In Their Greatest Battle, Flash Chose The Teen Titans Over The Justice League – Screen Rant

For twenty years, Wally West was the Justice League's Flash, but when they clashed with the Teen Titans, the former sidekick picked his first team.

One of the highest honors a comic character can have is being part of multiple teams. It's a testament to a character's popularity when a hero like Wolverine is on different teams. For the third Flash, Wally West, joining the Justice League meant honoring his mentor,though sticking around with the Teen Titans was about being with the team that defined him. But when the Justice League tried to kill a former Titan inJLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative,the Flash didn't hesitate in siding with the Teen Titans.

The miniseries from writer Devin Grayson and artist Phil Jimenez sees former Titans being abducted by strange metal pods. Everyone from Starfire, to Nightwing, to DC's most rebooted hero, Donna Troy,is targeted by the alien technology, which warrants an investigation from the Justice League. Chaos erupts across the planet as not only do the Titans go missing, but a supermassive piece of alien technology consumes the moon. The Justice League tries to attack it, but doing so causes natural disasters to break out all across the planet. Eventually, a handful of the captured Titans are able to break free of their pods underneath Titans Island. The heroes look around and quickly realize something is off. Themost adorable shapeshifter,Beast Boy, is the one to point out that every single living Titan has been captured, all except for Cyborg.

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Cyborg had been growing less and less human with each passing year and had finally given up all organic components to fuse with an artificial hive mind known as Technis. Hewas abducting the Titans because a part of him wanted to rebuild his family. While reserve members deal with the natural disasters, the League sends its strongest members to Titans Island. Having put the pieces together, the League alsodeduces that Cyborg is behind everything happening, which becomes a problem when they finally run into the Titans. The League no longer sees Cyborg as a living being, and thus has no problem with killing him. Disgusted, Wally is the first to protest, telling the world's most powerful superheroes that Cyborg is his friend and that he won't let the League kill him.

The resulting fight is one of the best between two superhero groups. Tempest clashes with Aquaman, Captain Marvel Jr. tackles Superman, and Wally runs circles around Kyle Raynor. Of course, the teams end up working things out after the Titans appeal to the few remaining bits of humanity left in Cyborg. Using technology left to him by an old ally, Cyborg forms a liquid metal body and embraces his friends. With the crisis averted, the two teams reconcile and end up sharing drinks at Guy Gardner's bar.

Reading the comic twenty years later is a breath of fresh air.Marvel's poorly received Civil Warsdon't feel as justified as this does. The League might initially seem callous in their decision to kill Cyborg, but their perspective makes sense. Cyborg was little more than a computer program at the time, one that could accidentally lead to the death of millions. But the Titans' position also makes sense. They know their friend is still there underneath all the technology, and even if there's a slim chance of saving him, they'll take it.