I've been contemplating the recent omni, but this thread is making me wonder. I really love Teen Titans, but my favorite members aren't around back then so maybe I'll hold off. And then regret it once the omnibus goes OOP and they don't do a TPB version.

It's the English teacher in us, Hal. We can't help it

I'm planning on picking that up this Summer and already pre-ordered it (about 4 days ago) and I'm looking forward seeing it.

I think she's definitely older pre-crisis. Not so post-crisis, where Linda Danvers is a member of the Arsenal-led Titans.

Regarding the Titans' ages: My personal thoughts were that during the earlier stories (maybe Teen Titans 1-24ish) they were around 14/15/16. Teen Titans 25-53 (17/18--especially since Robin is mentioned as going off to college). Of course when NTT came along, I believe they were all around 18/19.

I remember the cries for Speedy, too as well as Beast Boy, now that you mention it. Guess the calls for Supergirl slipped my mind.

So true about the readers' complete lack of understanding about how things worked in those days. Like don't you think if for some reason, Supergirl had not been under Mort Weisinger's aegis that she would have at least made a guest apearance in an issue of TT?

Come to think of it, she made very few appearances outside of Action. Occasional guest appearances in WF, LL, and Jimmy Olsen. Off the top of my head, the one B and B appearance with Wonder Woman is the only non-Superman family title I can recall.  She was not even a frequently used Legionnaire; Superboy was the headliner and two "Super"-types was probably thought to be too much and possibly confusing.

Teen Titans #15



Script: Bob Haney
Pencils: Lee Elias
Inks: Nick Cardy
Colors: ?
Letters: Morris Waldinger

grade: c-

For the first eleven issues of this magazine, all under the editorial oversight of George Kashdan, the Titans followed an extremely regimented format and scope in which, adventure after adventure, some government agency would call upon them to help wayward youth see the wisdom of the adult status quo and turn away from the forces of corruption that were manipulating them (always an adult criminal). Only now do I realize this formula began to relax and change at exactly the time that editor George Kashdan began writing for The Superman Aquaman Hour animated series out in California (where Filmation was located). I'd imagine Kashdan was no longer as present/involved at DC once that work began.

And now, with Dick Giordano taking over for Kashdan as of this issue, everything changes once more.

In one respect, this new approach includes a return to the old structure, rejecting the potential of new criminal menaces in favor of the Titans setting out to (once more) find and help a wayward teen who is trying to grow up too quickly and is falling under the influence of adults with shady motives as a result.

But beyond that, there is a sense of utter newness in this issue. While hippie culture had been presented in previous issues as a sort of abstract ideal -- teens talked like them, and a few dressed like them, but that was the full extent of it -- Hippieism is a real and tangible thing here, the Titans and the teen they seek out both little more than tourists in an utterly exciting but foreign world of counter-culture:




That tangibility permeates the very pages of this issue, infusing Elias' panel arrangements with a far-out hippie flow



that is only violated once the bad guy shows up



at which point the panels revert to (ironically enough) squares.


The hippie culture further permeates the book with the poet-guide we are given, framing the entire tale in place of the traditional narration.




Most fascinating of all, though, is Haney's treatment of the hippies themselves, portraying the riskier, cautionary elements of the counter-culture movement along with examples of upstanding hippies who live by their ideals and radiate a clear sense of right and wrong:



Haney isn't interested in judging this movement, either positively or negatively. Instead, he provides an even-handed exploration and leaves us with a surprising moral by the close:



Hippieism isn't good or bad; it's right for some people. But if it isn't right for you, you can always turn back.

Bold and unexpected stuff.


So where did all of this come from? In the letter column, new editor Dick Giordano seems hesitant to make any bold new decisions right away, so was this Haney simply taking advantage of Kashdan's absence, or was there something larger at play at the DC Offices? Could it be that the publisher was finally moving away from the idea that their target audience was a 12 year old boy living in Dayton Ohio? Maybe they were finally noticing the amount of readers Marvel was picking up by catering to a somewhat older audience -- an audience that wanted less lectures on how to be a good citizen and more exploration of the forbidden counter-culture that fascinated and enticed them.

Consider that this idea of treating Hippieism like a fascinating foreign culture, deeply embedding our characters within it along with motorcycle-riding skinheads whose only motivation in life seems to be hurting hippies, all feels weirdly prototypical of Brother Power The Geek, a DC series that will debut three months later, even though it shares none of its creative team with that of the Teen Titans and is edited by a different office. Sure seems like there was a larger shift in scope occurring at DC; a desire to engage an older readership that was beginning to turn away from simplistic books written for 12 year olds; a readership that might well have been fascinated by the forbidden temptations of the counter-culture movement.


As for the plot itself, it's entirely forgettable. The teen seeking coolness/independence and getting caught up in a corrupt world of danger and doom has been done to death in these pages, and I don't recall Captain Rumble even having anything to do with the A plot. Seems like he just showed up to cause havoc and eventually got stopped. Honestly, the plot was so painfully boring that my attention wandered several times, so I can't be entirely sure of this.

Still, this issue's approach in general, that was pretty bold and respectable.




Minor Details:

- Giordano acknowledges the old fan complaint that Aqualad is too conveniently served bodies of water most issues, as well as the old fan request that Speedy join the team. He will solve both matters within the year by (finally) replacing Aqualad with Speedy on the Titans' roster.

- Captain Rumble literally shatters the Teen Titans logo on the cover. Gaspar Saladino will spend the next three issues toying with new logos before settling upon a new one in issue #19.



Plot synopsis: The Titans are called upon to track down a missing runaway teen who has left home to join the counter-culture movement and has fallen in with criminals in the process. The criminals are trying to find and kill him after a botched delivery of goods, and the Titans must find and save him while also dealing with Captain Rumble and his Hippie-hating biker gang. Surprise; It all works out in the end.