressively angrier after getting more flashbacks of Alfred and then punches Bruce in the face.
This again pushes the narrative of Damian as the angry aggressor with no self-control nor a ability to be conscious of how his own actions hurt other people.
I think this a good place to stop, its getting too long. I might post the rest later tonight or tomorrow.
If you haven’t already please sign and share my petition related to Damian here.
