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The Teen Titans published by DC Comics

The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract 1988 (SC TPB) 190 pages.

Written by Marv Wolfman (co-plotter George Perez). Art by George Perez. Inks by Romeo Tanghal, Mike DeCarlo, Dick Giordano, George Perez.
Colours: Adrienne Roy. Letters: various. Editors: Wolfman and Perez.

Reprinting: The New Teen Titans (1st series) #39-40, Tales of the Teen Titans (2nd series) #41-44, Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3

Rating: * * * (out of 5)

Number of readings: 2

This collects two storylines, as well as chronicles Dick Grayson's relinquishing of the mantle of Robin to adopt the new costumed identity of Nightwing. It also introduced Jericho to the team. The first story (#39-41) has the Titans going up against villainous religious messiah, Brother Blood, unaware that one of their number, Terra, is conspiring with villains Deathstroke the Terminator and the H.I.V.E. The last four issues comprise the "Judas Contract" saga as the villainy of Terra and Deathstroke is manifested.

For a long time this was the only New Teen Titans TPB collection available (other than an expensive hardcover "archive" collection), and is probably a decent representation of the team that was a major hit for DC in the 1980s. Recently, they've released another, The Terror of Trigon.

I say that with mixed sentiments. I was never quite as big on the New T.T.s as everyone else was...or as I wanted to be. I liked aspects of the series, but more often than not, the individual issues never quite grabbed me (with one or two notable exceptions). One weakness was that the original Teen Titans sprang from the whole generation gap of the '60s, but these Titans often only seemed teens in that they didn't have lines on their faces.

The sex aspect was a little odd, too. There's the long held idea that comics are into depicting big-breasted, scantily clad ladies (and I ain't got nothing against that) -- but at the time, that was more myth than reality. Yet Starfire unabashedly epitomized that concept (even given such nicknames as Balloon Bod) yet she was only supposed to be seventeen or so. In other words, the most sexually exploited of comic heroines, was also one of the youngest! While in this storyline we have the 16 year old Terra having an affair with the middle-aged Deathstroke. Throw in 19 year old Wonder Girl engaged to the 29 year old Terry Long and the Changeling's never ending barrage of (unwanted) sexual come-ons (which seem less funny -- if they ever did -- in this age of awwareness over sexual harassment) combined with the realization that Wolfman and Perez weren't exactly writing about their generational peers, and you have a series that can be a bit...uncomfortable at times. Conversely, the claim was (whether true or not, I don't know) that the New Teen Titans were popular with female readers, so maybe I'm analysing it too seriously.

Anyway, I went into these issues with high expectations. After all, they came on the heels of "Who is Donna Troy?" (The New Teen Titans #38), a critically acclaimed issue that even I regard as one of the greatest comic stories ever produced.

But the saga, over all, is uneven.

This was at a tumultuous time, behind-the-scenes. Wolfman and Perez had taken over the editing chores, supposedly heralding a greater collaboration between the two, at the same time preparing a second Titans comic, The New Teen Titans (2nd series) -- which is why this magazine's title changes in mid-story from The New Teen Titans to Tales of the Teen Titans. Tales would eventually be turned over to reprinting stories from the new, The New Teen Titans comic. The idea of publishing one expensive Titans title, then reprinting the story a year later in the standard, cheaper format, wasn't such an especially odd idea -- fans who liked the expensive paper and crisper colour could lay out the extra moola, fans who didn't could wait (nowadays, comic fans have no choice but to buy the expensive formats). Except...the editorials heralding the new title didn't explain the end intention. One wonders how many Titans fans were suckered into subscribing to both titles, desperate not to miss an adventure of their heroes, only to find the comic arriving at their door was just a reprint of a story they already had? Anyhoo...

The point is, Wolfman and Perez may have been stretching themselves pretty thin.

There are aspects of the Brother Blood story that don't make sense, as if Wolfman and Perez got confused between issues, or changed their minds. One issue ends promising next issue will reveal the origin of the enigmatic Brother Blood...and then the next issue has nary a hint of that promised revelation! As well, the story is awfully derivative of Blood's first appearance (and this was only, I believe, his second appearance) and ends inconclusively.

But Blood's just an opening act, after all, for "The Judas Contract". Billed originally as a "novel in four parts", the Judas Contract (great title, by the way) is a decent thriller. But it too promises a lot...while delivering only some of that. For one thing, it's a little like a climax without a beginning, not a "novel" at all. Even before the Brother Blood story the reader was acquainted with Terra's duplicity, meaning there are no shocking revelations, no "who is the traitor?" mystery sub-plots in these pages. The story unfolds rather predictably...and simplistically. The main intriguing plot element is the mysterious woman and her son who are shadowing Deathstroke. But most of the saga lacks twists or plot complications.

Which leaves characterization as the chief dramatic focus. But Terra is just a lunatic. Wolfman & Perez may've thought that a clever twist, as characters continually ask "why betray the Titans?" and the answer being "why not?", but it's dramatically weak. And Changeling's relationship with her is sketchily developed (at least in the issues reprinted here) given his reaction when he learns she betrayed them.

Some of the stuff with Deathstroke works better, but also suffers from frustrating vagueness. An entire chapter is devoted to detailing the origin of this, one of the oldest of the Titans' adversaries, but much of it is hardly earth-shatteringly significant, while the significant bits, like how he got his powers or why did an, ostensibly, law-abiding (albeit, career) soldier choose to become a hitman, is vague.

That's kind of a problem with Wolfman and Perez. On one hand, I love the density of the material -- lots of little panels, crammed with dialogue. But in these issues, at least, they don't really offer more for all the detail.

Wolfman is a veteran writer, so you know there's going to be a baseline of capability at work here -- though, as noted, there are weaknesses in plot and character development. Perez is, of course, an artist long appreciated for his detailed, realist style, and I hardly need add any praise here. Except to note that Perez is one of the few artists to make a real effort to individualize his characters, giving each face its own look -- Starfire isn't just Wonder Girl with golden skin, Changeling isn't just a green Dick Grayson. The opening chapter to the Judas Contract story is particularly well-laid out, with Perez milking a lot of mood from his panels as we follow the Titans in their day-to-day lives, the heroes unaware they're being filmed by Terra for Deathstroke.

One of the strengths to the saga is the emphasis on Dick Grayson. Though he was the least flashy of the group, lacking powers, he was often the most interesting, the one the reader could empathize with the most. Grayson takes centre stage for much of the Judas Contract part of the story (since the rest of the team is captured early)...though even here the character/plotting stuff is a bit abrupt. He doffs his Robin costume in #39, wanders about for the next few issues without a secret I.d., then abruptly throws on his Nightwing regalia. I don't know what I expected, but I thought there'd be more build up, more of a laying of the groundwork.

The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract is a decent read, with a especially strong climax (Tales of The Teen Titans Annual #3 is worth picking up, even if you can't collect the whole saga) and some semi-pivotal events (like Robin becoming Nightwing), but it falls short of greatness.

This is a review of the story serialized in Teen Titans comics

Original cover price: $19.95 CDN./$14.95 USA.
2003 reissue price: $__ CDN./ $19.95 USA.

The New Teen Titans: The Terror of Trigon  2003 (SC TPB) 144 pages

Written by Marv Wolfmam (plot Wolfman and Perez). Pencils George Perez. Inks by George Perez, Romeo Tanghal.
Colours: Adrienne Roy. Letters: various.

Reprinting: The New Teen Titans (2nd series) #1-5 (1984) -- which were also reprinted in Tales of the Teen Titans #60-64

Rating: N/R (out of 5)

Number of readings: 2

Additional notes: character profiles.

Trying to fathom the reason for a TPB collection can be pretty, well, unfathomable. Elsewhere on this site I've complained that DC Comics (not so much Marvel) has shown a distressing lack of interest in collecting older storylines. So when they do, I should applaud. At the same time, I kind of wonder why, some twenty years after the fact, collect a story from a long cancelled comic, a story that, though perhaps significant to the characters at the time, has little resonance for a modern reader and, to my knowledge, wasn't especially well remembered anyway? Not that the Terror of Trigon is necessarily a nadir of the Wolfman-Perez collaboration...but I'm not sure it's considered a peak either.

But with the advent of, apparently, a new cartoon TV series about The Teen Titans (or a version of them, anyway) maybe DC is just trying to ride a potential wave of Titans-related merchanise. Although the last incarnation of the comic -- The Titans -- was recently cancelled, it's paved the way for two new titles. Yet another Teen Titans comic, and a revived version of the non-Titans title, The Outsiders, with a membership including some ex-Titans. DC is also releasing a hardcover Silver Age Teen Titans Archive Edition, possibly a second New Teen Titans Archive, and a Teen Titans Elseworlds graphic novel slated for later in the year. So I guess the second half of 2003 is shaping up to be a Titans bonanza.

Postscript: DC initially pulled the plug on the Elseworlds book, even though it had already been written (by classic Titans creator, Bob Haney) and illustrated. Then eventually realeased it in 2008 as "Teen Titans: The Lost Annual" -- sadly, after Haney had passed away.

As I've mentioned before, I wasn't a big fan of the New Teen Titans, despite their being a huge success for DC Comics in the 1980s. So why do I continue to pick up the odd issue in back issue bins? 'Cause I want to like them. I like Perez's art and the cool costumes and powers, I liked the idea of the soap opera-y character stuff. And I did like some of the stories...but a lot left me underwhelmed.

This storyline has Raven, the enigmatic, magical one of the team, who's father is the evil otherworldly demon, Trigon, finally succumbing to her father's influence. Together she and her pop destroy Azareth -- the holy city where Raven was raised and instilled with goodness -- and transform earth into a barren wassteland like something out of a surrealist painting. It falls to the Teen Titans, along with irregular members Kid Flash and the telepath Lilith, to try and stop them.

This story kicked off a second on going New Teen Titans comics (the original New Teen Titans magazine had a name change to Tales of the Teen Titans) by the same creative team that made the first series such a hit. The new comic was published on crisper, more expensive paper -- though the contents would subsequently be reprinted in Tales of the Teen Titans. To make this all the more confusing, the early issues of the first series also featured a story arc (primarily running from #3 to #6, I believe) involving Trigon, which will no doubt lead some readers to assume this is a collection of the earlier story. It isn't.

And, to be up front, I don't have the first issue -- so my review is based on issues #2-5 (which is why I resist giving this an official rating). But the early part of the saga (well, starting with #2) works well. Ominously apocalyptic storm clouds are covering the entire earth, and Raven has disappeared, leading to the other Titans attempting a kind of seance to contact her. It's a fairly moody, portentous sequence.

Overall, however, I found The Terror of Trigon just didn't quite grip me. Part of the problem with that is that it's an apocalyptic tale with Trigon enslaving the world...but most of the action takes place within a few blocks. It's a BIG concept, that feels kind of small. I mentioned in my review of the classic Silver Surfer: The Coming of Galactus that that managed to be a story of cosmic grandeur while barely leaving a New York city block. So it certainly can be done...but I just didn't think it worked here. Although I wonder if Wolfman and Perez were thinking of that earlier story, in that both begin with ominous signs in the sky, and involve a gigantic figure threatening to destroy earth.

The problem I've sometimes found with Wolfman and Perez's work on group stories (whether it be the Teen Titans, or their epic collaboration of Crisis on Infinite Earths) is that they have trouble crafting a story that exploits a group of characters. That is, a story with sufficient plot threads that each character can have something to do. Instead, we get a lot of mass scenes, where everyone's crammed into it, jostling for a line, or a close up. But the story itself lacks complexity. Trigon attacks the Titans psychologically, confronting each with a dream sequence where they are taunted with their various insecurities and neurosies by evil dopplegangers of themselves. But, by virtue of it being about a group of characters, the sequence gets repetative very quickly, as we cut from Nightwing, to Starfire, to Wonder Girl, etc. And since these characters have been around for some 50 issues, it's not like we can be surprised by an unexpected character revelation.

Although, that's a thought. On one hand this might appeal to old time fans...but it might be more entertaining for those to whom these characters and their quirks are less familiar.

Anyway, the Titans prove fairly ineffectual, standing on the sidelines as events transpire without their input. Which relates to my complaint about lack of plot threads. The story doesn't require Nightwing (the former Robin, in case you didn't know) to plan some clever strategy, or conceive some daring course of action...because the Titans are more sideplayers in the end.

The art by George Perez is, of course, good, though when it comes to his storytelling sense, and not just his eye for anatomy and architecture, he can fluctuate. Some of the scenes, particularly in the second chapter, are exceptionally well told, as Perez uses a cinematographer's eyes for creating mood and blocking out a scene. But later sequences can be more workmanlike, where the action is conveyed with clarity...but you don't necessarily find the scenes being enhanced by the panels.

Interestingly, although this was the start of a whole new series (sort of) and in editorials Wolfman writes about the plans he and Perez have for future storylines...Perez actually left the comic at the end of this storyline. Go figure.

Ultimately, I wish DC would have released the original Trigon story instead. Having read a few early TNTT stories, they stand among my favourites, and I can well imagine it being an entertaining saga. DC has collected the first 9 or 10 issues...but only in one of their ridiculously overpriced hardcover Archives. But who can afford those, eh? The Terror of Trigon isn't awful, though I wonder how well it'll read for someome unfamiliar with the New Teen Titans, given it's reliance on the whole background behind Raven and Trigon...without, maybe, explaing things as clearly as it might for the novice. It has some effective early stuff, but as it progresses, I found -- even after a second reading -- that I just got a little bored. And that can't be construed as a good thing.

This is a review of the story as it was serialized in New Teen Titans comics.

Cover price: $__ CDN./ $17.95 USA.

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