On July 7, 1980, DC Comics Presents–a mediocre book, largely produced by old-timers who had done great work but were past their prime (Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Martin Pasko, Don Heck) and other supertalents who were peaking in the early 1980s (Curt Swan, Jim Starlin, Len Wein), included a 16-page insert.
But unlike the passable, “don’t matter” team-ups that graced the main pages of the title, this insert was created by an artistic legend, George Perez, who some (me, mostly) say has been even more important to comic books than Jack Kirby, with a writer who had been Marvel’s Editor in Chief (for a brief time) during the 1970s and had written many of Marvel’s most important books (and created characters like The Black Cat and Bullseye). These were two titans of the industry.
The insert was mind-blowing. There were some characters we’d never seen before, and others we’d never seen in that way.
The original Teen Titans were a golden age amalgam of silly sidekicks, teen characters who to that point really didn’t matter unless they were in a book with the JLA, Batman, etc. These Titans were very, very different.
The book would go on to be DC’s best-seller. It was created as an “answer” to Chris Claremont’s X-Men, and ended up, month-to-month, being as-good or better than the Marvel title.
In fact, The New Teen Titans #18 was the first comic I bought that, immediately after, inspired me to race to Forbidden Planet in the village and spend real money on all the back issues. (I never got #2, it always eluded me.)
The New Teen Titans would later return the favor by allowing Captain Carrot to grace their cover and center.
Here they are, breaking the fourth wall….
Don’t sell the Original Teen Titans short. They were cool for their time. Even though I always pulled for Aqualad, the underdog of the team, simply because he was trying to keep up with powerhouses Kid Flash and Wonder Girl while out of his element of functionality, even in those days, Kid Flash distinguished himself early on as the team’s Most Valuable Player, a distinguishment he maintained across all further iterations of the team. So much so, in fact, that author Marv Wolfman wrote him out of the series in 1983 and 1984, simply because he was……….well………..running rings around the rest of the team! I was never impressed with the “All-New, All-Different, All-Politically Correct Titans” mainly due to their collective lack of originality. Starfire is a very-thinly disguised retread of the Phoenix, Cyborg is an undisguised retread of Deathlok the Demolisher, ( where were the attorneys???? ) BeastBoy/Changeling is so ridiculously stupid I don’t even want to acknowledge him, and there’s nothing new about Raven or what she does, although I do believe that Wolfman dropped the ball with her by failing to establish some kind of familial/mystical connection with the JLA’s Phantom Stranger, in keeping with the original team’s “proteges of the JLA” formula. ( that would have been a nice touch, and a nice nod to us fans of the original team ) Finally- I agree with Mr. Ekko’s assertion that 99% of the stories written and published in ‘DC Comics Presents’ are forgettable, non-memorable filler material, ( I can’t remember ANY of them ) but this particular issue ( #26 ) is actually memorable for not only just being the first appearance of the New Teen Titans, but also for it’s lead feature starring Superman and Green Lantern, which I found to be a very memorable adventure! It was certainly drawn well, by that Darlin’ Jim Starlin, I believe. A very-well drawn story featuring a contrived battle between the Man of Steel and a possessed Emerald Warrior, it delivered one of the biggest gaffes in logic ever to be committed by the Metropolis Marvel: In the heat of battle with GL, Supes has the following most-erroneous thought- “I’ve got to STOP him!! That ring has the power to snuff out the Sun!!” Well- WRONG. On TWO points: 1) There is only one thing in the entire universe that can resist the power of a Green Lantern’s power ring: The color YELLOW. What color is our Sun?? Thaaaaaat’s right. 2) As many times as the pre-crisis Superman visited the Sun ( for various reasons ) he, of all people, should be aware that, even if the Sun were blue or green or any other color ( besides yellow, of course ) a Green Lantern power ring would be about as effective in “snuffing it out” as a thirty-nine cent water-pistol!! Doesn’t Superman realize how BIG the Sun is-??? Size matters!!!! I honestly don’t believe the combined power rings of all 3600 Green Lanterns could snuff out a star the size of ours, even if it WEREN’T yellow!!!! You know what would happen if any Green Lantern got even within a million miles of our Sun, even WITH a fully-functioning power ring to protect them-??? That’s right!! Instant evaporation!!! Our Sun is fucking HOT, even from 93 million miles away!!! I can’t believe Superman had that dumb thought, I can’t believe the writer wrote it, and I can’t believe the editorship failed to catch it!!! Other than THAT little irritating detail, however, it was fun watching Superman and even a possessed Green Lantern test their powers against one another. Across the mid-late Seventies, these two guys were being featured on ABC’s “Superfriends” show pretty prominently, leaving it’s viewership wondering just how these two particular Superfriends would fare against each other in a fair fight. DC Comics Presents#26 went a long way to shedding some light on the matter. I thought it was a great, very memorable story, ( Superman’s lapse of logic notwithstanding ) and between it, and the “New Teen Titans ” insert, this issue ranks a solid “A”!!! Great Galaxies/Guardians/Krypton!!