So, I got this note from Dave yesterday (I hope doesn’t mind me reposting it here):

The end of Deathstroke #18 said nothing about a crossover. Just “Next: TITANS Finally: the truth revealed!” No “to be continued in Titans #whatever, so it just looked like there was going to be a guest appearance. And then #19 suddenly has a part 3 crossover banner on the cover, but nothing on the first page (or anywhere, really) saying where to look for parts 1 and 2. There’s one footnote box buried in the issue that I presume talks about part 1 or 2, but it could also have been referring to events of last year.

I actually hadn’t noticed and for some reason just assumed all DS readers would somehow intuit this. Whoops…

Surprise! The long awaited Titans-Teen Titans-Deathstroke Titansverse crossover is finally here. It begins in Titans #11, continues in Teen Titans #8, Deathstroke #19, and concludes in Teen Titans: The Lazarus Contract #1, which is written by yours truly.

This was a unique experience for a few reasons:

First, we broke the story as a group, the way writers work on television shows and often feature films. We plotted together viA conference calls and emails, and everybody reviewed everybody else’s work, while editor Alex Antone coordinated all of our efforts.

Second, it was unique in that, well, I’m new here (at DC). I really wasn’t as aware of the intricacies of the minefield that is DC Universe continuity. My pitch for this (I’ve been pushing for it for nearly a year) was to revisit “The Judas Contract,” Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s defining story arc of the New Teen Titans. We were going to J.J. Abrams the thing in order to build a firewall around the original story–so it can never be retconned or ignored–while re-telling it with the post-Rebirth continuity.

But the old continuity was just a mess. Cyborg was never a Titan. Starfire, Raven– it was terribly difficult to sort all of that out. My preference was to not bother; just show blocks of the original story with the original cast without explaining why Cyborg is now a founding member of the Justice League and never a Titan.

As I see it, both DC and Marvel (but especially DC) wastes way too much time on process stories. I’m tired of reading process stories– stories that explain why this character is now wearing a red hat instead of a yellow one. Who cares. Entertain me.

Comics fans aren’t idiots and, sadly, they aren’t kids anymore. Rather than go through the whole Rebirth thing, and what seems to be endless process stories being written ever since, I’d simply have had Batman turn to camera, breaking the fourth wall, and be honest with the DC comics fan: “We fucked up.” Now, on with our show.

Comics should be Good Stories Well Told. That’s it. Personally, am not entertained by all of these comics that invest multi-issue story arcs explaining the red hat/yellow hat thing. I don’t care. I’m 56 years old, I understand things have changed.

Somewhere along the way we’ve stopped entertaining and gotten morosely engaged with this continuity stuff. Continuity exists to serve the stories, not the other way around.

Ultimately, because of the varying events both past and upcoming, it proved impossible to do the JJ thing, so editor Antone came up with the next best thing. “Lazarus…” walks right up to the Judas Contract and knocks on the door, but we don’t fully go there because, honestly, we couldn’t. Yet. Stay tuned.

What we do have, however, is a fun and entertaining romp which re-establishes the broken link (why’d they break it?) between Deathstroke and the Titans. Now that’s a good thing and well worth reading.

Sorry I blew it with properly connecting the dots in the next issue blurb.