Comic Info
Comic Name: New Teen Titans (Volume 1)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: George Perez
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2016
New Teen Titans (1) #22
Reprints New Teen Titans (1) #21-27 and New Teen Titans (1) Annual #1 (July 1982-January 1983). A desperate call from Cyborg’s former girlfriend puts the Teen Titans in combat with a cunning enemy that knows how to play the Titans right into hand…Brother Blood has plans for the Teen Titans! Starfire finds herself whisked back to her home by her sister Blackfire, and the Teen Titans join forces with the Omega Men in an attempt to free her. Plus, every year children run away from home and come to the city, and the Titans realize they must try to help the lost children before it is too late.
Written by Marv Wolfman, The New Teen Titans—Volume 4 is a DC Comics superhero collection. Following The New Teen Titans—Volume 3, the series features art by George Perez.
The New Mutants were my teen team growing up. I loved the camaraderie and friendship of the characters. When I started to run out of New Mutants comics to read, the New Teen Titans became my second teen team. Though most of the characters were barely teens (if at all), the New Teen Titans provide a combination of soap opera and superhero that demonstrates some of the best of the 1980s.
This collection has the New Teen Titans really hitting their stride. The battle with Brother Blood sets up a nice, solid secondary villain (behind Deathstroke), and it also is a bit of a different kind of villain for the team since it isn’t just about physical power. The addition of Blackfire for Starfire is also nice to give her character a bit more depth though I wish that they had done more with her.
New Teen Titans (1) #23
The series also features a classic “issue driven” storyline that was pretty popular in comic books at the time. The “Just Say No” campaign was picking up and drugs were pretty much the blame for everything. Add to this, a “runaway crisis” that always seemed to be pushed, and you have the Titans taking on a social issue. It feels rather preachy and cliché now (and it might have felt the same then), but it also feels really indicative of comic books at the time with characters like Cloak and Dagger. The comics were on the fringe of the “gritty 1980s” and the Titans tried to do gritty.
What doesn’t age well about the Titans is the style of storytelling. As a person who grew up with this style of comic book, it is refreshing to read a comic with lots of meat. The characters have lots of internal thoughts, tons of explanatory dialogue, and pages just loaded with text…it is a far cry from today’s comics where there often can just be panels and panels of fighting with no text. While I enjoy it, it might be hard for new readers or readers accustom to modern comics.
The New Teen Titans—Volume 4 is a solid read that also does one key thing to set up the storyline for the next ten issues or so. In New Teen Titans #27, Garfield encounters a girl named Terra who pretty much changes up the team and gave a lot of attention to Wolfman and Perez’s title (or more than it already had). If you are reading the Teen Titans for the first time and are on the fence, definitely stick with it…it is worth it. The New Teen Titans—Volume 4 is followed by The New Teen Titans—Volume 5.
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