A review by shannonleighd
Teen Titans, Volume 5: The Trial of Kid Flash by Scott Lobdell

2.0

It's really strange that out of all of my friends on here not a single one has this shelved. Not one. I understand Lobdell isn't a very well-liked author but it's still strange no one wanted to read the last book in this series.

This wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. So many things weren't explained or when they were explained it ended up just being super convenient for the story. Space court (it's not called that but I'm going with it) was silly, and the whole religious fanatics against the evil secular government in the future felt shoehorned into the story. I realize there had to be a reason for Bart to be on trial, but wow was this just crammed in at the last minute.

So since none of my friends have read this, here's where everyone stands at the end of this volume:

Kid Flash -

Spoiler

Currently in prison with Solstice because he killed a bunch of people because they killed his parents when he was a kid. Also, his sister joined up with that group and she's the one that ultimately lead to Bart being captured, the second time.

Solstice -

Spoiler

After Bart was sentenced Solstice killed one of the judges so she would go to prison too.

Superboy -

Spoiler

Not actually Superboy. Beast Boy from 20 years in the future switched Superboy's and Jon Lane Kent's (who is evil) costumes so the Teen Titans would take not-Superboy to the 30th century with them. You have to read Action Comics to see what happens to Superboy in regular time, but in the 3rd annual issue we learn Superboy apparently died and was reborn as the herald for the Oracle. Yeah. What's really funny about all of this is we only find out what happened to not-Superboy because of an offhand comment by Wonder Girl - he decided he needed to stay in the 30th century. And no one even questioned this! Amazing.

Skitter -

Spoiler

Oh hey, she decided to come back at the last minute after everything had happened. Oh, and she's Amanda Waller's daughter! (Did we know this already and I just wasn't paying attention?)

Raven -

Spoiler

Apparently the bond with her father has been broken ... somehow. No further explanation is given but Bunker admits they all knew she was only in the group to enslave them and take over the world but it's ok because she feels bad about that.

Harvest -

Spoiler

He pops up at the end as an old man who built a school for all of the kids from The Culling - surprise! They're not dead. He healed them ... somehow. And by doing so he took away their powers - but guess what! All the powers turned into ... a giant green strand of metagene! Yeah ... it's dumb. Really dumb. Raven uses her powers to destroy it and blows it up along with Harvest. "He won't bother us again!" they say, but this is a comic book and they didn't show a body so I'm not buying it.

Red Robin admits he has a crush on Wonder Girl and kisses her. The two of them along with Bunker and Beast Boy are, for the most part, fine.

So there you go! Now you really don't need to read this volume.