Teen Titans #5

A nice splash page to start the big battle against Superboy. Except for the part where Solstice's name is spelled incorrectly.

Superboy shows off his telekinesis right from the start, knocking the Teen Titans off-kilter. But Kid Flash makes a speed pun like a good speedster and races in to pummel Superboy. But Superboy gets to crow about having psionic powers!



Why, actually, Superboy, yes he can. I touched upon this while reading Issue #3. Kid Flash has to be able to think faster than a normal person to effectively use his super speed. The effect, from Kid Flash's point of view, would be the slowing down of everything around him. So if we consider that Kid Flash entered 5,000 four digit codes in a few seconds (we'll say he got lucky and guessed the code at exactly half), then by the time Superboy could even say, "Do you think you can run faster than I can think?", Kid Flash could have done at least 5,000 different actions that take a normal second.

But he doesn't and Superboy catches him in his Telekinesis and begins shaking him to death. I can buy this though due to Kid Flash's total lack of experience and intelligence!

I just wanted to point out that writers of the speedster heroes always end up relying on the "can't outrun the speed of thought" bullshit. I think the only way this would be true is if Kid Flash's opponent was Billy Mumy's character from the Twilight Zone where the speed of thought actually changed reality as the boy thought it. But when the speed of thought still depends on a reaction in the physical world and not instantaneous magic, it's still going to fail against Kid Flash who HAS to be thinking thousands of times faster than everyone else. Or else he's basically deaf and blind as he runs around at supersonic speeds.

During the battle, the Titans attack Superboy one after the other instead of working like a team. Such a rookie mistake!

And this is how the battle ends:


My guess as to the guest star: Danny the Street!

If I thought there would be a part two to this battle next issue, my guess would be they finally work together to defeat him. But apparently something Red Robin and Solstice said to Superboy during the fight got him thinking. Maybe he doesn't feel bad about beating up and catching super powered kids. But he at least feels like he's being treated like a dog by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and turns on them.


This panel goes directly before the last panel if you want to know how he finishes that thought.

And off he goes back to his own comic book! Which I'll finish up now!