It’s a weird thing for Paul Dini to forget. That said, I don’t know if it would necessarily raise questions about Bruce Wayne’s identity unless everyone was aware that the Red Hood was a former Robin. I’m not even sure how many people outside of the superhero circles even know that Jay and Tim aren’t the same Robin. Otherwise, the story is that the kid who was supposedly murdered by the Joker has actually survived and taken on his attempted killer’s old identity.
But they weren’t together on the same team, and the fact that the Monitor was after her means it could have been from a different universe entirely.
1 Like
Well, at least Black Mask figured it out in Under the Hood. There’s also a question of how people would know his identity in the first place… the only supervillain who knows is the Joker, and it would be odd for him to mention it without mentioning the Robin thing.
1 Like
I’m already forgetting what happened in the TT issues, but the rest of the Titans team figured out it was Jason that attacked Tim, right? If this Duela was part of the TT at one point, she might have found out there. Then again, I kinda doubt that Duela would be on speaking terms with any of the TT if she’s just randomly kidnapping folks for money.
1 Like
This story is directly following the Titans East arc, where Deathstroke attacked the Teen Titans with his own group. Duela starts off on Deathstroke’s side but then switches allegiances.
Oh yeah, isn’t that the team that started with them killing off Ryan Choi off panel and showing his tiny corpse in a matchbox?
…Man, this was a dark period at DC.
1 Like
Don’t forget the later part of Countdown, wherein the zany comedy duo of Trickster and piper gets sharply derailed when Trickster dies and Piper has to lug his rotting corpse handcuffed to him around, semi-deliriously speaking to him the whole time.
Yeah, this was sure A Time in comics.
Eh, that happened after Final Crisis, and it was a different Deathstroke Titans team.
2 Likes
Oh, I suppose that had to be the one where Slade basically brainwashed Cass to become a villain.
Deathstroke should just not make Titans teams.
2 Likes
Yes, Duela was on the Evil Cassandra Titans team. 
UPDATE POST FOR WEEK 2 (JULY 12-18)
This week, we’re looking at issues 47-43 of Countdown. Here’s the reading guide:
-
Holly Robinson was introduced in Batman: Year One, and she was a recurring character in the 2001 Catwoman series. She had recently taken on the Catwoman identity herself (as part of the One Year Later time jump in issue #53) until she had to flee as a result of the storyline “Catwoman Dies” (issues #66-68).
-
Why are the Amazons attacking? Read Wonder Woman (2006 series) #6-8, Amazons Attack # 1, WW #9, AA #2, WW #10, AA #3, and Teen Titans #48 for the story so far!
-
Bart Allen’s aforementioned story “Full Throttle” concludes in The Fastest Man Alive #11-13.
-
Sleez was introduced in an infamous story from Action Comics #592-593, and he returned for Superman Annual #2 and Adventures of Superman #475.
-
Karate Kid and the Legion of Super-Heroes were recently part of the Lightning Saga that ran in the pages of the 2006 Justice League of America and Justice Society of America series. The five-parter ran thus: JLA #8, JSA #5, JLA #9, JSA #6, and JLA #10.
-
Monarch is a villain who originally appeared in the event Armageddon 2001. The original plan was to reveal that he was Captain Atom, but the fans figured it out ahead of time, and he was quickly reworked to be Hank “Hawk” Hall. Captain Atom got his own shiny new Monarch suit at the end of The Battle For Blüdhaven, which he is seen sporting recently in Ion #10. (Go ahead and read the following two issues while you’re at it.)
Okay, I hope that helps. This update took some time to write!
2 Likes
I was wondering if any of the 80 page countdown giants matter to this series?
I noticed that in this series the stories seem to leave out a lot and fast forward while letting a lot of things happen off panel.
Is this because it is explained in better detail in other series or is this just the way the series is?
I’ve gotten ahead to issue 26 and I’ve noticed a lot of times characters will be at a new location or teaming up with someone new without it telling you how they got there in that situation or really explain why.
The Countdown 80-page specials were collections of older stories featuring characters who appear prominently in the series. The whole thing was a marketing gimmick, and the stories just as easily could’ve been called Classic Flash Tales or The Atom: Bronze Age Adventures.
Some details are filled in with tie-in comics. I’ve included a few of those tie-ins when they’ve featured the Challengers from Beyond, but there are a few gaps in the digital collection.
Finished the first week of issues, and while there are some odd choices, it seems decent enough so far.
Favorite Jason related moment so far:
Didn’t see that coming, and neither did Jason!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m more of a Jason fan, but after some of the crap he pulled on Tim, it’s kind of deserved. 
2 Likes
Jason is my baby, my darling, the light of my life, but yes, he 100% had that one coming. You don’t attack half of the Batfamily at various points and also swordfight Oliver Queen and knife fight Mia Dearden that one time without accruing some bad karma.
2 Likes
This is copied from another thread I made. I was recommended to ask here by @DickGrayson_TheBoyFriendWonder
Some spoilers ahead…
I’m liking this series for the most part. It’s my first time reading these and love the characters… Except for Trickster after he gets tethered to Piper. The gay jokes are sprinkled on at first and I found myself not minding them. But after the umpteenth panel of Trickster giving Piper ■■■■ for being gay, I’m so glad he got killed by Deadshot. Or at least I hope he’s dead, as I’m on the issue that ends with Trickster getting a headshot.
I’m not very familiar with Trickster, so I don’t know if it’s part of who he is, the homophobia. But it sure isn’t one of those product of the times deals either. I see it was released in 2007. I lived through 2007. We were phasing out saying “that’s gay” when something was stupid or unappealing by then. This wasn’t some early 90s book. So, I’m baffled as to why the homophobia is so heavy in this series.
I’m usually not one to get offended. It’s just that Trickster laid it on so heavy that I felt like stopping and reading something else. If Trickster isn’t dead, or even if he is, is there a reason as to why his homophobia (and even Deadshot’s in some panels) was so heavy? Is there a plot point this all leads to? Is it character based? Someone clarify this for me please as I really like this series and don’t want to feel like it was homophobia for the sake of being homophobic, because it sure isn’t a thing of the “times”.
1 Like
Trickster was actually a really fun character who had not to my recollection ever expressed that (or any) type of homophobia except in Countdown, and it was one of a number of poor and baffling characterization decisions made in Countdown. I might have reluctantly forgiven it if they’d ended up revealing that it was a “Trickster was actually into Piper and was sublimating his feelings” thing (a super overdone trope but something that could have at least left the characters in an interesting place), but instead it was apparently there just to be there.
2 Likes
I looked at IMDB quotes out of curiosity, and I see a few cases of “gay as pejorative” still showing up around 2007. That said, it’s nowhere near as prominent as it was around, say, 2004.
Yeah, I don’t know what Paul Dini thought was gained by making Trickster overtly homophobic. Perhaps he was trying to imitate the gay panic humor that was prominent in R-rated buddy comedies of the early 2000s, but that’s kinda like the comic book creators of the early 1940s imitating racist propaganda during WWII – it may explain the creative choice, but it doesn’t justify it.
I’m reminded of the pointless and mean-spirited joke at Joel Schumacher’s expense in the New Batman Adventures episode “Legends of the Dark Knight” (released in 1998). It wasn’t enough that the creative team mocked the director’s creative choices; they felt the need to frame him as effeminate and therefore the wrong kind of storyteller for Batman.
1 Like
Something to consider is that while Dini was the lead writer, he did basically plot many of the issues and had someone else script them, so maybe it was a different writer involved in some of the more aggregeous homophobic moments. I dunno, just throwing it out there.
1 Like