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Saturday, May 29, 2010

DCU Continuity for Terra: Part 2.2 - The Elemental: Terra in the 1990s

Dick Grayson remembers parallel karmic figures, Tara Markov and Joseph Wilson. NT #113 (Aug. 1994)

1990s Continuity continued

Titans Hunt Aftermath. Karma Karma Karma.
In the Titans Hunt aftermath, Tara Markov I and Joseph Wilson are confirmed as karmically-related characters – for Deathstroke, Dick, Gar and Raven. The post-Titans Hunt arcs repeat the theme that Joe’s death is Deathstroke’s payback for what happened to Tara. The fallout from the Judas Contract and Titans Hunt tie Tara Markov I and Joseph Wilson to Deathstroke’s relationship with Dick and Gar. Raven quickly becomes part of that chessboard of characters as well.

Deathstroke has several team-ups with the Titans. Having lost both sons, Deathstroke targets Nightwing and Changeling for paternal attentions. Both befriend him and because of this, their capabilities as future Titans leaders are strangely undermined, as are their future love lives. Both male Titans repeat Tara Markov’s experience of having Deathstroke as mentor. The Pater familias attitude that Deathstroke takes toward the Titans, but especially with Dick and Gar, rapidly brings him into conflict with Bruce Wayne and Steve Dayton.

Just as Slade gets a grip on that, Terra 2 appears, like the proverbial ghost at Deathstroke’s feast. Continuing the inverted arcs and characterizations from 80s’ stories, Tara and Gar switch roles for Slade’s unwholesome paternal attentions.  Gar is initially friendly with Slade and hostile to Tara under Slade’s influence.  Initially, Slade helps the New Titans fight the Team Titans, until the two teams quickly put aside their differences. The moment they do, he immediately collapses – the facts that they overcome internal strife and accept Terra 2 are symbolic defeats for him. The Titans cooperate to deal with Donna’s meltdown and Lord Chaos, her son from another timeline.

As Gar grows closer to Tara, he distances himself from Slade. When the two Titans teams fight as one, Deathstroke seems to die. He later revives and reappears with the Titans in the Crimelord arc. That story involves Steve Dayton’s vengeance against Deathstroke for the events of the Judas Contract (so, more karmic retribution); and for Slade’s father-figure role-playing with Gar. Dayton goes insane and becomes sidetracked in plans for world domination. He turns into an evil double of himself, just like all the other good characters from the 1980s NTT run. Deathstroke’s odd anti-heroism is thereby briefly reinforced.

Filicide. Deathstroke #5 (Dec. 1991)

Titans Hunt Aftermath.
-Deathstroke The Terminator #5 (December 1991): “Revelations and Revolutions”
The CIA brings Wintergreen, injured in Qurac, to Germany, to the same hospital where Adeline is recuperating. Slade disguises himself as a doctor and infiltrates the hospital, despite the fact that the halls are full of agents lying in wait for him. He confronts Adeline in her room and attempts to tell her about killing Joseph. She faces him with a gun, saying she already knows about Joe’s death and tells him she never wants to see him again, or she’ll kill him. Her resolve shakes Slade up; he wishes she understood that he had no choice. He sneaks to Wintergreen’s room and comes to terms with the fact that he’s killed his own son. He confides to his unconscious mentor that he’s going to change – no more dependents – he’s going to live his life alone. That way, no one will suffer through association with him.

Filicide. Deathstroke #5 (Dec. 1991)

-Deathstroke The Terminator #7 (February 1992): “City of Assassins: Part 2. The Rival”
-Deathstroke The Terminator #8 (March 1992): “City of Assassins: Part 3. Allies”
-Deathstroke The Terminator #9 (April 1992): “City of Assassins: Part 3. The Resurrection”
A four-part storyline sees Deathstroke sucked into Gotham’s underworld as he tries to find a corrupt cop out to kill a mob informer. In this arc, he crosses paths with Batman and a theme begins where Deathstroke undermines and supplants Dick’s and Gar’s father figures.

Issue #7: Dick vouches for Deathstroke, and as a result, Batman tries to help Slade. Batman can’t understand why Dick has said that Deathstroke is trustworthy and repeatedly says so.

Bruce asks Dick about Deathstroke, who has just popped up in Gotham. Deathstroke #7 (Feb. 1992)

The ‘fatherhood’ theme is reinforced by the fact that Dick is living with the other Titans at Gar’s father’s estate. Slade rebuffs Batman’s help and the two engage in a vicious fight across Gotham while Deathstroke tries to complete a contract; Deathstroke wins the fight.

Bruce asks Dick about Deathstroke, who has just popped up in Gotham. Deathstroke #7 (Feb. 1992)

Bruce and Deathstroke fight while discussing Dick. Deathstroke #7 (Feb. 1992)

Issue #8: Slade crashes Bruce Wayne’s New Year’s Eve party at Wayne Manor, wearing one of Bruce’s tuxes that he’s stolen from a closet upstairs. They have a little fatherly chat about Dick, with Bruce getting more and more pissed off and uncomfortable.

Slade offers Bruce his opinion on Dick, while wearing Bruce's tuxedo.  "Trust me." Deathstroke #8 (Mar. 1992)

Slade hunts down the mobsters who are after the informant. Slade changes places with the mob informant and the assassins hired to kill the informant inject him with a powerful truth serum. Issue #9: The issue opens as Slade is losing it because of the drug injected in his system. He’s hallucinating about Joseph in a Wildebeest costume. Batman captures the mobsters and rescues Slade. On the way to the hospital, Batman takes a blood sample from the unconscious Deathstroke and files the info for future reference – he discovers that Slade’s blood has “a molecular combination the computer’s never seen before.”

Bruce: "Get that man out of my city." Deathstroke #9 (Apr. 1992)

He calls Wintergreen to come get Slade, meets him as Bruce Wayne and tells him to get Slade out of his city. Wintergreen gives Slade his costume and Slade, who now teams up with Vigilante, trails the assassins and dirty cop who were after the mob informant. Batman follows them. In the middle of the fight that follows, Slade collapses. The Vigilante escapes with him; Batman greets Gordon’s men as they arrive on the scene.

Changeling discovers Salvagion Stockyard. NT Annual #8 (1992)

Titans Hunt Aftermath. Eclipso crossover.
The Deathstroke and New Titans annuals in the Eclipso crossover tell one story and overlap. Note: events are shown out of order and not sequentially.

Changeling informs Nightwing about Salvagion Stockyard. NT Annual #8 (1992)

-Deathstroke, the Terminator Annual #1 (1992): “A Thousand Points of Night”
The annual opens as the villain, Eclipso, an evil, vampire-like figure representing divine retribution (Eclipso is the incarnation of the Wrath of God and the Angel of Vengeance. Eclipso’s conflict with Slade sees the murderous anti-hero dealing with his guilt in Joe’s death, and through that, his guilt related to Tara.) takes over Pat Trayce, the new Vigilante.

Parallel scenes: Vigilante taunts Slade, echoing Tara's words to Gar. Slade sees parallels with Joseph having been controlled. But Vigilante's words draw an obvious parallel with Tara having been controlled. Deathstroke Annual #1 (1992)

Vigilante is Slade’s new lover and he is becoming emotionally attached to her. Under the influence of Eclipso, Vigilante attacks Deathstroke. She repeats dialogue taken straight from Terra 1 during the Judas Contract, when Tara revealed to Garfield that she was a spy. Just as Gar insisted that Tara was being controlled, was not herself, and pleaded with her, so Deathstroke pleads with the Vigilante. These parallel scenes with the JC confirm that Slade’s past acts are haunting him here.

Parallel scenes: Vigilante taunts Slade, echoing Tara's words to Gar. Slade sees parallels with Joseph having been controlled. But Vigilante's words draw an obvious parallel with Tara having been controlled. Deathstroke Annual #1 (1992)

They may mitigate the condemnation of Terra, or at least alter the perception of Slade’s role in the JC, in the sense that this is the second time that Deathstroke is confronting characters who are doing to him exactly what Tara did to Gar. The repeated scenes confirm Deathstroke’s responsibility in Tara’s betrayal: Slade used Tara as a weapon for his paternal vengeance. Now, he’s on the receiving end.

Slade finds Salvagion as part of fulfilling a contract. Deathstroke Annual #1 (1992)

Deathstroke, on contract to find a computer component with valuable information on it, goes to the Salvagion stockyard. There, he runs across Dick, who is following Gar’s lead on the tech ring. The Titans are trying to find old, stolen components from the ruined Titans Tower with data to help Cyborg.
 
Deathstroke and Nightwing cross paths at Salvagion. Deathstroke Annual #1 (1992)

The head of Salvagion empties the contents of one sack of wreckage from the Tower at Dick’s and Deathstroke’s feet. In with Wally’s ring are pictures of Raven and Jericho, confirming the fateful connections of these characters to the disaster and karma around Deathstroke, Dick and Gar, post Judas Contract. Strangely, the head of Salvagion offers Dick nine containers of tech from the Tower, which he should accept (since that’s what he’s there for), but Nightwing says he doesn’t want to see any more. He starts weeping and is then distracted by an attack from the possessed Vigilante, who has tailed Deathstroke there.
 
Joe and Raven are karmic figures for Slade. Deathstroke Annual #1 (1992)
 
This is an early sign of Dick’s character and leadership wavering under Deathstroke’s influence. Dick teams up with Deathstroke to fight Vigilante until Eclipso is driven out of her by Salvagion’s solar-powered defences. Deathstroke, Vigilante and Nightwing team up together and the story continues in NT Annual #8.

Titans Hunt Aftermath. Eclipso crossover.
-New Titans Annual #8 (1992): "A Thousand Points of Light: Pressure!"
(Note: part of this Annual takes place before the Deathstroke Annual.) The annual opens at S.T.A.R. labs with the New Titans assembled around Vic, who is unresponsive. Gar is at the breaking point and attacks Red Star, because the Russians’ treatment of Cyborg during Titans Hunt saved Vic’s life, but left him inoperative. Gar and Leonid stop scrapping when a helicopter crashes outside. The Titans save passersby down in the streets, but the press spins the incident against them and the city sends them a cleanup bill for fifteen thousand dollars. Gar: “This group seems to be on a one-way trip to hell.” Dick asks the Titans to try to track down Vic’s father’s files, which were in the destroyed Titans Tower. Changeling has the most luck, finding the Salvagion Stockyard, a hidden, hyper-guarded city on Staten Island that trades in stolen computer hardware, bombs, weapons and other black market and illegally reclaimed high tech. He reports his findings to Nightwing, who follows up on the lead and encounters Deathstroke there. The Stockyard personnel have combed Titans Island and scavenged all the tech from the old Tower (shown in Deathstroke Annual #1). Deathstroke, the new Vigilante and Nightwing team up and are shown flying past the Statue of Liberty (recurring symbol). The Titans and Vic go missing. In a sign that Nightwing is falling under Slade’s paternal sway as much as Gar is, Dick pays Deathstroke three thousand dollars per day plus expenses (out of his own pocket!) to stay on the case with him. They go back to S.T.A.R. and discover that Dayton Aeronautics is supplying tech to S.T.A.R.

More karma, this time from Gar possessed by Eclipso. NT Annual #8 (1992)

The vampire-like Eclipso possesses all the Titans and Deathstroke. Nightwing and Vigilante escape. Continued in L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #3 (1992), summarized at Cosmic Teams’ L.E.G.I.O.N. and R.E.B.E.L.S. chronology here.

Total Chaos: Donna’s big meltdown.
-Deathstroke, the Terminator #14 (September 1992): "Child's Play"
Deathstroke is trapped in New York City. He’s been charged with treason and the police and superheroes, particularly the Titans, are searching for him from one end of NY to the other.

Dick confronts Deathstroke but shows a lot of ambivalence. Slade plays the 'tough dad.' Deathstroke #14 (Sept. 1992)

Wintergreen is helping the Titans. Gar: “I want to see him pay for murdering his own son.” Red Star angrily defends Deathstroke, saying Slade had no choice. Nightwing encounters Slade and ambivalently says he’ll take him down for Joe’s death. Terminator beats him and gets away, eventually making his way to Jericho’s grave that night. Slade: “I can feel the winds of change in the air.” The panels cut to Terra 2 admiring herself in the mirror.

More karma.  Deathstroke: "I can feel the winds of change in the air." Deathstroke #14 (Sept. 1992)

Tara has set up the Team Titans in an apartment. Mirage is planted in with the Titans, disguised as Starfire, while the real Kory is tied up in an apartment. Donna goes into labour at S.T.A.R. labs, where Redwing is imprisoned after trying to kill her. The real Kory gets free, and makes her way to Dayton’s estate, where Dayton, Dick and Gar are talking to Wintergreen about Deathstroke. Lord Chaos muses that he will have to enter his mother’s timeline.

New members join as a result of the Jericho and Troia meltdown arcs.  Pantha later is revealed to be part of the fatherhood theme, since she is a product of Gar's dad's experiments. NT #81 (Dec. 1991)

-New Titans #90 (September 1992): "Total Chaos, Part 2: That Which Lurks Within A Star!"
The Total Chaos saga continues, as Lord Chaos gets one step closer to Troia.

The arrival of doubles suggests reality is fraying: the Teamers have three NT imposters. NT #90 (Sept. 1992)

Kory complains that she was held prisoner and no one came to look for her, not realizing that Mirage has been impersonating her. Dick realizes that the Kory who was with them was an imposter. Pantha tells Kory that Dick slept with a disguised Miri, who also gave him a mullet haircut. Kory: “Dick – what’s Pantha talking about! And what happened to your hair!”

More karma: Deathstroke encounters Terra 2. NT #90 (Sept. 1992)

While the Titans argue en route to check on Donna, the Teamers attack their helicopter. Deathstroke’s first encounter with Terra 2. The two teams battle over Donna, who is in labour. Gar again states that Terra 1 and 2 are the same.

Gar: "I couldn't believe you were dead." NT #90 (Sept. 1992)

Lord Chaos interrupts and grabs Donna. Story continued from Deathstroke, the Terminator (1991) #14 and continues in Team Titans (1992) #1.

More battling between the teams over Donna. Team Titans #1 (Sept. 1992)

-Team Titans #1/2 (September 1992): "Childhood's End"
After the Teamers' origins are provided, the second story in Team Titans #1 jumps to the Team Titans’ encounter with the New Titans in 1991; the story features a fight over Donna Troy between the Team Titans, the Titans and Deathstroke in the regular present timeline. Mirage and Dick stop the fight and Mirage explains what Chaos will become. Chaos disappears with Donna.

Fatherhood theme. Team Titans #1 (Sept. 1992)

Tara and Gar switch places in their relations with Slade, except for the sex. Team Titans #1 (Sept. 1992)

Gar playing Deathstroke's dutiful surrogate son. Deathstroke #15 (Oct. 1992)

More role inversion between Tara and Gar, with Slade at the focal point. Deathstroke #15 (Oct. 1992)

-Deathstroke, the Terminator #15 (October 1992): "Escape From New York!"
At Dayton’s penthouse, Slade collapses. Dick and Gar hover over him. Gar rushes to help him into a back bedroom. Tara and Gar place Slade on a bed. Gar, suspicious of her, lashes out at her for interfering. She bursts into tears and leaves.

Gar playing Deathstroke's dutiful surrogate son. Deathstroke #15 (Oct. 1992)

Suspend your disbelief: Slade's OK with accepting Gar's apology. They hold hands. Deathstroke #15 (Oct. 1992)

With Tara running interference, the whole scene makes you wonder if she’s really Terra 1 with memory problems. She doesn’t trust Deathstroke and keeps getting in the way, hovering in and out of the room as Gar reaches out to him. Gar forgives Wilson for killing Jericho and professes friendship. He really seems to be yearning for Slade to act as his mentor. Slade accepts. At this point, Gar and Dick are fully under Slade’s paternal influence and they have traded places with the original Tara in terms of having Slade befriend and teach them. In the ultimate recasting of Slade as an anti-hero, Gar asks Slade to forgive him and the two hold hands. Tara interrupts again, ending Gar’s and Slade’s little heart-to-heart, shouting that the two Titans teams are fighting again. Slade sneaks out.

Tara pries Gar loose from his new father figure. Deathstroke #15 (Oct. 1992)

-New Titans #91 (October 1992): " Total Chaos, Part 5: Growing Pains"
Lord Chaos kidnaps Donna and Terry's newborn baby (that is, himself), demonstrating that their two timelines are in fact divergent. Lord Chaos kills Donna. Enraged, Donna resurrects herself as a 50-foot goddess, Troia, and begins hunting for Chaos and her baby. Chaos is having a pyramid HQ built on Titans Island by several teams of workers, working day and night. Future Nightwing follows the Teamers back into the past. At Dayton’s penthouse, the two Titans teams bicker, mainly over Donna and their cross-ships. Mirage sees Baby Wildebeest and announces that she and the older version of Dick discussed having children, which upsets Kory. Terra tells Changeling they should talk after their spat in Deathstroke #15; he hesitates, “Maybe.”

Gar and Tara switch romantic roles. NT #91 (Oct. 1992)

Phantasm appears before them and shoots up into space to help Donna, but fails. After disappearing from the back bedroom of Dayton’s penthouse, Slade shortly reappears on the TV news with the city councilwoman who is making the Titans’ lives hell. Tara points this out sceptically to Nightwing, who is aghast that Slade could deceive them.

Dayton's so preoccupied with the outcomes of his experiments, Pantha and Baby Wildebeest, that he doesn't notice that Deathstroke has been playing surrogate father to Gar.  Nightwing is so in awe of Slade that he can't believe that Deathstroke is not to be trusted. Tara can believe it. NT #91 (Oct. 1992)

Tara’s expression implies Deathstroke’s physical collapse (which prompted Gar to open up to him) was not real. The two teams begin scrapping over Donna and Chaos. Baby Wildebeest grows into his giant size and attacks Terra. Terra 2 has limits to her powers – she can’t overexert herself without passing out. She later becomes much more powerful. The fight destroys Dayton's penthouse as Killowat sets it on fire. The Teamers leave and Miri remains with the Titans. Phantasm reappears before the Titans as Chaos makes weather across the earth turn wild. Troia manifests before the Titans. Story continued from Deathstroke, the Terminator (1991) #15 and continues in Team Titans (1992) #2.

Baby Wildebeest protects his surrogate parents. NT #91 (Oct. 1992)

-Team Titans #2 (October 1992): "From the Ashes of Defeat"
Some of Chaos’s forces are sent back in time to hunt down the Team Titans. Donna, having given birth, appears as a crazy 50-foot goddess who doesn’t know who she is and flies off screaming for her son. Mirage reveals that while disguised as Kory she and Dick slept together. Kory knows she is losing Dick. She flies off after Donna into space and falls unconscious back to earth. This contradicts later stories where she is shown being able to fly around in space. The Teamers retreat, depressed, while their leader Mirage, leaves with the Titans to be around Dick. Terra thinks of Gar. She later gets shot battling street thugs; Killowat, who often looks out for her, cauterizes the wound. Chaos builds a new pyramid HQ on Titans Island. The Teamers find the Titans back at Dayton’s mansion and decide to grab Terry Long as bait to lure Chaos to them so they can destroy him. Chaos appears looking for him as well, declaring he’s already killed Donna. Battalion’s first appearance. Story continued from New Titans #91 and continues in Deathstroke, the Terminator #16.

-Deathstroke, the Terminator #16 (November 1992): "Total Chaos, Part 7: Terminated: The Death of Slade Wilson"
The issue opens with Slade eluding the NYPD and the Councilwoman who is spearheading the press campaign against the Titans. He flies away in a helicopter, which crashes into Chaos’s pyramid on Titans Island. Chaos’s troops fight with him until Slade suffers a heart attack, and he sees Addie and his two sons in his mind’s eye as he dies. Meanwhile, Mammoth of the Fearsome Five is watching this scene unfold from a nearby sub. His presence adds another dimension to Slade’s karmic payback for involvement with Terra, since Mammoth and Terra were both experimented on by Jace. Story continued in part from Team Titans #2 and continues in part in New Titans #92.

Fraying reality with more doubles: "That's not Donna." NT #92 (Nov. 1992)

-New Titans #92 (November 1992): "Total Chaos, Part 8: My Enemy -- My Mother?!"
Donna, no longer 50-feet high, comes back from the dead to attack Chaos at Dayton’s mansion. Both Titans teams battle Lord Chaos. Kory, picking up on the doubles theme: “I don’t know what he did to her, but that’s not Donna.” Nightwing shouts at Troia to control herself. Donna, enraged, announces she is a god, flies to downtown New York and decimates a bunch of skyscrapers looking for her son. This adds to the Titans’ bad publicity. Dayton’s mansion is half trashed. The two Titans teams agree to cooperate. Donna reappears before them in her giant form. Terry and Dick plead with Troia and she takes them along to Titans Island, where Chaos has her son in his new pyramid temple HQ. Troia dumps everyone in the East River, but Aqualad saves them. Chaos brings his troops through a time portal. It becomes clearer that the Titans’ and Teamers’ timelines are divergent. Story continued from Deathstroke, the Terminator (1991) #16 and continues in Team Titans (1992) #3.

Donna goes mad after giving birth.  Her latent powers are awakened too soon and she becomes a goddess. NT #92 (Nov. 1992)

As a goddess, Donna plans to kill Lord Chaos, her son. Team Titans #3 (November 1992)

-Team Titans #3 (November 1992): "Total Chaos, Part 9: Out of Chaos!"
The Titans battle with Chaos’s forces. Battalion arrives from the future to help them. Donna and Chaos duke it out, but this has attracted the attention of the gods, and everyone is suddenly transported to New Chronus.

In New Chronus, Donna temporarily relinquishes her powers and godhood and returns to normal. Team Titans #3 (November 1992)

Tara asks where they are. Gar tries to explain it to her, but she doesn’t believe him. Donna becomes a totally unhinged goddess then at the last minute relinquishes all her powers, and destroys Lord Chaos from the Team Titans’ timeline. The only Robert Long left is her baby. Story continued from New Titans #92.

Donna returned to normal, everyone returned to Titans Island. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

-Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992): "The Titans $ell-Out $pecial" or "The Bucks Stop Here!"
Bad publicity follows the Titans everywhere. Returning from New Chronus where Donna has voluntarily given up her powers, they appear on Titans Island. The press are waiting for them; they are blamed for the destruction of the U.G. Corp. HQ (Chaos’s HQ) on the former site of Titans Tower. The city Councilwoman who has been hounding them presents Nightwing a court order preventing the Titans from using their powers anywhere near New York. Changeling finds Deathstroke’s dead body on the island and the press are all over it. Federal agents also appear on the island and take his body: “Bag him and ship him.”

Gar checks Tara's reaction while Slade's body is carted off. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

The press and police chase the Titans off their island, and a mob is waiting for them when they take the barge to the city. Dayton picks them up in his limo and takes them back to his estate. He explains how bad things have gotten and advises the Titans to leave the city for awhile and let things cool off. The Titans go to Hollywood and then Hawaii for a vacation.

Gar's photo album. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

Tunnel of Love. Gar’s caption under the photo: “Tara’s starting to look good to me.” Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

Gar's gratuitous beach photo. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

Gar comments that the Teamers aren’t half bad after all, although everyone steers clear of Dagon the vampire. Dayton introduces the team to producers who will sign the Titans up for merchandising deals and movies to pay their bills.

At Dayton's private beach. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

Dick and Gar discuss selling out with Dayton at a private beach he owns while the rest of the team lies in the sun. Dick wonders if Tom Cruise could play him in the film version of the Titans.
 
Gar and his dad discuss selling out. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

Dick: "We should have something out there besides the comic books." Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

Meeting the producer. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

When the Titans arrive at the meeting with the producer, he talks them out of doing a feature film and into doing a cartoon version of themselves.  Crossing metafictional boundaries, this is exactly what happened to DC's strategy for the team in the 2000s.  Ironically, the rationale outlined here is pretty close to the rationale followed by the 2000s' Teen Titans Cartoon, which debuted on TV just over ten years after the publication of this issue.
 
The producer: do a cartoon version of yourselves. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)


The rationale behind doing a Titans cartoon: let's de-age them. No real traumas. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

The Titans sign up to do a cartoon version of themselves, Teeny Titans. But when they see a sample, they then decide they hate it and demand that it never be aired. They leave Hollywood and the cartoon is aired anyway. The moment they sign away the rights to their images and identities, their fictional reality frays even more.  They then go to Hawaii.

The Titans signing away control of their images and identities. Titans Sell-Out Special #1 (1992)

-New Titans #93 (December 1992): "The Titans Went On Vacation and All They Got Me Was This Lousy..."
This story takes place after TITANS SELL-OUT SPECIAL #1. The Titans return from vacation in Hawaii and deal with all the mass merchandise Titans items that are for sale and the Teeny Titans cartoon that is all over the television. Garth announces that Atlantean science was unable to help Victor.  The creative team toyed with pairing Terra with Aqualad (two elementals), and some of the panel placement foreshadows this.

Mirage coming between Kory and Dick. NT #93 (Dec. 1992)

Foreshadowing: Garth appears between Tara and Gar. NT #93 (Dec. 1992)

The Titans get back to their lives; the Teamers take up residence in New Jersey at Donna’s house. The barrage of bad publicity continues. The Titans are served a court summons for destroying half of New York City. Mirage impersonates Kory in a nude centerfold spread in magazine to ruin Kory’s reputation. Phantasm, who now contains the souls of Raven’s people, crosses the dimensions to Azarath. Enter Raven’s evil version. She is waiting for him and blasts him, apparently eradicating him.

More image and money problems. NT #93 (Dec. 1992)

-Team Titans #5 (February 1993): "Heavy Metallik"
The Titans leave Terry and Donna at their farmhouse in New Jersey. Donna agrees to put the Team Titans up at her house. Terra hugs Gar and offers to join the Titans to take Donna’s place so they can always be together. Gar violently recoils, but everyone thinks this is funny. That night, Chaos’s remaining forces attack the farm and burn part of the house down.

Tara 2 visiting Tara 1's grave. Team Titans #6 (March 1993)

-Team Titans #6 (March 1993): "It Should Have Been A Wonderful Life"
Terra 2 visits Terra 1’s grave in Valhalla cemetery, although the scene is erroneously set in New York. The caretaker startles her. He says the Titans and Brion visit the grave sometimes. “They were real sad when she died.” Gar comes often, brings flowers, talks to her statue, “must have really cared for her.” Terra 2 mysteriously weeps when she hears this (if she’s a completely different girl who just met Gar, why is she crying?).

Gar and Brion visit the grave regularly. Link between Terra 1 and family. Team Titans #6 (March 1993)

He asks if Terra 2 was a relative – she’s says she’s not sure. He says family is about the people you love, not "who you're related to." This is another early reference to the now-often-repeated ‘family’ meme in the Titans titles that appears as characters contemplate Tara’s death. After she leaves, the caretaker collapses, having been possessed by Phantasm, which is emanating the souls of Azarath – a thousand empaths. Phantasm to the now absent Tara: “What may have been is not important. But do not forget what you now have.” All the other Teamers search for their families and find that the reality is different in this timeline. The Teamers realize that their family is the New Titans. Both teams spend Christmas together at Steve Dayton’s.

Gar rebuffs Tara.  Then they start surrogate parenting Baby Wildebeest, a creature connected to Dayton's experiments, Jericho's death, Slade's filicide, and Raven turning evil. NT #94 (Feb. 1993)

Death of Superman on TV. Dick is on a date with Mirage.  Kory is sulking on the couch. Tara tries to win over Gar. NT #95 (Mar. 1993)

-New Titans #94 (February 1993): "Double Jeopardy"
More reporters hound the Titans about their lawsuits and ask Kory and Dick if they are breaking up. Mirage has impersonated both of Kory and Dick in public, fuelling rumours about their relationship. Red Star and Cyborg are brought back to Russia by Red Star's father to be turned into Meta-Men. Red Star’s father, Konstantin, is revealed as a villain. Dick orders Changeling not to go to Russia, but to stay and go over the Titans’ lawsuits because of his business training as Dayton’s ward. Privately, he fears that Gar is becoming unhinged about Cyborg. In this issue, Gar starts taking unusual forms when he shapeshifts. Mirage convinces Dick to date her to protect his identity. With Joe and Donna already down, blurred identities now start to take Kory, Dick and Gar down dark paths. Tara spends a few days at Dayton’s estate and hovers around Gar, who rejects her because he thinks she’s the original girl. She tells him he shouldn’t worry, because she’s not the real girl – she’s an imposter. He still rebuffs her, but they start surrogate parenting Baby Wildebeest together. Dick and Mirage go on a date, while Starfire stays in, angry and miserable, watching the news: Superman has died.

Miri and Dick return from their date. Gar prefers blondes. NT #95 (Mar. 1993)

-New Titans #95 (March 1993): "...Into the Fire"
Nightwing deals with Kory and Mirage, while Red Star helps Cyborg in Russia. Underneath a lot of bickering, Gar and Tara 2 edge toward becoming closer. This is almost immediately derailed by The Darkening storyline. Gar spends the evening in Dayton’s mansion with Tara 2, who tries to make friends with him. He thinks Terra 1 and 2 are the same girl, despite her stating that she’s a different person. Tara: “I’m glad you’re here.” Gar rejects her, but seems to be silently mulling over what she’s saying. When Mirage returns from a date with Dick, she shifts from blonde to black hair. Gar mentions his fondness for blondes in front of Tara, “You know Mirage, I think I liked you better as a blonde.”

More rejections. More shipping hints. NT #95 (Mar. 1993)

The next morning, Gar goes jogging and Tara catches up with him. He’s very hostile, tells her to get lost – he has a girlfriend. Tara: “Yeah? Well if you like your girlfriend so much ... why haven’t you been returning her phone calls?” He doesn’t answer. Despite the Judas Contract, the strange situation, and the fact that Gar is dating Jillian, Dayton approves of Tara 2 – just as he (strangely) approved of Tara 1!


Gar and Tara play parents to Baby Wildebeest in Pantha's absence. NT #95 (Mar. 1993)

More surrogate parenting. NT #95 (Mar. 1993)

He encourages her to visit his house whenever she wants. When Tara and Gar play surrogate parents to Baby Wildebeest in this and the next issue, Dayton tells them to take BW to school together, which leads to Gar and Jillian breaking up.

Signs that Gar's reality is starting to fray - he regularly shifts into dragons. NT #94 (Feb. 1993)

More dragons, more fraying reality. NT #96 (Apr. 1993)

-New Titans #96 (April 1993): "Patriot Games"
Russian storyline with Red Star and Cyborg continues. At Dayton’s estate, Gar complains at breakfast that Tara’s still there. Dayton tells both of them to take Baby Wildebeest to a posh Long Island nursery school. Jillian meets them there – her father pulled strings to get BW admitted. Jillian asks Gar why he hasn’t answered her calls for days – is it to do with Tara? He doesn’t answer.

Parallel scenes: Baby Wildebeest used to symbolically create a family unit, with Gar and Tara at Jillian's expense. NT #96 (Apr. 1993)

Parallel scenes: Baby Wildebeest used to symbolically create a family unit, with Dick and Miri at Kory's expense. NT #91 (Oct. 1992)

Tara tells Gar to take BW inside and she’ll talk to Jillian – and he agrees. His weird passivity speaks volumes. One not-so-nice little catfight later, Tara comes out on top. There’s no break-up scene between Gar and Jillian, but her only subsequent reappearance in Titans books after this scene is a 1998 flashback to their earlier break-up prior to the founding of the NTT. Gar’s shapeshifting into unusual forms, mainly dragons, continues.

More doubles: Two cross-dressing fans dressed as Kory look on as Mirage, posing as Nightwing, attacks Dick Grayson. NT #96 (Apr. 1993)

The Darkening: Gar’s big meltdown, part 1.
-New Titans #97 (May 1993): "The Darkening, Ch. 1: An Unholy Pact"
Certain that Mento’s helmet's powers can restore Cyborg's mind, the Changeling steals the device from his father’s labs and delivers it to the Brotherhood of Evil, where Technis replicas of Monsieur Mallah and The Brain want to strike a deal. They have promised to cure Vic in exchange for access to the helmet. Gar changes his mind about the deal, but it’s already too late. Titans leadership: Roy and Dick argue about government hostility to metas.

More doubles, more parenting themes: A Technis double of Rita dominates Gar. NT #98 (June 1993)

The Darkening.
-New Titans #98 (June 1993): "The Darkening, Ch. 2: Reign of Blood"
Pantha suspects that she’s living with Dayton, the very man whose lab techs conducted the metahuman experiments that created her.

While Gar's adopted father, Dayton, begins to twist his parenting role into scientific experiments that are linked to Jericho's earlier demise, Raven's madness, Gar's fall, and the creation of Pantha and BW. NT #98 (June 1993)

Dick and Kory break up and the tabloids pursue her as she parties across New York. Dark Raven reappears and consumes one of Kory’s cast off dates. Dayton discovers that Gar broke into his labs, stole a Mento helmet, and has disappeared. Gar battles the Brotherhood of Evil and follows them onto a cargo ship on the Atlantic. Then things start to get really loopy. A being of the Technis, posing as Rita Farr (Gar's adopted mother), attacks The Changeling. Technis Rita: “Gar, please don’t leave so quickly. We haven’t had a chance to speak.” She pulverizes him: “Good night, Sweet Prince.”

More parenting gone wrong: Gar's father's invention is used by the old Doom Patrol enemies to drive Gar insane. NT #99 (July 1993)

The Darkening.
-New Titans #99 (July 1993): "The Darkening, Ch. 3: The Brotherhood"
Changeling is tortured with Mento’s helmet by the Brotherhood of Evil. An additional Technis probe at the same time allows the Brotherhood to analyze Gar’s memories, his powers, and his mental instability: “Cannot continue memory probe without harm to subject. Conclusion: deep-seated psychological hostility will be released by cerebral magnification.” Out of control, Gar begins wildly transforming into monsters. The two beings of the Technis (posing as Monsieur Mallah and Rita Farr) attack Changeling. There’s a revealing moment here about Gar’s physical resilience. It takes the Technis beings’ full power to bring him down, which has never happened before and they can’t believe he’s still alive after all that. They decide to terminate him. The Brotherhood are confused, since they don’t know these are Technis-constructs; Phobia asks Technis Rita how she could kill her own son as the creature drops him overboard. The Brotherhood realize that they’ve been duped and these entities are imposters. The Brotherhood teleport the Titans to the ship, and then escape (leaving the Titans behind) as the Technis beings blow up the ship. The Technis leave because their sole aim in this caper was getting the Mento Helmet and using it to interface with Cyborg. When Vic doesn’t show up with the other Titans to rescue Gar, the Technis disappear to look for Vic (kind of round-about way of doing things). Dick, suffering from slipping leadership, and increasingly unhinged, proposes to Kory. After this issue: Events from The Darkening story arc continue for over 2 years. Gar becomes mentally unstable and can only transform into Lovecraftian mythical creatures. He becomes progressively darker, more withdrawn and dangerous, mirroring Terra 1’s previous pathological descent. He has several sharp interactions with Terra 2, who keeps trying to help him. He also sometimes displays a bewildered vulnerability toward her.

House of Markov.
-Showcase '93 #4/3 (April 1993): "The Haunting of Castle Markov"
-Showcase '93 #5/3 (May 1993): "The Ghost in the Machine"
Issue #4: This first part of a two-part story set in Markovia introduces the readers to Dr. Jace’s replacement, Dr. Simone Kneidel. Kneidel is overseeing the removal of Jace’s equipment from her lab, which is labelled with a sign: Earth-Fusion Lab: Geo-Matrix Chamber. Brion meets Denise at Markovburg airport. On the way back to Castle Markov, they spot a fire. – Jace’s lab has been sabotaged during the removal of her machines that gave Tara and Brion their powers. Brion changes to GF, flies to the lab and rescues Kneidel. After the clean-up, Denise and Brion arrive at Castle Markov. Going down to dinner, Brion explains the history of the castle, pointing out a suit of armour his father wore at ceremonial functions. Denise asks Brion if the castle is haunted. Brion: “Only by the ghosts of Markovia’s history, Denise.” At dinner, they meet Queen Ilona, who is pregnant with Gregor’s child. Dr. Kneidel joins them. The dinner is interrupted by the suit of armour, suddently animated. Brion fights it off. The culprits are a group called the Untouchables, who want Jace’s equipment because one of their members is dying and intangible. – He has become a living ghost. They are so desperate that they afflict Brion with the same problem, to force Kneidel to fix it. Issue #5: Brion uses his gravity field to fix his intangibility. After more conflict, Kneidel and Brion help the Untouchables, who are then arrested and taken into custody for the trouble they’ve caused. Brion and Denise kiss at the end of the story.

The Team Titans can't understand how their Nightwing has arrived - he's not supposed to have time travelled.  Is this actually Dick Grayson from the present, playing games after Mirage seduced him? Team Titans #7 (April 1993)

The Darkening Night.
-Team Titans #7 (April 1993): "The Darkening Night, Part One: Heroes Aren't Born, They're Unmade!"
-Team Titans #8 (May 1993): "The Darkening Night, Part Two: Scarlet and Crystal"
-Team Titans #9 (June 1993): "The Darkening Night, Part Three: Bloodlight"
-Team Titans #10 (July 1993): "The Darkening Night, Part Four: Sometimes A Miracle Is Real!"
In the Darkening Night, future Nightwing appears, as do Kole and Dark Raven. Issue #7: Raven follows future Nightwing feeding off his lust for Mirage.  Either in Issue #7 or 8, she implants a Trigon seed in him, turning him evil. The Teamers help Terry rebuild the farmhouse. That night, the future Nightwing shows up at the farmhouse and attacks Donna, until the Teamers show up. He and Mirage embrace. The Teamers are puzzled by this, as he was supposed to stay in the future. As the Teamers’ Nightwing and Mirage passionately reunite, Donna worries that this Dick seems darker and crueller. Raven haunts the lawn outside with evil laughter. In the morning, Donna registers the Teamers in high school. Terra finds that the history of the Titans’ timeline is different and everyone laughs at her in class. She comes home in tears and Miri comforts her. Raven ambushes the Teamers’ Nightwing again after a drug bust in Philadelphia.

(Apparently future) Nightwing regains consciousness after Raven physically and psychically rapes him and plants a Trigon seed in him. Team Titans #8 (May 1993)

Issue #8: 27 hours after Raven attacked him, the future Nightwing wakes bleeding in an alley, surrounded by rats gnawing at his face, having known “pleasures and pains that would push most men to suicide.” Raven’s seduction and probable rape has driven him insane. He becomes Deathwing.

Dick Grayson's double turns evil under Raven's seduction and influence. Team Titans #8 (May 1993)

Kole appears back from the dead. She helps the police solve a serial killing case resulting from a vampire attack, starting an arc involving Dagon and a local coven of vampires. Deathwing returns after being away for days and embraces Miri while clutching a knife. Issue #9: Deathwing rapes Mirage.

Dick's double Deathwing rapes Mirage. Cover of this issue is a flashback to events in Team Titans #9. Team Titans #13 (Oct. 1993)

Issue #10: The Teamers begin looking for Deathwing. Deathwing begins amassing metahuman followers for Raven in New York City. Donna calls Kory for help dealing with Deathwing, but Dick has proposed and that’s all Kory can think about. The scene looks suspiciously like Dick’s earlier scene with Mirage – inked in blue. Of course, this arc raises questions about the relationship between Dick and his ‘dark double,’ who has been seduced by Raven and whom he later fights on his wedding day. Is the appearance of the two men as separate people an illusion caused by Raven?  Are Deathwing and Dick Grayson the same person? Kole helps the Teamers in the battle against the vampire coven who have been hounding their member Dagon. She disappears while the Teamers ask her who she is.

The 'real' Dick Grayson is having problems with leadership and is making OOC bad calls. Roy tries to help him. NT #97 (May 1993)

The Darkening: Raven’s big meltdown.
-New Titans #100 (August 1993): "The Darkening, Ch. 4: Something Old, Something New. Something Borrowed, Something... Dead"
Gar sinks to the ocean floor and Garth (who just happens to be swimming nearby?) saves his life. They return to NYC. Raven returns in crazy evil sexy Dark Phoenix mode and ruins Dick’s and Kory’s wedding, murdering the civil authority who was marrying them before the ceremony is complete. Dick battles his double, Deathwing, and wins. Dark Raven kisses Kory and implants a seed of herself inside her friend. Initially we think this is an evil Trigon seed, but in fact it’s Raven’s last remaining good fragment of herself, hidden in Kory for safe-keeping. Kory falls into a coma. Although Raven’s act here is later redemptive, she seriously damages Dick’s and Kory’s relationship, which now begins a downward spiral. She also personally commits crimes here in a way that is different from her fall during the Terror of Trigon arc at the beginning of the Titans’ Baxter series.

Dick loses leadership of the team.  Echoing the Judas Contract, he calls Roy a "traitor." NT #101 (Sept. 1993)

Dick’s big meltdown.
-New Titans #101 (September 1993): "Aftermath"
After Raven ruins Kory’s and Dick’s wedding, Roy challenges and replaces Dick as Titans leader in an ugly confrontation, which Dick loses. This is the first time in the history of the Titans teams that Dick is violently forced to step down as team leader. Roy is supported by Garth, Donna and Wally as well as Phantasm, Pantha, Baby Wildebeest and Red Star. Roy does this because of the government’s growing hostility to metagenetic humans. Roy, as a government agent, hopes to curb hostility toward the Titans by making them government agents. When challenged, Dick immediately accuses Roy of being a “traitor.”

Gar loses control of his identity and his power. NT #101 (Sept.1993)

Meanwhile, Gar is out turning into nightmarish creatures, terrifying criminals, and finds himself more and more exhilarated.

Gar's new forms. NT #101 (Sept. 1993)

Gar, seduced to the Dark Side, like Tara was. NT #101 (Sept. 1993)

-Team Titans #12 (September 1993): "The Dead Future"
Terra collapses twice after overexerting herself in the middle of a battle. Other Titans have been sent back from the future and the Teamers seek them out, although all are being hunted by Chaos’s forces. Kole continues to hover around the background of the Teamers’ lives, and helps them. But she mysteriously disappears each time they ask her who she is. She never appears before the old NTT, who would recognize her.

 More hints that something is going wrong with Gar's father. NT Annual #9 (1993)

Bloodlines crossover.
-New Titans Annual #9 (1993): "The Red Hand Blues"
Troubling plotlines around Steve Dayton continue. The Annual opens in New Orleans: Mardi Gras. Dayton has built a research centre and oil rig in the Gulf and warns the police to keep away from it. The platform blows and biohazard toxins begin leaking into the Gulf. In the bayou, a death cult is performing blood sacrifices and murdering random civilians; two aliens emerge from the bog, whom the worshippers take to be dark gods. On the Dayton research facility out in the Gulf, staff are desperately evacuating. Back on Long Island, the Titans are training in Dayton’s virtual reality room in his mansion. Roy and Dick are at each other’s throats. Dayton interrupts them with an urgent alert about Louisiana. The Titans travel there, find the research platform, seal the spill and with Garth’s help dredge the toxins from the water, turn the biohazardous poisons into a giant crystal and dispose of it.

Swamp Thing observes the Titans cleaning the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. NT Annual #9 (1993)

At the edge of the bayou, Swamp Thing watches the Titans unseen until the danger has passed. A new character, Anima, with the ability to suck the life force from people, is born among the corpses in the swamp after one of the aliens bites her. She later becomes a member of Cyborg’s short-lived team, Titans East, and is killed shortly after that.

Bloodlines crossover.
-Team Titans Annual #1 (1993): "In the Mind of Chimera"
The Teamers confront a flying monster above New York battling Dagon. Terra summons up a large amount of rock to knock it out of the sky. Her power limitations are shown: this exertion is enough to make her collapse. Other strange creatures are appearing and attacking people. The Teamers receive a message from the New Titans. The NT have confronted similar creatures and one girl, now codenamed Anima, acquired powers through these attacks. One of Redwing’s friends gains powers this way and becomes Chimera. She gains the abilities to cross dimensions and create tangible dreamworlds after telepathically probing the people around her. As these powers manifest, the Teamers are dragged into her dreamworlds until they fight their way out.

Gar sliding down the slippery slope. NT #102 (Oct. 1993)

-New Titans #102 (October 1993): "Original Sinn!"
Changeling begins to give in to his new metamorphoses and confronts one of Raven’s demons, Sinn. Terra 2 shows up at meetings at S.T.A.R. labs where Victor is being treated in hopes of seeing Changeling; but he is avoiding everyone because his powers have changed. She wonders out loud to herself why she’s so attracted to Gar (another hint (or red herring) that she is Terra 1 with memory problems – and not just a different girl).

Terra having problems with her powers. Team Titans #13 (Oct. 1993)

Terra having problems with her powers. Team Titans #13 (Oct. 1993)
 
-Team Titans #13 (October 1993): "Times are Far Between (And Few at That)"
Under Raven’s influence, Deathwing has raped Mirage. She constantly sees the rape before her eyes, throws up and sobs, broken-hearted. Donna mentions Miri’s age – she’s only 18. Terra tries to build a wall around the Long property, but her powers aren’t working right. Battalion orders the Teamers to train, even if they’re tired of fighting and conflict.

Fraying realities and identities: Terra 2 wears Terra 1's costume. Team Titans #13 (Oct. 1993)

Terra 2 wears a costume identical to Terra 1’s and is bested in training, but Battalion notes that her reaction time has improved.

Terra studying time travel, alternate realities, multiple identities, replicated universes ... Team Titans #13 (Oct. 1993)

Terra 2 stays up late trying to figure out her origins – is she really Terra 1? Mirage sleepwalks through the house and breaks Terry’s grandfather clock – a family heirloom.

Terra and Gar switching roles from the ones they played in their 80s ship. NT #103 (Nov. 1993)

-New Titans #103 (November 1993): "Interface"
Terra 2 meets Gar at S.T.A.R. labs where he is frantically worrying about Victor; she can’t understand why he is ignoring her and contemplates the fact that she is in love with him. Her (mostly) unrequited crush exactly mirrors Gar’s earlier (largely) unreturned feelings for Terra 1. Prester Jon has interfaced with Vic in an attempt to help him. It all goes horribly wrong when three Technis beings, disguised as The Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and Rita Farr invade the lab. Technis is an alien computer entity that wants Vic because of his human-machine interface. They need the Mento helmet to interface with Cyborg and by scanning Vic’s memories they learned of Gar’s connection to the helmet. They’ve plucked images from Gar’s memories to manipulate Gar into bringing them the Mento helmet (this isn’t explained very well in the book). The replica of Gar’s dead foster mother attacks.

Terra and Gar switching roles from the ones they played in their 80s ship. NT #103 (Nov. 1993)

Gar does not change shapes to help the others battle her, but pulls back into the shadows of an alcove above the lab. Terra follows, presses him to help his friends and he reveals a secret he has told no one else – that he can no longer turn into animals, only monsters. He refuses to shapeshift in front of the others because he doesn’t want them to know. He shows her his latest form, which is even more degenerate than all the previous ones. He clearly thinks Terra 1 and 2 are the same person: “Still like me Terra? Still think I’m cute when I become this? ... Leave me alone. I’ve been hurt by you before. I’ve been hurt by too many people ... and I’m not going to let anyone hurt me again.” But he’s facing the same doppelgänger problem with Rita, and it's freaking him out. He asks Technis Rita who she is: “You can’t be my mother. Why are you making yourself look like her?” Technis Rita (blasting him): “I am from your memories, Gar. The memories you can’t leave behind. The memories that are tearing you apart!” The Technis beings start arguing among themselves and the first two kidnap Vic and disappear in a flash of light. The third one thinks they should never have come to earth and follows, bringing the Titans with him. Terra 2 remains behind at S.T.A.R. labs with the other Team Titans, except for Prester Jon, who has interfaced with Vic.

How superheroines go shopping. Team Titans #14 (Nov. 1993)

How superheroines go shopping. Team Titans #14 (Nov. 1993)

-Team Titans #14 (November 1993): "When Titans Clash -- A Lot"
The Teamers go to the mall to get Terry’s parents’ grandfather clock fixed. This starts a flashback arc around a woman at the mall, Sylvie Eisenberg, a clock expert. It appears that Dayton approves of both the Teamers and Terra 2 enough to financially support them. Mirage: “I hope you guys have fun. I’m going to spend some of Steve Dayton’s credit.” The others follow her, except Battalion, who is left to take the clock in for repair. Miri advises Tara on buying more feminine clothes and being less of a tomboy. Redwing is outside, and of course encounters a bunch of geeky time-related villains about to attack Eisenberg – Chronos, Calendar Man, Time Commander. It’s Hallowe’en, so they fit into the crowds because people are wearing costumes. They attack at the clock shop, and the Teamers beat them. The villains break down when they realize they are going to have to ‘do time.’ Terra 2: “Oh, I get it now. Your real problem is, you’re obsessed with your own mortality.” She has an extended speech about time and the meaning of life.

Tara talks the villains down. "Do you think you could go back that part about finite existence?" Team Titans #14 (Nov. 1993)

-Team Titans #15 (December 1993): "The Hardest Copy or Truth and Consequences"
Eisenberg’s story continues in a flashback to the Holocaust and World War II. A network interview which seeks to smear the Teamers is overseen by a man connected to Eisenberg’s past. In the interview, Terra 2 asserts that she is sure she’s not Terra 1, but she doesn’t know who she is. She has trouble controlling her powers and doesn’t know why.

Terra doesn't know who she is. Team Titans #15 (Dec. 1993)

House of Markov: Alpha and Omega.
-Outsiders vol. 2 #1 Omega (November 1993): "Ashes and Blood"
-Outsiders vol. 2 #1 Alpha (November 1993): "Blood and Ashes"
The Outsiders, picking up from where they left off at the end of the Millennium series, regroup in a two-part first issue entitled Omega and Alpha.

The Markov royal family at the beginning of the new series. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

Omega: Ilona has given birth to Gregor’s son, also named Gregor, and heir to the throne. Some of the Outsiders attend Gregor’s Christening.

Prince Gregor, Tara's nephew, is Christened. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

The issue opens with Katana still keeping vigil over a comatose Halo, who is kept in a suspension chamber in Katana’s apartment. Katana is planning to leave for the Christening, and tells Halo about it. At Castle Markov, Looker appears in her dowdy Emily form, and talks to Brion’s gf Denise, who doesn’t recognize her at first.

Brion mentions marriage to Denise. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

Brion later walks with Denise around Castle Markov and mentions he’s thinking of marriage. After the ceremony, Brion helps Ilona to her chambers. He leaves and a vampire, Roderick, steps out from behind the curtains – he has seduced the queen.

Roderick has seduced and mesmerized Ilona. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

Ilona is planning to betray Brion and enable Roderick to take over Markovia. Alpha: At Castle Markov, an American businessman, Geoffrey Barron, arrives to sell some weapons to the royal family. As he meets Brion, who comes out to greet him, he offers Brion a gift. His bodyguard grabs it and throws it away from them – the package is a bomb, which goes off. All three have avoided an assassination attempt. Shaken, Barron goes to a formal dinner hosted by Queen Ilona and Brion. After the dinner when the two royals are alone, a wheel-chair-bound Ilona pulls rank over Brion and orders him never to contradict her in public.

Ilona lets Brion know his rank. Outsiders #1 Alpha (Nov. 1993)

Angered, Brion leaves for his summer quarters. Ilona and Roderick conspire together, revealing that they tried to assassinate Brion with the bomb earlier that day.

Ilona and Roderick conspire to kill Brion. Outsiders #1 Alpha (Nov. 1993)

Omega: Ilona calls the royal council together late at night. The councillors wish to know the reason for this irregular meeting.

Downfall of the royal council. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

While they are in the meeting, Ilona is broadcasting a televised statement that Brion has betrayed her and is an enemy of the state.

Downfall of the royal council. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

Roderick dominates Ilona’s top advisors and murders one of them. Ilona is briefly shocked by this, and asks Roderick if he has similarly manipulated her. Since Gregor’s death she has been surrounded by death. She pleads for Roderick to give her immortality.

Ilona: "Make me immortal." Ironically the blood members of the Markov family, Brion, and possibly Tara, are already immortal. Outsiders #1 Omega (Nov. 1993)

Meanwhile, Markovian assassins and military personnel, possessed by Roderick’s forces, hunt down Katana, Halo, Looker, Looker’s husband and Denise. Looker manipulates her husband and Denise so that the two flee together, she then finds Katana and revives Halo. Alpha: As vampires overrun the armed forces and the countryside, Ilona holds a press conference at Roderick’s bidding and blames Brion for everything. Brion, unaware of this, is out dealing with the vampires and the new characters who will be part of the Outsiders – Barron in a high tech suit becomes Technocrat. Barron’s bodyguard, Charlie Wylde, is fused with a bear by the mage Sebastian Faust (who is there to deal with the vampires). They team up with Halo, Katana and Looker. They invade Castle Markov and find it crawling with vampires. Omega: In the halls of the castle, Looker encounters Roderick, who bites her and turns her into a vampire. Alpha: Ilona goes on live television, spinning Brion’s attempt to free the Castle (and her) as an effort to stage a coup. GF fights with Roderick, who begins throttling Ilona.

Roderick attacks Ilona on television - but the cameras don't show him because he's a vampire. Outsiders #1 Alpha (Nov. 1993)

Brion tries to pry Roderick’s grip loose, but because Roderick is a vampire and cannot be photographed, it looks like Brion is trying to strangle Ilona on live TV. Roderick kills Ilona and Brion takes the blame for it.

Queen Ilona is murdered on live television by Roderick. Outsiders #1 Alpha (Nov. 1993)

-Outsiders vol. 2 #2 (December 1993): "Decline and Fall"
-Outsiders vol. 2 #3 (January 1994): "Outsiders Eradicated"
-Outsiders vol. 2 #4 (February 1994): "Storming the Palace"
-Outsiders vol. 2 #5 (March 1994): "With Friend Like These..."
Issues #2-5 cover the Outsiders’ problems in Markovia with Roderick, who has seized control of the country. Issue #2: The Outsiders fight their way out of Markovia and flee to Switzerland, where they are ambushed. Issue #3: The Outsiders return to Markovia and discover that villagers who could have cleared Brion of the charges against him have all been murdered by the Eradicator. Meanwhile, Roderick makes himself comfortable in the throneroom of Castle Markov. A remaining dying villager confirms that Brion is innocent and the Eradicator, hearing this, switches sides and joins the Outsiders – but only after he’s torn off Faust’s arm. Roderick gets word from one of the royal councillors that the Outsiders are headed for the castle.


Warplanes attack GF and the Outsiders. Outsiders #4 (Feb. 1994)

Issue #4: The issue opens with the Outsiders storming Castle Markov, and Markovian warplanes firing on them. Brion: “Attacked by my own countrymen! This is madness!”

Brion finds the Crown Prince safe with Dr. Kneidel. Outsiders #4 (Feb. 1994)

Brion makes his way to the royal nursery where Prince Gregor is sleeping, only to find him guarded by Dr. Simone Kneidel, Jace’s replacement. Roderick flees with Looker, who has been turned into a vampire. The Outsiders take the castle, although it is still surrounded by Markovian troops. The Eradicator leaves. Issue #5: The Outsiders’ former member, Atomic Knight, thinking they are murderers, demands the team leave the castle. Dr. Kneidel removes the Crown Prince from the castle so he is safe. Brion creates a diversion fighting with Atomic Knight while the Outsiders scour the tunnels underneath the castle to hunt down Roderick. There, they encounter the bodies of the royal councillors. They also discover that Roderick has filled the tunnels under the castle with bombs.

Castle Markov destroyed. Outsiders #5 (Mar. 1994)

The start of Crown Prince Gregor's reign. Outsiders #5 (Mar. 1994)

The bombs detonate and Castle Markov is destroyed. The Outsiders are believed dead. They have survived, reunite with Brion and flee to the US to ask for Batman’s assistance.

Terminus.
-New Titans #104 (December 1993): "Terminus: The Fate of Cyborg, Ch. 1: Subroutine"
On the Technis world, a living spaceborne CPU, Gar’s heart-breaking confrontation with the Technis replicas continues. Not only do they want to make off with his best friend, but Technis Rita starts to withdraw. She embraces him and he completely breaks down. There’s a lot of telltale stuff here about the use of doubles in this whole series, especially doubles of dead (and some live) people around Changeling (Terra, Rita, Mallah, The Brain, Mark Logan, Marie Logan, and later, Raven).

Surrounded by death, doubles and resurrections, Changeling is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. NT #104 (Dec. 1993)

Technis Rita: “Changeling, I am sorry. Based on the Cyborg’s memories, we were given the physical patterns of those we duplicated, but not their true essences. I do not understand these thoughts, but I somehow know the true Rita Farr loved you.” Gar begs her – the other Doom Patrollers survived – could his mother have survived as well? No answer. The Technis withdraw. Gar, convinced they can help Vic, carries the Titans to the heart of the Technis world, which is a lot like the heart of the Matrix in the third Matrix movie, well before there was a third Matrix movie. The Technis are dying and want to interface with Vic’s human soul to revive themselves.

Surrounded by death, doubles and resurrections, Changeling is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. NT #105 (Dec. 1993)

Terminus.
-New Titans #105 (December 1993): "Terminus: The Fate of Cyborg, Ch. 2"
Technis claim they need Vic and can help him, but they have hidden motives. Gar insists they help Vic and send Cyborg and the Titans back to earth. In order to change Gar’s mind, Technis instigate a shattering mind probe. Changeling confronts his deepest memories of his parents, Rita Farr and Terra 1. They are all brought back to life by Technis and surround him. Technis mean to help him; they are trying to use familiar faces to get Gar to agree with what they want to do. But this pushes Gar further over the edge. His parents’ faces are obscure (he can no longer remember them clearly). They assure him they still love him, that what happened to them is not his fault. This scene can be read against the 60s’, 70s’ and 80s’ accounts of Gar’s parents’ deaths – and against the 2000s’ retcon. He tries to bash himself against the walls and Technis Terra uses magnetic powers on surrounding circuit panels to prevent him from doing this. Roy pleads with them to stop torturing Logan. Technis: “We do not understand. Our memories sustain us. Why do yours create malfunction? We thought the return of previously erased data would give you joy.” Gar’s mother, Marie Logan, as a Technis construct: “Honey, you’ve blamed us for dying and leaving you. But deep inside you must know how much we loved you. You meant everything to us, Gar.” The doubles fade. Pantha comforts Logan, who is looking more freaked out and fragile with every panel.

Terminus.
-New Titans #106 (January 1994): "Terminus: The Fate of Cyborg, Ch. 3: Rebirth"
Vic gets rebooted. He briefly recovers his senses on the Technis world. Changeling has felt nothing but “cold, dead numbness” for months. Overjoyed at Vic’s recovery, he forces himself to transform into a bird, a normal innocent creature, even though it’s agonizing for him to do this.

Terminus.
-New Titans #107 (January 1994): "Terminus: The Fate of Cyborg, Ch. 4: Hard Drive"
Vic’s recovery is limited and temporary. He cannot survive apart from Technis and the Technis absorb him. Changeling falls to pieces again. The Titans are teleported back to earth and the Technis shoot off into space with Vic.

Dagon enters Tara's consciousness as she sleeps. Team Titans #16 (Jan. 1994)

-Team Titans #16 (January 1994): "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream..."
A waking nightmare reveals Terra 2’s purpose and her possible connection to Terra 1, hints at her fate, and possibly even links her to Gar. Dagon has waking nightmares about his teammates. The team have been squabbling and are not talking to each other. Dagon probes Terra’s subconscious; she has been trying to find out who she is every night.

Inside Tara's dreams. Team Titans #16 (Jan. 1994)

Inside her mind, he finds “the pieces don’t fit. Jagged shards of shattered memory and warped recollections of history clutter the landscape of Terra’s mind.” Dagon wonders – “What has happened here? What is responsible for this destruction?”

Inside Tara's dreams. Team Titans #16 (Jan. 1994)

Terra is a developing elemental. She has breached a boundary, gone too far too fast, and higher elemental orders have noticed her: “Terra has gone too far. She has trespassed into territory reserved only for a chosen few. And she has yet to earn the right to be here. The protectors of this land provide her with a warning: ‘You are out of time and out of place, Little Elemental. Do not begin to presume that you are beneath our notice. Your presence here is causing great harm.”

Inside Tara's dreams. Team Titans #16 (Jan. 1994)

Terra is surrounded by three figures, one of which is a green entity, a Titan from the future; the second figure is a man with a black beard; the third figure wears a trenchcoat with a broad hat.

Rebirth: Kory’s big meltdown.
-New Titans #108 (February 1994): "Rebirth"
-New Titans #109 (March 1994): "Ritual"
-New Titans #110 (May 1994): "The Rebirth of Princess Koriand'r"
-New Titans #111 (June 1994): "The Extra Mile!"
-New Titans #112 (July 1994): "A New Home"
-New Titans #113 (August 1994): "Coming of Age"
Issues #108-110: Kory disappears due to Raven-related problems. Raven’s Trigon seed forces her into a new headspace: Kory awakes in a holding cell and roams a prison block, hallucinating about Dick and other figures who torture her. In issue #109, she embarks on a strange journey of the Tamaranean warrior in her head while chained to a wall in the mysterious dungeon. Meanwhile, Gar and Sarah Charles are left reeling in Vic’s absence and comfort each other. 

Under Raven's influence, Kory no longer recognizes Dick, who travels to the Amazon rainforest to find her. NT #110 (May 1994)

Issues #110 and 113: Dick searches for Kory in South America. He begins to doubt himself, Kory and the team. Issue #113: The parallel and karmic connection between Terra 1 and Jericho is drawn again. Dick recalls the horrible memory of Tara 1’s body in the rubble of the H.I.V.E. complex, and also thinks of Jericho’s impaled body as he considers times when he failed as the Titans leader. Issues #111-112: Roy’s team – Pantha, Baby Wildebeest, Red Star and Changeling – are in a satellite in earth orbit searching for Vic. They find Starfire flying around out in space. She has forgotten her time on earth, due to her Raven-inspired Tamaranean warrior soul-searching. Red Star restores her memories by kissing her. Issue #112: Gar admits to his teammates that he is having serious problems with his powers after being exposed to the Mento Helmet.

Gar reveals that he prefers turning into monsters, and normal shape-shifting is agonizing. NT #112 (July 1994)

-New Titans Annual #10 (1994): "Facets"
An elseworlds annual places the Titans in a medieval fantasy setting and has evil Raven imprisoning the Titans and trying to kill them with her father in another Trigon arc. Raven is a shapeshifter in this arc and can turn into a raven and back into human form.

Dick: Raven's "transformations showed us hidden facets of ourselves." NT Annual #10 (1994)

Dick plays Joey’s role. He is partly bound to Starfire, partly to Raven, and he has absorbed the souls of Azarath, called Zaratha in this story. Raven and Trigon are banished to another dimension together. Phantasm appears and offers to transform the Titans back to normal human beings, but they choose a path of heroism that Raven has set them on by showing them hidden sides of themselves. Terra does not appear.

-Team Titans Annual #2 (1994): "Into the Light" (Elseworlds)
An elseworlds annual shows Terra using her powers in space. The Teamers confront Lord Chaos and Mirage’s Dick Grayson has died.

Terry explains the history of Prometheus. Team Titans #17 (Feb. 1994) 

You Can’t Go Home Again.
-Team Titans #17 (February 1994): "You Can't Go Home Again, Part One"
-Team Titans #18 (March 1994): "You Can't Go Home Again, Part Two"
-Team Titans #19 (April 1994): "You Can't Go Home Again, Part Three"
-Team Titans #20 (May 1994): "You Can't Go Home Again, Part Four"
A significant four-issue arc establishes Terra’s place as a primary earth elemental in the present timeline. Issue #17: Deathwing attacks Eisenberg, the clock maker. Dagon is found dying by the neighbouring farmer. The Teamers take Dagon to S.T.A.R. labs, leaving Terra and Mirage behind with Terry. Mirage is secretly traumatized and runs away. Terra and Terry have a mini bonding moment, where Terry tells her about Prometheus, the Titan god of justice and the planets. Obviously, with this scene, Wolfman is drawing a parallel between Prometheus and Terra, and her ultimate destiny: Prometheus formed mankind out of clay.

Elemental powers arrive to kill Terra. Team Titans #17 (Feb. 1994)

Suddenly, Terra is attacked by four denizens of the elemental kingdoms, whose coming has been foreshadowed by the problems Terra has been having with her powers. They break through the walls of Terry’s and Donna’s house and speak to her telepathically: “You – Terra – your existence here and now is in violation of the laws of nature.” They inform her that she should either kill herself, or they will kill her.

"You were designated to be among the earth's protectorate." Team Titans #17 (Feb. 1994)

Prester Jon returns from space (his mental presence has previously been available to the Teamers in the bracelets they all wear) in a Technis-generated body. and defends Terra. Issue #18: Prester Jon confronts the planet’s elemental protectorate. Terra is unconscious.

Huge moment: time and fate mysteriously realign around Terra. Team Titans #17 (Feb. 1994)

The elementals refer to Terra 2 as an anomaly, a designated elemental who is in the wrong time and place. At the moment they are about to kill her, a strange cosmic realignment and temporal displacement happens and Terra 2 is somehow reintegrated into current continuity. The elementals are puzzled and withdraw, since the anomaly has been repaired. Terra 2 now belongs where she should be. This is one of the biggest moments in Terra 2’s history as a character. This issue raises questions about Terra 2’s relationship to Terra 1’s fate as the planet’s primary earth elemental and New Guardian, which was described in the Millennium crossover. Shortly afterwards, six Titans from the future, who are each personifications of different colours of light, appear at the Long farm. Deathwing and Mirage battle on a train. Issue #19: The light entity Titans, called Spectrum Titans, already know Terra and Prester Jon, although Terra and Prester Jon don’t know them.

Terra meets the Spectrum Titans, sent back from the future. Team Titans #19 (Apr. 1994)

The purple figure: “Terra – earth child – how good it is to shake your hand.” The green figure takes particular interest in Terra, suggesting some symbolic or cryptic connection to Changeling. Terra to the green entity: “I’ve seen you before, you know – in my dreams. I’ve been waiting for you.”

The green Spectrum Titan meets Terra. Team Titans #19 (Apr. 1994)

The green entity informs her that the Spectrum Titans have come to take the Teamers ‘back to the future’ – back to 2001. Dozens of future Titans teams, with 600 future Titans, congregate at the Long farm.

Terra argues with the future Titans about the dangers of going back to the future. Team Titans #19 (Apr. 1994)

At this meeting, Terra gets into a lengthy complicated discussion with the Spectrum Titans about time travel. She says there is only one timeline, and by travelling back in time, they’ve messed their future up. She thinks everyone from a future time will be eliminated from the time stream. Issue #20: Terra leads the team of future Titans to find Killowat and open a portal back to the future.

Terra cast as a Titans leader of future Titans teams. Team Titans #20 (May 1994)

An agent of Lord Chaos, Lazarium, who is part of the Eisenberg story arc as Joshua Clay, attacks Terra for betraying Lord Chaos. Prester Jon again defends her and the other Titans. The future Titans defeat Lazarium, and group together to open a time portal.

Terra argues with the future Titans about the dangers of going back to the future. Team Titans #20 (May 1994)

Terra again argues that there is no alternate reality, she insists that they all have to stay in the present. Killowat, with the aid of Prester Jon and the Spectrum, opens up a time portal. 500 future Titans fly through the portal - and die.

The future Titans fly through the time rift and die. Team Titans #20 (May 1994)

The Teamers remain behind, as do some of the Spectrum Titans and about 100 other stragglers. On Terra’s orders, Killowat infuses them with residual energy, ‘jump starting’ their continued existence in the present timeline. The shadowy figure of the Leader observes all this from outside the timeline as the Titans who entered the portal are erased. The countdown to the Zero Hour crossover has begun.

Terra prevents the remaining future Titans from being killed. Team Titans #21 (June 1994) 

Terra prevents the remaining future Titans from being killed. Team Titans #21 (June 1994)

-Team Titans #21 (June 1994): "Facing the Future"
The issue opens as the remaining future Titans congregate on a rooftop of 30 Clay Center New York, where the time portal opened. Everyone who passed through the portal is dead. They begin fighting among themselves when Donna tries to calm them down, since she is the cause of their predicament. Some decide to leave, and they are fired on by authorities. Terra decides to defend them, and sets off a series of earthquakes which help several groups of future Titans get away. On Donna’s suggestion, the core groups of remaining future Titans decide to go to the JLA Embassy to ask Wonder Woman for help. After a recap of their predicament with government authorities, the authorities offer to make them government agents with full support and training. If they refuse, they’ll be hunted down.

Terra cast as a Titans leader of future Titans teams. Team Titans #21 (June 1994)

They are all sceptical, until Terra appeals to them. Again, she acts as their leader. After Terra’s speech, the remaining future Titans agree to the government’s terms. Meanwhile Donna talks to Diana, and with her help petitions the Greek Titans of Myth to get her powers back. They refuse.

Cheshire drops a nuclear bomb on Qurac. Deathstroke #19 (Feb. 1993)

Cheshire explains the bombing of Qurac to Deathstroke - it's all tied to the Brotherhood of Evil. Note Selinda and Baran, who were Jace's test subjects are also involved. Team Titans #20 (May 1994)

Cheshire explains the bombing of Qurac to Deathstroke - it's all tied to the Brotherhood of Evil. Team Titans #20 (May 1994)

-Team Titans #22 (July 1994): "Monsters in the Storm"
-Team Titans #23 (August 1994): "Secrets in the Sand"
Issue #22: The future Titans are split into teams, with several placed in the care of former Titans from the current timeline. A Titans team with Miri and the green Spectrum Titan is called to a meeting by their government handlers. Garth meets them and the government agents designate him leader. The team is sent off in a sub. Another group of future Titans has been moved to Seattle, where they are watched over by Karen and Mal. Another group, including Dagon and Battalion, is sent to Torrance, California, and placed under the leadership of Flamebird. Meanwhile, Donna contemplates undergoing a process of having circuitry grafted onto her so that she will become a Darkstar. She discusses it in a Darkstar cruiser above earth. This process will give her new powers. The core group of Teamers (Terra, Killowat, Prester Jon and Redwing), the remaining Spectrum Titans (including the green one) and other future Titans are reeling from the loss of all their comrades. The government has housed them in an old rotting YMCA in New York while they build them an HQ. They inspect the HQ building site, located on the Long family farm. Terry has left and is living with his ex-wife. Annoyed that the government has appropriated the land without asking, Terra sets off a small earthquake to weaken construction of their HQ. The team is sent on a frightening mission to deal with the radioactive mop-up in Qurac, where Cheshire has just detonated a nuclear bomb.

Walking radioactive streets in the nuclear wasteland. Team Titans #22 (July 1994)

They are dispatched to a shielded UN site in the bombed out capital city – to retrieve information. As they leave, the military personnel who briefed them comment that it’s not right that they didn’t tell the Titans the whole truth about the mission.

Inside the UN's nuclear safe compound, Prester Jon drugs and captures his sister. Team Titans #23 (August 1994)

Redwing has begun transforming into a twisted bird form, alienating her brother Prester Jon. Under these conditions her metamorphosis accelerates. The radiation, combined with the influence of a related mutant plague, is also transforming the people of the city. They are changing into twisted mythical creatures. They start attacking the Titans as they reach ground level, and pursue them to the UN facility. Issue #23: Inside the sealed UN facility, Redwing changes into a hawklike bird. Prester Jon tranquilizers her with chemicals stored in his Technis body, which disturbs Terra. In the complex, Terra’s Titans team encounter Chimera (a teleporter who appeared in Team Titans Annual #1), and three children. The origin of the alien-derived virus that is making Qurac’s people turn into twisted animals after Cheshire’s nuclear attack is explained. Chimera shows the team a stockpile of oil in the UN complex that the US government wants. Chimera: “Now do you understand? Your western government is not here to help the survivors of Qurac. They’re here to make money.” This prompts Killowat to argue with her about America-bashing. Since the stored oil is radioactive, Terra opens holes and the Teamers let it seep back into the ground, rather than having it shipped to the US to create radioactive smog. The Teamers leave the complex, destroy it from the air, and evacuate. Back in the US, Terra destroys the government built HQ because after the mission the team has just been on, she distrusts their motives; she builds a big earth house for the Teamers, much to the distress of their government handlers.

The remaining Teamers' short-lived HQ on the Long farm property. Team Titans #23 (August 1994)

Zero Hour crossover.
-Team Titans #24 (September 1994): "All Good Things..."
The Teamers and other future Titans, as well as their older Titan mentors deal with twisted time – cavemen and dinosaurs are running across Seattle. In New York, Studio 54 is back in operation and Winston Churchill and Napoleon Bonaparte visit the UN. In California, Firehawk battles 18th century Spanish colonizers. Aqualad, Terra, the green Spectrum Titan and another future Titan work together underwater to prevent an earth plateline collapse off the coast of Sanangelopolis. Despite recent problems with her powers, Terra succeeds in the massive task of preventing a time-driven earthquake that would destroy the west coast. As she does so the earth sends her images of what has been done to it.

Garth orders Terra to realign one of the earth's plates. Team Titans #24 (Sept. 1994)

Garth confronts Tritonians – underwater dwellers – who are 10,000 years out of their time. Back on the sub, Garth helps her recover.

Terra senses what is happening in Zero Hour. Team Titans #24 (Sept. 1994)

Terra says something evil is happening: “It’s almost as if we are chesspieces ... actors, on some manner of cosmic stage.” Back at the Titans HQ that Terra constructed, a dark figure has frozen all the Titans and can see the feed from the sub. He says: “Oh, Terra. If only you knew what you really are. And how close you are to the truth.” Story continues in the Zero Hour crossover. End of the Team Titans series.

End of the Team Titans series. Team Titans #24 (Sept. 1994)

Zero Hour crossover.
-Zero Hour: Crisis In Time! #2 (September 1994): "Zero Hour"
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) turns evil after being possessed by Parallax, and starts reshaping the universe, prompting a collapse of timestreams and conflict with earth’s heroes. Extant (later shown to be Hawk, a former Titan) aids him. Extant reveals that he controls the Teamers and other future Titans. He compels them to fight DC’s heroes, including Geo-Force. The timestream collapses and time is realigned. The Team Titans are wiped out by the Time Crisis, except for Mirage, Deathwing and Terra 2. This is later explained more clearly in New Titans Annual #11 (1995) as being due to the Time Trapper's interference with these three characters.

Extant manipulates the time-travelling Titans until they are all obliterated in the timestream, except for Terra, Mirage and Deathwing. Zero Hour #2 (Sept. 1994)

Markovia and the House of Markov.
-Outsiders vol. 2 #10 (August 1994): "Final Blood, Part 1: Into the Abyss...!"
-Outsiders vol. 2 #11 (September 1994): "Final Blood, Part 2"
Issue #10: The Outsiders go to Switzerland to find the hidden mountain entrance to the underground kingdom of Abyssia, the source of Looker’s powers. She has fled there with Roderick and turned her people into vampires. Issue #11: The team clears its name and exposes the vampire Roderick. Looker fights off Roderick’s influence and kills him. Markovia returns to the Markov family.

Outsiders cleared of Ilona's murder. Outsiders #11 (Sept. 1994)

GO BACK TO CONTINUITY PART 2.1 TERRA IN THE 1990s.

GO FWD TO CONTINUITY PART 2.3 TERRA IN THE 1990s.

SEE TERRA'S WHOLE CONTINUITY.

All DC Comics stories, characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof are Trademarks & Copyright © DC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4 comments:

  1. No mention of the offensiveness of Qurac, or the racism in how Cheshire was easily forgiven for nuking it because somehow every single resident was a terrorist?

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    Replies
    1. Sure, Anon, thanks for your comment. Because this continuity is focused on Terra, and to a degree, Changeling/Beast Boy, and how their story was told, I tried not to get into extended remarks on the storylines, including whether I found the stories offensive. The mid-90s was a rock bottom period for this franchise at DC, when they were trying to be invert the Titans' characterizations and narratives, and make them as broken, anti-heroic and nasty as possible.

      Prior to the 90s, Wolfman had made many political comments about certain characters and parts of the world (see his dislike of Kid Flash's midwestern conservatism, or his depiction of Zandia). His comments often went over the heads of his very young readership. He apparently explained his underlying message about Terra to Brad Meltzer, who only then finally accepted what was done to this character. But Meltzer did not elaborate on what that underlying message was. I suspect it has to do with the Holocaust and the way Central and Eastern Europeans turned on and helped murder their Jewish neighbours up to and during WWII, or at least looked the other way as their former friends, colleagues were shipped off to concentration camps. There are Nazi messages around Terra and the Markovs' whole story. Before she dies, Terra justifies her betrayal to Logan in a speech that is not irrational (the superficial explanation) but pathologically supremacist. So IMO the character was forced by the writer to become an object lesson against supremacist fascism. I get why Wolfman would do that.

      But I felt at the end of the day, the long resilience of the character showed Wolfman had created a character that was bigger than the lesson Wolfman was trying to teach. And that resilient part of the character had been brutally mishandled and abused by her creators. It is a really interesting creator's problem; so I was looking at how Wolfman and Perez walked that line, and where they succeeded, and IMO, failed.

      The 1994 Qurac issue was written by later writers, Jimenez and Jensen. I don't know how much these writers were under editorial dictates at this low point in Titans' history. Generally, the material in this franchise went downhill after about 1986-7 and never really recovered, except for the occasional issue here or there. But as for my opinion on Qurac. Is it offensive? Yeah, it is. But this whole period was offensive. I made that point generally and almost all the storylines I noted from that period support that overall argument here.

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    2. Fair point about the entire period being bad, though I think the Qurac thing continued to be offensive for many years after.

      For years, and years, absolutely EVERYONE in Qurac was depicted as EVUL(also ugly because the artists thought the readers were morons) from the rebellion fighting against the Goverment to the civilians themselves.

      If a white nation is under a dictatorship, its the fault of one bad man, and his followers. IF a brown nation is under a dictatorship, its the fault of the entire race for having bad genetics, and nuclear genocide is an acceptable solution according to the writers for those stories.

      While nuking a nation of brown people is forgivable, and anyone who holds a grudge over it is a bastard, raping one WHITE woman is utterly unforgivable.

      Sorry if that was a tangent, but all the writing on Qurac was incredibly offensive.

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    3. Hi Anon, I completely agree. This was the period in comics - which has continued to the present day - when certain storylines and offensive ideas were deliberately pushed to sensationalize comics and drive up flagging sales. That would include sexism, violence, racism, shiny covers, death of Superman ... . I wrote this series on Terra in part because I was so young when I read the original stories in the 1980s and could not articulate what I thought was wrong with them at that time. I did not read comics in the 90s or 2000s, and only returned in the 2010s to reconsider some of the stories I remembered. These comments on the 90s were based on my back-reading of 90s stories, read during the 2010s. While I tried to give stories from the 90s and 2000s their cultural contextual consideration (that is, I did not force them to conform to 2010s values - they are products of their time and place), what struck me was the decline in editorial and writing attitudes, values, and creativity. Cynicism and willingness to exploit inflammatory ideas, mass death of heroes, fridging of female characters, ugly storylines that had sensational impacts in the moment - all of it to make a buck and keep sales up. That has been the grimdark story of comics, with some few bright spots and innovations from creators, through the whole period. So what you are talking about is true and valid. I didn't mention it because it wasn't part of the main focus of this series of comments on this character. But how Terra was created and treated as a character is part of the same trend as the one that depicts Qurac in a racist, offensive way. My other posts on comics talk about the mass death of heroes, and the degradation of heroism.

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