shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 20, 2018 15:34:34 GMT -5
Teen Titans #28 (August 1970)  "Blindspot" Script: Steve Skeates Pencils: Nick Cardy Inks: Nick Cardy Colors: ? Letters: Ben Oda grade: B- Kanigher is gone, and with the arrival of Steve Skeates comes an immediate effort to get the Titans back to familiar territory. Really, the entire purpose of this issue appears to be to expose the stupidity of the Mr. Jupiter premise via one pissed-off Aqualad.   It will take the Titans until next issue to come to their senses and help Aqualad stop Ocean Master, but you know they will. Thus, it would appear the Mr. Jupiter Era of the Teen Titans lasted a mere four issues, Mr. Jupiter only ever actually sending them on one assignment (Hell's Kitchen, if you'll recall). And, while mentioned, he isn't even shown in this issue other than in the background in the panel above. Looks like we're done with that premise. I guess this issue did have a second purpose of testing whether or not readers wanted Aqualad back on the team. Skeates is very deliberate both in reminding the readers of Aqualad's absurd one-hour-on-land limitations AND in showing how much he can kick butt on land anyway. None of the action takes place underwater. Still, that just makes Aqualad kinda' strong, and now apparently a hothead (and the Titans already have two of those!). Not sure this was a convincing sell to anyone. Having just concluded my reviews of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents at Tower Comics, I am predisposed to disliking Skeates based on the truly terrible freelance work he did for Tower only two years prior to this, but he seems to take this assignment a lot more seriously. It's neither particularly good nor bad writing, but I do like the dialogue between Aqualad and Robin while they are punching out thugs in the first act. It felt authentic. Cardy also represents well (as usual), alternating between moody noir panels, straight-laced classic Titans panels, and explosive trippy images once Lilith enters Sharon Tracy's mind:  Incidentally, nice move reintroducing Donna Troy's roommate who we had only met once. It's a bit of a convenience that she ends up stumbling upon Ocean Master's plans and thus needing the Titans' help, but it is fun to see her back. Worth Noting:- Another funny back-up feature this issue. This time, it's a page-length adventure featuring "Tiny Titan," and it's actually pretty cute as he works to protect his unsuspecting female friend from monsters, only to get accosted for being out of breath on their walk by the close. Interesting to note that Tiny Titan does not actually speak. Plot synopsis: Aqualad is in a hurry to find the Titans (unclear if he was already pursuing Ocean Master?) when he comes to Sharon Tracy and Donna Troy's apartment JUST as Sharon is about to be killed by agents of Ocean Master because she oversaw what they were doing in a (Central?) Park. Aqualad then finds Robin, who leads him to the Titans residing at Mr. Jupiter's estate, and he is unable to persuade them to go back to being superheroes. In anger, he punches Robin for getting in the middle and then apologizes. He goes on to pursue Ocean Master (why doesn't Robin join him???) and gets captured. To be continued... |
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Post by tarkintino on Jul 20, 2018 21:13:48 GMT -5
Teen Titans #27 (June 1970) "Nightmare In Space!" Script: Bob Kanigher Pencils: George Tuska; Carmine Infantino (pp. 2-13, 19-21) Inks: Nick Cardy Colors: ? Letters: Ben Oda grade: A A grade, indeed. The Teen Titans had come into its own by this time, keeping in continuity with the changes to Dick Grayson seen in the Batman & Detective Comics of the period. Gone were the "hip" lingo spewing characters that only existed to be silly, junior versions of their mentors. They were developing a purpose of their own. That said... Where character maturity and basic plots were concerned, I still say this was not the Teen Titans of old, with light adventures and equally light endings that meant nothing to the characters beyond a single issue. For those 1970s fans who were concerned, it makes me wonder if they were unaware of the maturing changes going on in other DC titles--and had been for at least two years at that point. Yeah, blaming Lilith was wrongheaded writing; Mal is not a child that needed to be watched, so his actions are--ultimately--his own. I've always believed that switcheroo was due to some editorial blowback after it was published. Initially, it most certainly seemed like the seeds of a Mal and Lilith romance were planted, then abruptly squashed. Yes, I will go ahead and say that a black male / white female romance was too progressive for mainstream comics of the time. Actually, this particular kind of interracial union (black male, white female) was seen as utterly threatening to the mainstream of 1970 America, as interracial couples were still being subjected to violence at that time. Despite the rise in marriages of this type over the decades since this issue was published, its still an explosive issue in the alleged "Land of the Free". Agreed where Cardy's influence was concerned. Some of the best anyone would see in a comic of that period. True, but you might add Peter Parker to that short list. I always appreciated the attention to accuracy in a superhero book; despite the characters all knowing people (fellow costumed heroes) who had technology at their disposal leaps and bounds above 1970 NASA, the story took the natural, realistic path in the Mal issue--much like the direction of the title in this period (to a degree). Would it? Reader or in-universe seemed to only call the team the Titans or Teen Titans, if i'm not mistaken. ...but I did love the use of figure corner symbols, and the updated Robin from Infantino's oft-used 1966 pose (which would inexplicably change places with the new from time to time on the covers of Detective Comics). |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 20, 2018 21:20:52 GMT -5
...but I did love the use of figure corner symbols, and the updated Robin from Infantino's oft-used 1966 pose (which would inexplicable change places with the new from time to time on the covers of Detective Comics). Oh, absolutely me too. In fact, when I saw my first ever issue of Teen Titans, it was absolutely the colorful figures along the binding that sold me and not the actual cover art:  |
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Post by cellardweller on Jul 24, 2018 18:22:23 GMT -5
Always liked the Teen Titans, and it's great to read these reviews. Keep them coming, please!
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 24, 2018 23:01:50 GMT -5
Always liked the Teen Titans, and it's great to read these reviews. Keep them coming, please! Will do! |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2018 10:36:41 GMT -5
Teen Titans #29 (October 1970)  "Captives!" Script: Steve Skeates Pencils: Nick Cardy Inks: Nick Cardy Colors: ? Letters: John Costanza grade: C- If Kanigher was going for more realism with his approach to the Titans, having them take on urban street-level economic, racial, and social issues, humanitarian issues, and even the realistic aspects of space flight, Skeates is running head-long in the opposite direction with shape-changing, super-powered aliens trying to take over the world from an undersea headquarters. In fact, it makes me wonder if these covers were drawn before Skeates had submitted a plot, as the main action on the cover is a blip in the actual story, and the actual story (with Hawk and Dove bound in a high tech undersea lab, surrounded by super-powered aliens) would have made for a far more interesting cover. However, along with the fantastic, Skeates brings a bit of the absurd to the story. None of it really makes much sense, tying Hawk and Dove to a giant wooden pole in the middle of a super advanced undersea lab included:  Still, his primary goal appears to be getting the Titans back to their old normal, and for most of the issue, it sure looks like that's what we're getting:  ...until the end of the issue, where the climax of the story is arbitrarily cut short (we are told the aliens fled The Earth, their defeat never having been shown) so that The Titans can inexplicably vote again, this time deciding only to abandon their vow and fight crime when absolutely necessary. Where the hell did that come from? The letters page sends a similarly mixed message when one response to a fan letter states: That's a real non-answer on where the book is heading. More serious, but still fun. Still in costume and super-powered, but only sometimes. More confusing, still, is what is happening with Robin. He got the cover last issue after having quit in #25, and yet this time we are randomly given this information:  I've been confused about DC's plans for Robin since my review of Teen Titans #25. He quits being Batman's full-time sidekick in order to attend Hudson University (Batman #217) and then quits the Teen Titans in the same month (#25) for entirely different reasons. Did DC initially have other plans for him, or did they just think Robin wasn't a viable character anymore -- perhaps too silly for the more grounded approach these books were taking? A quick glance at next issue reveals that Robin isn't in it, and yet his is still the first image you see on that cover spine column for this issue and the remainder of the run. What gives? Finally, piggybacking off of his attempt last issue to show how stupid the Titans' vow is and then blow it up, Skeates does the same thing for Dove in this issue:  Now I could care less about the original Hawk and Dove and, considering their own title had been cancelled by this point, I'd imagine many readers of this book didn't care either, but what is the point of Hawk and Dove if Dove isn't a pacifist anymore? All in all, a silly issue that attempted to return the Titans to their status quo but seemed to get editorially jumbled up by the close. Skeates is no power writer yet, but he isn't utterly making a mess of things either. That's the editors' jobs at this point. Minor Details: - Though Wonder Girl first got her new look all the way back in Teen Titans #22, this is the first time we see her in that costume for an entire issue. - First mention of the Titans Bug, an electronic tracker and listening device. plot synopsis: The Titans break their vow and assist Aqualad because Lilith knew he was in trouble. Hawk and Dove go it on their own and get captured. The Titans show up and the aliens apparently flee Earth, though this is never shown |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 26, 2018 11:40:27 GMT -5
shaxper wrote: Now I could care less about the original Hawk and Dove and, considering their own title had been cancelled by this point, I'd imagine many readers of this book didn't care either, but what is the point of Hawk and Dove if Dove isn't a pacifist anymore?A quick thought is that it makes the plot easier to construct and the character way easier to write. It also makes you respect how much time and thought Ditko gave to characters like the Dove, Mr. A and the Question, Suddenly having them abandon their values, the codes by which they lived, would not have been an option in a Ditko-written story, IYAM.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2018 18:49:36 GMT -5
shaxper wrote: Now I could care less about the original Hawk and Dove and, considering their own title had been cancelled by this point, I'd imagine many readers of this book didn't care either, but what is the point of Hawk and Dove if Dove isn't a pacifist anymore?A quick thought is that it makes the plot easier to construct and the character way easier to write. It also makes you respect how much time and thought Ditko gave to characters like the Dove, Mr. A and the Question, Suddenly having them abandon their values, the codes by which they lived, would not have been an option in a Ditko-written story, IYAM. Well said, sir. Well said. |
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Post by tarkintino on Jul 26, 2018 21:55:56 GMT -5
Teen Titans #29 (October 1970) "Captives!" Script: Steve Skeates Pencils: Nick Cardy Inks: Nick Cardy Colors: ? Letters: John Costanza If Kanigher was going for more realism with his approach to the Titans, having them take on urban street-level economic, racial, and social issues, humanitarian issues, and even the realistic aspects of space flight, Skeates is running head-long in the opposite direction with shape-changing, super-powered aliens trying to take over the world from an undersea headquarters. In fact, it makes me wonder if these covers were drawn before Skeates had submitted a plot, as the main action on the cover is a blip in the actual story, and the actual story (with Hawk and Dove bound in a high tech undersea lab, surrounded by super-powered aliens) would have made for a far more interesting cover. #28 & #29 are the continuation / crossover from Aquaman #50's "Can This Be Death?" & "The City on the Edge of Nowhere" (April, 1970) / #51's "The Big Pull" (June, 1970), both written by Steve Skeates, and featuring The Ocean Master, inter-dimensional aliens kidnapping Aquaman, leading Aqualad and Mera to search for the missing man, hence Aqualad showing up in Teen Titans #28 in a panic...  Despite Robin's appearance on the covers (and not mush in the actual story), and his adventures centering around Hudson University in this period (see: Detective Comics), he was not going to be permanently removed from this title, as he was still an extremely popular character thanks to (in then-recent years) Burt Ward's defining performance as Robin on the 1966-68 Batman TV series, and Filmation's The Batman / Superman Hour(1968-69), so DC was not going to get rid of Grayson/Robin, but move him toward the maturity seen in every Bat-title from this point forward, which means less of the colorful group activity..at least for the time being. Skeates probably did not know how to manage paying any attention to college student Grayson while his teammates were the focus of their own title. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2018 23:18:27 GMT -5
Teen Titans #28 & #29 are the continuation / crossover from Aquaman #50's "Can This Be Death?" & "The City on the Edge of Nowhere" (April, 1970) / #51's "The Big Pull" (June, 1970), both written by Steve Skeates, and featuring The Ocean Master, inter-dimensional aliens kidnapping Aquaman, leading Aqualad and Mera to search for the missing man, hence Aqualad showing up in Teen Titans #28 in a panic... Yes. The stories are referenced in this issue but didn't seem essential to understanding the plot. Does the climax that does not appear here get depicted in #51? No indication is made that the story will be continued elsewhere. Kanigher booted Robin from the team. Skeates was just keeping it going. If DC was looking to mature Robin, wouldn't it have made sense to keep him in the Batman and Teen Titans titles (both of which took a turn for the more mature in the very issues that he left?). And if DC was planning to mature him elsewhere, what became of that? |
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Post by tarkintino on Jul 27, 2018 10:12:54 GMT -5
Yes. The stories are referenced in this issue but didn't seem essential to understanding the plot. Does the climax that does not appear here get depicted in #51? No indication is made that the story will be continued elsewhere. If I recall, the climax of issue #51 sort of concludes the story with no significant reference to the TT end of the story (despite the presence of Aqualad), then bleeds over into #52, where Black Manta becomes the next threat. Robin/Grayson's growing up could be seen in Detective Comics, where his Hudson University and occasional team-ups with Batman (in DET and Batman well into the early 1970s) had him no longer acting like a boy wonder, but a young adult in the college environment, dealing more with corruption, politics and youth issues than the costumed super-villain variety. Kanigher's decision seemed to be in line with what was going on elsewhere in DC titles; it was not about getting rid of Robin as if he was a bad turn for the title(s), but in-universe,it pushed him to establish his independence from both Batman and the team, which was more realistic. I seriously doubt there was an effort to phase Robin out, since--as noted a few posts ago--to the public, Robin was a very popular character with media visibility second only to Batman at the time. DC once benefitted from the Dynamic Duo's TV appearances at the height of "Batmania", and even though the live action and Filmation version of Robin was very much the "Holy-ism"-spouting boy wonder, he still had the potential to draw in new comic book readers, even though those potential readers would encounter the mature Robin, instead of Burt Ward or Casey Kasem's version. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 27, 2018 10:36:09 GMT -5
You wonder why DC never gave Robin his own book back then. Would have seemed a better way to go than just giving him an alternating back-up in Detective.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 27, 2018 22:52:33 GMT -5
Robin/Grayson's growing up could be seen in Detective Comics, where his Hudson University and occasional team-ups with Batman (in DET and Batman well into the early 1970s) had him no longer acting like a boy wonder, but a young adult in the college environment, dealing more with corruption, politics and youth issues than the costumed super-villain variety. I was totally unaware of this. Turns out I own some of these issues. I will have to track down the rest and check them all out. Thank you! So maybe Julie Schwartz just didn't want any other office touching Robin while he was being developed into a more mature character under his watch? Except that it had already been tried twice in the title, long before this shift to more mature story-telling. Batmania was over by this point, and the filmation audience was no longer the audience DC was targeting with its increasingly mature focus. From a licensing perspective, Robin was a gold mine. From a comic sales perspective, I'm less certain. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 27, 2018 23:18:16 GMT -5
Robin was appearing as a back-up, in the regular Batman title. He would later appear in solo stories in batman Family and Detective; but, would be back in the regular line-up of the TT in a few issues.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 27, 2018 23:50:05 GMT -5
Much thanks to tarkintino for making me aware of the Robin solo stories that coincided with his absence in the Teen Titans title. I've done a quick read-through of these issues tonight and discovered I'm only one review late in discussing the solo story that I consider the most worthy of inclusion in this thread. Detective Comics #402 (August 1970)  "My Place In The Sun!" Script: Mike Friedrich Pencils: Gil Kane Inks: Vince Colletta Colors: ? Letters: John Costanza Grade: B The Batman Office had been trying to experiment with a more mature solo Robin since Detective Comics #390-391, where he was first given a two-part back-up feature depicting a solo adventure of his at Gotham High School. Almost immediately following that, Robin left for college and quit as Batman's full time partner in Detective Comics #393/Batman #217, receiving a second two-part solo feature of his adventures at Hudson University in Detective Comics #394-395. These are generally stale adventures that don't do much to tell a good story nor develop Robin as a more complex/mature character. Batgirl then takes over the backup feature, but Robin gets a second break with Detective Comics #402, and this is the one that stands out. Immediately following Robin's "guest" appearance in Teen Titans #28, it references the events of that story, as well as Robin's quitting in #25, features Speedy as a supporting character, and even goes so far as to have Speedy mention that he is going on a date with Wondergirl that night. This is only the third time in Titans history that Robin's dual roles as Batman's sidekick and leader of the Teen Titans is acknowledged in the same story ( Brave and the Bold #60 and Brave and the Bold #83 being the first two), and that sets the stage for a more meaningful Robin solo adventure -- one that has a greater understanding of where he has been and where he is therefore going. His realization at the close is quite impressive and sets the stage for much of the soul searching Dick Grayson will do in the New Teen Titans a decade later:  The plot itself is simple and yet meaningful: Robin intervenes in a fight and grossly misjudges who the instigator/guilty party is, causing him to do some serious soul-searching. My only problem with that is this is the EXACTLY same internal conflict he (and all the Titans) experienced in Teen Titans #25. Yet, in a story that even references that issue, writer Mike Friedrich doesn't seem to realize this. Last time around, a world leader DIED because the Titans screwed up. This time, Robin just embarrassed himself a little. Yet he never thinks back to that previous, more grievous error that only occurred three months back. Oops. Unfortunately, as powerful as this new direction is, and as satisfying as it is to see Robin's dual roles with Batman and the Titans finally acknowledged and merged within one character, he only gets one more backup story before Batgirl takes over once again. We'll get back to exploring a more mature Dick Grayson when the Batman Family title begins in five more years. For now, this appears to be all we get before this direction gets abandoned and Robin finds himself back in the pages of the Teen Titans once again. Woth Noting:Robin appeared to be rejoining the Titans with issue #28. His abrupt departure in the next issue seems to be due entirely to this second attempt to give Robin a solo backup feature in Detective Comics. It's also worth noting that the excuse given for his absence in Teen Titans #29: in no way correlates to what happens in this issue, where he has just gotten back to Hudson University. No finals are ever mentioned. Also worth mentioning that, in this story, Speedy went back to Hudson University WITH Robin. So he should have a pretty good idea of Robin's situation in the panel above. Really, it's apparent that, despite some minor efforts to reference Titans continuity in this story, no one is really paying attention. After all, the story starts as if Robin just helped the Titans wrap up an adventure, but in the Titans title, he left midway through, with people still very much in trouble, and the Titans still not decided upon whether they were going to help Aqualad or not. So Robin essentially left Aqualad to take on Oceanmaster and a horde of alien invaders alone so that he could go back to Hudson University in no apparent rush, Speedy then offering a fake excuse about finals to the Titans afterward. I'm positive this was not intended. |
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