Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Teen Titans (2003) #5

Teen Titans, Vol. 5: Life and Death

Rate this book
The line between life and death is crossed as the Teen Titans must confront the deceased members of the team that have seemingly returned from the dead. As Donna Troy recruits the mightiest members of the team to battle in the Infinite Crisis, Robin is confronted by his predecessor, the bygone Boy Wonder, Jason Todd. The remaining Titans face the onslaught of Brother Blood and his army of followers which include the deceased Titans Aquagirl, Omen, Hawk, and Dove. As the Crisis hits, Superboy teams up with all of the reserve members of the team to battle his evil counterpart from another dimension.

Collects TEEN TITANS #29—33, TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1 and ROBIN #146—147.

206 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

9 people are currently reading
334 people want to read

About the author

Geoff Johns

2,727 books2,403 followers
Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.

His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.

Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
196 (25%)
4 stars
277 (35%)
3 stars
248 (32%)
2 stars
41 (5%)
1 star
8 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,205 followers
March 29, 2021
This volume is basically Superboy gets beat to shit by Superboy prime, and ALMOST dies but survives only to THEN die a few issues later by Superboy Prime's return. What a shitty life, huh?

I did enjoy alot of the character interactions. The best being Connor and Cassie. For one they feel like they actually grew as characters. They rely on each other to get through the harder times. They finally fuck, so glad that's over. And they feel like they're finally maturing into adults.

But then Superboy Prime comes down to fuck everything up. And that's actually the best part of this (long) volume. Anything to do with either Superboy is great. The rest is decent, Tim's mission to get a cure, and the interaction between the titans and such. Nightwing and Superboy team up is weird but least enjoyable.

It's a 50/50 volume for me but I enjoyed it more than I didn't. A 3.5 out of 5.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books165 followers
June 25, 2019
Sadly, this is probably the weakest Johns Titans volume to date, as Infinite Crisis totally tkes over the plot, fracturing any core Titans stories for the greater good.

Life and Death (#29). The newly resurrected Jason Todd shows up to fight Tim Drake. They do. Nothing of particular note happens. [3/5].

Lost and Found (#30-31). Baby Blood attacks, building on the chaos of Infinite Crisis. The crossover connections are actually the best part of this, because they explore the repercussions of the larger crossover in interesting ways. Less interesting: the fight with Baby Blood. Even if it brings back dead Titans, it's still a bit dull [3+/5].

Doom's Day (#32). Now we're onto stories entirely subservient to Infinite Crisis. This one contains the bloody battle between the Titans and Superboy Prime that I could have sworn was in the main book. Anyway, it's an issue-long fight designed to show how unbalanced and dangerous Prime is. At least Johns also takes the opportunity to unwind John Byrne's obnoxious and unpopular retcon of all previous Doom Patrol history (as the Superboy hits just keep on coming) [3+/5].

The Virtual Cell (Robin). These two issues of Robin by Bill Willingham are obviously Titans crossovers (and Infinite Crisis crossovers) since they feature Tim, Cassie, Gar, and Speedy trying to save Superboy. The plot is actually a dull fight through a Luthor lair, and it's hard to care too much about it all, given that Kon-el would be on the crossover sacrificial altar yet again, just a month or two on [2/5].

Love & War (Annual #1). One part Infinite Crisis crossover, as the Titans engage in rescue operations in Blüdhaven, and one part peon to Kon-el, as he and Cassie spend a day (and a night) at the Kent farm. That ends up in a story that's one part dull and one part nice [3/5].

Faith (#33). This setup for Infinite Crisis #6 is interesting only because Dick and Kon-el talk [3+/5].
Profile Image for Jenny Clark.
3,225 reviews122 followers
June 14, 2018
I am a tad confused since I could not get my hands on Volume 3 and 4, but it's not too bad. I like Raven so much more in this. She does not just run and hide. Horary for Raven! I was kinda disappointed that Cyborg and Starfire were off planet, as I really enjoy those two. The plot was really good, with lots of action. These Titans are coming into their own now.
Profile Image for Ondra Král.
1,449 reviews122 followers
June 22, 2019
Titáni mě pomalu přestávají bavit. Čekal jsem, kam Johns sérii povede, a směr mi jaksi uniká.
Sešity Robina dobrý (dobře napsaná průměrná zápletka), tie-iny ke krizi docela nůďo. Slabé 3*
Profile Image for Sesana.
6,237 reviews330 followers
April 3, 2013
My library didn't have Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Insiders, so I thought I'd skip it until I could get my hands on it. Bad idea. It seems like a lot happened in that collection, and I wish I'd read it first. Luckily, the major plot developments seemed like they were covered enough for me to follow the storyline.

This particular volume was hampered by the ties to Infinite Crisis. The Titans were pretty heavily bound to that crossover, which I'm sure was good for the book from a sales standpoint. But it means that there's a lot of repetition in scenes, and some events are pretty choppy, being half told here and half in Infinite Crisis itself. It also means that whatever Johns was trying to do on the title got pushed to the side. Connor and Cassie's relationship (which I do like, they're a cute couple and it's nice to see a teen relationship with a healthy dose of respect) got pushed to the side for . And Cassie's relative inactivity for much of the book seemed to be brought on less by story concerns and more because there was no place for her in the larger story.

But I don't look for much when I'm reading Teen Titans. I want likeable characters and good action. Here, I could see Johns trying, but there's only so much you can do in a crossover book. I would bet that reading this as individual issues, interspersed with individual issues of Infinite Crisis, would greatly improve the flow of the reading experience.
Profile Image for laurie.
121 reviews
August 29, 2021
huh. this really wasn't that good. like i thought 'oh yeah this'll be great I've heard so much about the bit at titans tower where jason beats the shit out of tim simply for existing' and just,,,,,no. why was he in a robin costume? what the fuck? yeah anyway this was just kinda weird i'll go back to reading fanfiction where it's much better now
Profile Image for Michael.
3,374 reviews
March 23, 2018
umm... how to be polite...

This book is really bad. Tony Daniel drew the first couple issues, right? Because they're borderline incomprehensible. Robin and Red Hood are leaping all over the Titans Tower with no concept of space at all. Plus, honestly, the fight didn't really mean anything. Todd shows up, beats on Tim, then admits to himself that Tim's a good guy, just so that the readers don't see their hero completely disgraced. Weird. And, um, Todd wearing a Robin costume under his Hood costume, so that he can fight Robin vs. Robin. Dorky, seriously.

The Brother Blood story was like fanfic gone awry. Do we really need this clumsy reason for why people come back from the dead? Especially since it literally just popped up out of nowhere, with an image of the Spectre coming out of Raven's soul and suddenly, whoosh, Hell's come to L.A.

The rest of the issues read like a cliff's notes version of Infinite Crisis, with the Superboy/Nightwing issue being passable but nothing exceptional. Wolfman's Annual was pretty decent, despite the jumpy art that went in all different styles from page to page - although I didn't particularly like the parts about them reminiscing about how young they were - it's not necessarily Wolfman's fault, but he kinda gives the impression that the early days were juvenile and inconsequential. As a fan of those days who feels that Johns took the character's names but wrote completely different characters (at least he tried to justify it in Bart's case, but Conner and Cassie are the mopiest, most self-absorbed, dour heroes around. Blech. We need Karl Kesel to remind us how fun Superboy is.), it didn't sit well with me. It wasn't done poorly, but I didn't like it.

Overall impression - sloppy, inconsistent artwork (I never was a fan of Scott McDaniel, and Todd Nauck, who's usually okay but not a favorite, seemed out of place in such a dour story), a mess of characters whom I never felt inspired to care about at all, and a disjointed, unfocused story (ironically, the Robin chapters seemed the most focused, despite not being all that good) - it all added up to a pretty lousy book.
Profile Image for Matthieu Savignac.
125 reviews
June 5, 2025
L'arc narratif centré presque entièrement sur le personnage de Connor, personnage qui commence finalement à grandir, à trouver sa place, à s'affirmer pour devenir la personne qu'il veut être plutôt que celle qu'il est censé devenir.
C'est un bel hommage à ce personnage qui existe depuis très longtemps et qui n'a jamais réellement évolué, c'est finalement en une trentaine d'issues que Geoff Johns a réussi à le mettre sur le devant de la scène, à montrer comment il a pu s'accomplir en tant que tel et non plus dans l'ombre de l'homme d'acier, grandir, mais aussi permettre aux autres de s'épanouir et d'évoluer autour de lui.

Sa relation avec Cassandra permet de montrer le passage dans le monde adulte, avant l'arrivée d'Infinite Crisis et des événements qui vont changer sa vie ainsi que celle de son équipe.
Profile Image for Justin.
47 reviews
January 3, 2019
Yet another comic volume that's decent if you've read the event surrounding it, but pretty incomprehensible if you haven't. In this case, this revolves around Infinite Crisis. It does deal with those events well, but because the Titans are actually in those events, you HAVE to read the actual event.
735 reviews33 followers
November 23, 2020
Felt like I was missing a lot of background stuff, but then again, I didn't reread the previous volumes recently. The art in the beginning was great, but once it changed styles, it wasn't quite what I like. Overall an interesting volume in my opinion. Just short
26 reviews
July 24, 2022
A lot going on here. Really caught up in the greater DC universe at the time which I am not a fan of reading it 20 years later. This is my least favorite collection of the run so far. Feels like there's a lot of implied info. The best stuff is Tim's mission and the Conner-Cassie development.
Profile Image for Miguel Aguila.
157 reviews10 followers
June 23, 2023
3.5 rounded up. It's good as long as you read the other crossover issues for Infinite Crisis. If you don't read those issues then you definitely won't enjoy this volume as much, and it'll feel a bit like a mess.
Profile Image for dogunderwater.
139 reviews3 followers
May 27, 2020
ahhhh re-reading these has been a trip but this one really solidified how much i love this team! this was probably the only mainstream book i followed in high school and i still love it.
Profile Image for Lucas.
272 reviews3 followers
July 8, 2022
3.5⭐️
How can i dislike jason todd if hes so hot??
Author 3 books62 followers
April 8, 2025
An Infinite Crisis tie-in that won’t make a lick of sense without an understanding of that event.

Profile Image for Cait.
207 reviews130 followers
September 19, 2009
A lot of stuff happens in this book!

- Robin-on-Robin: Jason Todd throws a hissy fit and beats up on Tim Drake in the Titans Tower.
- Raven and Gar free Kid Eternity to close the Door of Life and Death and take down a bunch of zombies, which is cooler than it sounds.
- Superboy Prime shows up in Smallville where Kon is sulking about being a Luthor clone,
-- and there's an all-Titans throw-down,
-- and Speedy locks him in the Phantom Zone, which he then punches to retcon anything anyone likes,
-- and the Flashes all disappear to haul him away,
-- and Robin, Speedy, Wonder Girl, and Beast Boy have to break into a Luthor lab to save Kon,
-- and Wonder Girl's powers break down,
-- and Lex gets all talky about his relationship with Kon.
- The Titans run to the rescue of Bludhaven, where Chemo just dropped, and Superman leaves Robin in charge.
- Cassie and Kon head back to Smallville to prevent anyone from calling Cassie "the virgin goddess" again.
- Superboy is the only one to answer Nightwing's rally call to fight the Crisis Thingamajig, so off they go, adorably, while Cassie becomes her brother Ares' mortal champion and catches up with Superboy and Nightwing at the Crisis Thingamajig.
- After a big fight scene (here's the Psycho-Pirate's end), Superboy Prime reappears, smacks down Wonder Girl, and gets fatally (for both of them) smacked down by Kon.

So that's kind of a lot for one book! This is all Crisis stuff and I'm generally "meh" about the Crisis, so, you know, meh. Important plot, etc.

As for the art, did you know that Todd Nauck did an issue of Teen Titans, too? Unfortunately, he seems to have been trying so hard not to make them look like Young Justice that they ended up looking like nothing much at all. Only a few chins here and there gave him away. Scott McDaniel did the Robin issues that I liked in this book -- I really like the cartoonish style, although it was a bit jarring next to the semi-realistic style of the rest of the book. The final battle was from the Infinite Crisis mini itself, and the art was incredibly, overwhelmingly detailed, which worked really well for the emotional tone. (I can't track down who did the art, but it was probably Phil Jimenez.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1,028 reviews19 followers
January 16, 2020
Wow! Really good volume.

Contrary to the cover of this collection, this doesn’t deal with Superboy being brainwashed and attacking his friends. That story belongs to a special crossover that involves the Outsiders.

Instead, this story deals with the aftermath of that event but also events preceding an even grander event, the Infinite Crisis. Donna Troy has gone a long way since she was Wonder Girl but she comes to her old friends to see if they can be able to handle this massive cosmic conflagration.

This story is also set some time after the epic Batman Under the Red Hood storyline, with Jason Todd having been revealed to be Gotham’s wicked new anti-hero. Only he doesn’t don the Red Hood costume but a Robin costume to terrorize his successor Tim Drake. It’s a short read but its emotional. Could have been stronger, the way I see it, Dick Grayson would have been much stronger an opponent for Jason to fight.

But the centerpiece of this story is how Superboy deals with obtaining the trust of his old friends after the brainwashing and how they race to save his life after a harrowing encounter as well as dealing with Superboy-Prime in the events of Infinite Crisis.

In what is one of those “Our Last Night On Earth” stories. Superboy returns to Smallville with Wonder Girl as they truly share their love for each other. It’s a beautiful moment, one that I’m glad the two got to share. Especially when this collection does show the Infinite Crisis issue when Connor dies to save the universe.

Wonderful collection. B+
Profile Image for Amber DiTullio.
Author 1 book15 followers
March 27, 2011
Teen Titans, Vol 5: Life and Death is the next book in the newest incarnation of the Teen Titans. It's getting closer to the time of Infinite Crisis, and things are definitely changing. The Titans have to deal with deceased members of the time returning from the dead and all the pain and horror that entails. Brother Blood and many of the newly-returned-dead are closing in on them, and they are trying to find out which side of the line they're going to be on. Along with this, SuperBoy has some of his own demons to face as he tries to figure out what his purpose is. Just as he is figuring out what his importance is, he must battle his counterpart from a much darker world.

This was one of the saddest graphics that I've read in the Teen Titans line. Not everyone makes it out alive, and the final panels had me in tears. I would definitely not recommend reading this as a stand alone, but if you've been reading up until now, you won't want to miss this one. I know that I didn't regret it (though I did know some of what was going to happen because of my jumping around in the continuity, it was still a blow to the chest to see how things worked out.) This may be one that I'll try to get my hands on for my own collection.
Profile Image for Robert Wright.
218 reviews35 followers
April 30, 2013
Johns continues on a roll here, cranking up the Titans drama to a fever pitch.

As the team deals with the fallout of the events featured in Teen Titans, Vol. 4: The Future is Now, the simmering plot of Superboy's true origins boils over in catastrophic ways. We get a meeting of New Robin (Tim Drake) vs. previous, and previously dead, Old Robin (Jason Todd), as well as a solid lead-in crossover with the event du jour, Infinite Crisis.

Sadly, , but it does help feed the drama of the book for practically the rest of its run.

Every series has its ups and downs, its great runs, so-so stretches, and even godawful issues. Titans volumes 4 & 5 are one of those great runs.
Profile Image for Nicolaus Miller.
35 reviews
April 10, 2016
This one is pretty good, though it has a nasty, idiotically written, notorious scene: That's why the rating's a 3. Other than this it isn't bad; the Titans discovery and fight with Superboy Prime is pretty cool, it's nice and long but that's about all we get out of it. Superboy Prime, a little history about him, not much else. The scene I mentioned at the start of this review will make your skin crawl, fair warning.
Profile Image for Kathleen.
1,949 reviews39 followers
February 25, 2010
During the Crisis, the Titans have to find a way to cure Superboy after his first horrible run in with Superboy-Prime. Since I don't like to focus on what happens during his second run in with Superboy-Prime, let's talk about Cassie instead.

Her powers start to fade, so she drops out of the fight. Perhaps that is a reasonable thing to do tactically, but the whole world is coming to an end and she sits at a farm in Smallville hoping her powers will be magically returned. And they are! Aries gives them back in a bargain that I am sure will never backfire ever. Still, for a girl who is supposed to be carrying the feminist torch for Wonder Woman, she spends an awful lot of page time looking at old photographs and mooning over a boy.
Profile Image for Graysen Baker.
63 reviews
November 27, 2014
'Re-reading the Johns era Teen Titans makes me miss the old line-up so much. The kids felt real and not like some generic attempt at writing teenagers(I'm looking at you Scott Lobdell). The female characters weren't over sexualized like the way some writers like to portray them.They were real teenagers. They worked together and acted like a family. That's what I miss about John's Titans run. The book had been run into the ground hard the last three years by Lobdell but hopefully Will Pfifer can redeem the series. If you are a teen titans fan then you need to read the Johns era run. I highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Jody.
143 reviews
December 12, 2012
Really disappointed in this one. As I have said before, I am a major fan of the Teen Titans. This one the story line jumped all over the place. It was confusing at times. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed this graphic novel, but the story lines are becoming too convoluted and they are trying to do too much in such a short period. Hopefully the next vol. gets back to the type of story that this series started out with!
Profile Image for Gwen.
23 reviews2 followers
June 12, 2016
This was not the first time I'd read the last parts of the Infinite Crisis saga concerning Superboy. my heart breaks each and every time I get to that last panel, but they didn't have the one with Robin so that is a slight relief. I also hadn't had a chance to ready the bits with Robin saving Superboy after SBPrime got his mits on Superboy, so that was good.

iiiiiiiiii am going to go take a breather, now
Profile Image for Sophie.
2,627 reviews116 followers
June 22, 2009
This ties in with the events during Infinite Crisis, and contains a lot of really nice moments, and it helped to clear a few things up. My favourite part was probably and unsurprisingly the part with Dick and Kon on their way to the final showdown.
Profile Image for Kayleen.
239 reviews
December 14, 2010
This was one of the best Teen Titans graphic novels I've read (so far). It was dark and honest, some of the best qualities that a book can have.
The only part that I did not like was the end when they killed Superboy off. I liked him! I hope they can bring him back somehow.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.