Teen Titans #20-23 Review

Come one, come all to the Countdown before Countdown! We are post Identity Crisis, the powder keg paving the way for the event to end all events. I will stand here and say that this era of the DCU might be the most unified and exciting it has ever been (though a close second would have to be 2016-2017 Rebirth era). I would even dare call Countdown itself an event with how much impact it has line wide. With Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, and Judd Winick at the helm maneuvering all the power players into the places they need to be, there's not much that can go wrong!

[Teen Titans Vol 5 - Light's Out]

• Teen Titans #20 - "Hiding" = Awesome Identity Crisis epilogue. I loved the angle Johns tackled here, picking up the scraps of an interesting leftover sequence from the event's first issue: why was Bolt securing Luthor's Warsuit? Getting into Tim's head as he tries to suppress his emotions after his father's death is compelling as mess, and I loved that final moment where he lets his friends in and accepts their help. Excited for this Lex plot since I have some vague recollections of his story in Villains United + Infinite Crisis. Who is his partner? What does he have in store for Conner? The Green Arrow epilogue is crazy as well, Doctor Rape is unleashed!
• Teen Titans #21 - Light's Out, Part I : "The New Kid" = This was dope! Loved menacing Doctor Light and his sequence with Ollie at the beginning, but Mia and Cyborg were the standouts of this issue. I'm loving that we've gotten through the bulk of the teen angst of this run and now we can focus on the more interesting character development. I've never read anything with Mia Dearden in it, but Johns made me fall in love with her after just a couple pages. I'm assuming what she was going to tell Cyborg was that she has HIV (which I know of due to comic osmosis).  Did enjoy each super-team reaching out to the Titans, as well as the follow up to the reveal of the villain mind wipes from Identity Crisis.
• Teen Titans #22 - Light's Out, Part II : "War & Peace" = I was really enjoying this until the Hawk and Dove stuff came out of absolutely nowhere and through the whole pacing off. We started with some great Raven narration, but it feels like it was abandoned once we hit the midpoint. That Batman scene was very strange, but I think it's supposed to be Deathstroke impersonating him? Not sure who's posing as Cassandra Cain though, but it has to be someone in the Secret Society. Overall great first half, but I hope next issue can make up for the lost momentum.
• Teen Titans #23 - Light's Out, Part III : "Secrets & Lies" = Well dang! Loved the huge brawl, especially Cyborg's combos, but that final sequence between the titans was wonderful: I definitely could tell that it inspired Greg Weisman since it's totally adapted into the first season of Young Justice. As for the Deathstroke/Ravager reveal, I'm hoping I don't force myself to read Judd Winick's Outsiders run to prepare for the upcoming "Insiders" crossover since I didn't enjoy his writing in Graduation Day. Then again, I'm going to read "Under The Hood" anyways, so I guess I better get used to it regardless. But how did they take Bruce & Cassandra's place, where were the actual Batman and Batgirl? And how the heck did they get a batwing?