DC Comics and DC Future State: Teen Titans #1 Spoilers and Review follows.
Who Is Red X and…
…How Does Nightwing and Deathstroke Tie…
…Into His Secret Origin and Future?
In the future, Nightwing takes Arrow to the old decimated Titans Tower and they mourn their fallen teammates.
During that visit, he finds a Red X mask and then we get a flashback to the Teen Titans Academy where its alluded to that Nightwing may have at one point adopted the Red X persona.
Back to the future ;) Nightwing and Arrow find what they were after; the H Dial.
Here’s a classic Who’s Who bio that explains how the H Dial works.
We also get a look at who the Teen Titans are in the future…
…as Raven deals with a mystical threat involving Nightwing while…
…also visiting with a prisoner.
We also see that Cyborg and Beast Boy are now the merged Cybeast and…
…Shazam, Crush and Bunker are also revealed to be Titans.
We get a flashback at Red X’s last stand against the Titans which almost makes him seem like the hero.
In the future, Nightwing realizes he has failed Red X and…
…recruits him on their mission as he becomes Deathstroke?!
An ending spoiled by a house ad by DC Comics over a month ago and…
…even in the DC digital offerings this week.
Plus on the second print cover for DC Future State: Teen Titans #1.
The character of Red X first debuted and exited in 2003 in the Teen Titans animated series in a two-part episodic arc.
Teen Titans Season 1 episode 9 and 10 were called Red X Part 1: Masks and Red X Part 2: X.
The Red X identity first adopted by Dick Grayson aka Robin to get close to Slade (Wilson) aka Deathstroke, but later an unidentified person adopted the identity and become an anti-hero.
Red X also made his comic book debut in 200’s Teen Titans Go #23.
Although, it is not 100% related, as an aside, in 2007 a group called the Teen Tyrants debuted in Teen Titans Go #48 and…
…it included a foil for Robin called Red Robin, but should have been Red X IMHO.
Red X returns next month in DC Future State: Teen Titans #2 (of 2) out on February 9 / 10, 2021 where…
…Red X gets the feature on the variant cover.
in modern day in March 2021’s new Infinite Frontier ongoing series in Teen Titans Academy #1 that hits stands on March 23 / 24, 2021.
The Pulse:
The intrigue around Red X is compelling. The art was solid, but the time jumps from past to future were not always clear. A fun issue though with an early look at Teen Titans Academy in the “Then” early parts. 6 out of 10.
