I thought Joe Staton fit the Teen Titans well, it might've been nice to have had a Staton Titans comic (although if there had been the New teen titans might never have happened). I did not care for his Plastic Man with Martin Pasko for some reason though you'd think he'd have fit it perfectly. The '70s E-Mans (all ten plus the Charlton Bullseye Magazine stories right after) are what I would call essential '70s comics to have. The later E-Man from First Comics I burned out on after three or four.

To each his/her own, but anything compared to what came before (Cardy) and what was to follow (Perez) and Staton's rough work was never going to give the Titans what was needed for a dynamic book about teen superheroes.

I haven't read those stories, but this one does a lot to humanize him. It's certainly more characterization and internal conflict than he earned in thirteen years with the Teen Titans up to this point.



I did not get the impression he was planning on retiring at this point, especially as DC was testing the waters here for launching a series in which Kid Flash would have featured. In fact, he first reveals his dual identity to his parents in this issue, and they fully support him.

GCD says that a later letter column stated Showcase #100 was "just for fun", so non-canonical.

At DC in the Bronze Age, one should thank Len Wein for being the primary force in so thoroughly deep-diving into DC's past to create/join it with the current continuity--one that endless writers would emulate in the decades to come.




In a hypothetical situation, if DeFalco ever brought it up with DC brass, the idea was likely shot down, as no one was going to revive a recently cancelled series next to no one was reading--at least not in the Rozakis model.



Not a big deal at all, but I found it more interesting that the editor was up on his continuity in referencing Aqualad leaving the team, since that was--by the time of this issue's publication--so long in the concept's past that there was the expectation of readers to have stuck with the Teen Titans title all along. Yes, endless comics do that, but that expectation made more sense with popular titles such as Batman or The Amazing Spider-Man, not one which had struggled with readership through two incarnations like the Teen Titans.

Kurt Schaffenberger's pencils were such an odd look for any of the Titans members. It just seemed...strange.

Hey Shaxper, are you going to review The Brave and the Bold #149?

Ok, first off, sorry if the following comes off somewhat disjointed. It's been a very long weekend at work, and I'm having trouble pulling my thoughts together to combine a number of disparate elements into a single idea.

Ok, more trouble than usual. Shut up in the back row there.



So a couple pages back I said I was pondering a couple of things but wasn't going to mention them yet because I was waiting to see what "other appearances" by the Titans you would cover...



This was most definitely one of them.

Not so much for the story itself, which was rather underwhelming (although seeing Kurt Schaffenberger drawing Jack Kirby stuff was kinda strange, in a fun way). But before I get into that, let me address a couple of points that were raised.




I don't know enough about DeFalco's work to know how continuity-minded or detail-oriented he was. And I can't say that the plot bringing back the Kirby characters wasn't his. But at least a fair amount of this seems like it was being managed by Superman Family editor E. Nelson Bridwell.

Bridwell had been managing continuity between the features in Superman Family for some time, and immediately prior to these issues, he had put together a story that filled up an entire issue, crossing through all the features.* Would not be at all unlike him to want to tie up some loose ends, and be very meticulous about the details.

Basically, no one was more up on his continuity than Bridwell. Dude was Encyclopedia Bridwellica.

This right here, though...



...strikes me as a very Bridwellian type of thing. ENB was practically the Philip Jose Farmer of DC Comics. Seriously, read a couple of his text pieces in the early issues of Super Friends to see for yourself.

And there was a reference to events in Batman Family...



... which also seems to me like a Bridwell thing.

So what I'm pondering - and keep in mind this is all pure speculation - is  that Teen Titans was written by Bob Rozakis, who often did work for the office of Julius Schwartz, including lettercolumns and some stories. And who was also writing the above-mentioned Robin feature in Batman Family. Also in that same office was Schwartz's assistant, E. Nelson Bridwell. Could ENB have been doing a favor for a co-worker, or maybe trying to give a proper wrap-up to a series he liked?

Also, after the DC Implosion, it seems like many DC titles suddenly got very conservative in their storytelling. It might be that there were plans for continuing with some or all of these plot points, but management got nervous after the big crunch. Note that right after this issue, ENB was no longer Superman Family editor, and it was handed over to Julius Schwartz, who took a fairly standard approach to the book after that. Did he make changes due to concerns about sales? Or was it like, maybe, nuking a storyline that he had already zapped once before?



Then again, for all I know, DeFalco and ENB told their story and were finished with it on their own.

No idea if I'm right or not. It's just that this entire thing seems kinda circular on the "real world" level.



Aaaannnndddd that's the other thing I was pondering but wasn't gonna mention.



* "The Museum of Eternity," Superman Family #190. It was a pretty cool concept.

I also noticed on the title page to #190, the story was jointly credited to an idea by DeFalco and Bridwell. So maybe the Kirby stuff in SF was DeFalco's idea all along.