New Teen Titans Archives, Vol. 3 (DC) [collects #17-20, TotNTT #1-4]
w. Marv Wolfman; a. George Perez
| Writing |  | New reader? | |
| Art | | Non-comics reader? |  |
I started collecting comics in earnest just as the New Teen Titans were getting going. These 1982 issues were some of the ones I actually bought in college, and they still hold up incredibly well — a lot better, in fact, than a lot of other pieces of pop culture from 1982.
This volume has a handful of actual NTT issues, plus the entirety of the contemporaneous Tales of the New Teen Titans series (which basically fleshed out backstories for the new team members). Perez’s art improved further with the years, but it’s excellent already at this point. And if Wolfman leans a bit heavy on the exclamation point and the Stan Lee-style melodrama, it was still an era where that was done, and the underlying tales are rock-solid. The Teen Titans were still on an upward trajectory here, and would rarely match this quality even in later years.
New Teen Titans: Terra Incognito (DC) [collects #26, 28-34, Annual #2]
w. Marv Wolfman; a. George Perez
| Writing | | New reader? |  |
| Art |  | Non-comics reader? | |
The follow-up volume to this, encompassing the tale known as “The Judas Contract,” has been collect for years, but the earlier stories of how Terra came to join the Titans had not been pulled together. Probably in response to the Teen Titans cartoon (which had its own variant on the Terra story), this book now picks things up from the beginning. We see how Terra was encountered, and how, almost without thought (as many other distracting adventures ensue) she becomes a part of the team.
It’s good stuff, classic years for a great comic. And it brings back some great memories.
(listening to: Barenaked Ladies, “Light Up My Room” from Stunt)
(listening to: Salonga, Lea , “Reflection” from Mulan)
(listening to: Menken, Alan & Ashman & Rice, “One Jump Ahead” from Aladdin (Disney))
(listening to: Beach Boys, “The Monster Mash” from Capitol Years, The)
(listening to: “LoM – Battle 1” from Lords of Magic)