Teen Titans #25 (February 1970)
"The Titans Kill A Saint?"
Script: Bob Kanigher
Art: Nick Cardy
Colors: ?
Letters: John Costanza
grade: A-
For a run that's generally remembered only for lame attempts at "hip" dialogue and the Titans fighting the Mad Mod a couple of times, this story gets a surprising amount of attention among comic book historians. Sure, it was supposed to be a major shake-up for the Titans franchise, but it was pretty much undone after only three issues when Kanigher was taken off the title and Steve Skeates returned the team to their status quo.
Still if you were reading this thing off the racks in 1970, it probably blew your mind. First there's that haunting cover, and you might say to yourself "It's got to be a misdirect. No way that actually happens in the issue." But then it does:
To be fair, their "brash youthfulness" and "lack of maturity" essentially comes down to this moment:
and it really is questionable as to whether or not the Titans can actually be held at all responsible for an armed assailant firing a stray shot that kills an innocent man. True, an experienced hero would have been more in control of the situation, but does failure to prevent count the same as helping to cause? Had the Titans not attended the event at all, this man (or possibly many others) might have been murdered anyway.
And it's a little odd that Kanigher and Cardy give us this utterly disturbing moment, in which Hawk just starts beating up peaceful protestors without provocation:
...and then utterly fail to address it again while delivering heavy-handed judgments to the Titans for their actions.
It's common knowledge that this shake-up was mandated by Carmine Infantino, presumably due to ailing sales. He'd tried the same strategy with Wonder Woman, and it had generated national interest, so here we have the Titans also abandoning their costumes and powers in favor of more real-world style adventures:
What's less clear, though, is where new character Lilith came from:
Dick Giordano, who conveniently tends to recall absolutely nothing in his interviews about the Titans, is relatively sure that both Lilith and Mal were created by Wolfman and Wein (Cadigan 58
*), suggesting either that they had done some serious long term planning before being booted off the title with
issue #20 or that they were still assisting from the sidelines. Whatever the case, fans had been asking for more female Titans in the letters page, and that gets delivered here with Lilith.
Wow. The Titans have been using secret identities for exactly one issue now, and someone's already blown them.
As for Mr. Jupiter and his mission for the Titans, it's abundantly unclear as presented in this issue:
What exactly does this mean? Are the Titans going to tour the country as guest lecturers? It's great to see DC struggling with real world issues (note: this is the exact same month in which Green Lantern will team up with Green Arrow to address similar issues in his title), but it remains very unclear just how a superhero team (costumed or otherwise) goes about doing that, especially in a visually interesting way. Maybe this should all feel bold and new, but I get echoes of the Titans joining the Peace Corps and helping out other government agencies to right social wrongs that we saw in the first dozen issues of this run.
Finally, it's interesting to see the title wavering on Robin's status as a Titan once again. We last saw him pushed off to the side in
#17, followed by letter-writer pushback and an ensuing promise that Robin wasn't going anywhere in
issue #18, but Kanigher certainly seems to be entertaining the idea once again:
All in all, this was one extremely powerful issue in boldly depicting heroes who can fail and the emotional impact that leaves upon them. The team certainly proved to be their own harshest critics, the JLA's sentence for them being to serve as their own judges and jury. I also loved the enigmatic introduction of Lilith, who always knows what the Titans are thinking and when they will need her more than they know themselves (though I wonder how you can tell interesting stories with a team member who can read minds and see the future). But the Mr. Jupiter component absolutely does not interest me and feels like a retread from earlier issues. Also, the Titans without powers and costumes -- what's the point? It's not like these guys have compelling personalities at this point.
Important Details:- 1st appearance of Lilith
- 1st appearance of Mr. Jupiter
- Robin quits
- Hawk and Dove join
- The Titans abandon their costumes, powers, and superhero identities to work for Mr. Jupiter
- Wonder Girl and Speedy are now dating (sort of)
- In Batman #217 (released three weeks earlier, according to
Mike's Amazing World) Robin quits being Batman's partner full time in order to attend college at Hudson University. If he is no longer with Batman, and no longer with The Teen Titans, what plans did DC have for him?
Minor Details:- Contrary to conventional belief, the Titans do not join Mr. Jupiter as penance for their failure at the beginning of this issue. There's no relationship between the two events. In fact, abandoning their costumes and identities is Kid Flash's idea and not something Mr. Jupiter was expecting.
Plot synopsis: The Titans attend a peace rally that turns violent, go off half-cocked, and inadvertently cause a crazed man with a gun to shoot wildly, killing noted peace activist Dr. Arthur Swenson. The team is then approached by Mr. Jupiter, and all but Robin accept, abandoning their costumes and powers in the process. Lilith, Hawk, and Dove join along with them.*Cadigan, Glen. Titans Companion. Raleigh, NC: TwoMorrows Pub., 2008. Print.
