Comic Info
Comic Name: DC Comics Presents/The New Teen Titans (Volume 1)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
# of Issues: 9
Release Date: 2014
New Teen Titans (1) #2
Reprints DC Comics Presents #26 and The New Teen Titans (1) #1-8 (November 1980-June 1981). When Robin has a dream of a new team of Teen Titans, dreams become reality with the appearance of a young woman named Raven who warns of impending doom for Earth from a danger named Trigon. Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Changeling find themselves teamed with new heroes in Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg as Trigon threatens the planet. Is Raven telling the truth about why she is on Earth and her relationship with Trigon…or could her secret threaten the whole team just as it is forming?
Written by Marv Wolfman, The New Teen Titans—Volume 1 collects the 1980s best-selling series from DC Comics. The collection features the New Teen Titans’ first appearance in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980) and the first eight issues of the series. The comic features art by George Perez with additional art by Romeo Tanghal.
The New Teen Titans were DC’s equivalent of the X-Men in the 1980s. The series took off with a boom and became a best seller for DC in a time when Marvel was frequently outselling DC. It was also one of the first DC non-mainstream character (aka Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash) comics I became aware of. I was a big fan of the New Mutants at Marvel and despite comparisons to X-Men, New Teen Titans felt more along the lines of New Mutants.
The Teen Titans were always the sidekicks, but they feel a little more grown up and independent here. While the first Teen Titan series had the character at the edge of being adults, this has the characters much more locked in to the late teens (which makes the Teen Titans title almost a bit odd because it feels like they are growing out of it already).
New Teen Titans (1) #4
The new characters really breathed life into the series. Robin, Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl were old hat, but the addition of the preexisting Changeling (with the name change from Beast Boy), Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg added new storylines and dimensions to the existing characters as they made a new team. The collection also has the issue introducing Deathstroke who came to be one of the Titans big villains but also a major player in the DC Universe.
Rereading New Teen Titans does show some modern-day flaws in the series. The series is very melodramatic which fits the comic style of the time, but it is also very, very wordy. The script for each page seems massive and sometimes the dialogue chokes out Perez’s art. It feels like an accomplishment to choke through some of the issues that feel like overkill.
The New Teen Titans—Volume 1 is a collection of classic stories and the introduction of some very important characters in the DC Universe. That reason alone makes this collection worth picking up and reading (or rereading). As a collection, I wish that the series was put together with a bit better quality paper, but it does appear clean and crisp in its presentation. If you never read New Teen Titans when it was released, now is the time! The New Teen Titans—Volume 1 was followed by The New Teen Titans—Volume 2.
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