New Teen Titans appreciation thread

[Earth 2 Chris]

Okay, so who here is a fan of Wolfman and Perez's New Teen Titans? I've been going over my back issues over the past few nights, and I have to say, this comic is pretty much the apex of good super hero comics. Back when heroes were still heroic, and not so deconstructed you didn't wonder why they even bothered slipping on their tights. The series holds up really well, esp. up until George left. The dialog is a little flowery at times, but the characters have distinct voices, and Wolfman had them figured out really well.

One thing I think this book did a fantastic job of, was putting the characters through situations and changes that felt natural. When things changed, they really changed, and stayed that way. Not like the sensationalized modern comic method of changing the status quo every story arc to make a good TPB.

Of course, eventually, Wolfman ran out of steam and had a bad case of writer's block (he freely admits that in every interview he's given in the past 20 years). The Titans Hunt storyline was pretty exciting at first, but it began a series of events that mad the book an unreadable mess by the time it was canned.

I know this series was DC's most popular at the time, and to this day they continue to mind (and in some cases, maim) the classic NTT story elements. Deathstroke DRUGGED Terra and made her nuts? That invalidates the ENTIRE POINT of "The Judas Contract". Sheesh.

Oh and I will freely admit that Perez's Starfire made me a big fan of boo...er...books about strong alien women. Yeah, that's it. That's all I'll say.

So, any other Titans fans here?

Chris

[The Toyroom]

Aw Yeah Titans!

I was first introduced to the NTT nback in 7th grade....a kid in biology class had an extra copy of NTT #7 and gave it to me. He was always talking about them and saying they were cooler than the X-Men, which I debated at the time. But once I read that issue, I was hooked. I quickly managed to grab #4 and 6 and then #1-3. From that point one I was buying them monthly.

Everything just seemed to click from the team of Wolfman/Perez/Tanghal/Wein. Those were indeed the good ol' days. Characters like Deathstroke were used sporadically...he only appeared in #2,10 and #34 I think (not counting the X-Men/Titans crossover) before the Judas Contract began. Today's writers use him WAAAAY to much IMO (as cool as he is) and he fights everyone from Batman to Green Arrow to the Outsiders to the JLA to the Teen Titans to Wolverine. (OK, maybe not Wolverine).

In a way the Titans got to big for their own good....once they released that 2nd Baxter book I think the pressure was too much on the creators. Perez didn't stay on too long once they got into the Baxter title. Crisis on Infinite Earths came along and distracted him and Wolfman. And it jumped the shark IMO when Danny Chase was introduced. Bleech!

Deathstroke DRUGGED Terra and made her nuts? That invalidates the ENTIRE POINT of "The Judas Contract". Sheesh.

When did THIS come about? She was a nut job from the get-go...had nothing to do with Slade or drugs. Double Sheesh!

[johnnystorm]

Loved the Teen Titans when it came out. Deathstroke The Terminator (he was best when he had three names) was an awesome villain, one of my favorites. He lost something when he became a quasi-hero like the Punisher & they gave him his own series. He even teamed up with the heroes a few times like in that Superman outer space crossover run. The Judas contract was the ultimate Titans story, wasn't it?

And the issues with Red Star & the Doom Patrol were great as well. I lost interest when they went to the two version Direct & Newsstand series, then Donna Troy got married which I thought was a bad idea.

[BlackKnight]

There's a New Big Cross over going on right now in Titans, Teen Titians & Vigilantee Called DeathTrap ,.. It's got DeathStroke & His Kids Jericho & Ravager in it... Great stuff story so far,.. Kinda reminds me of the Old stuff a bit,.. but with a couple of new faces.

[Earth 2 Chris]

My first issue was #15, the last chapter of the Doom Patrol story. I remember seeing the ads for issue #1, but for some reason I never caught the book on the stands until that issue. Maybe because it was so popular? I actually only bought it occasionally after that, once again because I couldn't find it on the stands! With no LCS access, I was stuck with picking up the pieces here and there. Once I did find an LCS, I began filling in the holes.

I don't think the Baxter experiment worked either. It definitely diluted the strong Wolfman/Perez mix, and the strange time gap they set up between the books was aggravating. Changing the original title to a reprint of the new one a year in was very odd, and didn't seem to work very well either. The Terror of Trigon was really the last hurrah for the book, with Judas Contract of course being the pinnacle.

Deathstroke DRUGGED Terra and made her nuts? That invalidates the ENTIRE POINT of "The Judas Contract". Sheesh.
When did THIS come about? She was a nut job from the get-go...had nothing to do with Slade or drugs. Double Sheesh!

Someone posted here in the comic forum that this lovely plot point was revealed in Meltzer's "Identity Crisis: Last Will and Testament" series. Terra was meant to be a complete sociopath. She was evil beyond even Deathstroke's understanding. That was the whole point of it. No one could save her, or manipulate her. Seems like Meltzer is going more with the animated series take, which of course had to be watered down for kids.

One storyline I've always liked that gets over looked a lot was the original Blackfire story line that ran for several issues into the first annual. I still chuckle a little at the cover of that annual, with Robin on the ground beneath Starfire like some babe on a Conan cover. Talk about role-reversal!

Chris

[kryptosmaster]

Yeah, Titans were great back then. I stuck it out for the whole run somehow. I even bought all the reprints to "keep the collection complete", LOL.
I think I started reading it in the early #20's and then picked up all the back issues (I had managed to snag a #1 for 50 cents at a flea market while it was still in it's first year of publication). I remmebr some of thos back issues being a bit pricey and I think the value of them now may actually be less than what I paid for them back then (even worse taking inflation into account!).
Rich

[Bizarro Amy]

This era of the Teen Titans is my favorite team book ever.

[The Toyroom]

Any love for the original Brother Blood? I LOVE this guy! One of the best Titans villains ever! Too bad they've replaced him with Brother Blood Lite....I can't stand the new incarnation. And I didn't see the point of tieing the Chruch of Bllod into Trigon.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Any love for the original Brother Blood? I LOVE this guy! One of the best Titans villains ever! Too bad they've replaced him with Brother Blood Lite....I can't stand the new incarnation. And I didn't see the point of tieing the Chruch of Bllod into Trigon.

Brother Blood was a great villain. He actually kind of creeped me out as a kid. Although in later years, Perez lamented making him a bit too obviously villainous. I do think Wolfman dragged that final arc out a bit too long. The one where Raven and Nightwing are both brainwashed by Blood, and the NTT finally got back together after like 20 issues or something.

One thing Wolfman was great at in NTT for sure was making the villains EVIL. They were bad and meant business. No Ding-Dong Daddys to be found. The stakes were incredibly high in that series. I think that's one reason why the quiet stories ("A Day in the Life", "Who Is Donna Troy?") worked so well. We needed a breather from the life-or-death stuff!

Chris

[kryptosmaster]

I never like Trigon.
I always thought he looked stupid too.
I did like the story where they gradually made Raven more and more evil looking, just a little bit at a time so you didn't really notice.
Never really cared much for the Wildebeest either but for some reason had a soft spot for Pantha. Too bad they popped her head off like a daisy in a recent DC event book.
Rich

[thunderbolt]

Man, they mucked up Terra's whole storyline like that? I liked it better when it turned out she was just a dirty little you know what. The only thing that bugged me about the Wolfman/Perez run was the problems with Wonder Girl. It didn't seem like they could ever decide what to do with her and what her origin was going to be. That and Perez's new costume designs for Night wing, Jericho, Troia and others were hidious and way to busy.

[Riffster]

NTT was my ultimate book, I have the complete series of anything Titans but the New Teen Titans was my reason for collecting for awhile. Just bought the NTT archives so I can leave my issues alone.

I think i have a copy of #1 autographed by Perez too

[jds1911a1]

one of my fav's the (the baxter paper and quality stories made the higher price well worth it) but I guess I was biased I even liked the THE TEEN TITANS 70's book

[bobws]

OH yeah! i was a titans fan since the 3 cartoons in the Aquaman/Superman Hour cartoons. i didn't know there was a comic. i started collecting in about 78/79 and picked up the older stuff and was right in time for the classic NTT run. Bot did i love what those guys did. with one exception. i always wanted to see a complete east/west team -up with the new kids and it never happened. i always thought the judas contract would have been a good place to bring them all back. c'mon is nightwing really going to attack a hive base loaded with soldiers with only a new guy he's not sure he can trust? why didn't he call in all the old titans? if Marv and George didn't like some like Harlequinn and Gnarrk and golden eagle, here was the perfect chance to get rid of them. they could have died rescuing the captured titans and taking terra down. i also wanted to see the younger Airwave guest in the titans at the time and that never happened. however they still are my favorite team and the only collection i would keep if i had to get rid of the rest.

[Riffster]

Did anyone like the relaunch before this one? I thought the classic team mixed with Jesse Quick/Argent had some potential, ilike when they attacked the hive base with supes and Nightwing asked to back off