Secret Origins: Teen Titans

The Teen Titans. You'd think they'd always been around, always been a top-flight, top-tier title. T'was not always so. In between their legendary first series (which ran 43 issues from 1966-1973) and the totally awesome Marv Wolfman/George Perez 1980s revamp, the Titans struggled to stay on the stands with a little-remembered run from 1976-1978 (issues 44-53). Mainly written by the solid-but-unspectacular Bob Rozakis and drawn by a revolving door of artists (from Pablo Marcos to Don Heck to Juan Ortiz), those issues are but a foot-note in comicbook history. Kind of a shame, because while the series was by no means spectacular, it was good fun, and it Rozakis and his cohorts did some innovative work on our favorite team of junior Justice Leaguers. He added new characters and members like Bumblebee, Harlequin, and Golden Eagle, along with a Titans West team featuring Hawk (of Hawk & Dove fame), the caveman Gnaark, and the original Bat-Girl. Both of those ideas were used in later, more successful incarnations of the Titans, but the best thing Rozakis did was in the final issue (#53, November, 1977) when he gave the Teen Titans an origin. When Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad first teamed up in Brave and the Bold #54 (April, 1964), the team didn't even have a name. When they got back together (and invited Wonder Girl) in B&B #60, they had a name but no origin. Leave it to the Answer Man to create an origin for a team that had gone without one for well over a decade. Way to go, Bob!