Titans: The Lazarus Contract

/ Alex Good

Titans: The Lazarus Contract

If you’ve been following along you’ll remember that I’ve taken note of the presence of Deathstroke lurking in the shadows of the previous two Titans books I’ve reviewed (The Return of Wally West and Made in Manhattan). I’d started in on Titans Volume 3 when I found a reference to the team’s battle with Deathstroke in the past tense. Had I missed something?

Turns out I had. But I picked up a big pile of these comics for a dollar each from the library’s overstock sale so I had the missing piece, which is this book. It didn’t have a number because it was part of what’s known as a “crossover event” involving a bunch of different titles, in this case Titans, Teen Titans, and Deathstroke.

This led me to the next question: Was all the build-up worth it?

No.

Basically what you need to know here is that one of Deathstroke’s kids, Grant Wilson, was recruited by H.I.V.E. (ahem: the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination), who gave him a serum that turned him into the supervillain Ravager but that ultimately brought caused him to have a heart attack while fighting the Teen Titans. Deathstroke sort of blames Grant’s death on the Titans, and decides he’ll use the Flashes’ (Flash and Kid Flash’s) ability to enter into the time force to go back into the past and save his son’s life. Since everyone knows disruptions in the space-time continuum always go wrong, the Titans and Teen Titans team up to stop Deathstroke. This they manage to do and Deathstroke, more disappointed than angry, decides to “retire” by setting up a new team of hero/villains composed of his other kids.

I don’t like most time-travel stories. This one doesn’t work for all the usual reasons. I particularly didn’t care for the blather trying to explain the mechanics of time travel. You see, Deathstroke modified an extractor made by someone for Flash to keep his speed power under control. Deathstroke uses this device to store that energy in battery cells connected to his fancy new “Ikon suit” (complete with lightning bolts!) that has a “gravity sheath” that allows him to move at near-light speed and enter the “time stream.” Then, when the Titans and Teen Titans want to follow Deathstroke they mimic his combination of Kid Flash’s super-speed and the gravitational properties of his costume by joining Jericho’s gravity sheath with Flash’s speed to create a “time vortex” stabilized by Raven’s “chrono-kinesis” and Starfire’s energy, all while being tethered by Raven’s mind-meld to the rest of the team as Flash goes running into the speed force, at least until Raven’s “vast mystical powers” begin to fray and her soul-self is in danger of being trapped in the “speed force,” which is where Deathstroke has looked into the face of God and achieved a higher consciousness.

Enough already. I lost interest in all of this long before the end. It all just seemed like a bunch of sparks and noise, with too many characters involved and not much for most of them to do but stand around barking at each other. Not that I knew who a lot of these people were anyway, or cared. I do know Deathstroke and have found him an interesting character in the past, but he’s a lot less so here, especially when he starts spouting scripture (a lot of scripture) in the epilogue. I think maybe there are fans who like this kind of story but it wasn’t my thing and by the time I finished I was glad that I was done with it, and nearly done with my Titans book haul.

Graphicalex

27 thoughts on “Titans: The Lazarus Contract”

  2. This is why I hate crossover events. Trying to get the complete story with trade paperbacks is almost impossible. And since the crossovers have grown massive ever since the Death of Superman back in the 90’s, it’s almost impossible to afford buying all the single issue comics.

    And how come villains never spout stuff from the Koran, or Buddha’s writings? The koran is chockful of apocalyptic stuff, especially when it goes into the 13th Imam stuff.

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  3. 1. Ah, you mock it, but the creators were probably so proud to have gotten everyone involved!

    2. If you’ve looked into the face of God and achieved a higher consciousness, wouldn’t YOU become scripture? Why quote others? Just say what you gotta say.

    3. “Most” time-travel stories. But you like Time After Time, right? (Not the Cyndi Lauper song, although that’s probably even better.)

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    • 1. I’ll bet they were!
      2. What he first says is “There . . . inside the speed force . . . I’ve seen things no man will ever see . . . Things no man should ever see. Awareness . . . on multiple planes . . . all at once. And now it’s gone. My higher consciousness making it difficult to be in tune with the speed force.” So maybe quoting scripture is better.
      3. I have lots of favourite time-travel stories. But most are confused nonsense. Time After Time was fun, mainly because of Warner.

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