Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
Another DC series which seems to have lost its way over the ensuing
years
between the Silver Age and now is THE TEEN TITANS
-- the company's other "young super-heroes" riff, and (for the greater
part of its various incarnations) a worthy companion to the more creatively
successful LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES.
The basic premise was just about as simple as simple gets: take the odd
and (to that point) underutilized assortment of "kid sidekick" characters languishing
to various extents within the DC universe; band them together, in conscious
similarity to the "Justice League" of their respective
adult mentors... and: voila! Instant Comics Franchise.
Revolving around
a "core" membership of Robin; Kid Flash; Wonder Girl; Aqualad; and Speedy (Green
Arrow's kid partner), the stories in TEEN TITANS were -- initially, at least
-- giddy, all-but- incomprehensible messes, due to the apparent belief by DC's
writers (at the time, nearly all of them being well past middle age) that teenagers
actually spoke in some sort of oddling patois not unlike that utilized
by "Maynard G. Krebbs," of television's THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS infamy.Sanity
(of a relative stripe) quickly asserted itself, however, once a sufficiency
of the readership had sent in blistering letters of complaint to the effect
that the end result read like something out of a bowl of alphabet soup.
The offending faux jargon was, mercifully, retired, and the series quickly
took on its own unique "flavor," the resultant stories becoming somewhat "moodier"
and more characterization-oriented than those of the young team's better-known
adult counterparts.
Too: the TITANS series was quicker to address such burning "headline" issues
of the day as racial intolerance; drug abuse; and the (primarily) youth-oriented
"protest movement" than were its adult analogues... and if such stories
occasionally careened over the dividing line between storytelling proper
and Stern Lecture, they nonetheless were well-intentioned, and frequently
handled with something close to ingenuity.
One of the most appealing aspects of those early issues, however, was the careful and draughtsman-like artwork provided by penciling maestro Nick Cardy. His figures and layouts were, unfailingly, as intelligent in conceptualization as they were (ultimately) appealing in execution, and lent the series a distinctive artistic cachet which further served to distinguish from its multitude of fellows on the "spinner racks" (those once-ubiquitous wire-mesh affairs which would revolve to display comics in neat, vertical rows, in drugstores and supermarkets the nation wide) of the day.
As the series progressed, during its initial "run" (there were several incarnations of the TEEN TITANS series, throughout the ensuing decades; the franchise has proven a durable one), the stories became increasingly "darker"... but (thankfully) without losing its "flip" sense of the ridiculous and trademarked tongue-in-cheek humor, in so doing. (This would become something more of a problem, as it turned out, for Marvel's own "teen" title, THE X-MEN, later on... but we haven't yet reached that point in our narrative. Soon, though.)
Unfortunately, changing tastes in the (even then) greying comics fandom of the period -- who, increasingly, seemed to prefer tthe sort of "serious" low-grade soap opera histrionics on display in other, less studiedly optimistic titles -- were, even then, beginning to sound tthe death-knell for this charming and innovative series.
An interesting dual addition to the team's roster was the brother combo, "the Hawk" and "the Dove."
Hank Hall was a loud, smug and overly-testosteroned "Type A" personality, with political leanings somewhere just to the right of Herman Goerring. His brother -- the shy, book-ish Don -- was an idealistic naïf; a complete and committed pacifist. The two of them could barely tolerate the notion of sharing the same state lines, much less the same family tree.
The two were granted enhanced strength, agility and endurance by a mysterious
disembodied "voice" while being held captive by gangsters seeking revenge upon
their jurist father. Taking on the names of their respective emotional
and ideological "types"... the Hawk and Dove
were soon bickering and spluttering their distinctive joint way through a series
of adventures (written by Steve Skeates) which were every bit as intriguing
as their series itself was (unfortunately) short-lived.
If -- as the current
comics "fanboy" wisdom holds -- weare
being graced with storytelling fare of immeasurably greater pith and measure
than these earlier tales, here represented (a somewhat debatable and -- within
the current readership, at least -- hotly-debated proposition), then these precursors
to same merit our fond reverie and regard no less for all of that. One
needn't spit upon the parent, after all... even if one's (putative) intent is
to honor the child, in so doing.
As to the aforementioned X-MEN (ricochetting our way back towards Marvel Comics once more, for our Final Round)... the Silver Age was feast and famine both, in roughly equal measure.
The basepremise was a fascinating one: "What if a new 'generation' of teenaged homo superior (read: mutants) was coming into existence, all but unsuspected by the world at large... and one far-sighted adult -- a mutant himself -- were to dedicate his life towards shepherding and training same...?"
The answer to said question was Marvel's X-MEN: a series which, in its earliest days, was the equal of any put out by either of the two comics-publishing colossi of the day.
The initial team roster was comprised of: Cyclops, whose devasting "optic blasts" required him to wear a specially-crafted visor at all times, lest he accidentally annihilate his own teammates; the Angel, a devil-may-care scion of the rich who sported alternately reveled in and despised the gargantuan wings sprouting from his back; the Beast, whose apish physique belied the restless and inquisitive intellect incongruously housed within; Iceman, the younget member of the team, who was given to juvenile antics and wisecracks;and Marvel Girl, a seductive redheaded telekinetic and telepath.
Under the ever-watchful eye of the stern, wheelchair-bound "Professor X," these five selfless teens dutifully trained themselves for the day when they would be able to take their rightful places within the greater spandexed community as a whole... or else protect themselves (and others like them) from the seemingly inevitable anti-mutant pogroms of the future. Whichever came first.
They were most often thwarted in either regard by the concomitant existence of a plethora of self-styled "evil mutants," such as Magneto ("the Master of Magnetism"); Professor X's own brutish and super-powerful half-brother, the Juggernaut; and the mutant-hating robot huntsmen known as the Sentinels, among others.
The undeniable appeal of those early, most effective issues of X-MEN lay, in chief measure, in the cheery allegiance and mutual support with which the five teens sheltered one another from the ongoing vicissitudes that were their daily portion, being members of such a despised (within the larger Marvel universe) "minority" as was mutant-kind. Like DC's aforementioned Legion of Super-Heroes, the underlying subtext was: We Shall Persevere.
(The chief difference between the two, however -- and one which helps to explain, in part, why DC's current LSH series is still a thumping good read, while the modern-day X-MEN is One Dull and Unfathomable Mess -- is: in the case of the former, said "subtext" never superceded the dictates of telling a good story. Over in Marvel's "X"-centered corner of the universe, on the other hand... the drumbeat of perpetual gloom, misery and Geez-It-Stinks-Having-Super-Powers has become the character cliche tail which wags the storytelling dog.)
As the series became relentlessly grimmer and less optimistic in its approach and execution, its sales began to flag... and,eventually, to sink below the point where Marvel could justify its continued publication to the accountants upstairs. While a revitalized version of the series enjoyed an (it must be confessed) spectacular vogue of sales success once again in the late 70's -- and, indeed, throughout the 80's entire -- by taking the concept of anti-mutant Sturm und Drang to heights which are, alternately, breathtaking and patently absurd (often within the very same storyline... or even the very same panels)... the franchise has, of late, begun to falter noticeably once again in the twin arenas of Sales and Fan Sentiment. Marvel's response, inexplicably, has been to make the series even darker and more nightmarish in outlook, with the addition of such patently unadmirable characters as "Marrow" (a psychopathic young woman whose "super-power" is the ability to pluck out her own bones and use them as edged weaponry in killing attacks[!!]).
With such "help" as this coming from the quarters of the team's greatest boosters -- i.e., their own publisher -- oone may be pardoned, surely, for holding to the notion that Magneto and the Juggernaut might just as well sit back; prop their feet up; and wait for events to take their natural course.
OTHER CLASSIC DC/MARVEL HEROES of the Silver Age
PAGE ONE (Superman, Superboy and the Legion
of Super-Heroes)
PAGE FIVE (More On THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES)
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