Ironically enough, I’d been itching for the animated re-emergence of Dr. Light ever since the events in DC’s summer event “Identity Crisis.” In fact, the thought had crossed my mind while watching a re-run of “How Long Is Forever” early Saturday afternoon. It popped in there because the episode got me thinking about the coincidence in concept between “How Long Is Forever” and the recent Geoff Johns arc involving the Titans vs. themselves as the future JLA.

[Interesting aside: during all of this the desire to see a Green Arrow / Black Canary episode over in JLU…Lo and behold…]

Needless to say, Dr. Light shows up again in “Birthmark” and is still in full blundering effect as he attempts to perform a crime within eyeshot of Titans Tower. Light puts up a fairly formidable resistance to the teens, and its fun to see them tussle on the rooftops. The comedic coup de grace comes in the form of Light’s surrender to Raven when she utters two simple words, “Remember me?” to which he quickly concedes “I give up.”

After the battle the team is eager to unwind by grabbing, of all things, doughnuts, but Raven seems eager to get back to the Tower and focus on getting through the following day quickly. What could be so important about tomorrow? As if the title of the episode wasn’t enough of a tip off, it just so happens to be Raven’s birthday. Although the rest of the team becomes intent on celebrating the birth of their teammate, Raven desire only to ignore the day and hope that nothing terrible befalls her.

Fans of the comics will immediately recognize why Raven is so perturbed. We’ve discussed her ancestry before and the fact that her troubled birth would be tricky to address in the animated series, but it appears that the series’ creators are handling it the only way possible, by ignoring the touchy details. Instead of coming out admitting that Raven is the birth child of Trigon the Terrible, we are instead told that at her birth it was prophesized that something terrible would occur on her sixteenth birthday, and she is hoping to avoid this fate at all costs.

This works because comic purists get their continuity pretty much upheld with minor tampering while, well, the show still gets to air. This way everyone wins.

Now, as if all of this wasn’t enough to get fanboys stoked, we also get another treat that helps unfold the Trigon plot. That’s right kiddies, Slade is back and he’s considerably ratcheted up the evil factor for his return. Crawling his way out of the depths of his hardened lava tomb, Slade now sports an ominous mark on his forehead along with some dangerous new powers. In his first skirmish with the Titans we quickly learn that he is now capable of spewing fire blasts from his hands, and his combat skills have considerably improved. In one notable sequence, Cyborg rips a gigantic piston out of a large engine in a factory and uses it as a mock baseball bat to slam Slade out of the park. Unfortunately for Cyborg, Slade guards himself with a flame shield that melts right through the piston, splitting it in two as Cyborg swings away.

The fight scenes here are unparalleled thus far in the series, and part of this is due to the impact that these sequences hold in the emergence of our beloved Raven’s deep dark secret. Sure, we’ve seen other sequences chock full of kinetic face offs, but none hold the weight of “Birthmark’s” fight scenes. Not only are we dealing with the possible arrival of the demon lord Trigon, but we also have a slew of mysteries regarding Slade’s return thrown our way in the process.

Is Slade merely a resurrected pawn in Trigon’s plan? If so, does this mean that he will return to the land of the dead after the Trigon arc is passed, or is he back for good? If his return is permanent, then will his new powers also remain as well? If Slade was buried in his grave, then who triggered the Slade mask to awaken in “Haunted?” Who is Red X?

Ok, I threw that last one in for good measure.

At one point Raven manages to stop time, and her and Robin are left alone to fight off the zombie Slade who insists on delivering a message to Raven about her fate. When fighting Slade, Robin delivers blows so vicious that they actually manage to snap Slade’s neck. This does not last, of course, and he manages to crack his head back into place before easily dispatching of Robin.

When Slade’s message is finally delivered to Raven, we witness a world replete with a sky of fire, a city in ruins, and people encased in stone. The arrival of Trigon is perfectly rendered here, and the tone is darker than anticipated for this story arc. Honestly, it would have been easy to water all of this down for the shows audience, but so far it appears that things will be approached bleakly. Breathe a sigh of relief.

This episode was just the infused jumpstart that was needed for this series to make a lackluster third season seem like a distant memory. Let’s just hope that the pace continues to build to a wonderfully climactic crescendo by the end of the season.

Next Week: We finally get to feast our eyes on “Cyborg the Barbarian,” a standalone episode that traps Cyborg 5,000 years into the past. It’s a race against time as power is dwindling and the only way back to the present is to recover an ancient tome called the Necronomicon…wait a minute, that’s the plot for Army of Darkness isn’t it? Find out next week!

Mario Anima