New Teen Titans #5 (March 1981)



"Trigon Lives!"

Script: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: Curt Swan
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Ben Oda

Grade: C+

With the exception of issue #8, the #5-12 stretch of New Teen Titans is completely and totally forgettable to me. I have no memory of what happened, no memory of enjoying those stories--they're a blur, and this issue at the start of said stretch absolutely validates that old impression of mine.

First off, Perez is apparently missing deadlines already, only one issue after taking over full art chores. I've seen A LOT of Curt Swan's 1980s output in my Superman in the Post-Crisis Era review thread, and I can tell you he has a massive range of quality. When he really wants to, he can churn out some truly visually exciting stuff. But, when he's less invested, you get scenes like this:



In fact, Swan seemed to miss the memo that Trigon's face had already been revealed in flashback last issue, so he really tries to build the anticipation this time around



...only to utterly blow the payoff:




The coming of Trigon has been anticipated since the start of the series. Perez really should have been here to see it through.


But, worse than that, this story is a non-sensical let-down. Let's start with the obvious. Raven reminds us in this issue that she chose the Titans members specifically because they had skills that were essential to defeating Trigon:




We all remember this, right? This was the very reason for the forming of the team -- the entire foundation of the Titans, right?

So then the battle with Trigon ends like this:



No mistakes were made. No bad luck occurred. It was just inevitable all along that they couldn't win.

Sure, we think. That makes sense. How could these guys have taken down an inter-dimensional demon like that?


...except that this was Raven's entire rationale for selecting these particular members for the team in the first place. It's the reason there ever was a New Teen Titans.

Oops.



There are so many other problems with the plot, too. Last issue, Trigon's advance guard was built up to be this immense and impossible threat, but the team takes him down in roughly five seconds flat, and he wasn't even able to kill Raven while she was totally alone and had sent her soul self halfway across the world. The panels don't even show her fighting back. This guy actually seems less powerful than an average human being at the same height and muscle mass.

And when Trigon finally comes --you know, Trigon? The big building threat since issue #1 who was going to enslave the Earth and do all these terrible things?-- All he does is shoot a few random laser beams into crowded streets, allow the Titans to fight him repeatedly, and generally sit around doing nothing:



He even teleports the team away from him when they otherwise should have died. It truly seems like Wolfman is just trying to buy the team some time when they (and the entire Earth) should have been utterly screwed.

And let's not forget Raven's whole emphasis on the importance of the team working together. We see how far they've come when they take out Trigon's advance guard:



But, when it's time to take on Trigon, there's no moment where Raven tells them all she knows about Trigon's powers and weaknesses so that they can coordinate a precise attack. They just sort of...go at it. Not that they're failing to plan their attack is ever implied to be the cause of their losing.

Just really careless plotting.


Oh, and any fascinating explorations into the moral implications of Raven having lied to the team are totally removed in this issue, as we are told TWICE that Raven was forced by Trigon to lie. It was never her choice (even though that makes no damn sense):



BTW, did Raven just call Trigon "God," or is she throwing around an expression that is inconsistent with her own religion?



Fortunately, this issue does have three saving graces.

The first is a much-needed bonding moment between Gar and Vic. Gar started the tension between the two of them by calling Vic names the moment he joined the team. Now Gar takes the initiative to reconcile:



We end up having a surprisingly tender moment between the two, as Vic shares his fears about going into battle against a threat against which he feels hopelessly outclassed.




The second is how Wolfman and Swan depict Wally's coping with the knowledge that he was used by Raven:







It's rich and evocative, definitely the deepest character exploration we've yet seen in these pages.

I and others here have repeatedly made the argument that Wolfman wasn't creating in a bubble; intentionally or otherwise, some of what he was doing here was a reflection of what was happening in other superhero comics of the time. Well, I have to wonder if this is partly inspired by the discussions happening in comic book circles in the wake of Avengers #200, in which Ms. Marvel essentially had the same thing done to her by an alien being. We're still a year away from Chris Claremont getting the final word on that and depicting Carol Danvers' grief in a fashion somewhat similar (and yet also significantly different from) what we see with Wally here. Still, the parallels are notable.


The final thing I find impressive about this issue is all we learn about Raven's mother, Arella -- essentially a survivor of an abusive relationship being depicted on the mainstream comic book page:



Robin's constant tirades about the importance of standing up against injustice muddle it a bit, but there's a clear allegory to real-world survivors of rape and abusive relationships playing out when all Arella wants to do is passively forget and ignore, while her daughter pleads for her to stand up to Trigon and take him on for the sake of his future victims.

It's profound, if subtle.


In the end, it's a sloppy, stupid disappointment of the anticipated climax we'd been building towards since the team's inception, but it had some significantly worthwhile moments, all the same.




Important Details:

- First full appearance of Trigon

- (sort of) death of Psimon. Trigon scatters his atoms across the cosmos.




Minor Details:

- Wait. I know the last two issues were confusing as heck to follow, but when did Psimon betray Trigon? This moment caught me completely unaware and utterly confused:



That's not how I understood the plot to have played out.


- ONCE AGAIN, we were told in the first two issues that Cyborg had countless cool weapons/abilities, but even when facing off against a demon that he acknowledges as being out of his class, Cyborg literally only has one trick up his sleeve:




- Why are a bunch of people sworn to pacifism the only ones with power enough to stop Trigon? That doesn't make any sense.



They're humans from Earth. So they learned powerful magic and weaponized it into the most powerful mystic force in the universe just so that they could never use it? Is their literally no one else Raven could go to? These dudes and the JLA; that's it?

What's The Spectre up to?

I did a little research and Curt Swan also drew Action # 517 and Superman # 357 the same month . Dude, that's Kirby level of output. He gets nothing but love for the job he did. I found that the scene between Cyborg and KFlash was visually right on the mark. I doubt Perez could have done any better. Also, this page was the Payoff



I see no problem with that splash.






First of all, she originally chose the JLA, but even when she formed the Titans , she anticipated having much more time to prepare for his arrival . She says so in this book.





I didn't see it that way, Goronn was kicking their butts until they all attacked enmass.



Trigon strikes me as a Thanos level foe and it looks like he enjoys mixing it up. Like in many team books, they have to outthink him in order to win.



Remember that she said the team needed more time before they could take him on ?




I thought they touched on the cause of her deception, saying it was part of her nature from Trigons influence?

















Trigon says that Psimon helped the sorcerers survive in order to take Trigon out. I don't remember if that scene was in the previous comics or if it was off panel.




Sorry Shax, you must have missed these two different weapons on page 6 and 7 respectively .



Laser and electrified leash.


I give this issue a B  for the build up to the next battle. I also liked the Parallel to Fantastic Four # 50 , in that Raven sacrifices her freedom to save earth, the way the Silver Surfer did.

I have three comments: a major issue, a minor issue, and a hmmmm moment.

First the major issue: Where is the JLA during this Inferno-level demonic invasion? The Titans need to stick with smaller stories if they're going to justify not calling in the big guns.

Second, the minor issue. Does Gar really talk like Hank McCoy? I doubt he would say "the more pulchritudinous sex." He would say "hot babes" or something.



Third, the hmmm moment. The plot of this story is that a powerful extradimensional lord of magic wants his daughter to rule at his side. She rebels, runs to Earth, and falls in love with a guy, so dad sends minions to harrass her until he gets what he wants, which is her company forever. This is exactly the plot of J.M. DeMatteis' 1985 Iceman miniseries:

I was speaking in general terms, not trying to suggest the panel I showed was the next one. While that pay-off panel looks fine to me (not Perez nor Kirby level to my eye, but not bad), my point was that Swan phones in Trigon's appearance for the remainder of the issue after it.






Okay. So her options were:

1. Magic pacifists who are opposed to fighting
2. JLA
3. create the New Titans

No other options available to her?




I took it as a last second lament, a throw-away line intended to build tension, not a suggestion that this fight is now doomed to fail as a result. I'll have to go back and read it again, but I don't recall her explaining or even implying that the plan that guided the creation of this team is now out the window because Trigon arrived so quickly.




They take him down pretty darn fast and don't seem to break much of a sweat doing it. This is Trigon's go-to guy for leveling an entire dimension ahead of his arrival. He shouldn't go down so quickly. And again, my example with him not even managing to hurt Raven while she was helpless without her soul self.




He just as often dismisses them. And he doesn't seem to have any real plan for what to do with either Earth or the dimension it belongs to. He manages to cause less damage than your average street-level villain.




I think you give him too much credit. And no one ended up out-thinking him at all.





They do, but what the hell does that mean? As she's half demon, are we therefore saying it's just in her nature to lie because of her lineage, and so anytime she does so, it's not her fault? I don't think Wolfman meant to imply that, but then what IS he saying?










No need to be sorry, but you're splitting hairs again. He uses those tricks when the stakes are low to non-existent in the first battle that wasn't much of a battle. When it comes time for a real struggle, all he ever relies on is the white sound. I expect Voltron to use the same trick at the climactic battle of every damn episode, not a dude who has so many abilities at his disposal.



I'm curious what you mean. I don't see any real suggestion in this issue of the battle coming in the next one.





Interesting point. In this case, I sort of wondered why no one stopped to say, "Wait. You could have stopped this AT ANY TIME just by reconciling with your dad? You were ready to sacrifice all our lives. What about the people killed by Trigon since he came to Earth, or in any of the other recently conquered dimensions??"

I have to agree with Icctrombone's defense of Curt Swan here. As he pointed out, Swan drew Action Comics and Superman that month - 34 pages right there - and then produced an additional twenty-five pages for NTT #5.

You can see some variance of quality on different pages. Some are rushed-looking and kind of passive, others I would rank right up there with Perez. Page 2 is awesome. I do kind of wonder if maybe Perez had provided Swan with loose breakdowns or something. If not, Swan did a pretty good imitation of Perez. And this might get some blowback, but seeing those panels you posted of Kid Flash, and looking at Raven's expressions on page 2, I would rate Swan higher than Perez at pure, unadulterated emotion.

Also agree with Icctrombone about the Trigon reveal. I might be biased, though, because at the time, I didn't find a copy of #4 until after i had read #5, so Swan's reveal was the first time I saw Trigon in full.

I cannot muster any defense for the story, however. Totally with you there.

Ok, one thing -


All I can say is that in both Action and Superman that month, Supes was in far-off interstellar space, stopping an interplanetary war in one, and helping Vartox defeat a space monster and freeing a planet from the monster's control in the other. That help any? 

Another highlight of the issue was the oh so realistic way that Kid Flash shows the struggle of a truly broken heart. He goes from trying to run away to admitting to still feeling love despite the deception. That rings so true. Also, while in the midst of battle, how he tries to bargain with his feelings that maybe, just maybe she does love him and that it wasn't a lie. 

Good stuff.