Sorry folks. No review tonight. Single dad with a cold needs to get some sleep. I've blocked off time to do a proper review tomorrow evening. Thanks for your patience.

I understand the instinct, I suppose, because so many people in the business have it, of, "Well, Jesus, it's been fun for 18 months, now it's time to go on to something else." But I was having dinner with a number of people from DC and Marv Wolfman was there. And a couple of the guys were saying the same thing you're saying, like, "Get real, Dave! Are you really in this for 300 issues?" And I turned to Marv, and I said, having done 70 issues of TOMB OF DRACULA, did you not find that there was a quality to doing that that just doesn't exist with (however interesting a project becomes) one that only takes 8 months or 9 months of your time? And he waxed quite poetic in answer, saying, very much so. And, as you know, the characters begin to build the world, and you're in some ways documenting, in other ways making up, it's difficult to tell which is which, sometimes. There's really nothing that parallels it, there's really no way that I would be able to say, oh, well, now I'm going to go draw a painting and become a real artist. Or now I'll do animation, now I'll do this, now I'll do that. It's also because the fans are paying for my livelihood. I can't really get away with saying, well, you know, let's just give it a rest for a few months, because they're just readers. I think Garry Trudeau can do that because a lot of the DOONESBURY readers are DOONESBURY readers. There's no question that most of the people who are reading CEREBUS and providing me with a livelihood are fans. And, you know, this is what they've been screaming for all along. Every fan gets very upset when they get addicted to a title like Frank Miller's DAREDEVIL or Byrne and Austin and Claremont doing the X-MEN, and it's almost like you don't want to like it too much, because these guys are going to leave and go off and do something else. So basically, it is a large commitment, but, on my part, I see it as, nobody else is doing it, so I'm going to do it.

New Teen Titans #1 (November 1980)



(Untitled)
Script: George Pérez (plot); Marv Wolfman (plot, script)
Pencils: George Pérez (breakdowns); Romeo Tanghal (finished art)
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Ben Oda

Grade: B+

Fascinating how quickly things change. George Perez was brought on to be the artist for this series, but after one preview issue he's already co-plotting and only penciling the breakdowns for at least the first handful of issues. He's still working for Marvel at this point too, and I wonder if Wolfman and/or Jenette Kahn wasn't trying to make a compelling offer for Perez to move to DC full-time.

I continue to be impressed with how masterfully Wolfman handles this being the team's second appearance. We are outright shown a brief moment of the dream that was the main action of the special preview story, told it has been recurring, and have Raven pop up to explain it was her method of getting Dick to trust her.



Someone new to the comic who missed the preview could easily assume the recurring dream is first being shown here and not feel left out of the rest of the story at all. Robin's recalling how Raven's soul-self works aside, this issue's action happens too quickly for Robin to indicate that he remembers any of these characters from before, and thus he encounters them the same as if this were their first team-up (which, for them, it is).


The story itself is pretty basic and forgettable, but it accomplishes a lot at the same time. For one, Wolfman and Perez are already laying tracks for future storylines, with the alien invaders planning to return in pursuit of Starfire, Grant Wilson wanting revenge on the Titans, and Raven warning about an ominous upcoming threat that was the reason for her uniting them in the first place.



I never could fully wrap my head around that idea. I get that she would need to assemble a team of heroes, but why specifically these heroes? Why did the team specifically need to risk life and limb to rescue an alien princess to join the team? Raven doesn't seem particularly concerned with helping Starfire or for serving justice -- this is just the ultra-specific chick she needs for the job. It's all very reminiscent of Jim Starlin's Metamorphosis Odyssey, and I struggled with the idea there too.


But this story packs in tons of characterization and interpersonal relationship building too. I think I'm most impressed by the subtle beginnings of Changeling and Cyborg's heated relationship that was already suggested in the preview story. We see it quickly but subtly take shape right here in this first encounter:




As a Teen Titans reboot, this really isn't one. Sure, Dick, Wally, and Donna are there in the front, but there's nothing about the energy of this book that in any way references the past. Even Dick's reason for joining is to break away from the Batman/Robin partnership; never any particular desire to return to what he left behind with the old Titans.

Donna, meanwhile, is a totally different character now. Sure, Wolfman calls back to the enigmatic mystery of her past that he never got to address when he set up the mystery in the original Teen Titans run:



But, beyond that, she's moved so far from her classic Teen Titans characterization that Wolfman doesn't even find any irony in this moment:



Wolfman's Changeling is a male version of exactly what Wonder Girl used to be.

And, once again, I'm still not sure how it makes sense that Changeling/Beast Boy is now younger and more playful than the rest of the group. That doesn't jibe at all with how he was depicted when he nearly joined the original team back in 1966.


As for Wally, well he doesn't really get a chance to exhibit a personality at all. First, he has moved on from superheroics and is giving full attention to college, and then, before he can really show off any additional characteristics, he's seemingly brainwashed by Raven. As we were discussing this quite a bit in earlier pages of this thread, here are the telling panels. Note that the revelation comes slowly throughout the course of the issue until the point that it becomes a concern to both Dick and Donna:











We never actually see what Raven does to Wally, but heavy suggestions are made throughout the issue that she has unnatural means of persuasion:





For more proof that this isn't your dad's Teen Titans, why is absolutely no one on the team in the least bit conflicted when Cyborg blows up the entire alien ship, killing every crew member on board, as a first resort to dealing with these guys?



Raven says help the gold chick, so they just assume the aliens pursuing her are bad and immediately resort to mass murder. I guess you could blame this on Raven's supernatural persuasion tactics...I guess.



IMPORTANT DETAILS

- The New Teen Titans form for the first time, even though this is their second appearance. Wrap your head around that one.


- Partial origin of Starfire / Koriand'r (yes, Wolfman concedes he stole the name from his spice rack). She's an alien princess who has escaped alien slavers who place a high monetary value on her. I love her best in this first appearance: fierce, determined, and driven. I feel like she loses much of this once she becomes a Titan:




- Partial origin of Cyborg / Victor Stone. We know he was an aspiring athlete when whatever happened to him happened to him. He's good with computers too. What is less clear at this early point is whether he resents his father (seen in the preview special but not here) because he caused Vic's injuries or merely because he saved Vic's life by making him a cyborg.



Incidentally, at what point does Vic's superhero name become "Cyborg." He calls himself "Cyborg" as a sort of self-insult while speaking with Raven, but we never see him choose a name for the team to call him, and suddenly, a few pages later, Kid Flash is calling him "Cyborg":



If Vic views the name as such an insult, why is the rest of the team embracing this?

"You can call me sh*thead."

"Uh...okay!"



- Beast Boy is now called "Changeling" and (as noted earlier) is now significantly younger than the rest of the team and the light-hearted clown of the team. Perhaps just as interesting here, while Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven all have clear events and/or motivations that led them to the New Teen Titans, we never get this for Changeling. He's just suddenly there, no explanation given beyond the suggestion that Raven summoned him.






MINOR DETAILS:

- At this point, Raven's face remains completely eclipsed in shadows at all times. Is it possible Wolfman was toying with it actually being Lilith under that hood? If not, I have to imagine some loyal fans were thinking it. Actually, it's really odd that Robin never considers this possibility, as Raven's actions in this story (though, admittedly, not all of her abilities) are right up Lilith's alley. After all, this is exactly what Wolfman does when he resets the team with the much later Titans Hunt storyline, where a mysterious cloaked figure shows up to unite a new team and turns out to be an old familiar Titans face behind the mask.

- Wolfman and Perez really create tension between Bruce and Dick in their brief exchange in this story. I can't decide whether I love or find positively absurd Perez's throwback visual approach to Bruce, which is straight out of the Pre-Batman #217 days:



It sure does help to illustrate the divide between these two characters, though.


- I have always loved Perez's decision to give Robin eyeballs. It allows for so much more expression/characterization


- Anyone else feel like the interior cover is far superior to the outer cover? Why were we given two? Was the interior a rejected first cover for the issue?






An exciting first issue all around that sets up future conflicts, builds inter and intra character conflict, and keeps us glued with non-stop action and personality. Not a particularly meaningful first meeting of these characters, nor a particularly memorable set of antagonists and conflict, but maybe that isn't where Wolfman wanted our attention while we were getting to know these characters for the first (or second) time. As a fan of the original Teen Titans, I would have liked a little more of an acknowledgement and loving nod to what went before, but apparently no one at DC was feeling any love for the original property at this point, so that's kind of forgivable. Of course, why call it "The New Teen Titans" then? Why not a new name entirely? That "Teen" bit was going to cause a lot of confusion and limitation for Wolfman and Perez in the years to come anyway.

Off-hand, I know he has two issues left on Avengers as of cover date November 1980.





Having reviewed his run on the Superman titles a few years back, I can assure you his tendency to over-commit and subsequently miss deadlines does return.

As for whether or not that's why he left Marvel, I can't speak to that.

So, my entry into the series. They had me at the alien slavers chasing the escapee. it was pure Star Wars (and everything it stole from) ad this was the height of Star Wars popularity. DC wasn't doing much in the way of "Star Wars," (Legion was more like Trek, with superheroes), so it was refreshing. By this point, I was a fan of Perez, though not to where I sought out his work; just recognized that I usually enjoyed the stories he drew. Wolfman was fine, as far as names went; but, I wasn't reading Tomb of Dracula and had only read bits and pieces of his previous work (in scattershot fashion).

The visuals are dynamic, the colors pop, the story moves right along; everything I enjoyed. to add to things, there was an element of real mystery here and a sense that things were not all they seemed, with a lot of the characters. Wolfman & Perez do a lot to whet the appetite. I, too, liked Starfire more, early on; but, I can see her softening the more she spent time with the Titans (especially after freeing her people).

Cyborg was kind of a caricature; not racially, but as the accident victim in the prosthesis. I had seen this in the Six Million Dollar Man and Deathlok. In fact, I mostly thought "Deathlok lite," when I first saw the character. Raven I didn't know what to think and I had almost no history with Beast Boy; so, changeling didn't matter. Robin and wonder Girl were favorites. Kid Flash did seem wrong and definitely seemed to be acting weirdly, which I figured was aprt of the mystery.

The issue was a good start; but, the next issue is what really hooked me, when they introduced the best new villain to come down the pipeline in years. And, one of the best, still, to this date. To me, his debut was similar to the Road Warriors, in pro wrestling. They came on like a freight train (as they were booked as unstoppable monsters) and it just built and built and the fans started cheering them, even though they were suposed to be the heels. Same with the Terminator, as I will always know him. I didn't get to buy the Raven reveal; but, i did read it on the stands, which definitely said there was a lot of darkness and danger in store for the series.

Right now, I had lots of excitement and great action, with great characters and a lot of possibilities.

Hearkening back to our thread about heroes not killing: The Teen Titans just killed a whole spaceship full of aliens, presumably at least dozens of them judging by the size of the ship interior and the number of foes we saw engaging the heroes directly. It happened due to some rewiring carried out by Cyborg and Changeling at Raven's instructions. Did Robin know this was going to happen? He seems nonchalant after it's done.

This looks like a job for Hypertime.