Great reviews!
TT #37: Although I enjoy that issue, I agree....very sloppy in places. No emotional tie to Grady, so no real impact from his death. I would liked to have seen an issue dedicated to the tales mentioned...Firefly and when Lilith was accused of hit and run.
It would have made more sense for another team member to wreck the van as Lilith's ESP would have told of her of any upcoming calamity. Kid Flash and Wonder Girl could have also gotten the team quickly back to the labs, rather than the team hopping a ride with a farmer. I liked the idea of the story, but poor execution.

TT #38: Great cover but the story is a bit of a let down, although I did enjoy reading about the Titans greatest fears. Loved the scene of Lilith and Mr J fighting over the Doors record (fake fight, ha!). Loved seeing some of Mal's background and his fear of open spaces was very understandable after seeing what happened to him as a child. Maybe at the time and with her age, WG was more about her appearance and femininity than her past? I imagine she is around 17 or so in this story and maybe she felt she had her family with the team and was content? Who knows, but I would imagine a teen age girl having to lose her long locks would be quite a trauma. I can see Robin's fear too. Growing up with the very successful Batman, failure would be a very valid fear.
Mr Jupiter....he is kind of a shady guy. I would have loved to see a story where Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Diana Prince, and Green Arrow show up to investigate just what he's up to. I liked the idea of the mentoring program, but his role now seems unnecessary.
The Lilith back ups are good and I do love the one where she becomes a part of the carnival.

So awesome you did a review of that Robin and Lilith story! That 2 part story is a hidden gem and a favorite of mine. Robin, Lilith, a cameo by Kid Flash, campus craziness, groovy fashions, and occult, great art....fun stuff!

I just got Titans Showcase vol 2 out of the library to catch up on some of these stories, but this was the only one I felt compelled to write about. Obviously, you liked it a lot more than I did.

It's not so much the story--which was OK (though you know there's a character that ain't gonna make it to the next issue) but the implications.

Basically, an orphan kid is essentially given over to a rich white guy without much legal oversight and within a couple weeks is dead under suspicious circumstances--and nobody seems to rise an eyebrow. And by "suspicious circumstances," the kid's body was obviously banged up pretty bad, and I'm sure he didn't arrive at the morgue wearing the "spare Robin costume," which implies some postmortem tampering with the body. So what story did Bruce cook up to explain what happened? And what proof did he produce? And how many favors did he have to call in to make this all go away?

I accept the idea that other writers continued to use the character as if nothing had changed. It's just fascinating how well Speedy's lack of presence in any Haney-scripted Titans story correlates with publication of the drug storyline. Might be sheer coincidence, and I have argued that Haney didn't seem to like the character long prior to that, but it's also possible Haney or Boltinoff was uncomfortable with making prominent use of a character now known to be an ex-user.

It didn't stop me from enjoying the story on one level, but once you think about it, it's hard to gloss over.

On a storytelling level, I might not've thought about it at all if there was a fade out at the end of the "action." The denouement showing a memorial statue of the kid at Wayne Manor just got me thinking.

SO are we then saying that black characters CAN'T have athletic ability? Kanigher doesn't present Mal as loving to box. He presents Mal as using boxing as a means of taking down the wrongdoers around him. It was the only tool available to him, which feels more accurate than racist to me. Once Mr. Jupiter provides him with other means, Mal never mentions boxing again.



Quite the opposite. There was tremendous resistance to even putting a black character in the book, as I've discussed repeatedly. There was nothing easy nor convenient about having Mal as an active character.  We both would have liked to see the character truly experience equality on the page, but this was still a significant step in the right direction that did not come about easily.  



Less that, and more that the character was now on the team, but someone seemed to be trying to avoid actively using him. I don't think anyone was trying to proudly show Mal off as a token symbol of social relevance. They were keeping him off the cover, keeping him out of uniform, and (in this issue) keeping him off-panel and out of the action too.



I would have settled for an overly preachy social message. I don't feel like we even got that.




You and Dark Shadows, man...

But you continue to approach the issue as if everyone involved in the comic were on the same page, simply agreeing to include the character but also not do much with him. At the risk of repeating myself, it wasn't that simple. Mal was caught between opposing forces at DC, some of which (Wolfman, Wein, Giordano, Skeates) wanted him on equal footing with the rest of the team, and some of which (Infantino, possibly Boltinoff and/or Haney) would have preferred Mal weren't there at all.