Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Oh Yeah, That Forum: The Titans An EDE Retro Review: Silver Age Titans Archives and Showcase!

Review of the Demon Drag-Queen... er, Dragster... coming tomorrow!

Personally, IMHO, Teen Titans were at their best during the early 70's when they dabbled with the horror/supernatural genre..."The Demon Of Dog Island" was amongst my faves...

EDE RETRO REVIEW: TEEN TITANS #3

THE PLOT

So avid readers of EDE Retro Reviews might recall me raving about the cool gadgets the gang from TT #45 had, such as missile-launching mailboxes and stuff. Well, one of the nice things about reading these earlier issues is that I've now found out who manufactures groovy criminal equipment of that sort. It's none other than Ding Dong Daddy Dowd, the Go Man! Well, we don't actually see him building missile-launching mailboxes, but his garage builds plenty of groovy stuff like ice-cream carts with machine guns and attack gas pumps that pummel their opponents, which he then supplies to the criminal element, so it seems very likely to me that the aforementioned mailbox was his handywork as well.

Oh, anyway, in this issue the Titans are called before the President's "Commission on Education". They're asked to deal with the serious problem of high school dropouts, in particular in the town of Harison, which has a particularly high dropout rate. The Titans go investigate, and soon discover that kids are dropping out of school to work at "Ding Dong Daddy Dowd's Hot Rod Hive", which pays them tons of money and is much less square than school. Well, the real purpose of DDDD's hot rod shop is to build souped up getaway cars/crime machines for criminals. So the Titans proceed to shut the place down, leaving all the kids unemployed and forced to go back to school.

THE "WE'RE TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE AQUALAD USEFUL!" DEPT.

A gang member dumps Aqualad, disguised as a rival gang member, in a barrell of water!

THE WUSSY GANG MEMBERS DEPT.

Two ruffians attack Wonder Girl:

"Grab the chick and muss her hair!"

"Yeah, she can't hurt us!"

Wondy quickly teaches them a lesson: never mess with a chick's hair!

THE WEIRD FLIRTATION SCENE DEPT.

Ding Dong: "But what does the cute chick do? I she a wrench jockey to?"

Wondy (in disguise): "Why, noooo, Ding-Dong! I though I could pep up the boys' morale with a little music while they work!"

Ding Dong: "Haw! Like coolest! I dig the "rock" the most!"

So apparently, Ding Dong interprets "pepping up the boys" to require him and Wondy retiring to his office, where she sings and dances for him privately.

THE ROBIN'S LESSONS IN HIP LINGO DEPT.

Robin uses his trademark "Holy cow" phrase while riding alongside Batman. I bet he wouldn't say something that un-round sounding in the company of his Teen Titan buds!

SUMMARY

This issue was okay, but not great. I actually like Ding Dong Daddy as a villain quite a bit, especially with all his gadgety hot rods and cool stuff. But... I don't know. It seemed like there was a little something missing from this story. Maybe it's just that Ding Dong is defeated too easily in the end after the Titans are trounced by his machiness earlier in the story.

Wonder Girl's hair was the breakout star of the series, wasn't it?

The most!

I still love the fact that all of the other gang members are getting their butts handed to them by the rest of the Titans, and all these two losers can think of doing is "mussing the chick's hair".

Carry on with the commentary, EDE, i am really enjoying it so far...

Holy cow!

NEXT: Because you demanded it, SPEEDY!

these are hysterical!

Leaping mantas! I don't see any evidence of Speedy's drug use at all in his first adventure with the team!

Did the IOC?

What's IOC?

Hmm... I wonder if I missed an entire subtext to the issue? That provides a whole new spin on events...

EDE RETRO REVIEW: TEEN TITANS #4

Enter: SPEEDY!

THE PLOT

Okay, so this whole issue is a flashback to an untold case of the Teen Titans that happened during the 1964 Olympics, shortly after the Titans were formed. The story begins with two Olympics-related problems coming the Titans way: 1) young "darling-looking" sprinter Davey Bradley disappears while practicing for the Olympics and 2) Speedy shows up at Titans Lair and announces that he's been chosen to perform in an trick archery event as part of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Why is the latter a problem? Well, it's not just because Speedy somehow has to pass the drug test to perform... he's actually uncovered a plot by a terrorist organization known as "Diablo" to disrupt the Olympics. Since Diablo is dedicated to "hate and distrust", they are of course opposed to the Olympics, which are the "greatest example of international friendship".

Anyway, the Titans find Davey pretty quickly, and it turns out he's just in hiding from an overbearing father who is pushing him to succeed. They all go to Japan together where they foil Diablo's villainous plot and finally convince Davey he should compete, in spite of his father. And along the way Speedy comes up with an excuse to bow out of the whole archery event, so the drug testing becomes a non-issue.

THE GAY TITAN ALERT! DEPT.

An excited Aqualad proclaims: "First time I ever danced the "swim" with three men!"

THE SECRET IDENTITY PRESERVATION DEPT.

Davey borrows a page from Superman by running around most of the issue in glasses, thus disguising his true identity!

THE ROBIN'S LESSONS IN INTERNATIONAL LINGO DEPT.

Random Japanese fan: "Sign please, Robin-san! You too, Kid Flash-san!"

Robin: "Certainly, if you'll just give us a little room-san!"

THE CLUELESS BOYS DEPT.

Wondy: "Oh, look at that big, luscious Japanese moon, Kid Flash! Doesn't it give you gooseflesh?"

Kid Flash: "No, Wonder Chick! Because something else is! Those jokers up there at the Olympic urn..."

THE COOL VILLAIN WEAPONS DEPT.

Diablo tries to blow the Titans up with an exploding autograph booklet!

SUMMARY

Not a bad issue at all, and the subplot about Davey and his father ends up being kind of sweet, and takes a slightly unexpected turn.

But far from the last.

"three" being the operative word here.

Next up, the Titans face... THE ANT!

Which is (barring reprints) the oldest Titans comic I own.

It's also the last issue in The Silver Age Teen Titans, Volume 1!

Which means I'm going to have to start looking for something else to review...

70s Teen Titans!!! One review is NOT enough.

Davey nearly had Arrowette's (or Miss Arrowette's, depending on how you look at it) origin!

Agreed! Especially around the time where Sharon Tracy witnesses a man being transformed into a bug-eyed alien - that was Nick Cardy at his ultimate zenith IMHO And the resultant "supernatural" themes that followed were the bee's knees, too, daddy-o!

Well, I was actually referring to the mid-70s revival of TT, but those early-70s issues before their cancellation were pretty interesting!

I think, dude, if the line-up from TEEN TITANS 50-52 had been retained then adding a few more heroes to the mix, DC could have had a possible 20th century version of the Legion - but alas, Alice, it didnt happen...

Just think what could have been...Jim Shooter could have been coaxed back to DC (yeah, right...), the Roll Call could have lived again - a groovy bunch of kids, being alternated and interacting with each other - where was Mr. Jupiter when you needed him?