{"id":30551,"date":"2024-09-16T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30551"},"modified":"2024-09-15T10:27:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T10:27:06","slug":"teen-titans-the-silver-age-volume-two-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/09\/16\/teen-titans-the-silver-age-volume-two-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen Titans: The Silver Age Volume Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bob Haney<\/strong>, Len Wein<\/strong>, Marv Wolfman<\/strong>, Nick Cardy<\/strong>, Irv Novick<\/strong>, Bill Draut<\/strong>, Gil Kane<\/strong>, Wally Wood<\/strong>, Neal Adams, Sal Amendola <\/strong>& various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-8517-3 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

In the 1960s the hallowed concept of kid hero teams was already ancient when the impending Batman <\/strong>TV show prompted DC to trust their big heroes\u2019 assorted sidekicks with their own regular outlet of expression. The outcome was a fab, hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil. Happy 60th<\/sup> anniversary, youngsters!<\/p>\n

The biggest difference between the creation of the Teen Titans<\/strong> and wartime groups like The Young Allies<\/strong>, Newsboy Legion<\/strong> and Boy Commandos<\/strong> or even 1950s holdovers that included The Little Wise Guys<\/strong> or Boys Ranch<\/strong> was quite simply that burgeoning phenomena \u201cThe Teenager\u201d: a discrete social and commercial force that had been born in the forties but ran wild in the following decade. These were kids who could – and should – be allowed to do things themselves, without constant adult help or supervision…<\/p>\n

This quirkily eclectic compilation re-presents the rapidly-evolving \u2013- ending – Swinging Sixties exploits from Teen Titans<\/strong> #12-24, plus a guest-shot from The Brave and the Bold<\/strong> #83, collectively spanning November\/December 1967 to November\/December 1969, with originating writer Bob Haney still scripting and the accent heavily on fun. The action resumes here with twin contemporary hot-topics \u201cThe Space-Race\u201d and \u201cDisc Jockeys\u201d informing whacky sci fi thriller \u2018Large Trouble in Space-Ville!\u2019<\/em> as illustrated by Irv Novick (The Shield<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>, The Flash<\/strong>) & Nick Cardy (Lady Luck<\/strong>, Aquaman<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>) with the gang thwarting aliens stealing Earth\u2019s monuments.<\/p>\n

Cardy flies solo for TT<\/strong> #13, producing a seasonal comics masterpiece in \u2018The TT\u2019s Swingin\u2019 Christmas Carol!\u2019<\/em>, a stylish retelling that\u2019s one of the most reprinted Titans tales ever. At this time Cardy\u2019s art really opened up as he grasped the experimental flavour of the times. The cover of #14, as well as interior illustration for the grim psycho-thriller \u2018Requiem for a Titan\u2019<\/em>, are unforgettable. The tale introduces the team\u2019s first serious returning villain The Gargoyle<\/em> (Mad Mod <\/em>does not count!): mesmerising, memorable and madly menacing. Although Cardy only inked Lee Elias\u2019s pencils for #15\u2019s eccentric tryst with Hippie counter-culture, \u2018Captain Rumble Blasts the Scene!\u2019<\/em> is another genuinely unique crime-thriller from a time when nobody over age 25 understood what the youth of the world was doing…<\/p>\n

Teen Titans<\/strong> #16 returned to more solid ground with superb, scene-setting thriller \u2018The Dimensional Caper!\u2019<\/em>, wherein rapacious sinister aliens infiltrate a rural high-school (and how many times have you seen that plot used since this 1968 epic?). Cardy\u2019s art reached dizzying heights of innovation both here and in the next issue\u2019s waggish jaunt to London \u2018Holy Thimbles, It\u2019s the Mad Mod!\u2019<\/em> (alternatively and uninspiringly retitled \u2018The Return of the Mad Mod\u2019<\/em> here). The frantic criminal chase through the first and best Cool Britannia era which unfolds even includes a command performance from Her Majesty, the Queen…<\/p>\n

Next up is a fandom landmark – and hint of things to come – as novice writers Len Wein & Marv Wolfman got their big break with a tale introducing (Soviet) Russian superhero Starfire<\/em> (latterly redubbed Red Star <\/em>for the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/strong> generation) which set them firmly on a path of teen super-team writing. \u2018Eye of the Beholder\u2019<\/em> is a cool cat-burglar\/super heist yarn set in trendy Stockholm, drawn with superb understatement by comics stalwart Bill Draut (Black Magic<\/strong>, Girls\u2019 Love Stories<\/strong>, House of Secrets<\/strong>, Phantom Stranger<\/strong>), acting as a perfect indicator of the changing style and attitude that would imminently become part of the Teen Titans and comics industry\u2026
\n\"\"
\nMaintaining the experiments with youthful authorial voices, the entertainment continues with a beautifully realised comedy-thriller as boy Bowman Speedy<\/strong> joins the team full-time. \u2018Teen Titans: Stepping Stones for a Giant Killer!\u2019<\/em> (#19, January\/February 1969) is written by Mike Friedrich with stunning art from Gil Kane (Green Lantern<\/strong>, Spider-Man<\/strong>, Rex the Wonder Dog<\/strong>, Star Hawks<\/strong>) & Wally Wood (Cannon<\/strong>, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent<\/strong>s, All-Star Comics<\/strong>, Daredevil<\/strong>), pitting the team against youthful criminal mastermind Punch<\/em>. He intends killing the Justice League of America<\/strong>, and sagely reasons that a trial run against the junior division can\u2019t hurt…<\/p>\n

TT<\/strong> #20 took the long-brewing plot-thread of extra-dimensional invaders and gave it a counterculture twist in \u2018Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho\u2019<\/em>: a spectacular rollercoaster romp deftly blending teen revolt, organised crime, anti-capitalist activism, bug-eyed monsters and cruelly cunning creepy conquerors, written by Neal Adams, pencilled by him and Sal (Phoenix<\/strong>, Archie Comics<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>, Star Trek<\/strong>) Amendola, with inks by brush-maestro Cardy – one of the all-out prettiest illustration jobs of that decade.<\/p>\n

Cover-dated April-May 1969, team-up vehicle The<\/strong> Brave and the Bold<\/strong> # 83 then took a radical turn as, in Haney & Adams\u2019 \u2018Punish Not my Evil Son!\u2019<\/em>, the Titans (sans Aqualad<\/strong>, who was dropped to appear more prominently in Aquaman<\/strong> and because there just ain\u2019t that much subsea malfeasance) strive to save Bruce Wayne<\/em>\u2019s latest foster-son from his own inner demons in a tense thriller about trust and betrayal…<\/p>\n

Symbolic super-teens Hawk and Dove<\/strong> briefly join proceedings for #21\u2019s \u2018Citadel of Fear\u2019<\/em> (Adams & Cardy): chasing smugglers, finding aliens and ramping up the surly teen rebel quotient whilst moving the invasion story-arc towards its stunning conclusion. \u2018Halfway to Holocaust\u2019<\/em> is only half of #22, with the alien abduction of Kid Flash<\/strong> and Robin<\/strong> leading to a cross-planar climax where Wonder Girl<\/strong>, Speedy and a radical new ally quash the creeps\u2019 ambitions forever, which still left enough room for a long overdue makeover in \u2018The Origin of Wonder Girl\u2019<\/em> by Wolfman, Kane & Cardy.
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\nFor years the series – and DC in general – had fudged the fact that their younger Amazon Princess was not actually human, a sidekick, or even a person, but rather an incarnation of the adult Wonder Woman<\/strong> as a child. As continuity backwriting strengthened its stranglehold on the industry, it was felt that the team\u2019s token \u201cchick\u201d needed a fuller background, so this moving tale reveals she is in fact a human foundling rescued by Wonder Woman and raised on Paradise Island where their super-science gave her all the powers of a true Amazon.<\/p>\n

They even found her a name – Donna Troy<\/em> – and an apartment, complete with hot roommate. All Donna has to do was sew herself a glitzy, figure-hugging new costume…<\/p>\n

Now thoroughly grounded in \u201creality\u201d, the team jet south in #23\u2019s fast-paced yarn \u2018The Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Rogue\u2019<\/em> (Haney, Kane & Cardy), seeking to rescue musical rebel Sammy Soul<\/em> from his grasping family and subsequently, his missing dad from Amazonian headhunters.<\/p>\n

This volume, and an era of relative innocence, ends on \u2018Skis of Death!\u2019<\/em> by the same creators, seeing the adventurous quartet vacationing in the mountains and uncovering a scam to defraud Native Americans of their tribal lands. It\u2019s a terrific old-style tale but with the next issue the most radical change in DC\u2019s cautious publishing history made Teen Titans a comic which had thrown out the rulebook… and maybe one day the company will get around to compiling it and the issues that followed into a third Titan-ish Tome in this sadly unfinished sequence….<\/p>\n

Although perhaps dated in delivery, these tales were a liberating experience for kids when first released and remain a highly entertaining experience even now. They truly betokened a 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.
\n\u00a9 1967, 1968, 1969, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Haney, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Nick Cardy, Irv Novick, Bill Draut, Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Sal Amendola & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-8517-3 (TPB\/Digital edition) In the 1960s the hallowed concept of kid hero teams was already ancient when the impending Batman TV show prompted DC to trust their big heroes\u2019 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Teen Titans: The Silver Age Volume Two”<\/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":[191,360,75,76,332,225,272,172,107,210,11,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-christmas-hits","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-gil-kane","category-mystery","category-neal-adams","category-robin","category-science-fiction","category-sport","category-teen-titans","category-wonder-woman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7WL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30551","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=30551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30555,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30551\/revisions\/30555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}