Titans Together!!!

In the last couple days, we’ve discussed several month’s worth of The Warlord and Jon Sable, Freelance. As far as the regular titles I have from 1986, that just leaves us the Titans. Things were not looking good when last we checked in with this band of young heroes, and 1986 was not a great year for the group, as they were put ever more through the wringer. Today’s wringers involve The New Teen Titans #18-23 (DC Comics, 1986) and Teen Titans Spotlight #3-6 (DC Comics, 1986-87).

NTT 18 begins with the revelation that Starfire, her parents and her brother did NOT die in the explosion of their starship. Loyalists on board knew of Blackfire’s plan to kill them, and secretly transported the royal family to Okaara, a nearby moon, where they will train and regroup. Dick is emotionally distraught after Kory’s wedding, then thinking, however briefly, that she had been slain, that he and Joey decide to return to Earth. Checking in with the other Titans, Raven is still missing; Donna and Terry are fighting because Donna has been too busy of late to help Terry with a writing assignment he must finish or lose his job; and Victor and Garfield discover that Steve Dayton, Gar’s step-father, has gone slightly crazy once again from the use of his Mento helmet. Sounds like a soap opera when you boil it down like that, huh? But then, having lives and problems outside of superheroing is one of the things that made me love Marv Wolfman’s take on the Titans. It made them seem more like real, complex, three-dimensional people.

Issue 19 takes these growing problems team members are experiencing and uses them to drive wedges between the Titans and force them in separate directions. The group’s new tower headquarters is built, but is there still a group to use it? Dick returns to Earth angry and hurt over what he sees as Kory’s betrayal of him. He goes to Wayne Manor and finds Batman and new Robin Jason Todd in the middle of a case and too busy to talk with him. Joey learns that Kole died in the Crisis while he and Dick were away. Donna and Terry’s problems grow, prompting her to turn down Vic and Gar when they come to her seeking help in subduing Mento. Instead, she feels she must go and comfort Dick, which leaves Terry, Vic and Gar all feeling abandoned. When she arrives at Dick’s apartment, Donna finds him ready to lash out at anyone because of his own hurt. Donna makes a prime target when Dick starts to berate her leadership of the team in his absence. Meanwhile, Kory is still on Okaara, forming a small army of loyalists ready to take the planet Tamaran back from her sister, Blackfire.

So Kory’s alone in space, Dick sets off alone to find Raven and Gar and Vic are left alone to deal with Mento. So who is left for Donna to call when the government needs the help of the Titans? The “original” team — Speedy, Aqualad, Hawk, Flash and Robin. But they aren’t exactly a great team either, as each has his own issues to deal with. While Robin has always been the leader of the group, this Robin is new hero Jason Todd, not experienced Dick Grayson. Flash is now Wally West, trying to honor the memory of his uncle, Barry Allen, who died in the Crisis; but Wally’s powers are reduced from what they once were, and he is afraid of failing to live up to Barry’s ideal. Hawk, always the more militant half of the brother duo, no longer has Dove to temper his violence; Dove was another casualty of the Crisis. As was Aquagirl, lover of Aqualad. So, he is pretty dispondent, as well.

That leaves Speedy. We find out in issue 20 that the reason the government called the Titans specifically is because the assassin the group is trying to stop is Cheshire. We also learn that in his off-panel relationship with the goverment, Speedy had a heretofore undisclosed relationship with Cheshire — an actual relationship. An intimate one. In fact, we learn in this issue that Roy has fathered a daughter, Lian, with Cheshire.

Further complicating matters, Cheshire tries to drop a few hints that things are not what they seem. She is not really there to kill anyone; she is being paid to make it seem like she is targeting ambassadors and force the Titans to act. This will expose the heroes’ presence at a secret summit that was supposed to have no security whatsoever. The revelation that the Titans are there makes it look like the U.S. has not complied with the rules of the summit and forces the talks to break up, all of which means the Titans are now in trouble with the government.

So where’s Joey during all of this? He’s on a solo adventure of his own in the pages of Teen Titans Spotlight #3-6. While waiting to see what will become of the Titans, Joey has been working with his mother, Adeline Wilson, and her company, Searchers Inc. In this story, we learn that shortly before joining the Titans, Joey had met a girl, fallen in love with her, become engaged, then lost her when she died in a boating accident. Unbeknownst to Joey, the girl’s father was actually one of the main council behind the H.I.V.E., a criminal cabal from early Titans issues. The man wanted to leave the H.I.V.E. and had hired Searchers Inc. to fake his and his daughter’s deaths so they would be safe from the H.I.V.E. So, Penny, Joey’s fiancee, isn’t really dead. Joey learns this when Penny shows up on his doorstep, asking for help from Joey and Searchers Inc. She explains what happened before and reveals that the H.I.V.E. has found her and her father again.

This is a good story, but be warned, it is very convoluted and detailed. There are a number of twists and turns, some predictable, some unexpected, that make this story hard to break down without revealing too much. It might have been better as a slightly shorter story. At the time, I thought four-issues was a bit long. But again, it is a good story.

Back to making the other Titans’ live miserable, NTT #22 presents three separate stories following Dick, Vic and Gar, and Kory, as well as a wrap-around that serves as a nice epiogue to the Jericho story from Spotlight. Dick has found Raven: she, Arella and Azrael are all at the Church of Blood. Mirroring his plan from the earlier Teen Titans book, Dick disguises himself to gain entry into the Church of Blood. Unbeknownst to him, Mother Mayhem knows he is there from the start, and sets about capturing and brainwashing Dick again. Vic and Gar, still trying to find a way to help Steve Dayton, are assaulted by Mento in the form of him assuming mental command of Victor’s metal body and pitting the two heroes against each other. And Kory, her family and the loyalists with them launch an assault on Blackfire in a bid to reclaim Tamaran.

These stories culminate in NTT #23, which focuses on the civil war on Tamaran. Kory is fighting to restore her parents as the rightful rulers of the planet. Blackfire is fighting to retain control of the planet she now rules. Odd thing is, many of the Tamaranean people support Blackfire. They had grown tired of King Myand’r’s tendency to keep peace by making concession to their enemies. Blackfire is cold and ruthless, but she is also an excellent administrator, and in her short rule has done much to improve the lives of her people and strengthen political ties with other races to benefit Tamaran. In the end, the people chose to follow Blackfire, with her parents held as esteemed advisors. Kory cannot believe that the people would embrace Blackfire and leaves the planet in disgust, heading for Earth in the hopes of putting her life back together there.

Most definitely not happy days for the Titans right now.