You Balding Baldy. Balderdan. Balderanadingdong.
The Good: We get a decent enough summary of the two teams' current status quo as this IS a crossover. I haven't been reading the Teen Titans that lead up to this, but I don't exactly feel completely lost. I hope readers of Teen Titans who didn't read Outsiders were similarly eased into this crossover.
I REALLY like Matthew Clark's work. He did some phenomenal stuff on his later issues of Doom Patrol, and I can see his same quality shining through. He does a great job with some VERY intense pages, and generally his work is just incredibly athstetically pleasing. Plus, he draws the PERFECT Indigo.
The fighting in this issue is completely badass. Superboy is just smashing his way through the Teen Titans, and it makes perfect sense. Every key moment is carefully chosen action.
There's problems I have with the reveal of Indigo as the mole, but I have to say, her 'true' identity is interesting, and her new appearance, while not cute and aodrable, is still very much awesome.
The Bad: This cover SHOULD work, but it doesn't quite get there. The idea is solid, but the shadows on Superboy's face are just weird, and if you look at his exposed chest is appears to be as smooth as a piece of freaking metal.
Indigo was the traitor? That... doesn't really add up. First off, her big moment here is set off by Luthor, so the question of who was workign for Deathstroke..... or, I guess Deathstroke was never a part of that? How does that all work?
But the biggest problem is that it's just too damn obvious. I guess for combat reasons Indigo's a good choice for a formidable opponent, but from a story standpoint, it just doesn't work.
In Conclusion: 3.5/5
Johns' doesn't quite 'get' the Outsiders the way Winick does, so some of the subtleties are lost. But this is Teen Titans, and the handling of the Teen Titans seems great. And Matthew Clark's art handles all the plot points of the issue with perfect synch. I just really don't like the sudden twist in the Outsiders story. I feel like Geoff Johns just leeched onto the Outsiders at a key moment and completely derailed the story because he felt like crossing over the two series who shared and inception point.