They were kids and they were heroes. That combination made it easy to look up to them as examples that one could be both. TT had the Legion vibe: autonomous kids with abilities beyond those of the readers who screwed up -- sometimes a lot -- but learned humility along the way to redeeming themselves.

Not sure there's a lot of that in comics any more.

shaxper -- What do you think of Titans East and Titans West in general about this timeframe?





With this many members -- you can get lost in the shuffle and I didn't quite care for it at all. Sorry and your reviews has been interesting and the grades that you gave so far is somewhat a shocking to see them. I enjoyed them immensely and thanks for doing them.

Touch-ay, tarkintino, you're right about Marvel and the kung fu craze.

I guess I was thinking about how some of these work at some companies and don't at others. I was thinking of Karate Kid and Richard Dragon at DC, which were brand-new, but IYAM, doomed from the get-go. No way were they even half as interesting as MOKF in its heyday.

Still, the general idea is correct. Comics companies always have to be tossing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, but especially in those days, they were forever behind the curve. They just had to hope that the curve lasted longer than it usually did.

The replacement of Kashdan by Giordano is interesting, because Kashdan's books were second-tier books at best, the ones it was no doubt easier to experiment with at first (Aquaman, Blackhawk -- which was cancelled ASAP and TT, for instance). I'll have to look at the chronology of relevance and see if I can track its progression through the DC line.

I though Duella Dent was interesting in Batman Family; but, it never translated over to Teen Titans.

Teen Titans #35 (October 1971)



"Intruders of the Forbidden Crypt"
Script: Bob Haney
Pencils: George Tuska
Inks: Nick Cardy
Colors: ?
Letters: John Costanza

grade: C

The Titans' second outing into this new genre is more gothic than outright horror, Lilith seemingly possessed by the spirit of Shakespeare's Juliet and forced to relive a somewhat confused version of her tragedy (I attribute this more to a confused Bob Haney than a confused spirit). But gone are those creepy, atmospheric panels, Cardy's moody inks, and Haney's colorful narrations. This is an issue that's clearly trying to play it a little more middle-of-the-road traditional, and the return of Mr. Jupiter would appear to be evidence of that.



After not even being mentioned last issue, he is back in this one, now casually stating that the Titans are practically his own children. And yet, we're not back to the old ways. The Titans appear in costume, use their powers to fight crime, and take on an assignment given to them by the Italian government, not Mr. Jupiter. Really, Jupiter just seems like the loving financier along for the ride, a Titans' version of Uncle Scrooge who provides the resources for fabulous technology and exotic locations.

In fact, at one point, Jupiter even refers to the Titans as being Robin's team:



This is a particularly interesting exchange because, if you'll recall, Robin quit when Mr. Jupiter first approached the team in Teen Titans #25. At no point did he ever agree to work for Jupiter. In fact, this is the first time the two have ever had a conversation in this title.

So what is Jupiter doing in the title at this point? Going along for the ride? Deciding the Titans are making the world a better place by themselves and bankrolling their efforts? Occasionally giving missions but otherwise allowing them to do their thing? Treating them like family and otherwise just getting out of their way when crime is afoot?


All in all, a so-so story lacking all of the charm that made the previous one great.


Important Details:

- Mr. Jupiter is back and seems to have never left, but the Titans are now costumed crime-fighters under his watch

- Still no Gnarrk!, and no explanation offered for his absence.


Minor Details:

- Jupiter's explanation for Lilith's fainting spell sure didn't come off right:




- Is every Teen Titans story from here on out going to begin with one of the female members having her mind possessed??




"A Titan Is Born"
Script: Bob Haney
Pencils: George Tuska
Inks: Nick Cardy
Colors: ?
Letters: John Costanza

grade: D+

(Beginning this month, DC temporarily inflates its prices to 25 cents and offers double the pages, allowing for this story as well as a reprint of a pre-Teen Titans Aqualad story that I will not be reviewing)


This one had so much potential, as it addresses two major questions that had been on my mind as of late:

1. If the Teen Titans are back to super crime-fighting, what use do they have for Mal? He can box. That's about it. And

2. What ever happened to the enigmatic Gargoyle from my favorite early Titans story that I'd literally just been re-reading yesterday?


While the Titans are in Italy with Mr. Jupiter (see the first story), Mal has been left behind to guard Jupiter labs, and it causes Mal to begin questioning himself:




Somehow, through means that never really get explained, The Gargoyle uses one of Mr. Jupiter's machines to free himself from limbo and decides to enact revenge upon the Titans by killing this member he's never even seen before.



Mal manages to defeat him by telling a computer in the lab to send Gargoyle back, and that somehow reassures Mal that he belongs on the team.

Now, don't get me wrong, Mal Duncan is the best developed, single most interesting member of the team at this point, but I am NOT buying it. Pressing a few buttons does nothing to address his (and our) concerns about him being an ordinary kid on a team where everyone else either has super powers or at least super skills/super training. Wouldn't a better idea for a story have been Mal using this time alone to begin a rigorous training regimen so that he could keep up with the Titans when they returned? Maybe even choose a costume and code-name for himself? Maybe discover this was all a test set up by Mr. Jupiter who has some cool sci-fi invention waiting for him that will give him super powers? This is such a half-assed rationalization for maintaining his status quo within the team, seeming to assure us that Haney has no plans to do anything else with the character.


The Gargoyle aspect is similarly disappointing. Way back in that first appearance, we never did find out who Gargoyle was, which Titan it was that he claimed had given false testimony against him, nor how he came to discover and control Limbo. Absolutely none of that gets answered here. Why bring back an old villain just to do absolutely nothing with him?

Then again, would readers at the time have even been aware of a story from four years earlier? So why go there?


In short, this story had tremendous potential but positively squandered it.

...and here's where I came in. This was very early in my comics-buying, my first issue of Teen Titans, which I remembered from their few short Saturday morning cartoon installments.

I can vouch for the effectiveness of the horror-tinged approach the book had taken, because it was that sinister hunchback that sold me on the book. Monsters were a lot more popular than superheroes in my crowd, and my early purchases were all influenced by the presence of monsters in the comics--the more akin to the familiar Universal film and Aurora model characters, the better. 

My precise impressions of the comic are a little vague. I think I was disappointed to find it was more of a Gothic romance story than a "hunchback" story (and I must admit it feels a little uncomfortable to acknowledge that in those days, an unfortunate real-life deformity was enough to make a character a "monster"), but I did like the idea of Mr. Jupiter (very cool name!) bankrolling the Titans' adventures, and I was especially fascinated by Speedy, a character I felt like I could emulate. (I may be projecting, but as a kid, I liked heroes with some sort of physical gimmick that I could pretend to act out--shoot a bow, sling a shield, slam a hammer against the ground--and I think that was an important element of general appeal to lots of kids. You can't really "play" Iron Man or Plastic Man or Martian Manhunter.) I have no memory of The Gargoyle, but I have to think I must have liked him, too. 

I was unaware that the team had done a stint without their costumes, but those were a big part of the appeal, too, so I think it was smart to suit them up again. I definitely recall thinking that Lilith and Mal didn't fit in with their uninteresting wardrobe, while Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Speedy all had some of the best designs, to my youthful eye. 

And here I thought a C was being generous