Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day

Supercbbox| title = Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day
comic_color = background:#8080ff


caption =
schedule =
format = limited series
publisher = DC Comics
date = 2003
issues = Three
past_current_color = background:#ff9275
main_char_team = Young Justice
The Titans
Indigo
Superman robots
writers = Judd Winick
artists = Ale Garza, Trevor Scott
pencillers = Ale Garza
inkers = Trevor Scott
colorists = Jeromy Cox
creative_team_month =
creative_team_year =
creators =

"Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day" was a three part comic book limited series from DC Comics written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Ale Garza (pencils) and Trevor Scott (inks).

Overview

Published early July to August 2003 it was a cross-over event between The Titans and Young Justice and would be the last time either of these teams would appear as both were dissolved at the series' end. The Mini-series was used to set up the current Teen Titans and the current Outsiders ongoing series introducing new Outsiders character Indigo and killed off one of the eldest Teen Titans characters (Omen) and began the resurrection of Metamorpho (the Metamopho shown here is in fact 'Shift' a new Metamorpho grown from a fragment of the original, but Metamopho did eventually return in Outsiders to challenge this duplicate some time later).

It is also been retroactively tied into the Infinite Crisis event via the DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy.

Plot

The story beings with Donna Troy having a dream where she is locked in constant battle, she is in fact seeing her 'death' at the end of the story.

The story then begins proper with the fictional Optitron corporation offering to fund The Titans and/or Young Justice. Their sales pitch fails on the Titans because of Nightwing's impatience and Omen's ability to read minds, revealing their ulterior motive as a large tax write-off though they do indeed want to help. Arsenal convinces Nightwing to wait and hear them out. The cooperation (which is secretly owned by Batman's company Wayne Enterprises) would later fund Arsenal's Outsiders in the new "Outsiders"' titles that followed this series, which Nightwing would join.

Meanwhile a mysterious robot, later revealed named Indigo arrives in the DCU's present and begins to search out other cybernik lifeforms for help. After she accidentally destroys Platinum, Lead and Iron of the Metal Men she is lead to Cyborg, one of the Titans' members and former New Teen Titans character who is with the rest of the team and Young Justice at the Optitron cooperation's building. But The Titans, specifically Argent see Indigo's attempt to interface with Cyborg and use him to install a self repair program (which was her intention in earlier scenes) as an attack, which causes the robot to switch into a defensive mode. A battle with Titans and Young Justice members ensues and leaves Argent and Empress hospitalized, Impulse injured and a badly damaged Cyborg. She then flees badly damaged and the injured super-heroes are rushed into hospital at the start of the following issue.

The battle leaves Robin, Nightwing and Wonder Girl questioning their team's and their own personal effectiveness. While the wounded heroes are tended to Indigo attacks a S.T.A.R. Labs facility in Silicon Valley in desperate need of repair. She fights off the armed forces stationed there leading to her releasing a Superman Robot that rampages nearly destroying the facility. Responding to seeing the rampaging 'Superman' on television the remaining able bodied Titans and Young Justice members (and Impulse, who is able to heal faster due to the Speed Force) confront the robot, thinking it to be Superman at first. When Lillith (who has met the real Superman before) cannot sense his thoughts, she approaches the robot which breaks her neck, killing her instantly, the robot then badly injures Tempest.

The fight between the remaining heroes and the Superman Robot encompasses nearly the whole of the third issue. The robot has all of Superman's abilities minus his invulnerability (though still very resilient) including Ice Breath, Heat vision, Flight and Super Speed making it more powerful than most of the characters fighting against it and is shown to be faster than Impulse and Superboy and at least a match for Donna Troy. Of Note Nightwing acts as a 'overall leader' during the fight commanding the members of both teams. Donna is able to take the Superman robot away from the compound for a more even fight while she, Superboy and Nightwing battle it there, Indigo tells Arsenal and Robin that she can stop the robot and they fix her, while they do 'Metamorpho' (in fact Shift) returns, presumably he was in the same compound as the Superman Robot was kept. The robot is fixed in time to stop the robot (with only one hit) but not fast enough to stop it from attacking Donna Troy, whom it kills with its' heat vision after she saves Nightwing from it and pummels it.

The series ends with a grand funeral for Donna Troy (Omen's funeral was a quiet one that happened off panel) and the aftermath which are two arguments. The first between Robin, Superboy and the incredibly disillusioned Wonder Girl is the disbanding of Young Justice (Cyborg is seen looking preempting the new "Teen Titans" series) and the second between Arsenal and the incredibly disillusioned Nightwing is the ending of The Titans. Many people are in attendance including super-villain Angle Man, who previously became enamoured with Donna in the Wonder Woman comic.

Note: The final scene of the story is Donna Troy in a strange Valhalla like land, possibly the same from her dreams, picking up a sword and shield and looking on a floating island, it is unknown how this ties into present continuity given her rebirth at the hands of the Titans of Myth.

Lasting Effects

* Young Justice and The Titans officially disbanded
* Omen is killed leading onto a later story in the third volume of Teen Titans where her zombie is chosen as the final mother of the third Brother Blood.
* Nightwing adopts a more impersonal attitude to being in a 'super team' rather than making it a family like the Teen Titans/Titans were, which runs through the Outsiders series until Donna Troy's return.
* Indigo and Shift introduced to the DC Universe setting up the full return of Metamorpho and the eventual "The Insiders" crossover between The Teen Titans and The Outsiders which would also fully explain Superboy's origins, as well as Indigo's.

Trivia

* For the first few pages of the issue, Omen's hair is colored blonde, she is in fact a Redhead.
* Donna Troy's funeral includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Wally West (the current Flash) whom she knew from the Teen Titans, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner her former lover), Aquaman, both Green Arrows, Beast Boy, Zatanna, Plastic Man all then current members of the Justice Society of America, Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel, Angle Man, Empress, Argent, Impulse, as well as many who cannot be made out.

ources

* Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day (DC Comics, 2003)
* [http://www.titanstower.com titanstower.com, various pages]