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| "Wish Fulfillment: Trigon Fries Jericho" from New Teen Titans vol.2 #1 (DC, 1984) by Marv Wolfman and George Perez |
I first experienced the direct sales-only series of the New Teen Titans through reprints in Tales of the New Teen Titans, about a year later (so Who's Who would routinely spoil the story, but it was stuff I didn't care that much about like Kole's death), and I know I've gone on record lately saying I had little interest in revisiting these stories. A lot of the excitement was over soap opera elements, continuing arcs and such, more than any single story that I can remember, and while that's great month to month, going back doesn't really interest me. But it's probably worth it for the art alone! When it wasn't Perez, it was people like José Luis Garcia-Lopez and Eduardo Barreto, but y'know, I think the New Titans' best stories were almost all in volume 1.
I'll just start off with this.. Never, NEVER liked Jericho, LOVED the Vol 1 stories up until ish 39 where Robin and Kid Flash left. Seeing their uniforms brought great charm and color to the team..
ReplyDeleteSure, I kept reading for another few years, but after Perez left, I couldn't STAND the Barreto art with the terrible Brother Blood lingering storyline, despite collecting it faithfully. Both depressing, dirgy-in-pace, and terrible art. It was like Garcia-Lopez and Barreto were both trying desperately ape Perez's style.
Simply put, the spark was gone, and tossed nearly all of the post-Perez issues out. I saw where George came back a few years later with that little kid member, but I was long over the Titans by then. I even tried the new Wally West Flash book for a few issues, but DC had messed up Wally's character so much by that point, it was beyond hope.
Agreed on your points ~ The early Wolfman/Perez issues had great soap opera, great art, nice depth but not too much really draws you back to reading it again and again.
What's remaining in my collection are just the first 40-some regular issues, and the Trigon story from the first 6 issues of the Baxter series.
I think the thing I liked most about Wolfman and Perez's Titans was it was the one mainstream superhero book which prominently featured characters who were overcoming otherwise crippling disabilities, both physical and emotional(They never gave names to it, but I thought it was pretty clear that Raven was suffering severe depression, Starfire was a rape survivor and Changeling was experiencing PTSD and intense separation anxiety disorder), to become heroes.
ReplyDeleteProbably where I felt the book became powerfully uninteresting to me was around the time that the characters got their acts together, basically, and new largely untroubled kids entered the book. Azrael the lovesick angel and Kole the whatever-her-deal was and (good lord) Danny Chase, Pantha and Wildebeest, Red Star, none of these cats had compelling obstacles to overcome.
So I liked Jericho, I guess is what I'm saying.
You make a good case for the character (at least thematically) Jon!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Kole, she was specifically created so she could die in Crisis on Infinite Earths. I always find it amusing that after that, Terra was the go-to Titans character to die. I'd like to see the Terra from Power Girl show up in the DC52, in World's Finest.
ReplyDeleteThat Terra was a cool character. That Power Girl series was one of the Flushpoint's great losses.
ReplyDeleteWow, David B -- you echo my sentiments exactly, except that I thought Both Garcia Lopez and Barreto were given crummy stories to work with. Cheers, all!
ReplyDelete--rd