Zombie-Hawk and Zombie-Dove in Teen Titans #31

January 26th, 2006

Filed under: Comics

cover, Teen Titans #31Zombies are great, particularly when the zombies in question are wearing costumes (and it would be even better if these zombies were wearing pirate or ninja costumes). Here a few random thoughts that struck me as I was reading Teen Titans #31:

  • Dove sure has buffed up since dying. What’s he doing, lifting weights in the afterlife?
  • Don died as Dove during Crisis on Infinite Earths, but Hank died as Extant when Atom Smasher manipulated the timeline in an early issue of JSA. Shouldn’t Zombie-Hank be in his Extant costume?
  • Does Tula’s one-hour out of water limitation still apply to Zombie-Tula?
  • Other than Hawk and Tula, you’d be hard pressed to find a weaker group of Zombie Titans to sic on the current Titans. This is the epitome of Dave’s Riddler Factor, where a lame villain somehow manage to pose a threat to a hero that should by all rights totally outclass them. In order of power, I’d rank them as follows:
    1. Hawk
    2. Tula
    3. Dove
    4. 3-way tie for lameness between Kole, Lillith, and Danny Chase. (Lillith may pose a threat when alive, but not as a brain-eating zombie. Kole and Danny were never a threat, even when alive.)
  • The last half of the comic is clearly Todd Nauck’s work, yet he isn’t credited on the cover (though he is on the splash page).
  • Missing dead Titans include Terra, Jericho, Golden Eagle, Gnarrk and everyone who died last week in IC #4.
    (Spoiler: Risk, Panth, Wildebeast, Bushido, and Red Star).

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18 Responses to “ Zombie-Hawk and Zombie-Dove in Teen Titans #31 ”

  1. Dorian
    January 26th, 2006 at 11:37 pm

    Golden Eagle isn’t dead. He was running around in Hawkman recently, and when we last saw him he was locked into a Thanagarian ship with a pre-programmed course for Thannagar.

    Terra isn’t dead either. She was actually in the most recent issue of Identity Crisis (which sort of answers the question of whether or not that Terra is the real Terra, I guess).

    Is Gnarrk dead? Or did he simply cease to have ever existed after the Crisis on Infinite Earths?

  2. TayJK
    January 26th, 2006 at 11:41 pm

    Personally, the Riddler Factor is negated by the fact they are zombies. While their specialty powers are not probably rammed up (except maybe strength), their ability to take damage is reduced. Plus the fact that three of the most experienced Titans aren’t fighting the zombier (Cyborg with Donna in Outer Space, Beast Boy and Raven in the underworld), and one of the heavy hitters has benched himself (Superboy staying in Smallville).

    IIRC, only Speedy, Robin, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl are there. Two regular humans, one speeder, and a good heavy hitter. Not the best group to fight zombies without shotguns or chainsaws.

    Also, Infinite Crisis #4 came out a few weeks later, so they weren’t dead yet.

  3. TayJK
    January 26th, 2006 at 11:43 pm

    I think Terra is a clone from the early 90s, around the time of Zero Hour. Plus, in one of the last issues of Identity Crisis, we see Geo-Force visiting Terra’s grave.

  4. Nala
    January 27th, 2006 at 7:19 am

    It has been established, though not blatantly and without fanfare, that the current Terra does appear to be the same one as the original that supposedly died in 80s. (They even followed this idea in the final episode of the animated series to some degree.)

    Gnarrk did exist briefly but was retconned heavily and only appeared New Titans #56 I think.

  5. Scott
    January 27th, 2006 at 8:09 am
    Official Comment

    Dorian,

    I had forgotten (or more likely blocked out) how that Hawkman storyline ended. Since I also have blocked out the Thanagar/Rann mini-series, is there still a Thanagar for the ship to arrive at? (Personally, I preferred Golden Eagle dead; he was the worst Titan ever. I think Danny Chase could have given him a run for his money.)

    I think TayJK is right: I’m pretty certain that the Terra in Identity Crisis was the one from Team Titans, not the one from the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans who was Geoforce’s sister. (I think Mirage from Team Titans is also in the same battle scene).

    Nala is right about post-Crisis Gnarrk, he appeard in a single “flashback” retcon issue (Teen Titans #56) when a frozen caveman with a strange crystal embeded in his chest is found in an archaelogical dig. The crystal allows him to communicate with Lilith and they fall in love, never mind that she’s Dove’s girlfriend. Of course, Gnarrk ends up getting shot, falling in a coma, and dying…so that’s that. (I covered it in a little more detail in this post about post-Crisis continuity changes and Hawk and Dove).

  6. Jonathan
    January 27th, 2006 at 9:36 am

    Wait, Red Star died?

    I have to get my issue to double-check, but I was hoping he just got freeze-breathed.

    And, since he’s got flame-powers, it would just be until he could thaw himself out.

    Dang, I liked him. Pantha, Wildebeest, Bushido, Risk’s arm…these I care less about.

  7. Steven
    January 27th, 2006 at 1:10 pm

    Jonathan,

    DC, at least, seems to think Red Star is alive as well, since he’s not on their dead Titans list. Risk, too, seems to have survived dismembership, which means it’s only a matter of time before we see him with a new cyborg arm or hook hand. Or he could just rock it super strong but one handed, which means he could lift a car but couldn’t, you know, clap

  8. Jonathan
    January 27th, 2006 at 1:13 pm

    That would be awesome if they just let Risk run around one-armed.
    He could get all kung-fu zen and scream “I AM THE SOUND OF ONE HAND PUNCHING” when he entered battle.

    He should fight a series of enemies who require two hands, like Jar-Man and the Human Standard Transmission.

  9. Scott
    January 27th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
    Official Comment

    I want to see Risk being introduced to Aquaman, and they can’t figure out how to shake hands.

  10. Nala
    January 27th, 2006 at 1:52 pm

    I think it is funny that I’ve thought about Risk, and more stupidly his arm, more in reading this post and comments than I ever did when he was actually appearing in a montly book.

  11. Jeff R.
    January 27th, 2006 at 4:08 pm

    I’m fairly sure that Jericho is supposed to be ‘alive’, sort of. No body, but his travelling consciousness is locked away in some body kept in a suspended animation tube of some sort. Or that’s the impression that I got from the rather horrid Secret Files from last year.

    Danny and Kole both had powers that could probably be a threat if they were evil and written well.

  12. Zach
    January 28th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

    In one of the Teen Titans secret files a few years ago (after the Planet DC Annuals, but before the most recent relaunch of Titans and the Outsiders) they established that the Terra from Team Titans and IC#4 is the same Terra who betrayed the Titans. Her grave was empty and she was confirmed as the same one.

    Jericho is alive. He showed up in both of the first two collected editions of the Johns Titans. In “A Kid’s Game” he had possessed Deathstroke at the time of his death and eventually regained enough strength to take him over and use him to convince the Titans that “kids shouldn’t wear costumes” (he was at least a little insane.) In the end he was absorbed into Raven. Then in the “Family Lost” TPB Brother Blood had Raven absorb the Titans into her cloak where they had to fight Jericho again. This ended when he tried to enter Cyborg and Cyborg closed his human eye, using his robotic eye to convert him into a data file on a disk in Titans Tower until they can find a way to help him, or whatever it is they plan to do with him.

    An interesting note is that this “human eye” nonsense seems to contradict the status quo set in Johns’ own OWAW Flash tie in, in that Cyborg is still the same mix of human and robot that he was when in the gold form, just stuck in his old shape.

  13. David Oakes
    January 28th, 2006 at 5:57 pm

    And, IIRC, contradicts a Wolfman plot, where Cyborg is able to keep from being possessed by Jericho at all by closing his human eye.

    (Ob FanBoy Fix: Correcting two continuity gaps with one plot stone, Cyborg is still the mix of human and robot, which means that Jericho can enter, but would be translated into data regardless. Cyborg’s “human eye/cyborg eye” trick is merely part of the same psychosomatic crutch that keeps him in his “old school” form rather than being able to access all of his gold T1000 abilities. And how low have I sunk that I am filling in continuity for Johns?)

  14. Chris Arndt
    January 31st, 2006 at 1:06 pm

    First of all, Aquagirl seems rather finely formed for a corpse.

    Second, Extant had the body of Waverider thus as a dead person he would be dispersed, so if he were to appear as a corpse it would be as Hawk… because Monarch armor is expensive and hard to get… it’s Hawk costume or naked.

    Third, I thought Kole had these solid-crystal-Green-Lantern-type powers. I wouldn’t fight that.

    Fourth, Terra ain’t dead; she was resurrected and her personality was replaced. If we were reading (and I wasn’t, I used that titanstower fansite) her grave was revealed to be empty.

    Fifth, who the heck is Risk?

    Sixth, there’s comments here on Captain Carrot and other crazy shite.

    Seventh, David Oakes has risen in fanboy stature to those who would get no-prizes from Marvel. Someone who likes his comics enough to patch continuity holes in his head. If there weren’t people like David Oakes then no one would like Crisis; Crisis has plot holes galore…

  15. Steven
    February 1st, 2006 at 9:55 am

    Risk is from Dan Jurgens generally disliked (but I personally enjoyed) run on Teen Titans. Basically, he was given the title but told not to use anyone who you would think would actually be a titan (sort of the opposite of Young Justice). So he created four new characters, which ranged from the interesting Argent (spoiled girl with silver Green Lantern powers and a shadey father) to the utterly generic Risk, who had Johnny Storm’s personality and the Thing’s powers, minus the Thing’s good looks. Yeah, I didn’t like Risk.

    It was also my only exposure to Jean Loring pre-ID crisis, where she was presented a compentant, self-assured lawyer totally over her former marriage to Ray Palmer, while Ray wasn’t quite over her. Which is one reason why I thought that making the Atom the killer made SO much more sense than Jean.

  16. Chris Arndt
    February 1st, 2006 at 4:33 pm

    Totally over?…. one hopes. Their marriage ended because she cheated on him.

    Then she divorced him.

    As for self-assured… one hopes as well. She refused to even be engaged to Ray Palmer until she felt that she was good enough in her professional role.

    I hate her.

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