Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Oh Yeah, That Forum: The Titans The New Teen Titans 1980-1984: cover commentary

Covers are the new China Cat of the Titans Forum!

Let's inspect the covers of the hugely popular early-to-mid-80s Wolfram/Perez The New Teen Titans (volume 1). There are 40 monthly issues and 2 annuals .

The minor twist? There will be two random covers up at a time -- I've generated a number list to determine order of appearance.

Feel free to discuss the story inside, judge covers solely by their merit as standalone images (or not), recount personal stories concerning the covers/issues, remark upon the similarities or differences between the 2 covers or the entire group, or do the ever-popular WHICH ONE IS BETTER?

Click to enlarge!

Omega Men! Woo. I always loved the Vega system, and it's complex internal cosmology/mythology!

Interesting that the puff of smoke surrounding the teleporting Raven is red, and not her usual black.

And that's just so typical of a Teen Titan cover. Everyone is running forward, and Kid Flash, is, inexplicably, not running any faster than Robin. What good is super-speed if he can never get to the action before Robin?

(I know, I know, cover composition requires it, but still, it bugs me.)

As was touched on a bit in the Judas Contract cover thread, Perez's Titans covers tended to be realistic, single-scene action shots. But make no mistake, there were stylized/abstract covers (or elements) too, and both of these qualify. 17 has no background, and 24 is a kind-of standard pinup "motion" shot with stylized, dramatic bookends.

Ten or twelve years ago, I snagged an extra copy of 17 from a bargain box. I may or may not have re-read the story, but there was something about the cover that had me keeping it on top of the pile until I later filed the lot away. I think it might have been the colors. The white background not only helps to highlight Frances but to set off the colors. Also, there's a reason that shirt (and the title) is pink and not red (Robin, WG), blue (Raven), or orange/purple (Starfire).

Several---but, again, not all---of the covers in the first few years had dialogue. Not here...wouldn't suit these two.

The 'bookends' of 24 are very striking, as is the white borders vs. black starfield-middle contrast. The motion shot, as I call it, is handsome but not very interesting to me. It's a promo shot with some Omega Men thrown in. Rehash of #1.

Perez's art can be funny sometimes. When Raven went evil, her hairline receded and her eyebrows went all 'Spock,' and it's the same between Koriand'r and Komand'r. The 'good' one has a shorter nose and 'normal' eyebrows and a normal hairline, but Komand'r is eeeviiil, so she has to have the receding hairline and the eyebrows that go all the way up.

Phobia, of the Masters of Evil, had the same 'evil' face.

I suspect at least part of the shock of Terra's betrayal was that Perez didn't draw her with a his typical angular 'evil woman' face.

^ I seem to remember an article where Perez said that Terra was specifically designed to appear cute and unthreatening so as to increase the shock of her later betrayal. Hence, the button-nose, buck-teeth, freckles, short stature, short blonde hair - everything about her was meant to invoke girl-next-door innocence.

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Of these two covers, I prefer the Frances one. I love the pink concentric lines forcing you to focus on her at the centre of the cover, despite all the clutter and distraction surrounding her. The only thing I would change would be to move Startire a little bit higher since she's kinda crowding Frances' personal space where she is.

The Omega Men cover is nice too of course. Perez is probably the only artist I can think of who has never drawn something I haven't liked - especially during this period.

I wasn't a big fan of this Omega Men story though, from memory (it has been FOREVER since I read the Wolfman/Perez run so I have forgotten lots about it). But I remember that the Titans killed sentient aliens in this story (the Gordanians I think) and that never sat right with me.

It seems quaint to think of a time when heroes didn't kill but this was during it and I didn't like the rationale that 'it was war so they did what they had to do'. Super-heroes are meant to be better than that IMO. (That was another reason I wasn't a big fan of the Flash/Blackhawks issue of JMS' otherwise superlative Brave and Bold run.)

I get what Set is saying about Perez' 'evil female' facial features but looking at those profiles of Starfire and Blackfire and thinking back to Terra mentioned above just reminds me of how good Perez was at varying the facial features of his characters. Talents like that are what set him far above an artist like Barry Kitson for example who, though a nice artist, had one male face and one female face and about two different hairstyles to put on top of them.

Just because a character can get to the action quicker than their teammates doesn't mean it's always wise to do so.

I've played Dungeons and Dragons long enough to know that those characters who run off and leave the safety of the group do so at their extreme peril.

Oh, I totally agree, I just think it's funky how cover composition always requires Kid Flash (or the Flash) to be running at super-speed to catch up to where Robin or Cyborg (or Batman or Aquaman) already got to without super-speed.

Same with Raven, who always seems to be teleporting to just behind everyone else, as if it takes her longer to teleport somewhere than it takes everyone else to walk there.

I hear ya on the D&D though. In a game where the encounters are balanced to be a challenge for your entire group, running off alone is asking to be killed! (One reason why I've never been a fan of game mechanics that end up separating the group, like a flier or amphibious character in a party that doesn't all have that capability, or astral projectors, or cyber-deckers, or stealth-based characters, whatever.)

As for the cover above, I like the cover with Mento better. It's got some action and drama going on. The four faces of the new Masters of Evil doesn't really offer me anything.

I can't help but compare 14 to the Judas Contract annual (which is Tales, not NTT, and has already been covered)



The "silent" annual cover is more compelling to me. I realize you can't really convey the DAD part in gestures, but there you go.

That crazy Mento ... It's like having Dr. Light as your father.

This cover kicks nass!!!!

I was thinking of how Tiny Titans Raven is always mortified by her upbeat, Ned Flanders-esque (except that one thing) dad.

29: this is the only cover to have a green DC Bullet -- three are black, and the rest are either red or blue. The green here can't be a coincidence, given the central character's costume. Did the colorist always pick the bullet color --- anyone know?

I had forgotten that Plasmus was on this cover. You'd think that looking like dude-shaped 200-pound lump of strawberry Tangy Taffy that had been left out in the sun would make one memorable, but not always.

The figurative "villains looming large" cover is common enough.

It's interesting how little the new Masters of Evil really 'stuck,' compared to, say, the Fearsome Five (Shimmer and Mammoth, or, at least, interpretations of them, as well as Psimon, can be seen in the new Young Justice cartoon, and Gizmo and a version of Jinx in the Teen Titans cartoon).

Plasmus showed up in the Teen Titans cartoon, but as more of a Clayface IV type character.

Phobia, Houngan and Warp just never seemed to gain any traction.

And Teh Evol is also indicated by Komand'r's lack of a cute little WASPy uptilted nose. (Man, did that used to bug me back in the day!)

Yeah, especially their name. They were the Brotherhood of Evil. (Masters = Marvel)

OK, I now know that the BOE name comes from the Silver Age and heaven knows I love me some SA, but COME ON. Who would call themselves the Brotherhood (or Masters) of Evil? Fearsome Five...maybe, okay.

[snip]

OM itself had a great deal of gratuitous violence right from the start. Giffen said in some interview that he was trying to avoid the "ballet... beautiful" violence associated with Frank Miller's Daredevil. But his approach wasn't any more appealing to me than Miller's. It seemed more hokey than realistic.

One critic also complained of how Giffen and Slifer excessively ridiculed Broot's people for their pacifism, hammering the ridicule way beyond the pale in a scene where Broot's infant baby literally had his head blasted off. (DC has always loved the little children, hasn't it?) I agree that it was pretty obnoxious. There was a lot of self-congratulatory "edgy" junk like that, which made me drop the book about three issues in.

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...how good Perez was at varying the facial features of his characters. Talents like that are what set him far above an artist like Barry Kitson for example who, though a nice artist, had one male face and one female face and about two different hairstyles to put on top of them.

Well, he was better than most. Still, it's kind of irksome that because of the ugly woman = evil woman trope, he had to vary the faces of two characters who by rights could have plausibly looked much more similar than they did.

Ooh, yes! Perez loved his short upturned noses!

I, on the other hand, loves me some proboscis.

<span style="font-size: 15px;">[gasp!]</span>

Getting back to the previous round -

I love, love, love the Speedy cover. Roy Harper was my favorite character back then so to see him come back and handle himself against this really scary team was a real thrill for me.

I love the composition of the cover too. The villains looming large over the heroes may be a trope but I can't think of any off the top of my head so it seems original to me. I love the use of the heavy shadows too - it really makes the other colors pop.

Speaking of colors - I really like the choice on the Mento cover to color everyone but him and Changeling in light blue. It's an interesting choice and probably what makes that cover pop too.

As for this round -

Oooohhh tough to decide. Probably two of the best overs in the run. I think I like the Robotman cover better because of the awesome sense of atmosphere it creates - the jungle at night setting, the decrepit temple or whatever that is, the torchlight falling on a disturbing scene - all give a sense that our three Titans are in a strange and scary situation. Plus the level of detail Perez puts into that jungle foliage is incredible.

The Deathstroke cover is great too. Who doesn't love a nice happy scene being wrecked by the psycho villain?

I definitely concede this point - for sisters, they really do look nothing alike. I wonder how differently Blackfire would have been received/portrayed if she had been Starfire's twin, and therefore didn't have Perez's "evil" features to inform much of her character?

To me, the BoE always seemed like they'd stepped straight out of a horror comic into the Titans pages. Something else else about this team (as much as I love them - and I think their designs are some of the best Perez ever did) really disturbed me.

I wonder if that's why other writers have trouble finding a place for them? They seem a little cruel and ruthless for the more or less straight-forward super-hero world of the 80s.

Another lady looming large while wearing green (with gold at the throat). I haven't read the issue, and the GCBD doesn't explain who the Flash cover gal is. The fist is probably "Bah! Curses!" but could be "Go Flash, get 'em!" The eyebrows however...yeah, those look like evil eyebrows.

I don't think there are any eyebrows as crazy-evil as Phobia, though.