Note: This issue was published in the month prior to NTT #21. My apologies for reversing the order.


Tales of the New Teen Titans #1 (June 1982)



"Cyborg"

Script: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: George Pérez (breakdowns); Brett Breeding (finished art)
Inks: Brett Breeding
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: B

Though limited series were a common phenomena by the mid-1980s, they were still a relatively new experiment in 1982. Over the past two years, DC had released World of Krypton, Untold Legend of The Batman, Secrets of The Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman: The Krypton Chronicles, Superman: The Phantom Zone, and Tales of The Green Lantern Corps. In June 1982, we've got DC launching Tales of the New Teen Titans at the exact same time that Marvel launches it's first limited series: Marvel Super-Hero Contest of Champions. Both would soon be followed by a longer, more ambitious DC limited series experiment: Camelot 3000.

As to why this particular limited series was made with this particular scope, we certainly didn't need 25 pages of drawn out Titans origin stories. In the first few issues of New Teen Titans, Wolfman and Perez had managed to give us most of what we needed to know about each of our new characters, and more certainly could have been expanded upon within the NTT title itself. I can think of four reasons why using the limited series format to tell origin stories might have appealed to DC:

1. Uncertainty whether readers would pick up this volume. Retelling origin stories ensures that readers depending upon a home subscription or a quick scan of the spinner rack at the local grocery store weren't going to miss out on something huge. This seems to have been the rationale behind the previous DC limited series, most of which were rehashes and expanding of origin stories. We also saw a similar level of consideration for the average reader in how Wolfman delivered the New Teen Titans Preview in DC Comics Presents #26.

2. The Doom Patrol storyline, which concluded six months earlier, depended upon an insane amount of prior knowledge that the casual Titans fan likely did not have. A companion book outlining Gar Logan's origins with the Doom Patrol would have solved all that. Perhaps editor Len Wein suggested as much to Wolfman, Perez, and Kahn -- a volume designed to supplement the reader's knowledge about the characters and team. Certainly, Cyborg's origin in this first issue is timed to align with the death of ex-girlfriend Marcy Reynolds in the next issue of New Teen Titans:



though she hardly proves to be a central focus of this story.

3. Experimenting with the idea of a reprint title. Two years from now, the main New Teen Titans title will become Tales of the Teen Titans (very similar to this name) and will eventually become an all-reprint title while a sister title tackles the new adventures. Trade paperbacks were not a common phenomena at this point, and the Titans were a marketing sensation for DC. This may have been a test run to see if fans would fork over cash for a second book that fleshed out past history (first origin stories, then reprints of those early issues fans couldn't easily obtain without forking over serious cash at a comic show) instead of providing additional new monthly adventures that would have taxed Wolfman and Perez, and that would have required DC to pay them.

4. Wolfman clearly disliked writing villains and conflicts. Did any of the Fearsome Five even have actual real names, let alone backstories and motives for what they did? Did Trigon ever have a reason or philosophy to explain why he was trying to take over the universe? Wolfman often seemed to phone in his conflicts, delighting more in the in-between moments. Giving the Titans a week-long retreat, during which they bond and get to expand upon the events responsible for their internal struggles and character development, must have been refreshing to him.



So there were a lot of good reasons to try out this four-parter.

And yet, starting with Cyborg seems like a poor way to sell the new series. We know more of his origin story than any of the other new members of the team by this point, and his origins growing up in New York were certainly going to be less colorful/exotic than Starfire's origins on another planet, Raven's origins in another dimension, or even Gar Logan's origins with the colorful Doom Patrol, as well as his brush with the original Teen Titans. As a kid, I remember finding these in a back issue bin and not having enough money to buy them all. Cyborg's was the one I left behind, not obtaining and reading it until a decade later.

Still, Wolfman and Perez turn out a powerful story that truly fleshes out Cyborg's conflict with his father. Previously, we'd been led to believe that what Cyborg resented about his father was that he had caused an accident that nearly killed Vic and then subsequently turned Vic into a half-machine in an effort to save his life. Wolfman and Perez extend that idea backward through Vic's childhood, presenting an extraordinarily bright child (170 IQ) who is treated more like a test subject than a son by his scientist parents:



It gives far more depth to this ultimate conflict:




In between, we learn more about, for example, how a scientist working on extra-dimensional travel managed to build a cyborg body for his son on a moment's notice (he and his wife were working on two different projects at once; the Cyborg body was a prototype for the military). Of course, then why doesn't the US military own Vic's body? Wouldn't that present some problems/conflicts for a high profile superhero?

We also get more detail about what it was like for Vic in his first months as a cyborg, both the amount of time it took him to learn to walk and to control his newfound strength, and the sheer emotional impact of the whole thing:



and Wolfman and Perez do not shy away from discussing how race affected Vic's life either, introducing Ron, the best friend from the wrong side of the tracks whose own infectious racism becomes something that Vic needs to overcome:





But, while I applaud this blunt attempt to depict the experiences of a Black man in America of the 1980s, I think Wolfman's moral ends up being far too heavy-handed, especially coming from a white writer:



That Ron decides the way to stick it to the man is to blow up the United Nations further reflects how unrealistic and overly simplistc/cartoonish Wolfman's message becomes. Sorry, Marv, but there are real obstacles in America that are exclusive to Black people. Working hard and keeping your nose to the grindstone doesn't erase them.


All in all, a far better story than I expected it to be, even if its bold attempts to tackle racism ended up being a little tone-deaf.


Important Details:
- 1st appearance and death of Vic's best friend, Ron Evers (in flashback), though Wolfman leaves Ron a way of returning at a later date:



If he ever does return (though I don't recall him doing so), the conflict will be that Vic had to choose between saving Ron or saving the United Nations building from a bomb Ron planted, and he chose to save the U.N.


- The pin-up at the end of the issue is more for looks than legitimate info about Vic's body, but it does offer some explanations.



Perhaps most significantly, we learn here that Vic's body is solar powered. I'd always assumed it ran on a long-lasting battery that needed to be recharged from time to time.



Minor Details:

- Raven is a vegetarian. This makes total sense considering her pacifist beliefs, but it was ahead of its time in a 1981 mainstream comic book.

- Dick was apparently a boy scout at one point. Between Haly's Circus and Batman, when he heck did he find the time for that?

- Explain to me how, in his very first battle as a Cyborg, before he ever decided to become a superhero and ever received any combat training, Vic considers himself immune to bullets?



Half your body is still exposed, dude. You're not Wonder Woman with those bullet deflection moves!

Also Tales of The Green Lantern Corps. I was in the process of updating this review while you replied!



I meant to imply more that both companies were anxious to explore this new publishing format, but I agree that there was no significance beyond that.




You're absolutely right. My point is that the vision may have changed/evolved over the course of two years. The Titans were DC's hottest franchise, and I've no doubt there were discussions about how best to capitalize upon that. There was also an influx of fans hungry to get their hands on the earlier stories they'd missed. Beginning with origin stories sort of tests those waters, offering information new readers may have previously missed while also offering original content to fans who had been around since the beginning.



Lazy of me not to check. Thanks. I was primarily thinking of Gizmo.





I'm not someone who believes a white person can't convincingly write a black person and vice versa, so long as it's done with respect and dignity. My problem is with having Wolfman imply that racism isn't really a big deal if you're willing to work hard, and that believing in systemic racism is a slippery slope towards domestic terrorism. If a Black writer had suggested as much, I'd still be uncomfortable, but when it's coming from a white guy, it just reeks of insensitivity and naivete, regardless of good intentions.

I've repeatedly argued that Cyborg and Raven were originally just Marv updating Mal and Lilith with new names and looks so that Jeannette Kahn wouldn't see it as the same old Teen Titans. If that was true, this seems to be the moment where Vic diverges from Mal's characterization.




I'll happily accept that explanation, though I seriously doubt Wolfman had given the matter any real thought.


. He certainly did seem to know that, but that still doesn't give him the skill and confidence to charge into a hail of gunfire without the 50% of his body still covered in flesh taking a single hit. That requires either serious training or ridiculous luck; probably both.



Feels like an Aunt Harriet antic to me.

Extremely well said, all around. I believe he did have the space to better explore the ideological struggle between Vic and Ron, but I also understand that he was young, insulated, and working to meet deadlines.

Also, for anyone who feels that someone who didn't live it can't possibly capture the authenticity, I present the most haunting chronicle of the Holocaust I've ever experienced, composed by someone who wasn't there:



then again, only someone with Will Eisner's life experience could have written A Contract with God.

I bought these in the back issue bins in the mid 90s, so I can't say I KNOW, but I always thought the origin mini was a test for the 'Teen Titans Spotlight' book to follow.

I remember really feeling like I these added to the characters... I actually read them alot earlier than this. (I think just after the first couple issues when I knew I was on board).

Perhaps even the idea they were testing with this limited series morphed into both the Tales of the Teen Titans reprint title and Teen Titans Spotlight.

I've never actually read an issue of Teen Titans Spotlight, btw. Did I miss much? I'll be including them in these reviews down the road, of course.

I liked them enough to keep buying them, but I can't say they were super memorable.   Perhaps when you start reviewing them they'll ring bells


I was spending about $20 a week on comics starting late 1992? (depending on how much I made during the week).... that was before I had any idea about, well, anything.    No pull list (there was a video rental store nearby that had a spinner rack still that I'd go look for anything I missed at the actual comic book store)... Or sometimes I'd catch Newbury Comics (Which is a record store chain that also sells comics)  I remember buying the Aquaman issue where he lost his hand off the rack, and the beginning of the Image era (Stormwatch anyway)... I'd buy whatever came out that week, then use the rest of the available money on NTT and Iron Man back issues.  At the time, I didn't feel like I new where to start, so I started with the Judas Contract (since it was a numbered story line), then went back to the beginning.