The dual dynamics of the Dynamic Duo

You know, after I had spent so much time on my last entry about JUNGE GIGANTEN - and fellow blogger Terry Hooper did such a nice plug for it - I was tempted to leave it on the top of my blog for a few weeks.

But I have a few things to add to the subject, or rather further elaborate on it, and since it will be the Fourth of July Tomorrow I guess my american readers might be looking for something new to read.

Fine, in our last post I had covered my first encounters with the Teen Titans through the german JUNGE GIGANTEN editions, how difficult it is to collect the american editions and the various incarnations of the book and the various teams but I guess we kind of stopped before we could get to the most important part - namely why the run by Marv Wolfman and George Perez is considered such a classic run by most comic readers.

TALKING ABOUT MY GENERATION

We already established that the Teen Titans started out when the teen sidekicks of Batman, Flash and Aquaman decided to start their own little club, to be joined later by Wonder Girl and Speedy who replaced Aqualad.

And while they all had adventures of their own, they were pretty much still under the shadow of their mentors. The first incarnations of the team pretty much focused on topics that the people at DC thought would appeal to younger readers such as racial tensions and the protests against the Vietnam War and when the characters reached their early 20s the team simply disbanded - probably because DC felt that young readers could no longer identify with them. Now this may be true or not, but the point is moot anyway since the book had it´s highest success when Marv Wolfman decided to bring back the team with a focus on the young adult heroes and their struggle for independence and acceptance. A story element that was introduced in the YOUNG JUSTICE tv show from the get - go.

Now don´t get me wrong, THE NEW TEEN TITANS also had epic superhero battles, which were wonderfully rendered by George Perez who initially didn´t think the book would last longer than six issues.

But the parts were it really did shine were the small character moments where Marv Wolfman would flesh out the problems, hang ups and angst of those young heroes on their way to adulthood so incredibly believable. Okay, some of it may seem stiff and overladen by Todays standards but back in the time you didn´t see this kind of writing in other books and you definitely did not see it in Marvel´s top selling UNCANNY X - Men book. At least not with characters that were so young which is one of the main reasons why Teen Titans took the top spot in the reader´s favor.

Young readers - and I was one of them following their exploits in Junge Giganten - could identify with their fights and struggles to be accepted as heroes in their own rights by the law enforcement as well as their older superhero contemporaries and mentors. Especially Dick Grayson, who started as Robin on the team, has a really interesting story arc in the series, depicting his long journey to emancipation that starts with opposing views with his mentor, a break up of the longstanding Dynamic Duo and which ends with him forging his own identity under the name of Nightwing. It´s a perfect example of how the members of Teen Titans were allowed to grow and get older which in the case of Robin lead to one of the big paradoxes in modern comic continuity : namely that Batman doesn´t age above the age of 30 but Robin does. That´s right, back in the Silver Age the writers had no problems making Batman old with many comics depicting the adventures of Dick Grayson as the new Batman.

I know some of these stories were just imaginary stories, some were hoaxes and others took place on alternate earths but back in the day there were some really weird stories involving Robin who was often used in his primary function : as a bullet trap or sacrificial lamb.

HONEY, I KILLED THE ROBIN !

Now some people may not see it this way, but there was a reason why Robin was wearing bright colors while Batman was dressed in black and grey : Robin´s main purpose was to draw enemy fire away from Batman.

And judging from many covers of the time the writers treated the character accordingly with stories that had Robin dying or at least emphasizing that the position as Robin was a temporary one at best. There were a lot of stories with Batman holding Robin try - outs, or the partnership of Batman and Robin breaking up for various reasons ( most often than not involving a woman ) the most severe of them the demise of one of them. Todays focus is on Robin but there also were a lot of stories in which Batman died, was killed or committed suicide.

Todays readers may think that stories like BATMAN R. I. P., A DEATH IN THE FAMILY or the recent story involving the son of Batman are new and unique but all of these stories - and many more - have been around before. Especially the death of Robin ( which was just recently rehashed way too soon in the NEW 52 ) is kind of an ongoing theme throughout the various decades up to the point where it´s getting repetitious. 

For the longest time it seemed that Robin was only included in stories as part of the " Batman and " equation to do the work Batman couldn´t be bothered with or to take on the role as damsel in distress or at least the weaker link of the team that had to be rescued.

Characterization only happened when necessary for the story and when it wasn´t convenient anymore retconned or outright ignored. The thought of Robin becoming his own entity wasn´t really entertained until he became the leader of the reformed Teen Titans under Marv Wolfman.It´s true that the seeds of this had been planted before as you see Dick Grayson going on solo missions more and more and starting to disagree with Batman on crime fighting methods. He´s no longer content with just following orders which ultimately leads to a split which happened in two versions.

In Pre - Crisis continuity Dick and Bruce part entirely amicable and Dick passes the mantle of Robin voluntarily to Jason Todd while Bruce gives every impression to be pleased with his ward´s coming of age. Before CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS the second Robin was just a copy of the original one with a similar origin story although his parents were killed by Killer Croc. After Crisis he got one of the most stupid origin stories where he was a street kid and orphan who got adopted by Batman when he tried to steal the Batmobile´s hub caps. Which kind of makes sense if you apply the logic of Batman using Robin as a distraction : " Wow, look at that stupid kid. I bet he´ll make an excellent bullet trap ! " 

This also changed the seperation of Batman and Robin as in the Post - Crisis stories Batman was less pleased with Dick´s growing indepenency, going to such lengths as informing him that if he doesn´t want to be his partner on Bruce conditions anymore he has to retire as Robin.

Which leads to a few awkward moments when reading the Teen Titans in regards to the relationship of Batman and Robin if you don´t know.

In the crossover between THE NEW TEEN TITANS 37 and BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS 5 ( I actually bought the second part of this crossover three times : once in the german version and twice in the original version ) Batman is starting to treat Robin like a sidekick again until Robin pulls rank because he knows more about teamwork. At the end of the issue they both shake hands and congratulate each other.

In issue 39 of THE NEW TEEN TITANS Dick announces that he quits the Robin identity because he´s not Batman´s partner anymore but there is no mention of a new Robin or to his identity. As far as I could ascertain from the internet Marv Wolfman wanted to evolve Dick Grayson while the writers of BATMAN wanted to keep using Robin so Gerry Conway and Don Newton created Jason Todd who was headed in that direction even if it wasn´t set in stone exactly how that happened. Fact is that when it finally did he was changed after CRISIS into such an unsympathetic, hated and alienating character for the readers that they decided to kill him in one of DC´s biggest publicity stunts ever. And though this particular death still haunts Batman to this day it didn´t last forever.

As to the repercussions of it, it was addressed in the parts that crossed over in the A LONELY PLACE OF DYING story ( the BATMAN issues of this crossover are not included in the third volume of the TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS 3, but we will get to that later on ) and earlier in issue 55 when Robin goes to talk with Batman at the batcave and Bruce decides that after the death of Jason he will become a solo act. 

Of course the whole Robin thing started to deteriorate when Dick Grayson became Nightwing, Tim Drake became Robin and later on Red Robin, Jason Todd came back from the dead to take up the mantle of Red Hood and Damian became the latest Robin, who just got offed in the NEW 52.

Not to mention that Dick Grayson became Batman when Bruce Wayne was killed by Darkseid and teamed up with Damian as Robin. Or - which in my opinion was the shortest and most illfated tenure as Robin - when Stephanie Brown took up the mantle and soon afterwards got herself killed only to be retconned back to life later on. And it really wasn´t so much her becoming the new Robin but rather Batman drafting her into this position when Tim Drake wasn´t willing to play ball anymore.

The whole absurdity of Robin suddenly being a girl while Batman pretended it had always been this way must have somehow eluded the creative people at DC because I really have no other explanation for it. The only thing I liked about the whole trainwreck was the issue of the restarted TEEN TITANS in which Superboy told her that she wasn´t the real Robin, only a girl wearing his clothes.

" You are not welcome at Titans Tower! We already have a Robin! "

For those of my readers trying to keep tabs ( and I´m having a hard time with it here myself ) Stephanie Brown was formerly the costumed character Spoiler who´s main hang ups was to screw up the crimes of her father, the villain Cluemaster and dating Tim Drake when he was Robin.

She also took on the identity of Batgirl after she had proven she pretty much sucked at being Robin - by instigating a gang war that totally got out of control in an attempt to..well, basically suck up to Batman.

THE ROBIN THAT WOULDN`T STAY DEAD

Going over all these incarnations of Robin you can´t help but notice that none of the people who became Batman´s sidekick managed to stay dead.

Stephanie Brown was resurrected and became Batgirl. Jason Todd was resurrected and became the Red Hood. And while Dick Grayson didn´t die as Robin he was fated to die during INFINITE CRISIS, a decision on which DC backpaddled due in a large part to the avid female fanbase that controls Nightwing´s destiny in secret. I really don´t know what it is but Robin does seem to have a habit of returning from the grave. Which leads to another big dilemmas of Batman lore : with so many Robins coming back from the dead Batman´s status as a loner is seriously diminished. I mean, it´s only natural that when they keep dying and Batman keeps on taking new sidekicks under his wing who also keep dying and subsequently coming back at one point in time there will be an army of Robins and former Robins to dwarf the membership of the Legion of Super - Heroes.

Which would be a really great story if it was written by Grant Morrison.

So, in closing and making the segueway back to Teen Titans, here the characters really developed and were fleshed out. It´s true that in some cases it was really convoluted as the example of Robin shows.

But that was something all the characters had in common. They all had a shared history that made them more like a family than a team going through all the ups and downs in life. Like with Wonder Girl who first was introduced as Wonder Woman´s sister only to be retconned again and again with each new origin story becoming more ludacris than the one before until it became as confusing as Power Girl´s. Even some of the newer members like Beast Boy, who was rejected earlier on because he was too young to join, had some backstory with the Doom Patrol that was interesting to discover for the readers. Which was something he had in common with the new additions Cyborg, Raven and Starfire. You really didn´t know anything about them and in some cases you were learning about them at the same pace as the other team members.

What´s more, they became such an intrinsic part of the team over the years that I have trouble with a Teen Titans team that doesn´t include Cyborg. It just feels all kind of wrong having him on JUSTICE LEAGUE because he really doesn´t belong there. And the same goes for Starfire on RED HOOPD AND THE OUTLAWS. Not to mention how horrible she´s written now. I mean, she was always depicted as a liberated and openly sexual active character but in a way that was consistent with her as a three dimensional character. Yes, she was shown in bed with Dick Grayson in the first Baxter issue but not in a gratuitous way and they had been a couple for quite some time. She wasn´t written like male wish fulfillment.

But I already wrote about this when the NEW 52 started and it´s time to wrap things up for Today anyway. It´s my free day but instead of sleeping the sleep of the just my nose is running all the time because it rained so much Yesterday. It did however prompt me to use the opportunity and write this since I wasn´t getting any sleep whatsoever. Ah, the internet would be such a bleak place without all the insomniacs.

So, we covered a little bit of ground in regards to the Teen Titans although most of the post was about Batman and Robin and the weirder aspects of the Dynamic Duo. Sorry, it all got a little away from me there and I totally blame it on my fever induced headache. As usual, here are a few websites without whom I couldn´t have done this post, to which I want to give a shout - out, indispensable all. First of all, if you want to know more about the Teen Titans head over to the Teen Titans megasite Titanstower , especially the library where you can find all kinds of articles and exclusive content in their New Teen Titans archive especially about the Titans Hunt Era . Also use the Teen Titans on DC wiki for further info.

Once again we didn´t get to discuss the TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS so we´ll come to that part in one of our next posts - unless DC decides to revamp another old story and really make Batman younger than Robin.

   
Likewise I don´t have a Titans related video in this post. Instead here is the trailer for the new animated Avengers series AVENGERS ASSEMBLE which, in my opinion, shows pretty well which why EARTH`S MIGHTIEST HEROES was such a good show and at the same time exemplifies the problems I have with the new Avengers comic.

Which is that there is too much meddling by the corporate guys. I don´t know if it´s true that they want to get rid of the pesky comic guys because they believe they know better how to handle the franchise. The fact is it falls flat the same way the comic doesn´t deliver anymore : you know it´s supposed to be epic but it just doesn´t hit the necessary bases. Like if you have to explain a joke or when you announce that something is cool. Like a tiny guy once said : Do or do not. There is no try.



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Remember the Titans - extended version

I know that you expected to find the post about NEMI next but the past few days other things have been on my mind and I have learned that it´s futile to try to write about other things when outside forces point you in a certain direction. And with certain direction I mean the Teen Titans or like I knew them during my childhood : Junge Giganten.

Now the reason for that are twofold : the first being that I finally got volumes two and three of the NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS and the second that I found some issues of the Teen Titans in one of my brother´s comicboxes that are scattered throughout the house right now.

I know I shouldn´t waste so much time and energy bringing order to my brother´s comic collection when it would be much better applied to my own comic collectabilia but I just can´t help it. Now I don´t know if I have mentioned it before ( and if it must have been in one of my earliest posts so I´m not sure if anybody but my most faithful readers know it ) but my brother has always been a practicer of the old pile file system. And with that I mean he puts all his comics on huge piles, first on his table, when the table is full on the space surrounding the table and lastly all over the floor and on every empty surface. When the room is finally full with piles and there is no room to walk the comics are thrown into boxes and that´s that. And when I say thrown I´m not talking about putting them in order according to the series or any of that fancy stuff. No, since the piles accumulate over months they are usually unsorted and just the new comics that he receives each month on top of the ones from last month.

Which would be a tolerable system if there weren´t the piles of unread comics here and there and which land atop of the other comics when they are finally read ( sometimes years after the series has ended ) or the piles which fall down and are assembled in no particular order. And I´m not even talking about the instances when my mother wasn´t in his room to clean and didn´t just cram all the comics she could find into boxes. So whenever I have the chance to delve into his comic collection without having to jump into a huge comic pile I take it.

Okay, here comes a small confession : one of my pet peeves is putting comics in order. There is a little bit of Monk in me that just can´t stand it if comics are just thrown around in piles and all over a table. And it´s not just that I want to read them and it´s difficult if they are not in order.

No, even when I have no intention of reading them I still have this urge to put them right. So Yesterday as I had nothing more important to do I sorted through all the comics that were in this blue comic box and some of them were issues of the various TEEN TITANS books ( we´ll come to that in a moment ). My, you should have seen the delight on my other brother´s face when he came home from work Yesterday and found all the comics scattered all over the sofa. But anyway, I spent most of Today reading some of the issues from my brothers collection because I still have some gaps in my own collection.I thought that by getting the omnibus hardcovers I could finally read them all in order but thanks to DC´s weird selection for those collections that ship seems to have sailed.

COLLECTING THE TITANS - A SISYPHEAN CHALLENGE

Now for those readers who are not so versed in the pitfalls of comic collecting I should explain why it´s so difficult with the TEEN TITANS.

I mean, most comics have various incarnations - which we card carrying comic freakis call volumes - which start with a new number 1 in most cases but with the TEEN TITANS most of these volumes start under a different title. And then there are the Baxter issues. I already explained the whole deal with the Baxter issues in this post but for all those who are too lazy to go back to the old post here comes the short version.

In 1985 DC offered deluxe editions of their six bestselling titles : INFINITY INC, LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES, THE NEW TEEN TITANS, THE OMEGA MEN, THE OUTSIDERS and VIGILANTE. Not only were these series printed on high quality paper ( the so - called baxter paper ) which made the colors look better but instead of the usual 23 pages of comic they offered 28 pages. Most comics were printed on cheap, low quality paper although there were some limited series and reprint titles that also got the Baxter treatment. Beside the fact that the price of the Baxter issues were twice the regular price - 75 cents - they could only be found in comic stores.

To someone reading comics right now this may not sound like a big deal but back then it sure was since deluxe editions were not as common and the Baxter issues sure had some nifty bonus stuff. Another reason why the Baxter issues are so special is just becoming apparent now to all comic readers who happen to have such issues in their collection, especially in those that are not available as a reprint : the apparent absence of decay. Every collector of american comics is faced sooner or later with the problem that no matter how carefully he keeps his comics over the years they begin to deteriorate until it is almost impossible to read them. Which is doubly painful when it´s one of your favorite series.

When the Baxter issues hit the comic market the book was " split into two " with the inexpensive version called TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS and the deluxe edition, which started with a new number 1 under the name THE NEW TEEN TITANS and later changed it to THE NEW TITANS. The cheaper TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS continued for a while with new issues but later on started reprinting the Baxter issues until it was canceled in favor of the deluxe series.

So now you have two series with three different titles and different numbering. As an example : issue 87 of TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS is the same as issue 27 of THE NEW TEEN TITANS but issue 42 of TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS is the continuation of  the regular series. And to make matters worse, there is also TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT which features solo stories of Titan members or affilates or even enemies which sometimes are an important part of the story.

So the publishing timeline is issue 1 to 40 of THE NEW TEEN TITANS, then issue 41 to 58 of TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS. Issue 59 of TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS is a reprint of DC COMICS PRESENTS 26, which was the first appearance of the new team. Now the book splits into two formats, with the cheaper one continuing on to issue 91 and the more expensive one going from issue 1 ( which has the same content as issue 61 of the cheaper version ) to 31. Here the cheaper TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS is cancelled so you have to continue with issue 32 of THE NEW TEEN TITANS. And that book goes on until issue 49 under the old title and changes into THE NEW TITANS with issue 50. It´s all rather simple.

Now from a logic standpoint it´s easy to see which way is the best to take since the Baxter issues are the more robust and if you don´t want to invest too much in the hardcover omnibus - or can´t get them cheap from amazon as I did - it´s a good idea. But you can´t always find the Baxter issues and some collectors might prefer the cheaper versions or want to get both versions because some of them have really great covers by people who don´t make that many covers anymore like this wonderful Starfire cover by Brian Bollard.

Now you might ask, what if somebody doesn´t want to buy back issues ? For the longest time there was no other way to read the classic issues because the only trade that was available was THE JUDAS CONTRACT which contains New Teen Titans 39 - 40, Tales of the Teen Titans 41 - 44 and New Teen Titans annual 3.

It´s without a doubt the best story of the legendary Marv Wolfman / George Perez run and one of the first trades I ever possessed but apart from that you had to get the back issues if you didn´t want to buy the expensive archive editions which were at 50 bucks each. Later on DC released the trades TERRA INCOGNITO which contains New Teen Titans 28 - 34 and New Teen Titans annual 2 and THE TERROR OF TRIGON which contains Tales of the Teen Titans 60 - 64 of issue 1 - 5 of the new Baxter series. There is also the WHO IS DONNA TROY trade that collects New Teen Titans 38, Tales of the Teen Titans 50, New Titans 50 - 55 and part of Teen titans / Outsiders Secret Files 1. Which might explain the strange selection for the DC OMNIBUS.

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE NEW TEEN TITANS

Okay, at this point some of my readers are probably going : What´s a Teen Titan and why are they new ? So I guess some explaining is in order. I think it all goes back to DC´s teen sidekicks and Robin.

In April of 1940 Batman´s sidekick Robin debuted in issue 38 of DETECTIVE COMICS to attract young readers to the title, which was a huge success since readership of the Batman family titles doubled.

 
Soon other series wanted to get in on that action so Flash got Kid Flash as his sidekick, Aquaman got Aqualad, Green Arrow got a sidekick in the form of Speedy ( which later got many drug related jokes because of the name and his bouts with drug abuse ) and Wonder Woman got Wonder Girl as her younger sister which later became one of the biggest retcon - continuity desasters because somebody read a story wrong. But let´s not open that particular can of worms unless there is a real reader demand.

Speaking of reader demand, while teen sidekicks were never a big thing at Marvel after what happened to Bucky, it was still very popular at DC so someone had the idea to get those teen sidekicks together first unofficially in 1964 as a " junior Justice League " in BRAVE AND THE BOLD 54 that featured Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad. Later on Wonder Girl joined, Speedy replaced Aqualad and they took on the name Teen Titans.

I never read the book so I can´t say why it only lasted 43 issues but I think the appeal for young readers would definitely be there. Especially if you don´t focus so much on the superhero missions and more on the part of teen sidekicks hanging out after a " hard day at work ", drinking root beer, listening to some bebop music and maybe trying to hit on Wonder Girl. Man, she was the only girl in that group. That´s something I would like to read if it would be anything like the stories Mike Allred did for his SOLO issue ( click here for an interview about the issue ). Now that would have been a groovy NEW 52 title.

Anyway, the Teen Titans that got me going were the third incarnation of the team that was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez in the 80s although it would take me a bit to get there.

Which brings us to the beginning of the post and Die Jungen Giganten. When Ehapa decided to publish Teen Titans in Germany the new series by Wolfman / Perez was already a hit and it would have made sense to either start with this brandnew series or go back to the first Nick Cardy series.

Well, if you know anything about the history of american comic publishing in Germany you know that it never made any sense, doesn´t make sense and never will make sense. So instead of going with either of the popular series Ehapa decided to start this new collection with a real stinker, namely the second Teen Titans series that started in November 1976 and continued the numbering from the first series. The team got new members like Mal ( finally I know where the black dude in the Young Justice show comes from ), Duela Dent, Bumblebee and even a whole new team as Beast Boy, Golden Eagle, Hawk, Dove, Lilith and Bat - Girl formed Teen Titans West. Now this Bat - Girl was not Barbara Gordon but Bette Kane, who was the niece of the Golden Age Batwoman ( yes, the one with the purse ) who later on simply vanished from the Teen Titans roster when Crisis on Infinite Earth wiped out the Betty Kane Batwoman.

Anyway, while the series brought many new members to the roster it only lasted 10 issues and only the gods know why Ehapa insisted on starting with material from the book. To add another wrinkle to it I´m not sure if they released it in chronological order since SUPERMAN PRÄSENTIERT JUNGE GIGANTEN SUPERALBUM 1 has the cover for issue 52 while the second installment sports the cover for issue 47 and contains issues 47, 48 and 49 ( I couldn´t find any info about the contents of album 1 ). 

In the third installment we finally get some Marv Wolfman / George Perez material, namely issues 3 and 4 of the NEW TEEN TITANS or better parts of it. Yes, the german reader gets thrown into the new team with just a short caption : " They banded together following the example of the Justice League. Today in a new lineup ! Tierboy ( BEAST BOY ), Cyborg, Blitzkid ( KID FLASH ), Rabe ( RAVEN ), Robin, Starfire and Wunderteen ( Wonder Girl ) they are - ( dramatic pause ) -  JUNGE GIGANTEN ! "

Boom ! There you have it : new lineup, no introductions, deal with it.

And as I said, the german version contained parts of it. As a german reader you had to get accustomed to some pages being left out to fit the german comic format and in album 3 page 13 of issue 3 was cut as well as the final page of issue 4. Now I don´t want to get into detail what was cut out, changed, miscolored, which swastikas got erased and which went overlooked because that could be a whole series of posts. For those who are interested and can read german you can find the horrendous details of JUNGE GIGANTEN 7 on this link by Ralf H. It´s the issue guest starring the Doom Patrol or like they were called in Germany Die Retter ( The Saviours ) which is a pretty loose translation to put it mildly.

Now you may ask yourself why I choose the title according to the movie DR. STRANGELOVE if the german issues were butchered in this fashion and I can tell you that in this instance ignorance was bliss. I didn´t know about the missing pages, the miscolouring or the butchered translation with Ehapa´s awful machine lettering without the original issues.
  

I mean, even if I would have had the original issues at that time I couldn´t have read them so I had to rely on the german versions anyway.

In any case, all I knew was that this was an exciting new series ( much better than the first two issues of Junge Giganten ) with gorgeous art by George Perez who I probably hadn´t seen that much of before. I know there was some Justice League / Justice Society crossover in a SUPERMAN TASCHENBUCH but I´m not sure if that was published before or after JUNGE GIGANTEN. And I also didn´t care to be thrown into it in the middle of the story. For one - again - I didn´t know, and second, back then you weren´t as fixated on linear storytelling as Todays readers.

I don´t want to repeat myself, but readers nowadays want to get in at the ground floor, they have to start with issue number 1 or they don´t start a new series at all and they want to be spoonfed with everything. Back when I started reading we couldn´t care less. For one, starting with issue 1 was near to impossible because all of the series were in the 100 or 200 issues. So you either started reading with issue 148 or you didn´t start at all. Second, some comics weren´t numbered continuously like in America but instead got numbered according to the year. For instance SUPERMAN / BATMAN issue 25 / 1977 or ROTER BLITZ 11 / 1979 and so on.

Another aspect was that - as with most of the Marvel books before they were published by Williams - german publishers often released the issues out of order skipping some issues as well as jumping forward and back.

On top of that even IF there would have been a new series that started with issue 1 and was published in chronological order you had no guarantee that you could get it at your local stationery shop which was the comic outlet of that time. If you had a stationery shop in your village.

Now I don´t want to make it sound that back then we comic readers were tougher ( that´s for the following generations to decide ) but you had to be more of a hunter. It´s nothing you chose but something you had to develop out of necessity. Reading comics and especially reading comics in Germany at that time was catch as catch can and you didn´t care about issue numbers, chronology or completeness of your collection. You just were happy if you got some good issues and for me reading comic series from issue 1 up to the following issues was always the exception. Even much later when I finally found some american issues of THE NEW TITANS during my military service in Munich it was with issue 56, right after the WHO IS WONDERGIRL ? storyline and right before the Wildbeast Hunt.

I just got all the issues I could get and started looking for previous issues later on. This then brought me to the JUDAS CONTRACT trade that would fill some gaps and I added some issues here and there over the years.

I also followed the book through the following volumes, even if sometimes it was pretty hard. Now some people may think it´s mainly nostalgia but there are just too many people out there who consider the run by Marv Wolfman and George Perez one of the best written and illustrated comics of all time so there might be something to it. I always said that you keep buying the same comics over and over again, in most cases comics that are special to you and most often than not fall into the category of classic. Which makes total sense because there´s a reason why there are classics. Those are comics that stand the test of time and which you still can read decades from now.

Which I tend to do more in the collected format lately. I have to say, at first I just bought the first volume of Planeta´s spanish edition of NUEVOS TITANES because it contained all the issues I was missing. But after I had held it in my hand I just had to get the second volume which was sadly the last one published before Planeta closed down business. Now, two years later I finally have gotten the following issues with volumes 2 and 3 of DC´s hardcover omnibus editions ( and now I also know that the reason why the spanish version was only half as expensive is that it´s also only half the size ) but I still have some gaps in my collection of that period.

But it´s much too late to get into that since it´s once again time to wrap things up. Boy, that was one long post and I just hope all that talk about the german editions and comic collecting in my youth wasn´t too boring. I tend to ramble a lot and my biggest problem has never been what to write about since once I start I can usually go on for hours shooting off on one tangent after another. Anyway, at least I managed to get my posting quota up this month with seven posts for June. Yay me !

In the next part - which won´t be up for a few days so my readers can appreciate this marathon post - we will get to the snafu or not on DCs hardcover collections. Any excuse to post gorgeous George Perez art.

I know, you´re anxiously awaiting the video at the end of the post so let´s get to it without any further ado.  Since it has one of the best known covers here is a video of THE NEW TEEN TITANS issue 13.



And here´s a video I wanted to post for quite some some time now, the greatest team up of all time : Batman and Space Ghost. Enjoy !



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And I declareth this day Superman Day !

Since the new MAN OF STEEL movie is starting in german movie theaters Today I thought it appropriate to participate in the meme of Superman Day that is going through most blogs lately. You see, this blog´s title alone pretty much makes it mandatory for me.

Now I´m not one hundred percent sure when Superman Day exactly is supposed to be ( according to Cleveland it´s on April the 18th , the day Action comics 1 appeared but at the 1940 World Fair Superman Day was on the 3rd of July ) but since I´m always behind on actual stuff as this I´m not too concerned with that. As you may have guessed from the title of my blog I´m a huge fan of Superman and there´s nothing I like more than to wax the philosophic about Superman lore. I know that some people have problems with the character of Superman, his perceived invulnerability or his supposedly weak rogues gallery but I have always liked the Superman universe because - let´s be honest - it´s the ultimate science fiction universe and I´ve always been a fan of science fiction.

GREAT RAO - GREAT STORIES

There are some of the best science fiction stories in the Superman canon ( some of the best comic stories of all times even ) like the classic trifecta MUST THERE BE A SUPERMAN ?, FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW ? But also Grant Morrison´s rather recent ALL STAR SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN AND THE FIEND FROM DIMENSION 5 chronicled in Action Comics 1 to 18 of the NEW 52 book are a damn good read.

If you want to brush up on your Superman history, Comicbook Resources has compiled a master list of THE 75 GREATEST SUPERMAN STORIES OF ALL TIME where you can check out all the great ones. And while I´m a bit disappointed that some of my favorite Superman stories with art by Carlos Pacheco like CAMELOT FALLS or ABSOLUTE POWER aren´t higher in the ranking it is a pretty complete list of all the best of the best.

 
You can also find a list of THE TOP 10 SUPERMAN TRADE PAPERBACKS at Collected Edition, the number 1 website for wait - for - the - traders.

WHEN JIMMY DID YOU - KNOW - WHAT TO YOU - KNOW - WHO

Coming from best to worse Comicbook Resources I LOVE YA BUT YOU`RE STRANGE series has the weirdest of the weird Superman stories like the time Superman and Jimmy Olsen encountered a world based on horror movies , Superman murdering a guy so Lois won´t marry him , Superman adopting Jimmy Olsen then tormenting him ,  Lois planning to beat up Wonder Woman to score with Superman , Superman gaining the ability to shoot tiny Supermen out of his fingers or When Lois hypnotized a baby to get Superman to marry her .  You can get all these as well as other stories with Superman, Lois and Supergirl and the weirdest moments of comics in general through the big master list . 

Speaking about masters, since I mentioned Carlos Pacheco earlier on, fellow blog MAN OF BRONZE has provided the link to this really extensive interview with Carlos Pacheco where he talks at length about his comic career and his work on Superman. Sorry, but it´s in spanish.

Now I know I already posted this link to the SUPERMAN PAGE where you can get all the Superman audio plays but I just wanted to repost it for all those readers who missed it.

Superman celebrates his 75th anniversary this year and THE COPYDESK has a nice article called THE SUPERMAN LIVES AND HE`S 75 that explains - way better than I ever could - why the Man of Steel has been such an enduring concept over the ages.

From fellow blogger Max Romero at GREAT CEASAR`S POST comes a post about DC COMICS PRESENTS 10 by Cary Bates and Joe Staton in which Superman travels back in time, looses his memory and teams up with Sgt Rock and Easy Company to fight Nazis .

DC COMICS PRESENTS is a series that was very prominent in the german editions when I was a kid - which were done by Ehapa back then - but like always they were scattered through all the different Superman comics of that time like Superman / Batman, Superman Sonderband, Superman Extra, Superman Album and Superman Taschenbuch.

Those stories were always a treat especially those that Jose Luis Garcia Lopez illustrated like the team up with Adam Strange or the race between Superman and the Flash which has become something of a tradition and was even adapted in the animated series. Here´s the clip :



Like I already discussed in length in my Coverstory posts, for some strange reason word ballons were often eliminated from the german versions which I always found strange since they added much drama.

Superman Taschenbuch 20 cover from DC Comics Presents 6

And here is the original and much more dramatic cover

It´s been a while since I read them and for everybody who hasn´t read them my tip is to get the first volume of DC SHOWCASE PRESENTS, which reprints the first 26 issues. Since I have bought too many comics the last few weeks ( or more to the point a few that were a real bargain but still expensive ) I´ll have to skip on that one but I will definitely be on the lookout for the second volume that includes issue 36, written, penciled and inked by Jim Starlin and required reading for every fan of James Robinson´s STARMAN series. What a fantastic cover.

And speaking of fantastic covers, you can find the Six Grooviest Superman Covers at fellow blog DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND, including this intriguing cover. Yeah, Superman, finish that creep.

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Where does he get off dressing like you anyway ? Stinking phoney with his stupid excuses....an actor, right, tell me another one. And whoever has heard of a movie called MAN OF STEEL, no really ? 

IT`S THAT OLD FEELING OF SUPER DEJA VUE AGAIN

Of course no new post would be complete without a selection of homage covers from the vast collection of famous Superman covers. I thought about doing Action Comics 1 or the cover for the first DC / Marvel team up of Superman and Spider - Man but since I don´t have that much material on them I decided to go with another very famous cover featuring Superman : Crisis of Infinite Earths 7 by George Perez.

I mean the image is so iconic that it was used as one of the mock covers for the other universe in the FRINGE tv show.

Now, before CRISIS 7 there were two other covers with Superman in a similar pose. Only this time Lois Lane took Supergirl´s place.

Here are a few more homage covers :

And that´s all for this section. If you still haven´t read CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS you should definitely check it out since it not only is one of the best comic stories of all time and without any question one of the best works of the creative team of Marv Wolfman and George Perez.

No, it also shows how a company wide reboot SHOULD be done. This is the mother of all crossovers and if the guys at DC had any recollection of this masterpiece such a cluster - f - word like the NEW 52 would never have happened in the first place. Oh, the humanity !!!

HELLO SUPERGIRL - THE SUPERFASHION PART OF THE POST

Now I could do a whole post on Supergirl and her different costumes over the decades alone but there are a few things I wanted to include here since I have no idea when I will find the time to get around to do it.

The first one is this really awesome costume for Superwoman Laurel Kent from the Legion of Superheroes ( click here for the fullsize version ).  

The lineart is by Jesus Merino, the colors are by Spidermanfan2099 ( click here to check out more gorgeous pieces in his DeviantArt gallery ) .

Speaking of gorgeous pieces here is a cosplayer that makes Supergirl´s new costume look good.

It´s really strange that all those years that Supergirl had a shitty comic ever since the post - crisis era my brother was reading it, but now that she finally has a solid book with an interesting new angle and decent art I have to give him the first trade as a Christmas present to get him to read it. Some people really have no taste whatsoever !

And speaking about people who have no taste, I would be really neglecting my duties if I didn´t mention Superman´s much more interesting cousin from another earth. This nice piece by artist Nebaroth shows pretty good why you can´t just take Supergirl and suddenly turn her into the new Power Girl. It just doesn´t fit - in more ways than one !

( click here for the fullsize version and Nebaroth´s DeviantArt gallery )

Our final tidbit is this little Superman cartoon I found somewhere on the internet :

So that´s all for Today and look to the skies, fellow comic readers, for the Man of Steel who fights the neverending battle for truth, justice and the american way. Remember : we can all be heroes.

Wow, six posts this month and still counting, this must be a new record. I´m certainly making up for the first half of the year when I was down to one post a month. Just don´t expect this streak to hold on too long since I have to get some rest Tomorrow and will probably not do another post until next week. I´ll probably just give this post the final proof reading but there won´t be anything new. But it was good to get some new Superman - centric stuff on the blog. The new readers must be wondering what the heck this blog is about with all these strange posts about fish sandwiches, beer, old comics nobody gives a fart about and all this comic pimping. I just hope it still is entertaining to some extent.

Now, on the page where I found the TWO - FISTED TALES movie there was a link for CREEPSHOW 2 but after watching that I knew I couldn´t torture my readers with it. I totally forgot how bad it was. Anyway, the video I decided to post instead is more a treat to my german readers because it´s from one of the cartoon series that never made it to Germany. Whenever the guys at ComicGeek Speak talk about CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS it´s something I know nothing about.

And here´s where YouTube comes into play because that´s one gap in pop culture knowledge it can help fill. Now, for all who don´t know, Hannah Barbera did a searies of cartoons based on the Justice League and other heroes in the DC universe, with a whole plethora of titles, first SUPER FRIENDS and then THE ALL - NEW SUPER FRIENDS HOUR, CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS, THE WORLD´S GREATEST SUPER FRIENDS - AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, SUPER FRIENDS - A DANGEROUS FATE, SUPER FRIENDS - THE LOST EPISODES, SUPER FRIENDS - THE LEGENDARY SUPER POWERS SHOW to finally THE SUPER POWERS TEAM - GALACTIC GUARDIANS .

It´s from the latest that I picked the video, THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN which is the finale of the series. If you have seen it before, I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane and if it´s your first time you might want to check out the other episodes of the various series which I´m sure you can find on YouTube ( click here for the wikipedia episode guide ) .



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