THE NEW TEEN TITANS #8

"A DAY IN THE LIVES..."
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Embellisher: Romeo Tanghal
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Starfire meets Wonder Girl, in her civilian guise as photographer Donna Troy, for lunch at Donna's advertising agency. There, Starfire is recruited to become a model. Meanwhile, Robin departs Titans' Tower, having recently rejoined the circus, and promises Raven he will be back for the next Titans' meeting in a week.

Once Robin is gone, Raven considers attending Manhattan University and sends her astral form to check the school out. But the University is being held by a group of revolutionaries, and Raven is forced into action to take them out and defuse their bombs. She succeeds, but her astral form is away from her body for too long and is hurled into another dimension. With all the skill and tenacity she can muster, Raven escapes and returns to her mortal body.

Elsewhere, Changeling is visiting Cyborg when he receives a call from his currently missing stepfather's business manager, who informs him that two members of his stepfather's board of directors have been murdered. Changeling leaves to investigate.

Cyborg departs as well, paying a visit to his old girlfriend, Marcy, who he hasn't seen since before his accident. She asks him to leave, her parents having forbidden her from associating with him. As he wanders through Central Park, Cyborg bumps into a group of children with prosthetic limbs, out for physical therapy. Cyborg joins the kids' baseball game.

In Blue Valley, someplace in the Mid-West, Wally "Kid Flash" West visits his parents and discusses with them whether or not he should return to superheroics. Mr. and Mrs. West ultimately tell Wally that, while they worry over him, the choice is ultimately his.

Finally, Jeremy Thornton of Dayton Industries -- the company run by Changeling's stepfather -- is gifted a free marionette for his grandson by a local toy shop. But that night, after Thornton's grandson goes to sleep, the marionette enters Thornton's office, armed with a revolver, and kills him.

My Thoughts: Okay! This is basically what I thought NEW TEEN TITANS would be from the get-go. I had often seen comparisons between this series and X-MEN -- specifically Chris Claremont's X-MEN -- which led me to believe TITANS would be filled with sub-plots and soap operatics. There have been a handful of minor sub-plots to date, but most -- the characters' origins, Titans' Tower, etc. -- have already been resolved. And the soap opera aspect, aside from Kid Flash briefly believing he was in love with Raven, has been absent pretty much entirely with the exception of Cyborg's regular bouts of self-pity.

But with "A Day In The Lives...", that all changes. Wolfman gives all of his new characters a good sized spotlight, while providing at least one minor kernel for each of the existing characters as well. Plus, I like seeing Robin leave for a while. He's the only Titan who still has a "part time job" as a sidekick, and he informs Raven here that he's bound for Gotham City after his circus engagement. I believe Len Wein was the regular writer of BATMAN around this time, so I suppose it's even possible he and Wolfman coordinated a Robin guest appearance in that title for this month.

This issue also introduces us to Terry Long, Wonder Girl's boyfriend. Over the years I've gathered that he's not exactly well regarded by Titans fandom. Right off the bat here, we learn that he's an older man, divorced, and is dating the teenage (probably eighteen or nineteen year-old) Donna Troy (I wonder if John Byrne suggested this plot development?). And they met “about a year ago,” so who knows how old she was then? I'm curious to learn if there are other reasons to dislike the guy beyond this general skeeviness. I suppose time will tell.

Another development I really enjoyed this issue is Kid Flash’s brief scene. It’s nice to see a Titan with a relatively normal life. Robin is an orphan, raised and mentored by the world’s greatest detective. Wonder Girl is also an orphan, raised by Amazons. Cyborg is now an orphan, and he’s got the whole “woe is me, I’m a freak” thing going on. Changeling seems pretty well adjusted, but he’s also an orphan, and his stepfather is currently missing. And Starfire, of course, was sold into slavery by her own father, while Raven’s dad is a murderous, extra-dimensional being.

Then there’s Kid Flash, who has parents that love him, who know his secret identity and support his career as Kid Flash, and who generally seem like very loving, well-adjusted people. Which of course probably means that someone will kill them off at some point. But for now, it’s nice to have one member of the Titans who comes from a close-knit nuclear family.

I’d also like to pick one nit found in the story: Starfire wanders around in public, wearing sunglasses, presumably to hide her huge pupil-less eyes, but no one seems to find it odd that she’s got golden skin and hair down to her heels. At first I thought she was just doing the “publicly known identity” bit, but later in the story, it’s clarified that no, people actually believe she’s an Earthling. Is her cover that she’s one of those women who indulges way too much in spray tans and is tinted orange as a result? I guess, since the Titans live in New York, she could be Donna’s friend from the Jersey Shore… but still, it’s a little hard to swallow.

Lastly, I need to comment on the artwork. Whether inspired by Wolfman's sub-plot heavy script or for some other reason, Pérez turns in, as far as I'm concerned, his strongest issue so far. There's barely any action to speak of, but the artwork seems more energetic and exciting than ever before, and the characters just feel more lifelike. This is the first issue that really looks like GEORGE PÉREZ and not just George Pérez.

I hope to see the style of "A Day In the Lives..." carry over to subsequent chapters, both from the writing and the artistic sides. This is easily my favorite NEW TEEN TITANS issue to date, standing head and shoulders above all previous installments.