Books : The Silver Age Teen Titans Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions)

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Rating:

- The awesome art of Nick Cardy
While the stories have not held up well to the test of time (and with this once-considered disposable medium, they really weren't intended to), the art remains as amazing as ever, thanks to the efforts of the one and only Nick Cardy.

Cardy is one of the industry's most gifted illustrators on a par with John Romita Sr., especially considering the role Cardy played as cover artist for the DC line back in the early to mid '70's. Cardy's comics cover work was everywhere, draping the stories of Superman, Batman and many others with compellingly designed covers that made the newsstand grazers anxious to plunk down their hard-earned coins (back then, it didn't take $2.99 for a single comic) and get those four-color masterworks home.

Some of Cardy's most innovative artwork between the covers was found in the pages of TEEN TITANS, so look no further. Enjoy!

Rating:

- The Other Fab Four
The Teen Titans. Was their slang imperfect, their villains not up to Justice League levels, the whole ideal of good "square" kids as heroes up and coming "corny"? Yes to all three. But I liked them anyway. Why? The core idea of the kid sidekicks joined together in a club-like group. Hanging out, getting letters from kids in trouble that needed their help on a less then universe shaking basis. It had great merit. It still does. Despite the second series greater popularity the silver age Titans idea of a group of super teens helping regular kids is a far better concept then a "junior Justice League" fighting the likes of the devil-like Trigon for the fate of the planet. This series teases with the possibilities of the super kids helping regular kids idea. Like the solo Kid Flash tales of the same era it was a great idea never fully explored. I recommend it highly. Maybe from reading these somebody will one day do it right. Just nostalgia? Not at all. Unlike today's unrealistically dark tales of a black and gray world it was a lot of fun. As the writing on the photo of The Beatles on their headquarters bulletin board said "From one Fab Four to another".

Rating:

- Like, squaresville!
This book reprints the first eight adventures of the original Teen Titans. The original lineup was Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Wonder Girl. The three boys were "kid sidekicks" to members of the Justice League, but Wonder Girl is a different story. You see, the editor of the comic felt that the group needed a female member, so he looked at DC's comic books and the only teenage heroine he could find was Wonder Girl. But he must not have looked at the comics too closely, or he would have realized that Wonder Girl stories were actually flashbacks to when Wonder Woman herself was a girl. So, here was Wonder Woman's teenage self in the Teen Titans at the same time as her adult self was in the Justice League. Eventually, they sorted things out and got around to explaining who THIS Wonder Girl was, but it took a few years. Anyway, that's quite enough background information. As for the comics themselves, they don't exactly hold up that well. They read like they were written by a middle aged man who didn't understand teenagers (which they were). The slang in the comics was about ten years out of date. I don't think kids in the mid-'60s were still saying "daddio". These stories are really corny. Plus, they had the worst villains. There were forgettable losers like Mr. Twister, the Separated Man, Ding-Dong Daddy Dowd and the Ant. This book can only be recommended for nostalgia reasons.

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