Teen Titans #4

Hooray for a sports comic. Teen Titans #4 was part of the July-August release in 1966. It was titled “The Secret Olympic Heroes.”

Davey Bradley, America’s Hope for running in the Olympics runs right out of the stadium while he’s practicing and vanishes. The titans read about it in the newspaper and are called to go find him. While they accept, they get an alarm that someone is entering their secret base. It turns out to be Speedy who is performing in the Olympics as well with an archery trick. He tells them an organization bent on hate and distrust want to destroy the Olympics, which the Titans must also be on the lookout for while looking for Davey.

The story is basically a rehash of plots that have been shown dozens and dozens of times on television, but never in comics. It’s the “my parent wants me to do something because it’s their dream, but it’s not mine” tale. And Davey does end up finishing and telling his father. But it’s after he just interjects himself in the race. Sure, the hero or sidekick will often come back at the last minute in comics, but it’s never a bystander who just happens to win a race.

The pacing is also incredibly slow. Even with so much happening, it just seems to trod on and on.

On the other hand, the cover looks pretty interesting, with Speedy performing or practicing his arrow trick while the Titans are tied to the Olympic rings. It really gives one a sense of wanting to find out just what happens in this comic along with a desire to see Green Arrow’s ward.

Teen Titans #4 – “The Secret Olympic Heroes” – 25

Superman #1

Superman got his own self-titled book in June of 1939, a couple months over a year after the character debuted. And while the comic features five stories, it doesn’t have very much originality.

The comic features five stories: “Clark Kent Gets a Job,” The Coming of Superman,” Revolution in San Monte,” “The Blakely Mine Disaster,” and Superman, Gridiron Hero.” All of these are reprints of stories featured in the first few issues of Action Comics. However, the first story actually has a few new pages.

The cover is… also kind of bland, with Superman leaping up and looking down with text boxes proclaiming full color exploits of Superman. The Action Comics #1 cover was better in every possible way.

The only aspect of the stories comic worth mentioning is the few original pages that added to the story found in Action Comics #1. And it’s pretty interesting in that it showed that Clark has used his persona as Superman to aide in his reporting since the beginning, including getting a story that got him his job at the Daily Star. (Before it became the Daily Planet). It’s also a good tie in to where the original comic opened.

This comic really should have been full of new stories rather than just a compilation of stories that had already been published.

DC Comics: resisting writing new material and figuring out ways to soak everyone’s money since 1939.

Superman #1 – 3/5

Action Comics #1

Backing up just a little bit more to the very beginning of the Golden Age. Before Batman lurched into the darkness, Superman lifted a car above his head. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the hero was based off mythical heroes and made to fight for justice and against tyranny. His first appearance would be in Action Comics #1 and would be the spark that launched the Golden Age of Comics.

After spending a page on Superman’s origins and his powers, the story immediately shows Superman in action. He busts into the governor’s mansion in order to bring news of the innocence of someone sentenced to death. Following, there’s a few more introductory stories of his exploits.

This might be one of the most iconic covers in comic book history, with Superman lifting a car above his head and smashing it. But that’s not the reason it’s a great cover. What it does in one image is show that Superman isn’t like anything comic book readers of the time have seen before. Previously, they’d only seen either one panel joke covers or an entire strip on the cover.

There isn’t really much characterization though, but it does do well in juxtaposing the spineless cowardice of Clark Kent and the bravado and boldness of his alter ego. Other than that, there’s not much to Lois or the editor in chief of the Daily Star (precursor to the Planet).

As for the story, there’s multiple and the final one is a “to be continued one.” But where it falls short in length, it makes up for it in that the amount given shows that Superman really is in a never ending quest to bring criminals to justice.

Action Comics #1 – 3/5

Teen Titans #2

The second Teen Titans comic was released in March/April of 1996 with a story called “The Million Year Old Teenager.”

The Titans are hanging out in their brand new secret meeting place when they get a call on their ham radio. The caller explains about Garn, an extremely odd kid that just appeared one day, speaking very broken English. But one night, a mysterious giant appeared and destroyed a car, which caused the entire city to hunt it down. They find Garn, believe he’s connected and no one trusts him now. So the caller asks for the Titans’ help and they agree.

This comic isn’t that bad.

The cover is really good, with the team hanging on to each other, a branch and the giant Akkuru over a chasm. The only real gripe with it is that the exact same image appears in the comic itself, which usually doesn’t happen. Comic covers usually have an image that alludes and is similar to the story. Still doesn’t mean it’s a bad cover though.

Characterization in here is good too, with Robin having the brains to have a radio interception watch. But Wonder Girl is a bit strange, forgiving Robin for being a killjoy because he’s cute and telling the team that girls like being followed. Which they don’t. As for the story, it has the worst idea of preservation, with a method that would have actually fossilized them. And Wonder Girl having strong hair is just lazy writing. If she’s super strong and can fly, she could fly straight at Akkuru, pumch him to make him let go and fly everyone away.

Still though, good comic

Teen Titans #2: “The Million Year Old Teenager” – 3/5