Teen Titans #53 (February 1978)
"In the Beginning ..."
Script: Bob Rozakis
Pencils: Juan Ortiz
Inks: John Fuller
Colors: Gene D'Angelo
Letters: Ben Oda
Grade: B-
The final issue of the original Teen Titans run culminates with (essentially) two stories in one.
The first is an origin story for the team. Rozakis, ever a fan of both continuity and DC's yesteryears, recognizes that the team's first time assembling was never actually shown. And so, with only one issue to utilize after wrapping up a major three-part storyline that resolved most remaining character arcs in the series (Mal's missing horn and Kid Flash's unrequited crush on Donna aside), Rozakis decides that the best way to use that final issue is to bookend with a beginning: the untold origin of the Teen Titans.
Now, all Rozakis had to work with was this little explanation offered as part of the Team's first real appearance in
Brave and the Bold #60:
The panel would seem to imply no great adventure that we missed out on -- just an agreement made immediately after the events of
Brave and the Bold #54 to formally establish a team. Presumably, they met Wonder Girl and invited her to join sometime after.
But Rozakis decides to go bigger, and so we see the teen heroes meet and communicate for the first time since their adventure in Brave and the Bold #54:
meet Wonder Girl:
and even team-up with Speedy
two years before he makes his first guest-appearance with the team in
Teen Titans #4, and five years before becoming a full member sometime prior to
Teen Titans #20.
Perhaps more importantly to Rozakis, he shows us the first time Speedy and Wonder Girl meet, teaming up to stop The Flash:
The concept of the story is that The Justice League members are all committing crimes (well, at least all the ones with side-kicks...cuz that's convenient to the plot), and it's up to their teen side-kicks to stop them. We ultimately learn the totally non-sensical Rozakian cause of this villainy:
Groanand the teens, once victorious, agree to form a permanent team:
...except there's one small problem. Batman is clearly RIGHT THERE as they decide upon this, and yet (once more) the panel that gave Rozakis the fuel for this entire origin story begins with Batman asking...
Oops.
Truly, there's both a lot to love and hate about this story. On the one hand, it's Rozakis doing what Rozakis does best -- channeling the DC comics of his youth -- but now free to do so without having to Marvel-ize the story for Bronze Age readership. He drops the in-fighting and love interests, divides the story into acts that initially focus on different team-ups before having them all come together in the final act JUST like the classic DC Comics of the Atom and early Silver Ages, and he also provides Atom-Age shock value with semi-satisfactory explanations offered after by having the mentors fight the sidekicks. I particularly LOVED seeing Batman and Robin tear into one another; it's absolutely something that could have graced the cover of an Atom-Age issue of World's Finest:
And yet, with all this throw-back charm, Rozakis absolutely misses the key ingredient that was at the core of all those early Haney Titans adventures: the teen viewpoint Haney was so desperately trying to understand and advocate for. Where's the celebration of teen culture, the misunderstood teens looking to restore their reputations, the fight for acceptance and understanding, or even the mild sense of teenage rebellion so present in those early stories?
from Brave and the Bold #54The second story found in this volume is the larger framing story I didn't expect, which presents the break-up of the team. It begins with Mal and Karen reading up on the team's first adventure:
and ends right after that final moment with Speedy in flashback:
offering a sad inversion of the circumstances:
It's a valiant effort on Rozakis' part, but at no point do we understand WHY they are feeling stifled and feel the need to grow separately. Just last issue, it looked like they were about to take on seven new members, and now everyone just quietly agrees with this sentiment that came out of nowhere. It's a terrible cheat to the reader.
In short, I totally see and respect what Rozakis was trying to do with both stories in this issue. And, in both cases, he ultimately let me down.
Ah well. Maybe that's a more fitting end to the Rozakis run than the cautious optimism I was feeling over the past two issues.
Important Details:- The Teen Titans disband
- The team's origin/first adventure is revealed
Minor Details:- The space between issues #43 and #44 was three years, nine months. The space between this issue and New Teen Titans #1 is two years, nine months.
- The letter column goes on to explain the cancellation being due to lack of sales and then explains where each Titan will be found, moving forward. Some of these are accurate, some are tentative plans that never came to be (Did Mal and Karen ever end up gracing the pages of The Secret Society of Super-Villains?), and it's made quite clear that the Titans West characters other than Betty Kane (she's headed over to
Batman Family along with Harlequin) are dead in the water for now and will not be appearing anywhere.
- The Robin fan in me LOVED this moment, the Wonder Woman fan in me HATED this moment, the feminist in me was uncomfortable with this moment, and the heterosexual male in me was uncomfortably turned on by this moment:
My oh my. What's a fan to do?
Next up, I plan to discuss Rozakis' unrealized plans for the series, followed by some light exploration of where (some of) the other Titans appear between now and New Teen Titans #1, and then two special bonus goodies I am saving for the end of this thread.
Then...New Teen Titans from the Beginning!
