Teen Titans, Volume 3: The Return of Kid Flash

Teen Titans (2016)

by Benjamin Percy, Alison Borges (Illustrator)

After Robin kicked Kid Flash off the team, the Teen Titans have an open slot in their ranks. Raven, Aqualad, Starfire and Beast Boy wants to give Wally a second chance, but Damian has someone else in mind to fill the vacancy: Green Arrow’s half-sister, Emiko! Will the Red Arrow prove her worth or prove to be Damian’s undoing? Plus, Beast Boy’s suspicious new employer leads the team into danger!
Collects TEEN TITANS #13-14, #16-19 and a story from DC HOLIDAY SPECIAL 20

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Young Adult

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2018

About the author

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The two part Return of Kid Flash story was quite good. I really like Khoi Pham's art. The rest of the book felt like filler. The book overall suffers though from the many crossovers, there is one right before and after this volume, along with the missing Super Sons of Tomorrow issue in the middle of it. Do we really need so many events, DC? Especially when they aren't very good.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so this one was a little tricky for me to rate because it was so freaking confusing. This takes place right after Kid Flash gets kicked out of the Teen Titans and is due to return. Readers get to meet Red Arrow who I've never read anything about prior to reading this comic. What's so unfortunate is that this trade does not include the crossover event needed to make a lot of the story make sense. It is unfortunate because I thought I skipped over something or had a damaged book with missing pages because the jump was that bad. I think that DC could have done without the crossover events and just mainstreamed the story. I also had a hard time dealing with Damien in this one. Usually I have a lot more empathy for him as a character; however, this time around the constant attitude and combative nature made him hard to like even as a morally grey character. A major part of this book does focus on Gar (Beast Boy). He isn't exactly my favorite character in terms of Teen Titans; however, I think his story was a universal thing that a lot of people deal with and it's feeling like the outsider. While I didn't necessarily enjoy the way in which the plot unraveled, I did like the core message. The art was good and I'm looking forward to reading more about this DC team.

[Wing Kee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Against character and tied down by two pretty good events.

World: The art is okay, nothing spectacular. I did not like the Wolfman issue though as I thought we were over the crazy boobs Starfire, but apparently not. The world building is okay, not a lot here because there were a lot of event tie ins between these issues that really changed the landscape for the Teen Titans, and this book leads directly into 'No Justice'. That being said the pieces we get are highly forgettable at the moment...but hey maybe it may lead somewhere for Gar.

Story: The 'Return of Kids Flash' arc was solid, it was quick and to the point and it had Emi which is always great. It's a somewhat satisfying return for Wally. The second arc is really an issue, the Gar story was completely against type even when they tried to make it something it felt wrong. Add to that the 'Ready Player One' ideas and the puppeteer and it was fairly meh. I don't know if it matters down the line but the message was nice but the writing was janky.

Characters: Gar is not himself this arc, the added layer they tried to give him doesn't really work and that as the foundation for the entire story is meh. Puppeteer was half baked and should have been better. The rest of Teen Titans was okay but the characters in the Kori issue was also off.

A lot of off characters and also event tie ins made this fault forgettable.

Onward to the next book!

*read individual issues*

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]

Still reeling from the events of The Lazarus Contract and Dark Nights: Metal, the Teen Titans are down a member. Damian wants to recruit Red Arrow, Green Arrow’s teen sister, but Kid Flash has other ideas – he’ll rejoin the team, but only if Damian apologises to his face! Then, Beast Boy goes solo and runs afoul of a virtual reality cult – but when they seem like truer friends than the Teen Titans, how will the team convince him to return before he loses his very humanity?

Teen Titans is a bit of a hodge-podge at the moment. The previous volume skipped an issue for Dark Nights: Metal, while this volume has a gap in the middle for the Super Sons crossover, so it’s all a bit disjointed. That said, Ben Percy does the best he can to try and keep things consistent and work around the interruptions.

We open with the Return Of Kid Flash story, which is actually more like two one-shots tied together. Red Arrow seems like a good foil for Damian, so I’m not surprised new writer Adam Glass is using her for his run as well, while the Wally/Damian dynamic is interesting enough that the fact that Wally’s only been off the team for about two issues not seem as problematic as it is. I do feel that this book can sometimes skew too much Damian-wards, and forget about the other members of the team, and these two issues don’t really do much to assuage that problem, but the following four after the break in the middle are a lot more evenly spread.

First there’s a one-shot from Marv Wolfman that focuses on Starfire, whose been criminally underused in this title so it’s nice to see her in the spotlight, before the three part ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’ story featuring Beast Boy as the lead character as the team begins to fracture around him. Gar’s got a reputation for running when things get tough (see: the Doom Patrol, and Geoff Johns’ Titans run), so it’s definitely in character for him here, and the new group that he finds appeals right to his sensibilities, so it’s a nice little spotlight story that reminds us why this team is actually a good fit for each other even if they were assembled under false pretenses (the fact that Gar, Raven, and Kori leave after this because of No Justice notwithstanding).

Khoi Pham rounds off his almost unbroken Titans run with the Return Of Kid Flash arc, while Tom Derenick (who I think has been drawing comics as long as I’ve been alive at this point) handles the Starfire issue before Scot Eaton tackles the Beast Boy three issues. They’re all fairly similar in tone, and colourist Jim Charalampadis colours all of them I believe so the visuals remain pretty consistent throughout.

This series kind of peaked with its first story arc, which is a bit of a shame, but it’s not really the creative team’s fault – with last minute artist shake-ups and events slicing through it at every interval, it’s a wonder that it’s as good as it is, really. This last volume for Ben Percy is a solid little outing for the characters, nothing offensive or groundbreaking, but good Titans fun that we can all enjoy.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story: Just a bunch of single or two-parter arcs for the teen titans. A lot of this feels all over the place and nothing really important happens. The opening is with Damien trying to become a decent leader. On top of that get some cool moments with Emi and Damien and Damien forming a crush on her. The rest of the one shots and such are just trying to build up the other titans.

Art: It's okay. Feels very generic and besides a couple of cool fight scenes and Raven's amazing design, the rest is okayish.

Enjoyment. Emi and Damien together are super cute. Also Emi as a person makes any book better and Ben knows how to write her well.

What Didn't Work: Most of the stories are just generic one shots that add little to any of the characters. The ending goes right into No Justice, which sucks. The art is okay at best.

Overall...okay. A 2 out of 5 at best...

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting storyline to close out a pretty good run of Titans.

We have multiple stories here like Robin trying to recruit Emiko and then the thing with Kid Flash and how he comes back and they all team up to defeat Onomatoepia and save Star city from drowning and its a good two parter showing how far the team has come.

Then a vacation story and a Starfire focused story where she fights Psions and rescues her friends and its an alright and an average story tbh, not the best one.

But the big one with Beast Boy and how he meets this girl Joran who has some tech called "Pixie" which she uses to make holographic reality called Neverland but its really mind control tech and when Gar is under he control, the TT have to team up and save their friend and it has a good lesson about accepting reality and moving on and its really well done and teaches you a lot of things and ending with Brainiac invasion during "No Justice".

Its an okay volume and has multiple stories, some good and some not good but does well in showing how this iteration of TT are there for each others and shows their growth and friendship and is pretty fun read that way! The art is just okay tbh. So yeah give it a read for sure!

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed seeing Emiko! Always a pleasure! I really loved that Damian admired her skill and intelligence. She responded to him in a way that was rather unique because most people in this series are just mean to Damian 24/7 (and consider themselves his friends when the plot calls for it). I wish I could see more of them working together. I really like their friendship.

This was Gar heavy and I’m not a fan of Gar in this series. As amusing as it was that it sort of seemed to imply that Gar went solo because Damian wouldn’t love him, I didn’t love that plot either.

I still don’t understand why Starfire has been dumbed down. I don’t see quite the same focus and fire in Koriand’r as she had in the 1980s run. Especially regarding her desire to make sure no one experiences the captivity she faced. Granted, there really haven’t been plots geared towards that but Kori’s agency is what I think about the most when I think of her character.

I think I’ve pinpointed what really bugs me about this series: in every other Rebirth book I’ve read, Damian has already crossed into making real friends who love him and know when he’s actually trying. He’s been shown to have a heart and a softness when it comes to people he really cares about. He’s been shown to have a softness towards the civilians he saves. This series shows none of that?

I feel like Damian’s constantly being regressed to a combative, mean and (sometimes) cruel individual just to present conflict between the team members and... why? Why aren’t the bad guys enough of a conflict for the team to face? Why does every issue have to show Damian being mean, someone yelling at him about that and then someone running off because their feelings are hurt? It’s tiring, it’s annoying and it doesn’t make anyone look good, to be honest. Why are they still a team? Why does Damian continue to stay when every issue shows that no one has a kind word for him? Why not allow him to show any growth in this series as has been shown in the other series he appears in?

I just can’t imagine why the same cycle keeps happening again and again. Even worse, it presents an opportunity for others who don’t read any other series to say “hey, see, Damian’s a jerk” but... this series is the only Rebirth series I’ve read where Damian doesn’t progress beyond that stage.

*sighs*.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pompous moralizing by teens and tweens is only slightly less annoying in fiction than in real life.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume's biggest problem is that it's sandwiched between three different crossovers: Metal, a Super Sons crossover, and No Justice. It's pretty hard to maintain a coherent story through all of that, and Percy doesn't really try, just offering some character-focused one-offs. And it's pretty hard caring about it, knowing that there's almost a total team reboot coming at the end.

So we get a decent two-issue story about Damian trying to recruit Red Arrow while the rest of the team gets Kid Flash back. It'd be a good procedural/character story if it only mattered for the future of the team.

Then we get a shockingly horrible Starfire story by Marv Wolfman.

And finally we get a dull, overly long story that suggests that Beast Boy has almost no history as a hero and is ready to betray everyone and everything at the drop of a hat. Which, maybe is true, but who knows in modern DC continuity? It's pretty disappointing if it's true. (And the villain and plot are just color by numbers.)

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of it was quite interesting and fun to read. Mostly Wally's arc. But after that, it felt a bit off. I don't know if having Marv Wolfman around derailed things a bit (though I appreciated him bringing back back Raven's soul-self if only for an issue). But Raven felt more off than usual in the "Not easy being green" storyline.

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bunch of random thrown together plots because of the Metal crossover that ends with Teen Titans going into...you guessed it...another crossover. Sigh.

[Beelzefuzz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another attempt by Percy to make a Black Mirror episode about technology without him understanding technology very well. It is at least readable.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

Wally West / Kid Flash rejoins the Teen Titans. The team goes on more missions together.

[charlotte, · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5)

Rep: Black gay character, Black character, Japanese American side character

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume of the Teen Titans divides into several stories, and though they interlock, they are more easily described separately. They are:
"The Return of Kid Flash" - Since Kid Flash has been fired, there has been tension in the team. Trying to appease them, Robin passes leadership to Starfire. As soon as she is in charge, her and the rest of the team go off to try to encourage Kid Flash to come back, while Robin goes out in search of a new member. Setting his sights on Red Arrow (Emiko Queen), he gets involved in an adventure with her facing off against Onomatopoeia, When they begin to fail, the Teen Titans are called into help, and afterwards, Robin makes peace with Wally and welcomes him back to the team.
"Holiday Spirit: - An attack from the spirit realm has the Teen Titans facing off against "The Ghost of Christmas Past". Starfire, having not celebrated Christmas being from Tamaran, tries to learn about the real reasons for the season.
"Alone Against the World" - The Teen Titans slowly get taken over by influence of the Psions, leaving Starfire to fight alone against them, while she tries to save her team. An excellent example of just how powerful Kory is.
"It's Not Easy Being Green" - In the aftermath of the events of "Super Sons of Tomorrow", the Tower has been destroyed. Tension between team members is high and Beast Boy decides that he wants to go solo for a while. He meets a fan of his named Joran, and she is the owner and operator of a VR-centered game company called Nevrland. Actually, the company is creating mind-control devices. When this fact is discovered, the team heads in to get Beast Boy out.

Teen Titans is a really good DC title and manages to have the team dynamic while also being able to focus on the individual. I look forward to seeing what is next for this title.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teen Titans: The Return of Kid Flash picks up where the previous trade paperback left off, collecting six issues (13–19) of the 2016 on-going series and the short story "Holiday Spirit" from the DC Holiday Special 2017.

This trade paperback centers on mostly on Wally West as Kid Flash. Damian Wayne as Robin kicked Kid Flash off the team, because of his action during the Lazarus Contract, which gives the team an open slot in their ranks. Raven, Aqualad, Starfire and Beast Boy wants to give Wally a second chance, but Damian Wayne already has someone else in mind – Emiko Queen, Green Arrow’s half-sister.

The second half of the trade paperback deals with Garfield Logan as Beast Boy finds a new employer after having enough of Damian Wayne as Robin's antics as leader. However, this new team is more than meets the eye, which Beast Boy and the Teen Titans would soon learn.

Benjamin Percy, Marv Wolfman, and Shea Fontana penned the trade paperback and for the most part, I rather enjoyed the narrative. It is interesting to see the aftermath of Damian Wayne’s decision to fire Kid Flash from the team and how they reacted to it.

Khoi Pham, Tom Derenick, Scot Eaton, and Otto Schmidt are the pencilers for the trade paperback. For the most part, their penciling styles are rather unique and do not mesh well with each other, which made the artistic flow of the trade paperback rather disjointed.

All in all, Teen Titans: The Return of Kid Flash is a somewhat good continuation for this Teen Titans series and I cannot wait to read further.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

W zasadzie byłoby o oczko wyżej, ale nie wszystkie historie z tego zbioru (bodajże cztery) są grzechu warte. Początek jest niezły, kiedy Damian szuka nowych rekrutów do swojego zespołu. Ląduje w Star City i swoim "urokiem osobistym" próbuje nakłonić Emiko (Red Arrow) do wspólnych wojaży (serduszko mu też zabiło szybciej przy dziewczynie).

Szkopuł w tym, że zagrożenie jest na tyle duże, że nie obędzie się bez pomocy reszty zespołu, a i wsparcie jakiegoś sprintera by się przydało. Tu ponownie widzimy Kid Flasha, zresztą tak zdradza sam tytuł omawianego tomu. To pierwsze zeszyty. Potem przyznam, że przysypiałem.

Bo solowe przygody Starfire są nudne, jak flaki z olejem. Najsłabsze historie nieco wybijają z rytmu. Całość nabiera rumieńców dopiero przy ostatnich zeszytach, gdzie niskie morale Beast Boya pcha go w objęcia niejakiej Joran aka Pixie, która dysponuje zagadkową zaawansowaną technologią. Po wszczepieniu chipu w głowę pozwala to zanurzyć się w holograficznej rzeczywistości i oderwać się od problemów. Niestety w realnym świecie "gracz" staje się niewolnikiem zarządcy, robiąc co ten sobie zażyczy, nawet nie wiedząc, że taka sytuacja ma miejsce...

Sporo akcji okraszono całkiem fajną kreską i kolorkami odpowiadającymi "żywotności" ekipy. Wygląda to bardzo fajnie, w tej materii nie ma rozczarowania. Solidny tom, kończący przygody Nastoletnich Tytanów w tej odsłonie.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this comic a solid 3 and a half stars. I liked the growing dynamic between all of the members of the Titans and Starfire taking a more prominent role. I also enjoyed delving a little more into Beast Boys background story. I would recommend this comic for people that like anything to do with the Teen Titans and Damian being the Robin in charge. Also there is a lot of Raven/Kid Flash shipping content if that's your thing.

SPOILERS:
- AHHH Kid Flash and Raven kiss --- literally yes
- You see them in their regular clothes for a bit and its so cute what the heck
- Damian actually kinda says sorry to Kid Flash in his own stupid way
- The friendship banter between Starfire and Beast Boy (her not knowing sayings and him having to correct her) was honestly really cute
- action was great and I really enjoyed the ending fight scene where Beast Boy decides to go into VR with that random girl because he's just a depressed teen like the rest of us :/ -- also why the heck did she randomly kiss him --> back up girly he is way too good for you!!
- sometimes the random cross overs with other series' led me to be confused about what had happened and I didn't have the energy to read them so I guess that's also a little bit of my fault whoops.

[Arthi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume mostly focuses on Beast Boy's feelings of not belonging and his desire for a family. It's not bad overall, but nothing too exciting either. A romantic relationship that's been in the "will they won't they" stage for a while finally comes to fruition, and Damian sort of finds his groove in the Teen Titans family. There are two panels that I really loved though: one is when Beast Boy cruelly tells Damian he doesn't have any friends and the entire team shows up and Starfire contradicts him. Very heart warming. And then I also like Damian's reaction to Goliath getting hurt. Even though Damian himself was falling from the sky his first concern was Goliath being okay and he even gave the beast a hug. He of course, did this while calling Goliath a "stupid bat," rather than more affetionate words, but you could clearly see the sentiment.

This is the last volume with the current roster, which is a little disappointing because I don't think they've fully formed a bond like the titans usually do. I'm going to reread No Justice to see how the change takes place and hope it goes well.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Percy takes pains to externalize some character growth and internal conflict in this one, and it works--in part. The more natural work (stereotyped as one could argue it is) occurs between Robin and Red Arrow. That dynamic had real potential and felt natural rather than feeling like an over externalized internal conflict. The Robin/Kid Flash arc that started the volume plays out well, it's a we're growing and maturing story, but focused on Damian and Wally, who are some of the younger, less mature Titans makes it work well. Unfortunately the closing arc is pounds on the idea of Gar's perpetual immaturity and the need for him to grow up, even bringing in explicit Peter Pan references. Ugh. Even more problematic it makes no sense given the generational gaps that should be present between Gar and Kory and the rest. It's really pretty sad. This is the same Beast Boy should grow up he doesn't know who he wants to be story that was being told every couple of months by Wolfman and Perez back in the eighties.

[Georgie Zakka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first arc was meh, the second was meh and the third was meh and a half


The first arc: I guess this was cool, it had emiko from green arrow and there was a cute scene where she kisses Damian on the cheek and he blushes also Wally and raven start dating?



The second arc: very short and didn’t matter much, don’t care for it


The third arc: this girl is brainwashing people in to doing what she says because of attention? Beast boy is so sad in this and is not cheery and happy at all. You don’t notice aqualad like ever in this and Wally is still annoying to me.
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Overall meh book, this does not stand up to the other volumes, kinda disappointing

[Lucas Lima · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent ending for Benjamin Percy's run on the Titans. But, well, i believe the first two volumes were a lot better. The first two chapters on this one was nice (although i didn't read anything from this Metal, Death Metal stuff), it was a nice story with Emiko on it. Percy did his on microverse, as his was writing Green Arrow back in the day as well, i believe.

And then, we got to nice chapters, wit Starfire as main character and then the ending, with a arc with Beast Boy on the focus that didn't got me. Another evil company, trying to controlling everybody, blaming their past and everything they suffer. Just a random story, but with some nice lines, especially on the ending.

[Jos Trinidad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last arc of this volume definitely moved it up for me. I think that I didn't connect with the beginning as much as there is definitely a lot of plot that I missed that happens between issues that makes the story. I will probably have to re-read this after I can figure out what I missed out on. But the ending of this and the use of the story of Peter Pan was a really great allegory in a volume about a group of kids. The immaturity and the never-grow-up nature of the team is woven into the name, so having it distinguish itself amongst that trope is something I didn't think I'd see, but so very much welcomed.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

So sick of cross over events interrupting the story. DC used to be better about not letting their cross over events jack up the story line in their main comics. There were 3 in this trade alone. If you want me to read more of your product, do it with quality story telling, not hacked incomplete plot lines. PS, can we drop the gross out of place sexual innuendos from Beast Boy? I know that was his character in the 70’s but its hasn’t been lately and it is no longer acceptable and shouldn’t have been in the 1st place

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part this is a pretty solid Teen Titans story. I like Robin having his weird hairy monster bat. It's a nice bit a continuity with that short-lived Robin series from awhile back. I guess the problem here is Kid Flash. And it's not his fault. Ever since Rebirth kicked off we've been dragging along this storyline with a new Kid Flash bumping up against the OG Kid Flash from the Pre-Rebirth days and it's just tired. If that's truly over and done with then I'm looking forward to the next volume. I wasn't really down for a Damian fronted Teen Titans, but this book has surprised me.

For more on Robin, tune in to this special spotlight we did for the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...

[Joey Amorim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, Benjamin Percy's heart clearly wasn't in it at this point and honestly, I can't blame him. Before this volume, you have to read Dark Nights: Metal, then in the middle it gets interrupted by a Super Sons crossover, then at the very end it has a cliffhanger for Justice League: No Justice. I think this is the first time I've seen a book get so badly derailed by just the sheer amount of crossovers and events it was forced to be involved in, which is a shame, because I was really liking the direction Percy was taking the series as it was getting started.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like a good development for the whole cast of characters from the first couple collections. The whole Super-Sons-of Tomorrow tie in was kind of annoying, but fortunately I had that handy to fill in the gaps. Still the story here doesn't depend on that and is really about the characters finding themselves and their relationships in the aftermath.

[Taylor Ramirez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good volume! I felt like the art was a little bit downgraded from what we had seen in the previous issues. However I really liked the development for the characters. I liked meeting Emiko and Robin’s development. I absolutely adore Starfire so her getting her own solo stories was great. I really sympathize with Beast Boy and it was a great way to end off this amazing book!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I have read WAY more books than I've actually reviewed, so this is a knee-jerk reaction. Too many books to read and review... so little time!*

Kid Flash is back! Yay! Damian still learning to be a friend and a leader. Love it! An entire story arc dedicated to understanding Beast Boy beyond just comic relief. Awesome!