The superhero life is one that is full of adventure and danger. But even superheroes have downtime, time to relax, time to heal both in mind and body. After all, if anyone deserves to have some nice downtime every now and often, it's the superhero. The New Teen Titans were no exception. These young heroes may have lives full of action, but even they had quiet moments, times where their stories could concentrate on their character growth. And one of the most famous of those times was the comic we are looking at today: New Teen Titans #8.
I wanted to look at this comic as I thought it would be nice to review one that was less about action and more about character development and enjoying a bit of time as just regular civilians. Also, it has been a while since a DC comic graced this blog. So, let's look at New Teen Titans #8!
The cover is a George Perez piece. And naturally, it's pretty epic. It depicts members of the titular group going about their day, engaging in various activities. I am amused by the stars with the heads of the Titans members on them at the top.
"A Day in the Lives..."
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciler: George Perez
Inker: Romeo Tanghal
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Ben Oda
Editor: Len Wein
Executive Editor: Joe Orlando
The story begins with Starfire flying over the city. The alien princess is enjoying the warm weather, as it reminds her of the tropical climate of her homeworld of Tamaran. She's not just flying around for the heck of it. She's on her way to meet her friend and fellow Titan Donna "Wonder Girl" Troy for lunch. As she lands, she thinks on the concept of the secret identity. It's kind of hilarious that Starfire expresses confusion over the concept considering that Donna doesn't wear a mask or do anything to really hide her identity.
Anyway, Donna herself is hard at work.
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| "Don't strangle the model, Donna. Remember last time?" |
Donna Troy works as a photographer, and she's doing some photos for a Golden Jeans advertisement. One of the models is having a bit of trouble, and it's giving the Amazon a headache. The head of the jeans company is infuriated with Donna's photos, as he thinks they're making a model he likes look bad. A man named Carl tries to tell the jeans company man that the model is not right for the job, and Donna knows what she's doing when it comes to photography. But before a potential fight can break out, Starfire arrives.
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| "Who is this Annoying Orange? Everyone says I look like it." |
The head of Golden Jeans, goes all a-gaga for the orange-skinned beauty.
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| "By the way, what point are we making here?" |
Raven easily takes care of the wannabe-revolutionaries, saves the hostages, and takes care of the bombs. However, her soul-self has been out of her body too long, and she starts to seemingly lose it.
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| Raven learned the hard way to never eat Starfire's cooking. |
Yeah, her mind is undergoing the Dave Bowman treatment.
We then start an interlude. A man and his young grandson are heading to a toy store, where they notice a free toy giveaway. The man is a Jeremy Thornton, and it turns out he was invited to collect a free puppet. The toy store is hoping that if he and other prominent citizens spread the word about the store, it'll get more customers. Unknown to Thornton and his young grandson, they are being watched...and they are very pleased with the Thorntons accepting the free puppet. Yeah, this totally is not going to lead to something horrible.
We next go to the corner of 11th Avenue and 44th Street. It's a poverty-stricken area, and it's also where Cyborg of the Teen Titans lives. Here, Beast Boy tries to convince Cyborg to move to somewhere better. After all, he's inherited a nice little nest egg. He could even move into the Tower itself if he wanted to. Thing is, since his father Silas died, Victor Stone has been doing some thinking. He hated his dad for a long time for giving him his cybernetic implants, even though Silas did it to save his life. But the two managed to reconcile, so Victor has made peace with it. He's trying to figure out what to do with himself. They get a call for Beast Boy.
It's Vernon Questor, the business manager for Dayton Industries. Dayton is the company that Beast Boy's stepfather Steve Dayton (Mento of the Doom Patrol) runs. He informs the two Titans that two board members of the company have been shot in two days. He suspects foul play as it's way too obvious that it is.
Beast Boy heads home, but not before scaring off some carjackers by becoming a rhino. Cyborg goes to visit his former girlfriend Marcy Reynolds. She had not seen him since the accident that resulted in him becoming Cyborg. The reunion is not a happy one, as Marcy is disturbed by his cybernetics, and he tells him her parents didn't want her seeing him again.
A depressed Victor heads to the park, where he thinks about how his time with the Titans had made him forget how different he was. He's not sure what to do with himself, as he can't spend his whole life being a superhero, but he can't go back to being an athlete either. He gets conked on the head with a baseball, and a kid asks for it back. He gives it back, causing the kid to see his shiny cybernetics. He worries the kid will freak out, but it turns out the kid finds it pretty cool. Because he's got such an arm himself.
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| "I wanted a gold arm, but got stuck with the pink one." |
The kid was part of a special school for kids who have prosthetics themselves. The school helps them adjust to them and live normal lives. Cyborg also meets their teacher, the lovely Sarah Simms. The kids want Cyborg to play some ball with them, and he happily agrees.
Meanwhile, back in Titans Tower, Raven is going on a trip. And not the fun kind of trip. She finds her soul-self traveling through various domains and dimensions, seeing monsters, searing heat, freezing cold, being pounded by sand from a giant hourglass.
In Blue Valley, Nebraska, Wally West (aka Kid Flash) is discussing his plans for the future with his father. He wants to go to college, but he also enjoys the superhero gig. His father suggests that he can do both. Wally agrees that it is possible, but he isn't sure if he should do both. After all, he never asked to get superpowers. After cleaning his costume, his mother tells him that she does worry about him being a superhero, but she's also seen an upside: It's matured him. It's allowed him to grow into a upstanding young man. The family sits down to dinner, and Wally's dad invites him to cut the turkey. After all, it's traditionally done by the man of the house.
Back in Titans Tower, Raven has a bit of a revelation about the horrors she is experiencing. She realizes that these demons are actually her own inner demons, seeking to keep her mind and soul separate. They represent her own fears and anxieties.
Armed with this new insight, she pushes on and fully unites her body and soul. Raven feels proud and stronger now.
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| "I AM RAVEN, HEAR ME CAW!" |
Elsewhere, Donna is doing an impromptu photoshoot with Starfire as the subject. The alien princess asks how Donna and Terry met, as the Amazon never mentioned him before. Terry explains that they met about a year earlier, not long after his divorce. And he's aware of her being an alien. Considering that she has bright orange skin, solid green eyes, and makes no effort to hide any of it, I think anyone with half a brain would notice she's not from Earth.
Starfire notices the birds in the sky and gets inspired to take flight. She enjoys being in the air and reflects on how much she loves living on Earth. She spots a wild horse and carriage on the rampage in the park and is able to stop it. She decides to go visit Dick Grayson in Gotham.
That night, Jeremy Thornton tucks his grandson into bed. He retires to another room, where he plans to finish up some reports and then take a bath. He hears a noise and thinks it's his grandson, but it's actually something much more surprisingly deadly. The puppet shoots the man, and evil laughter erupts from it.
I really enjoyed this comic. What's fun about it is that it's a character-focused comic. I did wish we got to see some development for Dick and Garfield, though. Dick basically just cameoed, and Garfield's scenes were there just to interact with Cyborg and set up a storyline. But still, the characters that actually managed to get some focus here get glimpses into their character. Raven's struggles with her powers, Wally's struggles with balancing superhero life with the civilian life, Donna's dealing with her civilian job, and Victor's finding kinship with a group of kids with prosthetics themselves. My favorite scene had to be Cyborg's meeting the class. That was very heartwarming. There's a wonderful balance of character and action in this comic.
If you've read this blog, you may know exactly what I think of George Perez's art. I don't think I really need to go into it much further here. Yes, it's not as evolved as his later work in Avengers, but it's still a joy to look at.
If you really want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2014 trade paperback The New Teen Titans Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get your vaccine/booster! See you next time!
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