The New Teen Titans—Volume 9

Comic Info

New Teen Titans (2) #1

Reprints The New Teen Titans (2) #1-9 (August 1984-June 1985).  Raven has returned, but the Teen Titans realize that there is something darker and deadlier about her.  With her father Trigon threatening to take over the world, the Titans must risk it all to stop her.  Plus, Lilith’s kidnapping by the Greek Titan Thia will reveal her origin and put the Titans in a team-up with the gods of ancient Greece to stop Thia’s plots to rule Olympus.

Written by Marv Wolfman, The New Teen Titans—Volume 9 is a DC Comics superhero comic book collection.  Following The New Teen Titans—Volume 8, the series features art by George Perez, Dan Jurgens, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.  The issues in the collection were reprinted in Tales of the New Teen Titans #59-68 and The New Teen Titans Omnibus—Volume 3 and New Teen Titans:  The Terror of Trigon.

The New Teen Titans was one of my DC jump-on books.  Like the X-Men it was kind of soapy and much of the drama overrode the action and adventure.  The whole Judas Contract was a benchmark story and then I felt the story lagged a bit.  While I didn’t like that Titans (like Legion of Super-Heroes) was launched into a “new format” series with the original becoming a “Tales of the…” title, a lot of significant stuff happened in this run.

The story was a bit of a relaunch and purge for the Raven character.  Like the original New Teen Titans storyline, Raven’s battle against her father sparks the first part of the collection.  You get the Teen Titans raising their stakes by becoming a world-wide name by saving the world from Trigon’s wrath, but like many Teen Titans storylines, it is tempered with the loss of Raven (for now).

New Teen Titans (2) #6

The follow-up storyline finally provides more of an origin for long-time Titan member/associate Lilith, though it isn’t very satisfying (I kind of liked her simply being a hippy-ish precog like in her early appearances).  I do like she gets some more page-time.  The story also introduces Kole who will be a member of the Titans and a romantic interest for the consistently worst dressed superhero Jericho…which of course doesn’t turn out well in Teen Titans fashion.  I also like we get a non-Sandman appearance of Destiny who served as a horror host and would occasionally show up before Gaiman made full use of him.

The New Teen Titans—Volume 9 has important moments for the characters but always felt like the post “great” Teen Titans period.  I kind of fell off reading the title around here so it is nice to have collections to do some catch-up on issues I never read.  It may not be the best of the New Teen Titans, but it still is classic New Teen Titans and if you are a fan, continue to follow the collection (it probably isn’t the best jump-on book).  The New Teen Titans—Volume 9 is followed by The New Teen Titans—Volume 10.