Teen Titans #1 (February 1966)
"The Beast-God of Xochatan!"
Script: Bob Haney
Pencils: Nick Cardy
Inks: Nick Cardy
Colors: ?
Letters: Stan Starkman
grade: C-
Only two months after their appearance in Showcase, the Titans have their own series, and the letter page verifies much of what I've already guessed prior to this point. Brave and the Bold #54 wasn't intended to be the beginning of anything permanent, but the reaction from readers was tremendous, ultimately leading to this moment in which the Titans receive their own title.
It's worth noting that, whereas Brave and the Bold #54 was written to coincide with the "New Look" Batman, an attempt to save the franchise from cancellation, we're now only two months away from a very different chapter in Bat-history:
And thus, while a super team led by an independently assertive Robin is making tremendous waves among comic-reading kids, the cultural zeitgeist will soon be working against this, selling the entire nation a very different portrayal of Robin as the faithful lackey he'd always been prior to B&tB #54.
Sure, a year from now, the Titans will get their own cartoon feature as part of the Superman/Aquaman Hour:
but Robin won't be present in it, attached instead to the sister Batman cartoon as a faithful sidekick once more.
So whereas the Teen Titans franchise once had the potential to grow Robin into his own character, greater forces are going to delay any chance of that happening until at least 1968.
And maybe that helps to explain the abrupt change in tone of this issue. Whereas the past three never flinched in showing tension between the Titans and their mentors, giving emphasis to celebrating teen culture and advocating for teens, this story flies in the face of all of that, showing well behaved young men and women trying to please their elders. The Titans are summoned by a middle aged man in a suit, they accept his invitation to join the Peace Corps, almost without reservation
(okay, that moment was actually pretty awkward)
and we're clearly shown how this pleases their mentors:
They've gone from fighting for their own identities and rights, convincing adults that the criteria they use for judging them is unfair, to blindly accepting and working to meet those criteria. At no point in this issue do they
ever express their opinions or beliefs to an adult after Robin shuts them down and accepts the offer for them.
So maybe there's an effort being made here to have this Robin match the character we'll soon be seeing in the TV series, maybe Mort Weissinger walked in the room at the wrong time, ranting about hippies, and exclaimed "why can't all those little bastards just go out and join the Peace Corps?", or maybe DC was approached by the Peace Corps and tried to use this first outing more to sell the Corps than the Titans themselves:
(and again, in any previous story, it at least would have been a fellow teen teaching them about The Corps, not a stiff in a suit teaching at the front of a classroom while the teens listen patiently)
Whatever the case, this story just doesn't match what's come before. At all.
In regards to the story itself, fighting off the giant robot conquistador was reasonably fun and action-packed:
and I especially like how they finally managed to take him down:
but the third and final chapter in the story (from which it takes its name) makes an abrupt departure, and now it's just three monsters with human heads pursuing the Titans and getting taken down pretty darn quickly. There isn't much to watch, and it's over so fast. I think Haney did this just so that (once again) Aqualad had something to do in this issue, in this case taking down a serpent incarnation of the beast god.
But once again, whether this is attributable to Haney or to Cardy, the big climactic struggle moves far too quickly and isn't really given an opportunity to pull us in.
And, once again, any paltry explanations offered at the conclusion are entirely lacking and explain almost nothing.
Sure. Totally reasonable that an ousted dictator, with no specific tools nor skills, can build a giant killer robot in an ancient temple just because he wants to.
Right. Yes. No further explanation required, of course.
Sheesh. Haney really isn't trying on these. I did enjoy some of the battle with the robot, and I liked what the story had to say about The Peace Corps, even if it countermanded a lot of the iconoclastic flavor I've previously enjoyed with The Titans, but this story was no masterpiece, and I don't have much hope for the next 20 something issues that follow prior to the title making a change in direction.
Minor Details:- The letter column indicates that the addition of Wonder Girl in Brave and the Bold #60 was a response to fan outcry. It also indicates that fans are asking for Supergirl and Speedy to join the team.
- Last time around, we got to see how the Titans watch TV in their own homes and marveled at the clarity of reception being received in Atlantis. This time, we get a similar scene in which we learn how news travels to each of their homes:
So many thoughts on this one. Let's start with the idea that Paradise Island hasn't discovered paper yet, and then maybe end with an observation
Cei-U! makes in his Teen Titans Index -- there's a
male Amazon(??)
- I'm a big believer in being prepared and am willing to accept, for example, that maybe...just maybe...the Titans worked out the aerial attack pattern Robin calls for at the beginning in the off chance they might one day be parachuting down from an airplane just as they notice an enormous enemy attacking, but can we talk about their "anti-robot defense" pattern?
Man, they really do prepare for anything!
...except for a normal sized robot, or a robot attacking on a paved surface where Kid Flash couldn't burrow a hole for it to fall into. Nope, they would not have been ready for that.
- what exactly was the Peace Corps' reason for sending the Titans to begin with? The giant robot hadn't begun attacking yet, had it?
Plot synopsis: The Teen Titans are summoned by the Peace Corps and asked to join so that they can aid a team building a dam in Mexico. They arrive in time to see an enormous robot attacking, verifying the villagers' fears that their god doesn't want the dam being built. The Titans are ultimately able to stop it, only to have to fend off mutant beast animals in its place. Ultimately, they learn that this is all being done by the ousted dictator, looking to destroy them all as vengeance.
