Topic: An EDE Retro Review: Silver Age Titans Archives and Showcase!
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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EDE RETRO REVIEW: Showcase #59
THE PLOT
The Flips, that "latest singing group", which consists of a guitar player on a hovering surf board, a baton-twirling babe, and a stunt motorcyclist, are suspected of committing a jewel heist! This threatens their upcoming benefit concert in Clarkston, where they are supposed to help raise money to send a deserving student to college! The Mayor agrees to let the Flips come to town to perform their concert once the town teens call in the Teen Titans to make sure there's no trouble. The Teen Titans soon find themselves face to face with the Flips on a crime spree, or do they?
THE GAY TITAN ALERT! DEPT.
At the beginning of the story, the various Titans are watching the Flips on television...
Robin: "They're the greatest! And that Jill-- she really "flips" me!"
Wonder Girl: "Ooh, that Jack-- I'd ride double with him anytime...!"
Aqualad: "Look at that Joe ride his jet-propelled surfboard... and dig his beat!"
It's really good that none of the Titans seems to be attracted to the same Flip, but poor Kid Flash doesn't seem to pair up with anyone...
Later, Aqualad chases "Wild Goofy Footer" Joe around a lake!
It's also interesting that the Titans arrive in town arm in arm, with both Kid Flash and Robin arm in arm with Wondy, but Aqualad only on Robin's arm. I get the feeling there's a bit of a crush there, as well...
THE ROBIN'S LESSONS IN HIP LINGO DEPT. Robin says of Batman: "You are definitely un-round..."
THE "TURN DOWN THAT NOISE!" DEPT. I don't really understand how anyone is supposed to hear Jack singing while he's riding around on that Honda...
THE CATTIEST REMARK OF THE ISSUE DEPT. Jill: "Along came Wonder Girl/But my baton did a twirl/Wham-Bam/Alikazaaam/She landed right on her curl"
THE DEFINING ROLES WITHIN THE TEAM DEPT. Aqualad: "C'mon, Robin, you're the brainstorm in this team... come up with something!"
<may also relate to the aforementioned crush>
THE DUMB GUARD DUTY ASSIGNMENT DEPT.
The Titans give Aqualad the task of guarding the Flips' stage props. This is the guy who can only exist out of water for one hour! And, of course, when the props are stolen, who's not around? No doubt he had to jump in a swimming pool or something!
THE NOT ALL ADULTS ARE SQUARE DEPT.
The Police Chief is maybe my favorite character in this story. "Say--- you know those kids are pretty good!"
SUMMARY The storyline is solid, if somewhat predictable. The Flips are extremely silly as a concept, and I actually found them somewhat annoying as "singing supervillains". This is the first issue to feature the fantastic art of Nick Cardy, however.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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In the NEXT ISSUE, the Teen Titans help rich American corporations exploit Columbian peasants and destroy their native culture!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Y'know-- I kind of liked the Separated Man and the Flips. Wonder why they were never updated and used again? They weren't really any lamer than Mr. Twister...
...now Ding Dong Daddy, on the other hand...
Can't wait for EDE's exploration of the greatness that is DDD.
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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quote:Originally posted by KidChaos: And there's even more evidence of Garth's homosexuality in the next issue!
Leaping mantas! Reading Aqualad and Robin scenes is like watching the Ambiguously Gay Duo!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
EDE RETRO REVIEW: TEEN TITANS #1
"They just couldn't wait to start their own mag!"
THE PLOT The Teen Titans are called to Washington to the HQ of the Peace Corps, where they are told that a Peace Corps unit in South America has run into "trouble of some sort" and specifically asked for their help. So the Titans volunteer to join the Peace Corps! Now, oddly, the Titans seem not to have time to call their respective mentors and tell them that they've volunteered, probably because they need to quickly start the intesive "orientation course" to prepare them for their work.
So during the orientation course they get this big lecture about how the job of the Peace Corps isn to help other cultures better themselves rather than turning them into "carbon copies of our way of life", and how they need to "respect the customs" and way of life of the people they are helping. So cut to "Xochatan", the area of South America that they are supposed to go to, where we find the Peace Corps volunteers aiding local native Juan Valdez (yeah, like the coffee guy) in building a dam to flood a valley in which a local pyramid-shaped temple is located. So, basically, what's going on is that they're destroying this "superstitious" (as we're constantly reminded) symbol of local culture, apparently paving the way for easier coffee exports so that one day Americans can drink their lattes at Starbucks! Oh, and they claim they're building a school, too, but they never really show any of that.
Anyway, the big emergency is that a lot of the locals no longer want to work on the dam, because they fear that the god of the temple is upset. Oddly, the god of the temple is a giant robotic conquistador. So the Titans show up and fight it. Later on, they also fight the "Beast-God of Xochatan", which appears in the form of several animals with human heads. And then they end up fighting the real villain, a rich landowner whom the peasants had rebelled against and driven into hiding in the temple, where he built atomic gadgets and giant robots. So by the end the peasants of Xochatan no longer need worry about the crazy guy developing advanced technology and weapons and can be content working to supply the Americans with coffee beans.
THE FEMININE INSIGHT DEPT. Wondy: "Oooh! I have the funniest feeling-- like something is about to happen..."
Her woman's intuition is doubted by her fellow Titans, until confirmed by another female Peace Corps volunteer: "I feel it too! The bulldozer! Look out!"
THE GOOFY MENTOR MOMENTS DEPT. Hippolyta: "Maybe we could get the Peace Corps to come here! This old place could use some changes!" Well, there are plenty of temples on Paradise Island for them to demolish and gods for them to offend...
Aquaman: "Say-- maybe they could use me in the Peace Corps!" Mera then chastizes him for trying to dodge his parental responsibilities...
THE SILLY USE OF KID FLASH DEPT. When fighting El Conquistadore, Wally runs around the rim of his hat really fast!
THE GAY TITAN ALERT! DEPT. Aqualad seems awfully exicted to whirl the elongated serpent attached to Robin, stretching and stressing it until Robin feels that sense of release!
THE "I GIVE THIS VILLAGE ABOUT TWO MONTHS!" DEPT. Robin: "But now that the pyramid's submerged completely... it can't be a threat anymore!" Well, except for the fact that it still contains advanced atomic gadgets and a beast god whose activities have been triggered by water the entire issue...
SUMMARY I'm not really sure what to make of this issue. About half of it reads like something that might be distributed as an advertisement for the Peace Corps. Kind of a strange way for the Titans to begin their own series. The plot seems pretty disjointed and ludicrous, but there's not quite enough silliness to make it fun.
[ September 24, 2005, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Closest Teen Titans equivalent of Legion tryouts coming up next issue!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
EDE RETRO REVIEW: Teen Titans #2
"The Million-Year Old Teen-ager!"
THE PLOT
So it's fairly well-known that the Teen Titans got most of their cases in the early days by answering calls for help from kids in trouble who either wrote them or contacted them by ham radio. What was news to me, what I learned in this issue, is that not every plea for help from kids was considered worthy of being responded to, and the Titans seem to spend a great deal of their time sitting around in their "secret lair" laughing about and making fun of requests for help they receive, in a manner somewhat similar to the Legionnaires dismissing unworthy applicants!
Anyway, this issue is motivated by a ham radio call they receive from this chick in Smedleyville, whose boyfriend is in serious trouble. Basically, he an unfrozen caveman teenager, who was found/adopted by an old farmer and has been trying to fit in at school. All the kids make fun of him because of his unfashionable clothes and because he speaks in broken caveman English, as was common a million years ago, instead of hip teen lingo. Trouble ensues when his arch-caveman enemy, a giant who had killed his entire tribe, is unfrozen as well and goes on a rampage through town. All the townspeople suspect our heroic caveboy, Garn, of being in allegiance with the bad caveman. So the Titans have to clear his name and defeat the evil caveman.
THE LESSONS IN HIP LINGO DEPT. Penny: "You're strictly from squaresville if you don't put down the drags-- like you're cubed, but def! Now you try saying that!"
Garn: "You sure that is English, Penny? Sound very funny to Garn!"
THE SILLY USE OF WONDER GIRL DEPT.
So the Titans are hanging over a cliff, and Wonder Girl is holding on to a tree to stop them from falling, when her right hand starts to slip! So she ties her ponytail around the tree and holds them up!
THE CATTIEST REMARK OF THE ISSUE DEPT.
Random teenager making fun of Garn: "Ugh! Me Garn-- you Penny! Uuuh! Me love you-- ugh!"
THE "DIDN'T WE JUST READ THIS LAST ISSUE?" DEPT.
I think villainous caveman Azzuruk pushes over a cliff the same red bulldozer that we saw pushed into a lake last issue!
THE "WE'RE TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE AQUALAD USEFUL!" DEPT
Crichey! We haven't had Aqualad do anything all issue! So... let's say Garn and Azzuruk are strugling and... they fall in the water!
THE DEFINING ROLES WITHIN THE TEAM DEPT.
As this issue begins, each characters role is clearly defined...
Robin-- the no nonsense down-to-business leader type!
Wonder Girl-- The fun-loving chick who likes to frug!
Kid Flash-- The jock!
Aqualad-- The artsy, bookish gay one!
SUMMARY
This issue I really liked. Just the right amount of Silver Age silliness to make it fun without the whole plot being stupid or anything. And Titans meeting unfrozen cavemen is apparently about as common the Legion being turned into tots!
[ September 25, 2005, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Jillikers! I'm surprised to learn there was an unfrozen caveman teenager featured in the Titans prior to Gnarrk. I wonder if Garn and Gnarrk knew each other?
posted
Personally, IMHO, Teen Titans were at their best during the early 70's when they dabbled with the horror/supernatural genre..."The Demon Of Dog Island" was amongst my faves...
From: Adelaide, Australia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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EDE RETRO REVIEW: TEEN TITANS #3
THE PLOT
So avid readers of EDE Retro Reviews might recall me raving about the cool gadgets the gang from TT #45 had, such as missile-launching mailboxes and stuff. Well, one of the nice things about reading these earlier issues is that I've now found out who manufactures groovy criminal equipment of that sort. It's none other than Ding Dong Daddy Dowd, the Go Man! Well, we don't actually see him building missile-launching mailboxes, but his garage builds plenty of groovy stuff like ice-cream carts with machine guns and attack gas pumps that pummel their opponents, which he then supplies to the criminal element, so it seems very likely to me that the aforementioned mailbox was his handywork as well.
Oh, anyway, in this issue the Titans are called before the President's "Commission on Education". They're asked to deal with the serious problem of high school dropouts, in particular in the town of Harison, which has a particularly high dropout rate. The Titans go investigate, and soon discover that kids are dropping out of school to work at "Ding Dong Daddy Dowd's Hot Rod Hive", which pays them tons of money and is much less square than school. Well, the real purpose of DDDD's hot rod shop is to build souped up getaway cars/crime machines for criminals. So the Titans proceed to shut the place down, leaving all the kids unemployed and forced to go back to school.
THE "WE'RE TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE AQUALAD USEFUL!" DEPT.
A gang member dumps Aqualad, disguised as a rival gang member, in a barrell of water!
THE WUSSY GANG MEMBERS DEPT.
Two ruffians attack Wonder Girl:
"Grab the chick and muss her hair!"
"Yeah, she can't hurt us!"
Wondy quickly teaches them a lesson: never mess with a chick's hair!
THE WEIRD FLIRTATION SCENE DEPT.
Ding Dong: "But what does the cute chick do? I she a wrench jockey to?"
Wondy (in disguise): "Why, noooo, Ding-Dong! I though I could pep up the boys' morale with a little music while they work!"
Ding Dong: "Haw! Like coolest! I dig the "rock" the most!"
So apparently, Ding Dong interprets "pepping up the boys" to require him and Wondy retiring to his office, where she sings and dances for him privately.
THE ROBIN'S LESSONS IN HIP LINGO DEPT.
Robin uses his trademark "Holy cow" phrase while riding alongside Batman. I bet he wouldn't say something that un-round sounding in the company of his Teen Titan buds!
SUMMARY
This issue was okay, but not great. I actually like Ding Dong Daddy as a villain quite a bit, especially with all his gadgety hot rods and cool stuff. But... I don't know. It seemed like there was a little something missing from this story. Maybe it's just that Ding Dong is defeated too easily in the end after the Titans are trounced by his machiness earlier in the story.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Wonder Girl's hair was the breakout star of the series, wasn't it?
Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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The most!
I still love the fact that all of the other gang members are getting their butts handed to them by the rest of the Titans, and all these two losers can think of doing is "mussing the chick's hair".
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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