Teen Titans Annual comes in strong with the finale of “The Lazarus Contract.” Deathstroke has achieved his goal by going back in time and reuniting with his son to prevent him from being killed in fight with the Teen Titans.
Writer: Christopher Priest, Benjamin Percy, Dan Abnett
Artist: Paul Pelletier
Publisher: DC Comics
Every character in this issue had moments to shine. Jackson Hyde is a character I was glad to see get some more time to explore his character because after his debut I feel like he’s been sidelined and only has a couple lines per issue. He definitely has some of the best dialog in the issue. Robin as always shows his aggressive side, but at the same time shows signs of him just being tired of this mess and will do anything at this point to see that Deathstroke doesn’t change history again.
This issue does well to genuinely feel like all three issues encompassing “The Lazarus Contract” at the same time. The whole team behind “The Lazarus Contract” have done an outstanding job at putting together a story so intriguing, with powerful dialog and a visually beautiful story to look at. This issue is the best of the series and that mostly has to do with having so much going on and not even for a second does it get boring or bland. With so many writers and artists, and its very many characters attached to this story, it’s easy to have problems or inconsistencies, but there’s no point where it feels like that.
Every plot point is handled extremely well and of course you have to have action in a story like this especially with so many characters, but action scenes can only take you so far and the hero of this story best described with the word “heart.” Deathstroke is a challenging character to write as a father figure, but it was done very well. That being said other characters like Jackson Hyde, Kid Flash, Robin, and Flash were all surprisingly moving characters. The readers can connect with any of them easily because there are so many different kinds of issues and personalities.
Teen Titans Annual is one of the top ten issues to be released this year and “The Lazarus Contract” is one of the top five stories this year. Story aside, this book also has so much wonderful art by Paul Pelletier. The speedster Deathstroke is really something that fans are enjoying and he makes sure that it isn’t tarnished in the short time the character has been around. Dan Abnett’s writing is one of my favorites and I hope we see much more like this soon. If you’re a fan of these characters then this is the story for you. Readers of all kinds can enjoy this for years to come. You can tell right away that this is a story that will be picked up and read again more and more by fans. The final chapter makes almost as much of an impact as the final pages of DC Universe Rebirth and it ends so breathtakingly that you won’t want to wait for the next chapters of Teen Titans and Deathstroke.
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