For this installment of DJMC, I am delving deep into my childhood, to the first team of superheroes I ever truly loved, and who remain my favorite team of all time: The Marv Wolfman/George Pérez era of the Teen Titans.
These comics were created right around the time I was – the book pre-dates my birth by about a year and a half, but the really great [note: it’s all really great, but the greatest] stuff happened between 1983 and 1985. So, for this DJMC, I took songs from that period of music that I felt represented each major character in the book. I hope you enjoy this trip back to a time when people were asking “Where’s the Beef?,” when Ronald Reagan was gearing up for re-election, and when Superman III was the only Man of Steel at the box office.
Dick Grayson, after years of wearing Daisy Dukes and be referred to as someone’s ward, decided it was time to move out of Batman’s shadow and strike out on his own. “Nightwing,” an homage both to Batman and Superman (a Kandorian/Kryptonian hero fought under that name), became his new moniker, and he continued to be a Titan, only with his new, still avian, name.
It was time for new things – new romances, new adventures, a new name – and he was pushing himself away from the father figure in his life, Bruce Wayne. He’s gone, daddy, gone.
Starfire, Koriand’r/Kori, and Robin/Nightwing had one of the most epic superhero wedding disasters in comics (your possessed teammate murders the priest before he can declare you husband and wife), but this wasn’t the first bit of drama in their relationship. They were always on the verge of not working out, and I could see Starfire flying through the sky, Walkman in hand, shedding tears while Prince Rogers Nelson shreds some tasty licks.
While Dick and Kori had some ups and downs, no character in comics has had more, or weirder, relationships than Donna Troy. Girl just wanted to be loved – and attempted to be loved by just about everyone within a 5 state radius. Eventually, she settled down with photographer Terry Long (him with the creepy beard that somewhat resembles Spencer Pratt), only to have the marriage break up and, later, have him and their son die in a car crash. Donna just wants to be held.
Hat tip to my Hour Cosmic co-host Chad Bowers for this recommendation. It technically is from 1981, but I’ll allow it.
Continued belowThis one sort of speaks for itself – Raven is a magical being who, over the course of her history, has been on both sides of the moral code, sometimes a Titan, sometimes breaking up a Titan’s wedding (see Starfire’s entry), but always doing it with mystery and magic.
Frequently the comic relief, Garfield Logan/Beast Boy/Changeling would have been exactly the type of person to blast the Fat Boys wherever he went. Sure, he comes for the humor, but he stays for the dope rhymes and human beatboxing. You know that the other Titans would begrudgingly go with him to see Disorderlies and have to put up with him playing this record until he wore it out.
Even heroes can contract diseases, and Wally West did just that – this particular disease caused him to die faster, based on how much he used his super speed. At some point, Wally had to make a choice – saving others, or saving himself? Should he still be a Titan, or should he live to adulthood? Tough choices, to be sure, but tough choices that would be rendered inert just a little while longer. What he should have really worried about was Dan DiDio.
Vic Stone is a straight up player. As a teenager, he was attempting to date a teacher at the West Side School for the Handicapped named Sarah Simms. They were just friends, but you still have to respect Vic for going for the older lady.
Terra’s betrayal of the Titans is one of the all-time most heartbreaking double crosses in comics history. When you go back and re-read those stories that led up to it, you can’t help but read into the book a little more drama, a little more paranoia, coming from Tara during her tenure as a Titan. She must have been constantly on edge, looking over her shoulder, for fear of being found out. Rockwell was her JAM.
Jericho was, for all intents and purposes, a mute hero. Sure, he could possess people and speak through them, but his actual voice was destroyed after his throat was cut by terrorists as a child. This song was actually the first one I thought of for this piece, and while it is a little jokey, I think it works.
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One of DC’s greatest characters, hero or villain, is Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator. Father of Jericho, employer of Terra, enemy to the Titans and mercenary for hire, Slade is a bad ass of epic proportions. It is easy to forget how fucked up it is that this adult man was so intent on killing these kids, but that is part of what made him so great – he’d do anything for money. I don’t know if that quite makes him a psycho, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’d take you out without thinking twice.
Thanks for reading!
