Contains New Teen Titans Vol. 2 #10-15, Annual #1 (July 1985 – December 1985)
Written by Marv Wolfman
Pencilled by José Luis García-López (#10-11), Stan Woch (#12), Eduardo Barreto (#13-15), Chuck Patton (#15), Ed Hannigan (Annual #1)
Inked by Romeo Tanghal (#10-15), Carlos Garzon (#10), Murphy Anderson (#15), Mike DeCarlo (Annual #1)
Coloured by Adrienne Roy
Spoilers from thirty-five years ago
I worked my way through the first nine trades in this series, which focused on the famous Wolfman/Pérez run, but it took me a little while to get further volumes. Now I’ve got three more to read, and this continues to be my first exposure to these stories, as I never read the Titans at this point in their history before.
This trade picks up after a Wonder Girl-centric story that had the Titans join their offspring on Olympus, and which introduced Kole to the team.
This volume includes the Crisis tie-in issues, reminding me that I really should read that event again, as it’s been years. I feel like the Titans, specifically Donna Troy, never really recovered from the Crisis and its changes on the DCU, so I guess that will be a focal point of these next few volumes. I do like the artists that came onto this book after Pérez left, and how this book sprawled a little, focusing on some new characters.
This book features the following characters:
Teen Titans:
- Wonder Girl (Donna Troy; #10-14, Annual #1)
- Nightwing (Dick Grayson; #10-15)
- Starfire (K’oriandr; #10-15), Annual #1)
- Cyborg (Vic Stone; #10-14, Annual #1)
- Changeling (Garfield Logan; #10-14, Annual #1)
- Jericho (Joseph Wilson; #10-15, Annual #1)
- Raven (#14-15, Annual #1)
- Terra (Tara Markov; Annual #1)
Villains:
- Abel Weathers (#10-11)
- Marilyn Weathers (#11)
- Mother Mayhem (Church of Blood; #12, 14-15)
- Donna Omicidio (#12)
- Brainiac (Annual #1)
- The Anti-Monitor (#13)
- Mento (Steve Dayton; #14-15)
- Blackfire (Komand’r; #14-15)
- Brother Brute (Church of Blood; #15)
- Auron (#15)
Guest Stars
- Lilith (Olympus; #10)
- Zeus (Olympus; #10)
- White Dwarf (The Vanguard; Annual #1)
- Anti-Matterman (The Vanguard; Annual #1)
- Scanner (The Vanguard; Annual #1)
- Solaar (The Vanguard; Annual #1)
- Drone (The Vanguard; Annual #1)
- Superman Robot (Annual #1)
- Superman (Clark Kent; #13, Annual #1)
- Black Nebula (The Vanguard; Annual #1)
- Harbinger (#13)
- Metamorpho (The Outsiders; #13)
- Halo (The Outsiders; #13)
- Batman (Bruce Wayne; #13)
Supporting Characters:
- Captain Karras (Tamaranean; #10, 13-15)
- Kole (Kole Weathers; #10-14)
- Azrael (#10, 12, 14)
- Tucker Stone (Vic’s grandfather; #10, 12)
- Maude Stone (Vic’s grandmother; #10, 12)
- Sarah Simms (Vic’s friend; #10-11, 13)
- Gary Sellers (Sarah’s boyfriend; #10-11, 13)
- Terry Long (Donna’s husband; #10, 13)
- Adeline Wilson (Searchers, Inc; #10)
- Vernon Questor (Gar’s butler; #10-11, 14)
- Steve Dayton (Gar’s adopted father; #11)
- Captain Hall (NYPD; #12)
- Dr. Klyburn (STAR Labs; #13)
- Arella (Raven’s mother; #14-15)
- Tariya (Tamaranean; #15)
- Myand’r (Koriand’r’s father; #15)
- Luand’r (Koriand’r’s mother; #15)
- Ryand’r (Omega Men; #15)
Let’s see what happened in the comics, with some commentary as I go:
- The book opens on a Tamaranean vessel, under the command of Captain Karras, which is heading to Earth to retrieve K’oriandr and bring her home. On Olympus, Lilith talks to Kole about how they are going through changes – Lilith is becoming an Olympian, and Kole has to return to Earth. Soon, the Titans, Azrael, and a collection of Themyscirans watch as Lilth is welcomed by Zeus and made immortal. He thanks the Titans and others, and teleports them home. That means that the Titans (Wonder Girl, Nightwing, Starfire, Cyborg, Changeling, Jericho), Kole, and Azrael appear on Titans’ Island, where construction on the Tower has not progressed. Azrael is upset that Lilith has been taken from him, while Vic is sarcastic. Kole is sad and overwhelmed, so Donna suggests that they go into the city to eat. Azrael, even more upset, flies off, and is noticed by two people watching, who say something about recruiting him to the Church of Brother Blood. The team and Kole go to a fancy restaurant, where Kole supports Vic’s chair with her powers, and cries about being unable to return to her family. Jericho consoles her, and as they eat, she tells the others that her parents once worked for Dayton Industries, where they helped to develop Promethium. We learn her parents also gave her her powers. Joe offers to have her come stay with him, and the team separates to go home. Kory and Dick go to his place, which is still very messy from when he moved in, and they make out on the floor. Gar and Vic visit Vic’s grandparents, and Vic tries to call his friend Sarah Simms, who is now dating some guy named Gary. Donna and her husband Terry end up in the shower together. Joe and Kole speak with Adeline Wilson about how Kole’s parents have moved and she doesn’t know where to find them. Adeline is able to find their new address using her Searchers, Inc. resources. Later, Kole has trouble sleeping so she puts on some sexy lingerie (I’m not sure where that would have come from, as she’s at Adeline’s house) and goes to see Joe, who is sitting up playing guitar. She offers to have sex with him, but instead he sits up with her all night, letting her cry and talk, until they both fall asleep on the floor. At Gar’s mansion, he has a talk with Questor, his servant, and learns that Steve Dayton, his adopted father, is dying from cancer and is having a hard time with it. Joe and Kole go to her parents’ new address, where her father, Abel Weathers, isn’t too happy to see her. He tries to attack her, so Joe takes over his body and forces him inside, where they learn that he’s been mutating people into crystalline and insect hybrid creatures, who he explains, will be able to survive whatever disasters humanity brings on itself. The shock of it sends Joe back to his own body, and he and Kole flee as the creatures come after them.
- Joe has a bad dream about Kole’s family, and wakes up to find her sleeping in his bed. She’s frustrated that he can’t explain what he’s afraid of, and we see a montage about how his mother pushed him to be trained to fight, when he only wanted to make art and music. Gar tracks down Steve Dayton in their shared mansion and confronts him over not knowing that he is dying. Dayton responds in anger, and then yells at Questor when he tells him that Gar was concerned. Sarah Simms wonders why Vic won’t answer his phone, and then leaves to see a play with her new boyfriend (I thought it was just morning, but okay). As they drive off, Vic arrives at her doorstep, leaving her flowers and a note. Some guy walking down the street steals the flowers for his own girl. At Kole’s parents’ place, Abel Weathers talks to his wife, who is now a giant grasshopper, about how he knows his plans are correct and that only he can save life on Earth. She appears to be supportive, but he still despairs about what to do when Kole returns. On Titans Island, the team consults with the men rebuilding the Tower about how it will be better than the first iteration. Kole and Jericho arrive and the team decides they need to go check out what her father is doing. They all fly off to upstate NY, and upon arriving, are attacked by some of Abel’s creatures. Eventually, everyone except Kole gets knocked out. Abel emerges with some of the larger creatures to carry them inside. He has them all put into a tank so he can mutate them (I’m not sure how he expects this to work on Kory or Gar), while trying to justify his actions to Kole. She’s shocked to see her mother in her new form. Kory and Donna wake up inside the tank, but aren’t able to break out. Joseph wakes up and catches the attention of Kole and Marilyn (her mother). He jumps into Marilyn’s body, but it is Kole who uses her powers to shatter the tank, leaving the Titans to spill out. Marilyn, who is weakened from hosting Joe, makes it clear she stands with her husband, who has all of his creatures attack the team. There’s another fight, but Abel lowers a shield of promethium, which was designed to keep him and his creations safe in a nuclear blast. Kole and Joe are trapped inside the shield, and even though Kole tries to stop him, Abel releases his evolution gas (on the beings he’s already mutated, so…). Joe takes over Marilyn again, and she convinces Abel to let Kole make her own decisions. Abel opens the shield long enough for Joe and Kole to leave, then seals it again while the gas surrounds the Weatherses and all the creatures. The Titans flee, realizing that the house is going to blow up (why?). When the team searches the wreckage, they see a number of insects scurrying away – I suppose these are Kole’s parents and their followers. The team walks off, with Dick expressing his desire to talk to the world about ecological and nuclear destruction.
- Dick, getting out of the shower, is surprised to find a young girl in his apartment. She’s skipping rope and singing about how she knows Dick’s identity. When he chases her, she disappears, and he gets locked out wearing only a tower. Cyborg is on patrol when he hears gunshots and busts into an office, catching a few men who shot a man. He sees the same girl, who knows who he is too, but she disappears on him as well. The cops who respond recognize the victim as a crime boss who was going to testify in court. Vic goes to the police station and has a chat with Captain Hall. When he realizes that the guy used to work out of Dick’s building, he convinces Hall to let him get involved. He tries calling Dick, but can’t find him. Next he calls Joseph, who is able to type Kory’s number into a speaking computer. Vic catches Dick at Kory’s, and they agree to meet the next morning. Outside Birmingham Alabama, two men and a woman walk through some rain, trying to take the woman, Abby, to see someone who can help her with her sore legs. They worry that the woman they’re going to won’t actually help her though, as she’s refused to help others. The Titans, and Kole, assemble outside Dick’s building in their uniforms, and go to speak to Mrs. Malenkov, Dick’s neighbour who has lived in the building for decades. She invites them in, and they talk about how gangsters used to work out of Dick’s apartment. She remembers a nice couple that came there sometimes with their daughter, but then the three of them disappeared at some point. Joe finds a photo of the family on the wall, and Vic and Dick recognize the girl. Sensing that Mrs. Malenkov is upset by all this, Donna puts on a record and Joe dances with her for an hour or so. The nameless winged alien guy arrives on a beach where Mother Mayhem has summoned him. She tells him that his name is Azrael and that he’s an angel; she wants him to come perform a miracle for her. The Titans hang out in Dick’s apartment, and see the girl again. Kory tries to catch her but she disappears. The team goes to talk to the building’s caretaker, who has worked there since he was a boy. He remembers when the family was last seen. He came out of Mrs. Malenkov’s apartment and saw the girl running from Dick’s apartment, but was knocked out by someone before he could do anything. After he came to, he learned that there were signs of murder in the apartment, but the parents’ bodies were never found. He shares that ever since, anyone who’s lived in that apartment has reported seeing the girl’s ghost. Since there’s a connection to show business in the Depression era, the team goes to see Vic’s grandparents, who were tapped into that scene. They lead them in the direction of where the murdered man lived (the finer details are escaping me, because I’m having a hard time paying attention to some of this). They toss the guy’s apartment and find a phone number that leads them to a Congressman who lives on a farm in New Jersey. They go to see him in their jet and find out that he was involved in what happened back in the 30s. It turns out he was married to a woman before his current wife, and she was involved in organized crime (he thought she was just a bootlegger and was okay with that). We learn that the missing man was her accountant, but he discovered her other activities and tried to quit, and that’s when she shot them. The Congressman is afraid to reveal who his first wife was, but eventually reveals it. It turns out he was once married to Donna Omicidio, and the Titans go to arrest her. Later, back at Dick’s apartment, they rip apart a wall and find the missing murdered parents. The ghost of the girl arrives, hugs their ghosts, and they all disappear.
- The first Annual in the new run was designed to spotlight a team of aliens called The Vanguard who make other alien teams like the Omega Men and The Wanderers look even more interesting. Jericho is hanging out in the Tower, and decides it’s time to read up on some past team adventures. He picks the Vanguard story, and learns about the time that five aliens – Anti-Matterman, White Dwarf, Solaar, Scanner, and Drone, The Vanguard – came to Earth to arrest Superman. They fought him over a city, and while he tried to escape them, they eventually managed to capture him. Starfire arrived at the Tower, and chatted with the rest of the team – Wonder Girl, Changeling, Cyborg, Terra, and Raven. Garth noticed that something was going on and rallied the team. They found the Vanguard dragging the tied-up Superman, who called for help and asked the Titans to kill the aliens. They noticed that was strange, but started to fight the Vanguard briefly. Scanner tried to stop them from fighting, and Raven realized that they were not evil. Scanner held Raven and Starfire’s hands and was able to mentally broadcast their story to everyone. They talked about how an alien planet came under attack by a giant ship, and the people of that planet summoned Superman, who had visited as a boy. He was not able to defeat the attackers and was injured. The Vanguard arrived, and one of their number, Black Nebula, led them into battle. They fought off the ship, but the planet was devastated. When the Vanguard went to help Superman, they were attacked by a number of Superman robots, and fought all off except for one. They left Black Nebula on an asteroid to look after Superman while they pursued the last robot. The Titans and the Vanguard talked, and they agreed to go with them to help Superman and figure out who attacked him. Drone is the Vanguard’s vessel, so they piled inside, and Starfire took Black Nebula’s spot, so her energy could help fuel their trip. When they arrived at the asteroid, they found Black Nebula dead, and Superman gone. The Vanguard mourned their friend (and somehow, Drone’s lover). Superman woke up and found out that he was captured by Brainiac (big silver robot version). Brainiac was using Superman’s powers to attack another world, destroying it. This was part of some plan to attack someone else and take his power, but I kind of started skimming so I’m not sure who. Scanner figured out how to locate Superman using his robot, and Raven and Drone had an interesting heart to heart on the topic of emotion and loneliness, and of course Raven started worrying about Trigon. The Superman robot exploded, but Scanner got an image of Brainiac’s ship, so they started following it. Drone approached Brainiac’s ship and was attacked. The Titans and the Vanguard attacked the ship. Raven and Solaar made it into the vessel, and while Solaar fought Brainiac, Superman managed to free himself. The teams united inside the ship, and were about to attack Brainiac when Superman stopped them. He told them that it was a trap, and then Brainiac exploded. The heroes escaped in Drone, and Superman figured that Brainiac’s consciousness was moving to another body. Jericho finishes reading the file and Cyborg comes to him. He mentions how the team has changed, and prepares to tell him another story. There’s a box asking people to write in asking to see more of The Vanguard, but it seems they only showed up one more time, in 2007, so I guess that didn’t work out.
- Issue thirteen is the first Crisis On Infinite Earths tie-in (I really need to write a column on that series, which I don’t think I’ve ever read in order). It looks like Crisis was running for a few months before it got acknowledged in this title, and then this issue had a lot of catching up to do. It opens in space, with Captain Karras still traveling from Tamaran to Earth. They find themselves in the path of a wave of anti-matter, which they watch eat a moon. Karras wants to hurry up and find Koriand’r and return home. On Earth, most of the Titans (and Kole) are at STAR Labs, watching a few news broadcasts with Dr. Klyburn. They are trying to understand why the skies of Earth have turned red. Vic Stone is on his way to see Sarah Simms. As he walks through Harlem, some guy tries to sell him “space glasses”, and this is the first that Vic notices that the skies have changed. He thinks that there’s some kind of emergency, so instead of going looking for his friends, he rushes to find Sarah. When he gets to the school where she works, he sees her kissing Gary, and learns that they are in a relationship. Of course, these two just happen to be talking about Vic and how Sarah wants to tell him about her relationship status. She sees him, but so do the handicapped kids she works with, and they all want to play with Vic. He heads off with the kids, who talk about how Sarah and Gary kiss a lot. Elsewhere, Donna goes to see Terry as he leaves work. They run into Dick, who wants to chat with them about their relationship. We learn he’s worried about Kory and how she can be kind of ‘savage’ at times. Dick and Donna’s beepers go off, so they have to leave. Vic is alone in a gym, and Sarah comes to talk to him. They talk through their feelings, and Vic admits that being with the kids helped him process his anger. It looks like they’ll be able to stay friends. As Vic walks home, he sees some tough guys looting an electronics store, and quickly stops them. Harbinger turns up and says she needs him to come with her. He assumes she’s a villain and attacks her. He tries to get away from her, heading towards where he thinks he can find his friends (the Tower is not fully rebuilt yet). There’s a sequence that has him falling into the DC Comics offices and jumping back out. As Vic runs, he sees Harbinger save a nun and some kids from an out of control car, and realizes that she’s not evil. Once they finally talk, she teleports him away. A week later, we see the Titans and the Outsiders work to rescue people from the Empire State Building, which I guess was damaged by anti-matter? Batman and Superman are there too, talking about the anti-matter. Batman gathers the Outsiders to go do some kind of work. The Titans (Dick, Donna, Kory, Gar, Joseph, and Kole) gather, wondering where Vic might have gone. There’s a two-page spread that showcases what everyone got up to in the first half of the Crisis. Dick, Firestorm, and Captain Atom fight shadow beings. Vic helps people during earthquakes. Donna and Firehawk fight shadow beings with soldiers from other eras. There’s a Titan-less panel that shows the Freedom Fighters fighting the Justice Society and Doctor Light. We also see Gar and Kole helping Supergirl, Black Canary, and Wonder Woman. Later, the Titans, with Vic returned to them, are in the nearly-completed Tower trying to figure out what they should do in the face of so much chaos. Kory talks about being worried about her family. That’s when Captain Karras and some other Tamaraneans teleport into the room. Karras tells Kory that her parents are alive and want her to come home.
- Arella has gone to Alabama searching for Raven, and a local man tells her about how Raven appeared in the sky, her clothes literally exploding off of her. Farmers took her to the hospital, where she slept for about a week before waking up and healing an older Black woman (we saw Abby before, looking for Raven) from wounds she got when her laundromat was robbed. Raven, who had no memory of who she was, set herself up in a house and worked as a faith healer. The man takes Arella there, but she can already tell that her daughter is gone. Captain Karras implores Koriand’r to go back to Tamaran, and she feels she must. Dick offers to go with her. Donna would like to go, but since Terry is missing in a warp zone (the Crisis is still going on), she feels she has to stay. Joseph makes it clear he wants to go, which upsets Kole, but the others decide to stay to help with the Crisis. The three heroes are beamed up to the ship and they depart. Karras explains they can use a temporary warp between solar systems that was conveniently created by the Crisis. In Massachusetts, Azrael flies over the church Mother Mayhem has brought him to. She’s given him his name, and explained that he’s an angel. Once inside, Mother leads the congregation in chantes of “Brother Blood lives within us.” At Steve Dayton’s mansion, the now mad man, back in his Mento costume, chases his friend Vernon Questor, wanting to punish him for betraying him. Questor can’t get ahold of Gar, so he calls Vic to ask for help. Vic tells Gar, who is staying with him, what’s going on, but Gar has no interest in helping. At the same time, he insists that he’ll handle the situation alone, without Vic’s help. Vic presses the matter, and they come briefly to blows, before Gar hears the wisdom of what his friend is saying to him. Shortly after, having picked up Donna and Kole, the Titans arrive at the mansion and find Questor badly injured. He explains that Dayton started using the Mento helmet to cure his illness, but it started to make him paranoid and violent. Vernon makes Gar promise to help him. Mento turns up at his snooty country club, where he turns his rage against the fellow members. He starts attacking them and tearing the place apart. The Titans come and work to save people. Mento attacks, and Gar, in the shape of a lion, jumps on him, declaring his love for him and begging to help him. Vic digs people out of the rubble. Mento opens a hole in the floor beneath him, and Kole is not able to keep it open with her power. The team acknowledges that he got away, and Donna says they need to get ready to go after him. In the sewers, Dayton kills a rat and then has a nap. In an epilogue, we see that Blackfire is tracking Koriand’r’s ship, and talks to herself about her plans.
- On Tamaran, an unseen orator speaks to a large crowd about the problems the planet has been facing since winning the war with the Citadel. We see that some of King Myand’r’s forces attack, but the speaker, Blackfire, easily destroys them on her own. The crowd cheers for her. Koriand’r and Dick are still en route to Tamaran, and take some time to talk. Dick explains his recent concerns about Kory’s temperament, and she makes it clear that for their relationship to work, he needs to accept her the way she does him. One of the crew, Taryia, watches and goes to talk to Captain Karras. It’s clear that they love each other and that Karras has some kind of duty that is going to upset her. Joseph watches this. Soon, they arrive on Tamaran, and Kory is happy to see her parents. Dick confronts Karras, because he knows that something is going on. Karras refuses to explain anything to him, and we see that Dick is mostly worried that he’ll lose Kory. On Earth, Mento (don’t call him Steve Dayton) terrorizes one of his employees into doing something with the Promethium formula, but in secret. Elsewhere, Arella is guided through a swamp by a man who tells her how Raven came to his small swamp village, where the inhabitants recognized her as a healer, and kept putting their hands on her, transferring their leprous-like illness to her. He tells Arella that his people have her tied up so they can keep transferring their problems to her. As they get closer to the village, they see a fireball in the sky. Rushing to the scene, Arella sees Raven through some flames, but can’t get to her. The man she’s with is shot, and we realize that Mother Mayhem and the Church of Blood have attacked. Mayhem thanks Arella for leading them to Raven, while Brother Brute knocks Arella out and kidnaps her alongside Raven. On Tamaran, Kory speaks to her brother Ryand’r over a view screen. He’s still with the Omega Men, and wants to warn her, but loses his signal before he can say what he wanted to say. We see that Komand’r is watching everything they do, and that Auron is part of her schemes. Kory, Dick, Joseph, Karras, and Kory’s parents take part in a hunt the next day, and we see that Myand’r is not very good at riding the horse-like creatures called terets. Dick is not impressed with hunting, until he learns that the creature they are pursuing is telepathic and not in any danger. When the party stops to eat that night, Myand’r ends up explaining to Kory that she can’t go back to Earth. He explains that a civil war has broken out, and the only way to broker peace is to connect Myand’r’s family with that of the southern leader. Myand’r doesn’t want to force this on Kory, but can’t think of any other way to save millions of lives. Karras speaks up, because he is Kory’s intended. He acknowledges that she loves another, like he does.
- Issue fifteen has a short backup story that shows us how Myand’r’s mother gave up the throne of Tamaran when he was a boy to make herself a prisoner of the Citadel after they killed her husband and other sons. This act has been essential to informing Myand’r’s whole life.
One of the things that people liked the most about Marv Wolfman’s Titans run, and comics of this era in general, was the way in which ongoing series were truly ongoing. Storylines were constantly starting and stopping, with some running for months or even years, while others turned up briefly and ended. Currently, comics aren’t written like this, because of the trade paperbacks and collections that didn’t exist when Wolfman first wrote this series. This means that he had way more time and space to develop characters and work on their relationships. It also means that, when that classic run is finally collected in trades, you’ll end up with something like this volume, which is a bit of a mess.
This volume starts with the aftermath of the Lilith storyline in the previous volume, and ends with the beginning of a Starfire/Blackfire story that continues in the next volume. Along the way, we got the beginning of stories about Mento and Raven (separately), and some issues that tied into an event that happened somewhere else.
As a longtime comics reader, I don’t blink an eye at things like this, except to note that it’s unfortunate, as this volume is never going to be someone’s favourite. The series is clearly going through some transitions, as Wolfman was probably pretty busy writing Crisis on Infinite Earths, and as it tried to find its footing without George Pérez drawing it. The book lagged behind Crisis, so while Kole was killed in that book before the tie-in issues were published, her death was left undiscussed in this volume. The attempt to introduce the Vanguard as a team, and potential future series, fell pretty flat, as those characters weren’t all that interesting.
In terms of character development, things felt a little forced in multiple places. Gar’s animosity towards his adopted father melts away quickly in the face of his madness. Vic’s anger at learning that Sarah is dating someone else also disappears when he sees them together and remembers that he basically abandoned her for ages. Dick seems pretty insecure in his relationship with Kory long before he learns of her impending arranged marriage, but Donna seems very happy in hers. Kole falls in love with Joseph pretty quickly, and then becomes kind of possessive of him, which is perhaps the reason he left for space? None of these characters really show actual growth in this book. It’s a big change from a couple of volumes ago, where Wolfman devoted almost an entire issue to Gar and Deathstroke talking in a diner.
Most of the art here is by Eduardo Barreto, who is a very capable artist. He’s not Pérez, but I can see why he was chosen to draw this book. José Garcia-Lopez was a brilliant choice, but only drew two issues, unfortunately.
By the end of this volume, there are three big stories set up – Kory’s space adventures, the Mento storyline, and whatever is going on with the Church of Blood and Raven. There also is presumably some repercussions from Crisis, like Kole’s death (I think it took a lot longer to address the issues around Wonder Girl’s continued existence one Wonder Woman was revamped). I’m still interested in this book, and am glad that I have the next two trades already, but I’m hoping that things feel a little more cohesive again soon.
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