Teen Titans #22
Teen Titans (Vol. 3) #22 is the pivotal middle chapter of the 'Lights Out' arc, Geoff Johns's direct Teen Titans follow-up to Identity Crisis, and it is the issue where the restored, fully-powered Doctor Light makes his most brutal statement against the next generation of DC heroes — crippling Kid Flash, repelling Superboy and Wonder Girl, and proving that the mind-wipe explored in Identity Crisis had genuine, lasting consequences for the DCU's younger heroes. The issue also contains the reveal that the figures who appear to be Batman and Batgirl observing the battle are actually Deathstroke and Rose Wilson/Ravager in disguise, a storytelling sleight-of-hand that tightens the ongoing Deathstroke-versus-Titans thread running through the Johns era. As a designated key issue in one of the most critically praised Teen Titans relaunches in the title's history, it captures Johns and McKone at the height of their collaborative run on the series — a run historians credit with finally matching the narrative ambition of the classic Wolfman/Pérez era.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was written by Geoff Johns with pencils by Mike McKone, inks by Marlo Alquiza, colors by Jeromy Cox, lettering by Comicraft, and editorial oversight from Tom Palmer Jr. and Eddie Berganza — the same core team that had driven Teen Titans Vol. 3 since its 2003 launch. It was published on March 16, 2005, with a cover date of May 2005, during a period when DC was weaving its titles tightly together in the wake of Identity Crisis, and the 'Lights Out' arc served as the in-continuity Young Hero side of that event's fallout. The series it belongs to — Teen Titans Vol. 3 — was itself noted by DC historians as the first relaunch since Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's run to genuinely recapture critical and fan momentum for the franchise.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published March 16, 2005 (cover date: May 2005); part of Teen Titans (Vol. 3), DC Comics.
- Story title: 'Lights Out, Part II of III: War and Peace' — the second chapter of a three-part Identity Crisis follow-up arc.
- Creative team: writer Geoff Johns; penciller Mike McKone; inker Marlo Alquiza; colorist Jeromy Cox; letterer Comicraft; editors Tom Palmer Jr. and Eddie Berganza.
- Doctor Light, freed from the magical mind-wipe explored in Identity Crisis #2, demonstrates his fully restored powers against the Titans: he siphons Superboy's heat vision, repels the mystical light on Wonder Girl's lasso, and fires a bolt of light into Kid Flash's already-injured knee.
- A major in-story misdirect: two characters who appear throughout the issue as Batman and Batgirl are revealed to actually be Deathstroke and Rose Wilson/Ravager in disguise.
- Rose Wilson (Ravager) had first appeared in costume as the fourth Ravager back in Teen Titans #8 (2004); her disguised appearance here is a continuation of the Deathstroke subplot, not a first appearance.
- This issue is reprinted in the Teen Titans: The Future Is Now trade paperback collection.
- Designated as a key issue in Teen Titans Vol. 3 by Key Collector Comics.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Teen Titans #4 (2006), DC Universe #13 (2006), Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Omnibus #[nn] (2013), DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection #77 (2016), Teen Titans by Geoff Johns #3 (2019), Teen Titans #6
Key issues in Teen Titans
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