Headscratchers / Teen Titans: The Judas Contract

• Okay, so I get Brother Blood taking the powers of Beast Boy, Starfire, Terra and Raven, they all make sense because their powers are genetic (two mutants, an alien and a demon/human hybrid), but why did it work on Blue Beetle, and what was he hoping for from Robin and Nightwing? As far as we are made aware, the machine steals powers and possible vitality, but Beetle has an alien war machine stuck to his back, and obviously the other two — while well trained and near peak physical condition—wouldn't provide so much of a boost. It's never said that it taps into inate reflex or memory, just a power siphon.
  • Well, from a pragmatic standpoint, why not? He certainly can't have the others just running around foiling his plans or anything after all, so he needs to get rid of them somehow; therefore, even if Damien and Dick and the human part of Jaime only give him a relatively minor boost, it's still better than just shooting them and leaving them totally to waste. Whether or not he got anything from the Blue Beetle itself (which obviously he did), it can't hurt to suck the kid dry. I'm rather more surprised that it worked on Raven since her powers are magical and you'd think that it either wouldn't work at all or, worse, might accidentally release Trigon again.
  • Draining Damien and Dick might also have been symbolic. Blood had a penchant for the dramatic (and symmetry, apparently), so having his followers watch him defeat all his enemies in one fell swoop was a testament of his god-like power.
  • I would also argue that since they'd been studying Blue Beetle's tech for years, they would have designed the machine to account for that.
  • I would also say that, even though it wasn't stated outright, the machine did transfer muscle memories or some mental aspects of the Titans. Not only did he duplicate their powers, but he was able to use and control them effectively and in tandem with one another despite having precisely zero training beforehand.
• How could Beast Boy still be so young today if he was in that flashback?
  • Considering he has the power to turn into animals, and many of which can live longer than humans, it's possible he may age at a slower rate. That or he's had his powers for a while.
  • Also, he may have just been a junior member of the original team—12-13 as opposed to the 15-17 of the others. That would put him on the late end of teens five years later as opposed to the early twenties of his compatriots.
  • Word of God is that he was 11 during the flashback sequence and is 16 years old during the main continuity so he was clearly a junior member.