{"id":29638,"date":"2024-04-08T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29638"},"modified":"2024-04-05T15:32:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:32:18","slug":"showcase-presents-teen-titans-volume-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/04\/08\/showcase-presents-teen-titans-volume-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Showcase Presents Teen Titans volume 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Mike Friedrich<\/strong>, Bob Haney<\/strong>, Neal Adams<\/strong>, Marv Wolfman<\/strong>, Robert Kanigher<\/strong>, Steve Skeates<\/strong>, Gil Kane<\/strong>, Wally Wood<\/strong>, Nick Cardy<\/strong>, Sal Amendola<\/strong>, George Tuska<\/strong>, Carmine Infantino<\/strong>, Dick Dillin<\/strong>, Joe Giella<\/strong>, Jim Aparo<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-84576-677-1 (TPB)<\/p>\n

Hey, Super Kids! Happy 60th<\/sup> Anniversary! <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s perhaps hard to grasp these days that once kid heroes were a rarity and at the beginning of the Silver Age, often considered a liability. Now the massive Teen Titans<\/strong> brand – with numerous comic book iterations, assorted TV shows, movies and even an award-winning early reading version (Aw, Yeaah! Tiny Titans!<\/strong>) their continuance as assured as anything in our biz. Nevertheless, during the tumultuous 1960s the series – never a top seller – courted controversy and actual teenage readers by confronting controversial issues head on.<\/p>\n

I must have been just lucky, because these stories of lost youth searching for great truths and meaning were released just as I turned Teen. They resonated especially because they were talking directly to me. It didn\u2019t hurt that they were brilliantly written, fantastically illustrated and staggeringly fresh and contemporary. I\u2019m delighted to declare that age hasn\u2019t diminished their quality or impact either, merely cemented their worth and importance.<\/p>\n

The concept of underage hero-teams was not a new one when the Batman<\/strong> TV show fuelled DC\u2019s move to entrust big heroes\u2019 assorted sidekicks with their own regular comic as a hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil.<\/p>\n

The biggest difference between wartime groups like The Young Allies<\/strong>, Boy Commandos<\/strong> or Newsboy Legion<\/strong> and such 1950s holdovers as The Little Wise Guys<\/strong> or Boys Ranch<\/strong> and the DC\u2019s new team was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of \u201cThe Teenager\u201d as a discrete social and commercial power bloc. These were kids who could be allowed to do things themselves (within reason) without constant adult aid or supervision. As early as spring 1964, Brave and the Bold<\/strong> #54 had tested the waters in a gripping tale by Bob Haney & Bruno Premiani in which Kid Flash<\/strong>, Aqualad<\/strong> and Robin<\/strong> foiled a modern-day Pied Piper.<\/p>\n

What had been a straight team-up was formalised a year later when the heroes reunited and included Wonder Girl<\/em> in a proper super-group with a team-name: Teen Titans<\/strong>. With the stories in this second merely monochrome print-only relic of a collected volume of those early exploits the series had hit a creative peak, with spectacular, groundbreaking artwork and fresh, different stories that increasingly showed youngsters had opinions and attitudes of their own – and often that they could be at odds with those of their mystery-men mentors\u2026<\/p>\n

Spanning cover-dated January 1969 to December 1971 and collecting Teen Titans<\/strong> #19-36, and team-up appearances from Brave and the Bold<\/strong> #83 & 94 and World\u2019s Finest Comics<\/strong> #205, these tales cover the most significant period of social and political unrest in American history and do it from the perspective of the underdogs, the seekers, the rebels\u2026<\/p>\n

The wonderment begins with a beautifully realised comedy-thriller as boy bowman Speedy<\/strong> enlists. \u2018Teen Titans: Stepping Stones for a Giant Killer!\u2019<\/em> (#19, January\/February 1969), by Mike Friedrich, Gil Kane & Wally Wood, pitted the team against youthful evil mastermind Punch<\/em> who planned to kill the Justice League of America<\/strong> and thought a trial run against the junior division a smart idea\u2026<\/p>\n

Brave and the Bold<\/strong> # 83 (April\/May 1969) took a radical turn as the Titans (sans Aqualad, who was dropped from the squad to appear in Aquaman<\/strong> and because there just ain\u2019t that much sub-sea skulduggery) tried to save Bruce Wayne\u2019s latest foster-son from his own inner demons in a tense thriller about trust and betrayal in the Haney & Neal Adams epic \u2018Punish Not my Evil Son!\u2019.<\/em> TT<\/strong> #20 took a long running plot-thread about extra-dimensional invaders and gave it a counterculture twist in \u2018Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho\u2019<\/em>, a rollicking romp written by Neal Adams, pencilled by him & Sal Amendola and inked by brush-maestro Nick Cardy – one of the all-out prettiest illustration jobs of that decade.<\/p>\n

Exemplars of the era\/symbolic super-teens Hawk and Dove<\/strong> join proceedings for #21\u2019s \u2018Citadel of Fear\u2019<\/em> (Adams & Cardy): chasing smugglers, finding aliens and ramping up the surly teen rebellion quotient whilst moving the invaders story-arc towards its stunning conclusion. \u2018Halfway to Holocaust\u2019<\/em> is only half of #22, the abduction of Kid Flash & Robin leading to a cross-planar climax as Wonder Girl, Speedy and a radical new ally quash the invasion threat forever, but still leaving enough room for a long overdue makeover in \u2018The Origin of Wonder Girl\u2019<\/em> by Marv Wolfman, Kane & Cardy. For years the series – and DC editors in general – had fudged the fact the younger Amazon Princess was not actually human, a sidekick, or even a person, but rather an incarnation of Wonder Woman<\/strong> as a child. As continuity backwriting strengthened its stranglehold on the industry, it was finally felt that the team\u2019s distaff member needed a fuller background of her own.<\/p>\n

This moving tale revealed she was in fact a human foundling rescued by Princess Diana and raised on Paradise Island where super-science gave her all the powers of a true Amazon. They even found her a name – Donna Troy<\/em> – and an apartment, complete with hot roommate. All Donna had to do was sew herself a glitzy new figure-hugging costume\u2026<\/p>\n

Now thoroughly grounded, the team jetted south in #23\u2019s fast-paced yarn \u2018The Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Rogue\u2019<\/em> (by Haney, Kane & Cardy), trying to rescue musical rebel Sammy Soul<\/em> from his grasping family and – by extension – his lost dad from Amazonian headhunters. \u2018Skis of Death!\u2019<\/em> (#24, November\/December) by the same creative crew has the quartet holidaying in the mountains and uncovering a scam to defraud Native Americans of their lands. It was a terrific old-style tale, but with the next issue the most radical change in DC\u2019s cautious publishing history made Teen Titans<\/strong> a comic which had thrown out the rulebook\u2026<\/p>\n

For a series which spoke so directly to young people, it\u2019s remarkable to think that \u2018The Titans Kill a Saint?\u2019<\/em> and its radical departure from traditional superhero stories was crafted by Bob Kanigher & Nick Cardy – two of the most senior creators in the business. The emotion-charged thriller set the scene for a different type of human-scaled adventures that were truly gripping and bravely innovative. For the relatively short time the experiment continued, readers had no idea what might happen next\u2026<\/p>\n

While on a night out in their civilian identities, Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Hawk and Dove meet telepathic go-go dancer Lilith<\/em> who warns them of impending trouble. Cassandra-like, they ignore her warnings and a direct result a globally revered Nobel Laureate is gunned down. Coming so soon after the deaths of John F. and Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, this was stunning stuff and in traumatised response all but Robin abandon their costumed personas and – with the help of mysterious millionaire philanthropist and mentor Mr. Jupiter<\/em> – dedicate their unique abilities to exploring humanity\u2019s flaws and graces: seeking fundamentally human ways to atone and make a difference in the world\u2026<\/p>\n

With Lilith beside them, they undertake different sorts of missions, beginning with \u2018A Penny For a Black Star\u2019<\/em> in which they attempt to live in a poverty-wracked inner city ghetto, where they find Mal Duncan<\/em>, a street kid who becomes the first African-American in space\u2026although it\u2019s a one-way trip.<\/p>\n

TT<\/strong> #27 reintroduced eerie elements of fantasy as \u2018Nightmare in Space\u2019<\/em> (Kanigher, George Tuska, Carmine Infantino & Cardy) sees the Titans en route to the Moon to rescue Mal, before encountering something far beyond the ken of mortal imagining. Meanwhile on Earth, Donna\u2019s roommate Sharon<\/em> stumbles upon an alien incursion. \u2018Blindspot\u2019<\/em> by Steve Skeates & Cardy was tangentially linked to another innovative saga then playing out in Aquaman\u2019s comic book. You\u2019ll need to see Aquaman: The Search For Mera<\/a><\/strong> and Aquaman: Deadly Waters<\/a><\/strong> for that extended delight. Both were edited by fresh-faced Dick Giordano, who was at this time responsible for the majority of innovative new material coming out of DC, even whilst proving himself one of the best inkers in the field.<\/p>\n

Suffice to say that the Sea King\u2019s foe Ocean Master<\/em> had allied himself with aliens and Sharon became involved just as Aqualad returned looking for help. Unable to understand the Titan\u2019s reluctance to get involved, Garth<\/em> tries to go it alone but hits a snag only the original team can fix, which they do in Skeates & Cardy\u2019s concluding chapter \u2018Captives!\u2019 <\/em>However, once the alien threat is thwarted our heroes once more lay down their powers and costumes, but they have much to ponder after seeing what benefits their unique gifts can bring\u2026<\/p>\n

Teen Titans<\/strong> #30 featured three short tales, written by Skeates. Illustrated by Cardy, \u2018Greed\u2026 Kills!<\/em>\u2019 is a cunning mystery exploring street and white-collar crime, whereas \u2018Whirlwind\u2019<\/em> is a Kid Flash prose novelette with art by Amendola before \u2018Some Call it Noise\u2019<\/em> (Infantino & Cardy) delivers an Aqualad solo tale in which his girlfriend Tula<\/em> – AKA Aquagirl<\/strong> – takes a near-fatal wrong turn at a surface world rock concert.<\/p>\n

Student politics took centre-stage in #31\u2019s lead feature \u2018To Order is to Destroy\u2019<\/em> (Skeates, Tuska & Cardy) as the young heroes investigate a totally trouble-free campus where unhappy or difficult scholars are given a small brain operation to help them \u201cconcentrate\u201d, whilst Hawk & Dove solo strip \u2018From One to Twenty\u2019<\/em> pits quarrelsome Don<\/em> and Hank Hall<\/em> against a band of murderous counterfeiters in a deft crime-caper from Skeates, Tuska & Cardy.<\/p>\n

The creators then open up the fantasy element again with a time-travelling, parallel universe epic beginning in #32 with \u2018A Mystical Realm, A World Gone Mad\u2019<\/em> as Mal and Kid Flash accidentally change the past, turning Earth into a magical mad-scape. However, undoing their error results in a Neanderthal teenager being trapped in our time, presenting the group with their greatest challenge: educating a savage primitive and making him into a civilised modern man. Illustrated by Tuska & Cardy, \u2018Less Than Human\u2019<\/em> signalled the return of Bob Haney as main writer and triggered a gradual return of powers and costumes as the author picked up the pace of Jupiter\u2019s grand experiment, restating it in terms that looked less harshly on comics\u2019 bread & butter fights \u2018n\u2019 tights scenarios.<\/p>\n

Brave and the Bold<\/strong> #94 (February-March 1971, by Haney & Cardy) offered potent counter-culture thrills as the team infiltrate an inner city commune to negate a nuclear bomb-plot in \u2018Rebels in the Streets\u2019<\/em>, before the exigencies of publishing moved the series into the world of the supernatural as costumed heroes temporarily faded away in favour of tales of mystery and imagination. Haney, Tuska & Cardy\u2019s \u2018The Demon of Dog Island\u2019<\/em> sees the team – including Robin who had quietly rejoined during the civilisation of cave-boy Gnarrk<\/em> – desperately battling to prevent Wonder Girl\u2019s possession by a gypsy ghost.<\/p>\n

Skeates, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella crated \u2018The Computer That Captured a Town\u2019 <\/em>in World\u2019s Finest Comics<\/strong> #205 (September 1971), slyly examining racism and sexism as Superman<\/strong> finds the Titans trapped in a small town that had mysteriously re-adopted the values of the 1890s – a lot like middle America today but with culprits a lot easier to punch in the face\u2026<\/p>\n

Teen Titans<\/strong> #35 reiterated supernatural themes as the team travels to Verona in \u2018Intruders of the Forbidden Crypt\u2019<\/em> (Haney, Tuska & Cardy) wherein Lilith and the son of Mr. Jupiter\u2019s business rival are drawn into a mesmerising web of tragedy: compelled to relive the doomed love of Romeo and Juliet<\/strong> despite all the rationalisations of modern science and the best efforts of the young heroes\u2026<\/p>\n

By the same creators, \u2018A Titan is Born\u2019<\/em> is a rite of passage for Mal as the everyman \u201ctoken black guy\u201d faces and defeats the murderous Gargoyle <\/em>alone and unaided, before the reincarnation tragedy concludes with fate foiled in \u2018The Tomb Be their Destiny\u2019<\/em>: the cover feature of #36. Filling out that issue and this book are two brief vignettes: Aqualad 3-page teaser \u2018The Girl of the Shadows\u2019<\/em> by Skeates & Jim Aparo and Haney & Cardy\u2019s beguiling opening episode in the origin of Lilith \u2018The Teen-Ager From Nowhere\u2019<\/em>. This showed a 10-year-old orphan\u2019s first prescient exploit and the distrust it engendered, promising much more to come: a perfect place to end this second monochrome masterpiece of graphic literature.<\/p>\n

Although perhaps dated in delivery now, these tales were a liberating experience for kids when first released. They truly betokened new empathy with independent youth and tried to address problems that were more relevant to and generated by that specific audience. That they are so captivating in execution is a wonderful bonus. This is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful and demand a fresh edition as soon as possible.
\n\u00a9 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Friedrich, Bob Haney, Neal Adams, Marv Wolfman, Robert Kanigher, Steve Skeates, Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Nick Cardy, Sal Amendola, George Tuska, Carmine Infantino, Dick Dillin, Joe Giella, Jim Aparo & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-84576-677-1 (TPB) Hey, Super Kids! Happy 60th Anniversary! It\u2019s perhaps hard to grasp these days that once kid heroes … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Showcase Presents Teen Titans volume 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,133,10,75,76,290,102,299,66,172,148,107,169,9,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-aquaman","category-batman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-dinosaurs","category-fantasy","category-feminism-sexual-politics","category-horror-stories","category-robin","category-romance","category-science-fiction","category-spy-stories","category-superman","category-wonder-woman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7I2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29641,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29638\/revisions\/29641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}