Marvel was riding the X-Men popularity pretty high by 1980, five years into Chris Claremont’s run. One motivator behind the quickly complex world of Teen Titans was the X-Men. In our current age of hyper decompressed storytelling, this would be a year and a half’s worth of stories. Trigon is wrapped up in issue seven, and we get a “day in the life” one-off in issue eight that sets up the next arc. Along the way, we get the origins of Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven. In issue four, the Titans take on the Justice League, and the Trigon store goes full bore taking us all the way to issue seven. In issue three, the Fearsome Five debuts. In effect two, we have Deathstroke and HIVE. In the first issue, we are presented to every member of the team, and the series premise is set. What surprised me most was how quickly all the core elements that remain with these characters today were introduced. While certain aspects of New Teen Titans have not aged well, it does embody a youthful rebellious tone.
It makes sense though the original Teen Titans run was quite odd and always felt like an old man trying to write teenagers. The current and previous animated runs of Teen Titans have been squarely based on their concept. It was pretty exciting to go back to the beginning and see how Wolfman and Perez began what has become iconic. It wouldn’t be until many years later that I finally delved into the comics proper via one of those buck fifty grab bags at the grocery store. I had no idea who this Cyborg character was but was intrigued. I remember watching The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians where Cyborg and Robin were featured. My introduction to this iteration of the Teen Titans came via Saturday Morning cartoons in the 1980s.
He uses the Fearsome Five, a team of B-tier villains to herald his arrival and Raven must find a way to hold together a frequently splintering team. Raven’s real purpose is revealed shortly after that, as she explains she needs to prevent the demonic menace Trigon the Terrible from breaching the walls between universes and conquering Earth. They take down the Gordanian menace that holds Starfire in bondage and quickly follow that up with their first encounter against Deathstroke the Terminator. Filling out the ranks are Changeling (formerly Doom Patrol’s Beast Boy), Cyborg, and Starfire. As is stated in one story, this isn’t the junior Justice League. The mysterious Raven calls on him as well as Wonder Girl and Kid Flash to join a new group of teenage superheroes. Robin, the Boy Wonder, now a college dropout is pulled down a critical path that will redefine his life forever. Art by George Perez, Romeo Tanghal, and Curt Swan
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