It's like Captain America wearing his shield under his civilians clothes.

Flash kept his costume in a ring, if I remember correctly? No wonder it looks painted-on. It must be one micron thick or something.

I surprised Hawkman's wings don't look more ruffled after such a treatment, though. 

Right! And where the helicopter does that go?

I guess after Marvel came up with unstable molecules, DC had to have something of their own, right?

Teen Titans #24 (December 1969)



"Skis of Death"

Script: Bob Haney
Pencils: Gil Kane
Inks: Nick Cardy
Colors: ?
Letters: John Costanza

grade: D-

I'm not sure Bob Haney was supposed to be back on the Teen Titans. He'd clearly fallen out of touch with the youth of America in this title, and while Giordano had tried to pass the book off to younger minds, that fell through with the epic debacle over Teen Titans #20, and now here's Bob Haney, back on the book as a sort of filler until a new creator and direction could be found (and we'll see that happen next issue). In the meantime, while this issue is certainly about as exciting as an average Haney story (and, by that, I mean it isn't), we do see him making efforts to address a new and changing demographic here.

For one thing, these Titans remain older, as they were under Wolfman, Wein, and Adams, able to go on a ski trip on their own without adult supervision:



And, when you stop to think about it, the change doesn't end there. Wonder Girl now having a secret identity allows Haney to show the Titans as regular teens, enjoying themselves as regular teens would, rather than just lingering around Titans Lair waiting on letters requesting their aid:


(from Teen Titans #2)

In fact, Haney keeps them out of costume for as long as possible, even solving portions of the mystery and saving lives as regular plain-clothed teens (something that Bob Kanigher will take to the next level in the issue that follows).

In a sense, this whole issue, with regular teens trying to solve a mystery in which people are being spooked because some greedy adult has sinister motives, feels heavily reminiscent of Scooby Doo, Where Are You? which had pretty much just hit the airwaves when this issue was on the stands.

Another aspect of Haney's attempt to address the changing demographics is the focus given to Wonder Girl here. Even when she got a brand new origin and costume in #22 and got the cover to herself in #23, she didn't take a prominent role in the A stories of those issues. Yet here she gets the title page all to herself:



Apparently, a lot more girls were reading these books now, and DC knew it. A letter in this issue requests that a second female join the team. Soon enough, we'll be getting Lilith.


Beyond all this, I appreciate Haney's efforts to be a little more multi-racial in this issue after his (unintentionally) outdated take on native Venezuelans last issue. Now we have an issue focusing on a Native American tribe attempting to modernize, and while Haney's script does make the tribe's ancestral medicine man who likes the old ways seem a bit of a buffoon, I at least like the personality and sass he lends to Eddie Tallbow, the guest protagonist of this issue who is a Native American, and who jokingly calls the Titans "palefaces" while Donna proceeds to crush on him.



"Wax my slats"


Minor Details:

An entire ski class goes missing, and Robin's advice to Eddie Tallbow is to not call the cops because it will hurt business??



plot synopsis: A Native American tribe is attempting to modernize by opening a ski lodge on Medicine Mountain, but someone is sabotaging things and endangering lives. The Teen Titans just happen to be there vacationing and quickly determine that the tribal medicine man is sabotaging things, and that he is working for a white man with his own motives who actually wants to sell the mountain to the government as a missile test site. Of course, why would the white dude own the mountain if the ski resort goes under??? Anyway, the Titans stop them.

Sadly, at no point in the story were any sets of skis deathly.