Tuesday, May 5, 2015
If You Blinked, You Missed: The Teen Titans Revival
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! In 1976 (August, to be exact) DC brought back the Teen Titans after a four year hiatus. Bob Rozakis was the writer of this revival (Paul Levitz assisted on the first ish), and his idea was to expand the "Junior Justice League" into a larger, more varied team of young heroes. He messed around with non-powered Mal Duncan, trying to find him a super-identity; added new (and old) team-members like Lilith, Beast Boy, Hawk and Dove, Golden Eagle, Harlequin, Bumblebee, and the original Batgirl. He tried to add some "Marvel-style" characterization and sub-plots, but the mag never set the world on fire (having a different artist almost every ish didn't help), ending with ish 53 (November 1978). It did point the way to what the TT's could be, but it would take three more years and the team of Marv Wolfman and George Perez to make that happen. Meantime, here's the comeback ish, #44, with art by Pablo Marcos and Bob Smith..."The Man Who Toppled the Titans"!
I didn't (quite) blink, so I had about 2 or 3 of the later issues, although I don't think any of them were consecutive. And that wasn't only due to poor spinner rack distribution, as I don't recall the stories or art ever grabbing me. Speaking of art, this Marcos/Smith combination is really odd. At places it's reminiscent of Frank Robbins' work for Marvel.
ReplyDeleteWow.., I didn't like the cover on this much, but the Pablo art inside is very interesting.. Spotty and rough at times.. (especially on Robin), but I love the internal art. I too was VERY excited when they came back, having missed 'em during the '60s Cardy (then Tuska) run.., and after that FANTASTIC 1976 Titans DC Special.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I started with ish 45 and the art steadily got worse, ending with the terrible Donnie Heck art, which also forced me off 'Batman Family' (which got better after I stopped collecting..). I'll need to pick this up, thanks for the review.
More like, "If You're Lucky, You Missed it." I didn't unfortunately. I missed the end of the original Cardy run by probably less than a year, and had to make due with reprints and back issues. I was beyond excited that the Titans were coming back...until they came back. The art in this issue is actually worse than I remember it (not sure how that's possible). The art did improve for the next few issues with Irv Novick, but Don Heck at his worst killed the series dead.
ReplyDeleteJames Chatterton
I quite enjoyed it and would to find the issues I don't have.
ReplyDelete