DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980)



"Where Nightmares Begin!"

Script: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: George Pérez
Inks: Dick Giordano
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Ben Oda
Editing: Len Wein

Grade: A

What an interesting problem this ten page preview feature must have presented for Wolfman. On the one hand, it's the team's very first appearance. On the other, they can't do anything too important here because New Teen Titans #1 needs to be accessible to folks who didn't see this preview. So Wolfman pens a story in which the Titans both do and don't meet for the first time, and thus, by the time of NTT #1, Robin can say something to the effect of, "I saw this all in a dream!" and move on with the story, never leaving the new readers to feel they'd missed out on something important.

But Wolfman also accomplishes far more with this concept. Usually, when a new team is introduced, it takes time for the team to evolve, characters to develop interpersonal relationships and such, but by having Robin flash-forward to when the team is already established, Wolfman can spell out a vision for the team's future, selling us on the finished product before the characters have even had a chance to meet for the first time.



Changeling is the team clown ( a surprising change from his previous characterization prior to Wolfman), Cyborg jokingly hates Changeling, Kid Flash is hopelessly in love with Raven, Cyborg mistrusts her. So many of the key relationships we came to know in the New Teen Titans were already spelled out in this first outing. Really, all that's missing is Dick and Kory's relationship. Wonder Girl may be the least utilized/developed personality at this stage, but Wolfman will more than make up for that further down the line.

We also get an opportunity to see the team's powers in action. Everyone gets their moments to use their abilities for the sake of the reader. Of these, Raven and her soul self take center stage. She's certainly the most compelling character concept of the bunch, especially as her soul self is both a power and a weakness in one.

But I would argue the Cyborg concept is just as innovative at this early stage. Having a walking techno-hero on the team is a sharp contrast to anything we were seeing from The X-Men at this point, and that machine man being a big, strong powerhouse of rage as opposed to an intellectual also makes for an unexpected choice. Regrettably, I feel like this concept gets under-used throughout the early years of the series, Cyborg repeatedly using all the technology at his disposal to create white sound blasts, and little else.




Finally, it's impressive that Wolfman manages to sneak a lot of backstory into this ten page preview. We learn nothing of Raven or Starfire yet, but we get an impressive amount about Cyborg:



By the way, how bad of a scientist is Dr. Stone that, in the span of ten pages, we learn he has created an energy reactor that can obliterate the city, opened a gateway to another dimension that can annihilate all human kind, and he ruined his son's life with technology?

Beat that rap, evil villains.


And Robin gets some important background information here, too. Admittedly, I've lapsed in my study of Batman Family, as well as Robin's appearances in the Batman titles between the disbanding of the original Teen Titans and now, but is this the first time we are told that Robin has dropped out of college, and that it has created a rift between him and Bruce?




So, in what could have been either a disposable ten page sneak-peak or a meaningful first outing that would totally alienate anyone beginning with NTT #1, Wolfman gives us a wealth of content to sell us on the new team while also setting it up so that you'll feel you missed nothing if you didn't start here.




Important Details:

- 1st appearance of The New Teen Titans
- 1st appearance of Raven
- 1st appearance and partial origin of Cyborg
- 1st appearance of Starfire
- 1st appearance of Dr. Stone (Cyborg's father)
- 1st appearance of Titans Tower
- Beast Boy changes his name to The Changeling (why?)



Minor Details:

- Talk about a come-back. Wolfman returns to save the franchise he was booted from with his former co-writer as his editor and his former editor inking the whole thing!

- Even though it wasn't a stand-alone comic, the "cover" boasts an "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" symbol.

- Perez gives us some truly awe-inspiring visions, especially in those first glimpses of Titans' Tower, but do I blame this face on him or on Giordano?




- So why DC Comics Presents? I love the old ten page previews DC was doing at this time, but I could never understand the logic of which previews got placed in which comics. Was the New Teen Titans preview placed here because DC had reason to suspect these readers would especially enjoy the feature, was it an effort to boost sales of DC Comics Presents, or was it something else entirely?