Teen Titans S02E01 Review: Nightwing!

Teen Titans, Season 2, Episode 1: How Long is Forever?

It's December, so we're doing Teen Titans Season two now -- JLA episode reviews will still go up as normal, though.

Time travel episodes are hit-and-miss, because so many just try so hard to tell a complex storyline and fall short, or go for shock value and miss, or just use it as an excuse to visit different locales... But this episode? The plot is relatively simple. The Titans fight time-travelling villain Warp, and in the battle, Starfire gets sent to the far-flung future. Starfire disappearing in the past apparently caused the Titans to break apart shortly afterwards, and Starfire ends up finding the Future Titans one by one, where Beast Boy and Cyborg are absolutely in states of disrepair, with Cyborg hanging out in the Titans Tower being decrepit and broken, Beast Boy being a fat balding circus performer... while Raven's just locked in a room, barely sane and extremely antisocial (probably after facing off Trigon alone, considering the events that happened after this). Robin's turned into Nightwing, which is cool as all hell, but he's also still alone.

It's a great bittersweet moment as Nightwing and Starfire summons the other future Titans to battle Warp, and the whole 'Warp's time machine gets broken' is a great justification for splinter timelines or whatever to be created. Starfire trying her best to bring the group together in the future is excellent, and from a more mature standpoint it's a great commentary at how easily close-knit groups fall apart and drift away, and how easily great people can fall to obscurity. Or I might just be looking too much into it. 

In any case, it's a very cool and dark, yet at the same time uplifting episode. The music score is also on top point in this episode, and Starfire telling her experiences to the Titans is a fun moment too, with Robin being impressed at his future identity and Beast Boy grieving over the fact that he's going bald. It's a fun, bittersweet episode and easily one of my favourite episodes of the season.

Also, Warp got de-aged down into a baby. That must suck really badly for him. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Nightwing is, of course, the identity Dick Grayson eventually takes after shedding the Robin persona within the Teen Titans. It's actually the identity that Dick spends the vast majority of his Teen Titans career as, actually. His appearance here is a very much based on the Batman: the Animated Series version of the character.
• Another appearance of white robed Raven.
• Warp (real name Emil LeSalle) isn't a time-travelling villain in the comics, but he is a Teen Titans villain who occasionally clashes with other heroes as well, with the ability to create portals through space. In the comics he's a member of the Brotherhood of Evil, who we won't see until much later in the cartoon.