Brave and the Bold #54

Before we even begin with actual Teen Titans comics, we have to start off where they began. Our first comic comes straight out of the Silver Age, with a story in Brave and the Bold #54 from 1964 called “The Thousand and One Dooms of Mr. Twister.”

In the small, unknown town of Hatton Corners, there’s a rift between the adults who want to impose a curfew and the kids who want the adults to build them a new clubhouse. Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad have been invited to plead the teens’ case, but when they get there, they find a destroyed clubhouse and missing kids. The adults initially brush it off, but when Mr. Twister, rides up on a tornado the adults realize he has taken the kids in order to settle a decades old debt. The three heroes must then find where Mr. Twister took the kids, defeat him and his weather warping staff and return the kids to Hatton Corners.

It’s an interesting comic. And since I’ve got an archived edition, I have to assume the art was restored to give it the bright bouncy look it would have when it came out. This really helps the cover pop too, showing Mr. Twister carrying the limp bodies of Aqualad and Kid Flash with fire raining down. It sets up for an interesting read.

The story itself is pretty odd, with Mr. Twister trying to collect a debt that involved Passenger Pigeon feathers. Even in the Silver age of the DC Universe, Passenger Pigeons died out in 1913. This means the villain is asking for something that cannot even theoretically be done in 1965. Villains are crazy and insane yes, that’s what makes the Joker a great villain. But this would be stupid even for him. One cannot collect feathers of birds that haven’t been around for 52 years. But despite that, the comic played well with the idea of not really realizing what you had until it was taken away. The adults didn’t like how the kids made life hard for them, but once the town became devoid of kids, they began to appreciate them. The kids didn’t like how the adults were looking down on them, but once they were made to labor on a tower, they appreciated them as well.

The characters personalities also bounce off each other really well, especially between Kid Flash and Aqualad.

As a whole, the story is quite decent, with good personalities and a fun yet odd story.

Brave and the Bold #65: “The Thousand and One Dooms of Mr. Twister” – 3/5