Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
TEEN TITANS #15
“Captain Rumble Blasts the Scene!”
THE PLOT
The Titans visit “Hippieville, USA” in search of a runaway teen named Ken Matthews. Unbeknownst to the Titans, Ken isn’t getting along very well in Hippieville, and has been forced to take a job delivering “packages” for Tram the Trucker, who is engaged in some unspecified illegal activity. I would think that is his first mistake there. Who ever heard of a hippy with a job? Anyway, the cops interrupt Ken while he’s making a delivery, so pretty soon he has Tram’s gang, the Titans, and the cops all chasing after him. So he goes on the run with the chick he’s been shacking up with in Hippieville. Meanwhile, a motorcycle gang, led by “Captain Rumble”, shows up and tries to drive the hippies out of town. Because, apparently, motorcycle gangs typically hate hippies. Anyway, the Titans are caught up in all of this as they try to find Ken to return him to his parents.
THE GROOVY SUPPORTING CHARACTERS DEPT. The story is narrated by “The Poet”, a guitar playing hippy who is basically the only one to actually fight back against the motorcycle thugs and is kind of interesting. There’s also Eddie the Guru, who serves a kind of interesting role as the gatekeeper of Hippieville, assisting both those who want to join the hippy community as well as those who want to “drop back in” to society. He’s apparently taken plenty of “mind-expanding” drugs, which give him powers that he uses to help locate Ken.
THE UNDERCOVER TITANS DEPT.
The Titans disguise themselves as hippies, with groovy hippy codenames. Robin becomes “Feather”, Wonder Girl becomes “Paradise Baby”, Kid Flash becomes “Feet”, and Aqualad becomes “Wet and Wild”. Those sound like pretty crappy hippy disguises to me. Especially as Kid Flash seems to be dressed as a hillbilly rather than a hippy.
THE GAY TITAN ALERT DEPT.!
A motorcycle thug tells Aqualad, “You’re even weirder than these hippies…” Clearly, he has gleamed on to the fact that AL is one of those really freaky homosexual types!
THE EDE’S INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND ARTWORK DEPT.
In one panel, this hippy chick has bells on her earring and necklace. I spent awhile puzzling over why she had the words “Jingle! Jingle!” written on her shirt, and “Tinkle! Tinkle!” written somehow in her hair, before I realized they were sound effects!
THE UNDERLYING POLITICAL MESSAGE DEPT.
Interestingly, the story seems to be incredibly sympathetic to the hippies overall. The key line, however, is when Robin tells Eddie: “I really respect that non-violent attitude of yours, but sometimes you gotta meet nasty force with super-hero power!” So basically while the pacifism of the hippies is well-intentioned, it’s impractical in a world that has creeps like Captain Rumble!
SUMMARY Okay, I actually really liked this issue. The whole “Hippieville” setting is pretty interestingly presented, with some nice hints that a whole lot more could be done with it, though I’m assuming it will never be seen again. Not only Eddie the Guru and the Poet, but also Ken and his girlfriend, Karin, are interesting characters.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
TEEN TIANS#16
“The Dimensional Caper”
THE PLOT
So… back in the 1960s, hardly a month went by when the Earth wasn’t being invaded. If it wasn’t aliens, then it was people from other dimensions. And that’s what this story is about. The Titans come to the aid of a teenager, Chet Walters, who has accidentally discovered that his high school is a conduit to another dimension, whose inhabitants are planning on invading. Since no one will believe him, he calls the Titans for help. Investigating, they discover that not only is the kid telling the truth, but the principal is an alien from this other dimension!
THE CONVOLUTED VILLAIN PLOT DEPT.
Okay, so I didn’t quite understand why the alien base of operations is a duplicate of the school in the other dimension.
CATTIEST REMARK OF THE ISSUE DEPT.
Chet is dumped by his girlfriend: “Sorry Lover! I can’t see any guy who goes around telling kooky stories! Terrible for a girl’s reputation—and very uncool! You don’t exist—You’re in some other… dimension! Good-bye!” Yowzers!
THE TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE AQUALAD USEFUL DEPT. After bad guys chase Aqualad to a swimming pool, he jumps in and stays underwater for a really long time, confusing the bad guys!
THE PLAYING HOOKIE DEPT.
Not once does anyone wonder why the Titans themselves aren’t in school!
THE DUMB ADULT COMMENT DEPT.
Chet’s dad says: “To think Hillsdale High was their secret base and we never knew it! And if Chet hadn’t stumbled onto it… we still wouldn’t know it!
Well, you wouldn’t know until the aliens had conquered you and made you their slaves.
THE SNUFFALUFUGUS PROBLEM DEPT.
Oddly enough, the basic driving plot of this story, in which a kid discovers something and no adults will believe him, would probably have difficulty getting by censors these days! But the CCA apparently didn’t have a problem with it!
SUMMARY
Okay, so I *really* liked this issue. Such a classic Silver Age plot adapted to the basic Titans helping teens in need angle… well, that’s kind of what I hoped these stories would be!
[ December 01, 2009, 02:17 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!
posted
I've actually finished the first volume, but just haven't gotten around to writing up the reviews!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
TEEN TITANS #17
"The Return of the Mad Mod!"
THE PLOT
So, the Titans travel to London to visit the Queen, as her special guest at some event or other, and who should show up but the blinkin' Mad Mod! He quickly steals the royal sceptre, and easily defeats the Titans! It seems he came up with the brilliant idea of luring Robin away and locking him in the Tower of London before the event, and we all know the rest of the Titans are useless without Robin! Oh, plus he gimmicked their clothes to weaken them, too! Anyway, the Titans three have to chase the Mod around Britain in search of the sceptre!
THE GROOVY SUPPORTING CHARACTERS DEPT.
Got to love any story with the Loch Ness Monster!
THE GEOGRAPHY LESSONS DEPT.
Given how quickly the Titans seem to travel between them, London, Loch Ness, and Stonehenge must all be located really close to one another!
COOL VILLAIN HIDEOUT DEPT.
Love "The Ungrotty Grotto"!
THE GAY TITAN ALERT DEPT.
Aqualad uses the nickname "Flasher" for Kid Flash, obviously a subliminal message!
THE POOR VILLAIN PLANNING DEPT.
The Mad Mod fails to get away, because "I bloomin' forgot-- the ruddy tide comes in 'ere at this hour!"
SUMMARY
This was another pretty decent issue. The Mad Mod sabotaging the Titans costumes is actually a pretty clever trick. And it's kind of groovy seeing Robin's role minimized in the issue. The actual chase, where the Mod hides the sceptre in random places throughout Britain while the Titans keep finding it, is a bit goofy, but, nonetheless, the storyline holds up pretty well!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
TEEN TITANS #18
“Eye of the Beholder”
THE PLOT
Since the Titans had so much success protecting the royal jewels of Britain from the Mad Mod last issue, they are invited to Sweden to help protect the crown jewels of that country against notorious French master thief Andre le Blanc. But, there’s a catch! Already in pursuit of Le Blanc is Soviet teen hero Starfire, whom the Titans must team up with in order to capture Le Blanc, protect the Swedish crown jewels, and recover the Faith and Charity diamonds of the U.S. and the crown jewels of the Soviet Union, which Le Blanc has already stolen. Of course, since Starfire is a dirty commie and the Titans are arrogant imperialist Americans, they quickly find themselves at odds.
CATTIEST REMARK OF THE ISSUE DEPT.
Starfire: “You Americans are just a bunch of spineless, whimpering toy soldiers!” I know, it’s not that great, but, considering the plot of this issue, it is surprisingly devoid of good catty remarks. Even the French guy lacks really good insults!
THE TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE AQUALAD USEFUL DEPT.
While fleeing, Le Blanc throws the crown jewels in a sewer, just so Aqualad can use his powers to recover them!
THE LINKING TOGETHER DECADES OLD PLOTS DEPT.
If this and the last issue were Legion stories, I’m sure we would’ve linked Le Blanc and the Mad Mod as part of some global crown jewels stealing conspiracy by now!
THE GEOGRAPHY LESSONS DEPT.
Apparently, Stockholm is the “teenage capital of the world”! I had no idea! I wonder what that even means?
THE WEIRD FLIRTATION SCENE DEPT.
LE BLANC: “Ah, ma chere—what a waste! A beautiful child such as yourself fight me! What ees a…”
WONDER GIRL: “So help me—if you say “What a nice girl like you doing in a place like this,” I’ll really clobber you!
LE BLANC: “Everywhere zee women rush to me! Ah… I am so handsome eet makes me seeck!”
WONDER GIRL: “Me, too!”
THE GROOVY ORIGIN DEPT.
For some reason I’ve always been fascinated by Starfire/Red Star’s origin. Stumbles across an alien artifact while on a dig with his archeologist father is pretty groovy, and is one shared with groovy Legionnaire Kinetix!
THE MORAL OF THE STORY DEPT.
At the end of the story, Starfire says: “No matter what else you Americans may be… you have taught me something, that all men, regardless of their belief, must learn to live together! For when your ideologies and mine have long since turned to dust, man must still survive!” Apparently, we’re supposed to draw some bizarre relativistic conclusion from the story. Like… my people kill millions people in the gulags, you guys like your freedom of speech and freedom of the press… so you’ve got your way of doing things and we’ve got ours! We’ve just got to learn to accept one another!
THE REAL MORAL OF THE STORY DEPT.
I like to think that what we really can learn from this story is that, however much Americans may have disagreed with the Soviets, we could still find common ground on one thing… those French are obnoxious bastards!
SUMMARY
This issue was a slight disappointment. The overall story wasn’t bad, though pretty formulaic. The big problem is that the most we got of the “clash of ideologies” was Kid Flash and Starfire calling each other arrogant, and each blaming the other for letting Le Blanc get away. Starfire didn’t once call the Titan bourgeois pigs or refer to their oppression of the working class or anything! For a story that’s intended to have a moral, especially the moral that it’s intended to have, it’s actually extremely weak.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I've read only a handful of these early stories, including the ones with Mr. Twister and the Ant, which I read as reprints when I was very young. The rest I bought much later, and I recall being disappointed at how silly they were. Middle-aged men writing teenagers! Preposterous!
However, my Titans collection begins in earnest in the 20s, around the time of Mr. Jupiter, Mal, and Lillith. I'm looking forward to reading your reviews on these issues, Eryk.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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The second best part about EDE's reviews is you can get all kinds of great thread ideas here without having to subject yourself to the Silver Age Titans series!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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PS - the first is obviously how groovy each of Eryk's reviews are!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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