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Just read New Teen Titans #1 (1980)...

Started by Point Five,

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Point Five

Point Five

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Let me explain: Back when I was a kid collecting these books in the early/mid 1980s, I was able to assemble the run of New Teen Titans #2-50... but #1 was something of a holy grail, and I was never able to obtain one. (Now, of course, #1s are available any day of the week, thanks to ebay and a softening of interest in the title...)

 

Anyway, long story short, I now have a New Teen Titans #1 to round out my Titans collection, and sat down and read it for the first time the other night. Here's a few impressions:

 

--The cover looks good, but I find the figures to be oddly small. IMO, the figures should be about 20% bigger, to make for a more dynamic cover. Anyone else think this? (It's nothing that will keep me up at night; just a random observation.)

 

--Very nice George Perez art throughout. IMO he really got going towards the middle & end of his run (#21-44, #50), but certainly started strong.

 

--I was struck by how the "new" characters seem to echo popular Marvel characters of the time: Cyborg (as written in this first issue) reminds me of the Thing (angst over not being human, etc) with a dash of Wolverine (he even says "flamin'" at one point!). Starfire reminds me of Storm. Raven could loosely correspond to Phoenix... Of course, the characters got much more carefully defined in later issues (one of the things that made this series such a joy, the subtle characterizations).

 

--That said, I was struck by how carefully crafted the team seems to have been, even from the beginning. Are there any recent super-team books where this level of thought and detail are in evidence? If I'd bought this off the stands in 1980, I certainly would have come back for the second issue...

 

What do you folks think?

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Shadow

Shadow

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I really enjoyed them at the time. Still have my run to about #50. It was definetly the best book after X-men for me at the time. The Titan's (of Myth) storyline was fun. As was the original Brother Blood. Liked the Doom Patrol storyline, the early story with Starfire's planet, etc. Too bad it's not in a TPB.

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whetteon

whetteon

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I've been recently putting together my collection. Unfortunately I've been reading them as I get them but I've really enjoyed the series. What turned me on originally was the Cartoon Network show. Before that I hadn't really cared. Now I'm only 10 issues away from a complete 1-50 run. thumbsup2.gif

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jbud73

jbud73

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The first 50 are as good as any 50 consecutive ever written. Wolfman sat down in numerous creative sessions with Perez and painstakingly plotted this series. Just enough hint and innuendo here and there - subplots that slowly build to become legit mainplots, nuances that are not disgarded as some new creative team walks through the door. You are rarely left with that (huh what about this or that feeling).

 

I also recommend reading Tales of the NTT - The original mini's which go into origin details for Cyborg, Raven, Changeling and StarFire - they are 1st rate. cloud9.gif Don't read them straight away, or you will know too much to soon, but some where in 1982 I think after the Doom Partol arc is a nice place to insert them.

 

NTT shows what a consistent artist writer team with talent can do for a comic book. Wolfman wrote approx 180, or 99% of the Titans stories and I feel that his arc and longevity are second only to Clarmonts titanic run on X-Men. If you like his -script style and pace I also suggest Tomb of Drac.

 

Again he and the legendary Gene Colan are there for 99% of the entire 70 issue run and its the same result.

 

Quality story and art over a prolonged commitment = great comics. news.gif

 

If only the current publishers would realize, or re-realize this. foreheadslap.gif

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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--Very nice George Perez art throughout. IMO he really got going towards the middle & end of his run (#21-44, #50), but certainly started strong.

 

 

Did Romeo Tanghal ink over Perez in #1?

I always thought Tanghal took away from Perez's pencils. That book would have looked absolutely stunning had it been inked by say, Terry Austin, maybe even Bob Wiacek.

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whetteon

whetteon

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Quality story and art over a prolonged commitment = great comics. news.gif

 

If only the current publishers would realize, or re-realize this. foreheadslap.gif

I completely agree although I've read were Wolfman was getting tired of writing the same characters after the first 50 books. He was bound to a contract and was just running out of ideas towards the end. This is why we bring in new artist from time to time to keep stories and characters fresh with a new perspective. I think it should be a mandatory 35 issues per title once a writer accepts a new assignment. I've gotten tired of today’s 6-12 story arc creative teams that function more like bungee jumpers on a title.

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Point Five

Point Five

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Thanks for the replies, guys!

 

I much agree, jbud73, that "the first 50 are as good as any 50 consecutive ever written." To that I'd also add the first 5 issues of the Baxter series (and perhaps not coincidentally, breaking off at the point at which George Perez stopped doing the interiors). I doggedly kept with the Baxter series through the teens and twenties, which were sporadically good but ultimately kind of exhausting (as I recall, there was a storyline where the Titans weren't even together that took two full years to end!), and finally gave up around issue #35 when the title just seemed pretty much played out. Checking Overstreet, I see the title went all the way to #130 (!!). Open question: were there any particularly good issues or storylines that I missed between #35 and #130?

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Shadow

Shadow

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When I started buying new stuff again over the last 10 years, I gave "Titans" a try. Oy vey was that a poorly written title. The new series has been much better, though it still doesn't compare with the early 80's Wolfman/Perez run. I bought the first 5 Baxter issues, but stopped collecting comics soon after.

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jbud73

jbud73

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Thanks for the replies, guys!

 

I much agree, jbud73, that "the first 50 are as good as any 50 consecutive ever written." To that I'd also add the first 5 issues of the Baxter series (and perhaps not coincidentally, breaking off at the point at which George Perez stopped doing the interiors). I doggedly kept with the Baxter series through the teens and twenties, which were sporadically good but ultimately kind of exhausting (as I recall, there was a storyline where the Titans weren't even together that took two full years to end!), and finally gave up around issue #35 when the title just seemed pretty much played out. Checking Overstreet, I see the title went all the way to #130 (!!). Open question: were there any particularly good issues or storylines that I missed between #35 and #130?

 

Around Issue 50 Perez comes back for the Donna Troy saga which isn't too bad. But by the time the book hit issue #70 it was aaaaaaaaaaaaall down hill. Yes I have all 130 issues, what can I say blush.gif there are a few issues between 70 and 130 that are good, but not enough for anyone but the most die hard fan (yep that's me). Hey even X-men sucked the big one between issus 325 to 390ish, and maybe even longer than that depending on who you ask. But it was real bad between 325 and 390.

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Point Five

Point Five

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Thanks, that's about what I figured. Amazing that it could crawl all the way to issue #130 before cancellation, isn't it? I think it was always been a title people followed because of the writing (as opposed to say Batman which has the built-in advantage of featuring a character everyone knows). If it started dropping in quality after #70, then wow, that's a full five years of...something.

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nitowljr-migration

nitowljr-migration

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Sometime during the mid-80's, NTT underwent a title change and became Tales of the Teen Titans. This series continued with the original NTT storyline for a few issues, then became a reprint-only title. A new New Teen Titans series soon followed in a more attractive (and more expensive) format. The Titans' already waning popularity definitely didn't benefit from the price hike.

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Point Five

Point Five

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Sometime during the mid-80's, NTT underwent a title change and became Tales of the Teen Titans. This series continued with the original NTT storyline for a few issues, then became a reprint-only title.

 

Ohhh yeah! That was one of the more bizarre, irritating and pointless format changes I've ever seen. Each "Tales of the Teen Titans" book would reprint a NTT story from the Baxter series that you'd already read a year ago...with a crappier cover...on regular paper instead of Baxter stock. Talk about ways to kill off a title! screwy.gif

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