THE NEW TEEN TITANS #28 & 29

"TERRA IN THE NIGHT" | "FIRST BLOOD!"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Embellisher: Romeo Tanghal
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

Note: These issues do not have credits in THE NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS volume 2. I don't know if DC used the files from a trade paperback reprint that had previously omitted them or what, but this sort of thing is par for the course for the DC collected editions department. The above credits are pulled from the DC wiki.

The Plot: Changeling is on Terra's trail, having spent days chasing her. Meanwhile, in Zandia, the Brotherhood of Evil enters Brother Blood's Cathedral of Death to stage a coup. Back in New York, Starfire and Robin spend some time together while Wonder Girl goes to visit Terry Long, but meets his unfriendly ex-wife at his apartment. Elsewhere, Changeling finally captures Terra.

Back at Titans' Tower, Terra explains to Changeling, Kid Flash, Raven, and Cyborg that her father and stepmother, sovereigns of another nation, have been kidnapped by terrorists. She and her brother Brion set out to find the villains, but were separated. Terra eventually tracked them down but was blackmailed into committing crimes in order to keep them alive. The Titans agree to go with Terra to her meeting with the terrorists.

The group heads for a subway yard in Long Island, where they fight the terrorists. The villains' leader claims that Terra's parents have been killed, which sends her into a rage. Changeling attempts to comfort her, while Raven believes something is amiss about the girl.

THE NEW TEEN TITANS #26 & #27

"RUNAWAYS" | "RUNAWAYS PART 2"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Embellisher: Romeo Tanghal
Letterers: Ben Oda (#26) & Todd Klein (#27) | Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: (issue 26) The Titans return to Earth, and Robin admits to Starfire that he loves her. Weeks pass as the group members resume their lives. Meanwhile, around the country, several teenagers run away from home under varying circumstances. Then, one night while out for a date, Dick Grayson and "Cory Anders" (Starfire) witness a young junkie accost District Attorney Adrian Chase for money before retreating and getting run down by a truck.

Elsewhere, Changeling is on monitor duty when he picks up an incident at the Statue of Liberty and moves to investigate. There he fights a girl named Terra, babbling about an assignment from "them" to destroy the statue. Before Changeling can capture her, Terra escapes.

Later, Raven -- back in college -- befriends a young street walker and takes her to Cyborg for help. The duo then brings the girl to a runaway shelter where they bump into D.A. Chase. He recruits the Titans to investigate the local end of an international drug ring which plans to use runaways to transport their narcotics through the city. The Titans agree to help and return to Cyborg's apartment, where they find a young man bleeding on the carpet.

MOON KNIGHT: THE EARLY YEARS

In 1999, Marvel published a Moon Knight limited series entitled HIGH STRANGENESS (though the covers of all four issues mistakenly billed it as “HIGH STRANGERS”). The story was published weekly and I was in college at the time, branching out a bit in my Marvel reading, so I grabbed issue 1. I know I had heard of Moon Knight, but I really knew next to nothing about him. I liked his costume, though, and the series was drawn by Mark Texeira, an artist I appreciated.

Well, I was hooked immediately on the character as written in that story by his creator, Doug Moench. The funny thing is that now, having not read the mini-series in over a decade, I don’t really even remember the plot. But I fell for the trappings of Moon Knight more than the story: he’s an ex-soldier of fortune turned wealthy playboy with numerous secret identities, he resides in a sprawling mansion with his beautiful live-in girlfriend Marlene and his confidante/pilot, a fellow ex-merc named Frenchie, and he goes out at night in his stealth chopper to fight crime as the Moon’s Knight of Vengeance, to atone for his dark past.

In short, the guy is awesome.

AME-COMI GIRLS VOLUME 3

"EARTH IN CRISIS"
Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Artists: Adam Archer, Steven Cummings, Horacio Domingues, Ted Naifeh,
Eduardo Francisco, Andres Ponce, & Ruben Gonzalez
Colorists: Randy Mayor, Wes Hartman, & Adam Archer | Letterer: Wes Abbott

Like volume 2, this third installment of AME-COMI GIRLS opens with a large-scale threat uniting all the characters, followed by some smaller pieces. This time the major villainess is Sinestra. Armed with her yellow and black power rings and an army of Black Lanterns, she invades first the planet Thanagar and then proceeds to Earth. Alana Strange, a scientist/adventuress from the planet Rann, rescues Shyera "Hawkgirl" Hol from Thanagar and together they recruit Earth'e heroines to oppose Sinestra.

The womens' ace in the hole is Metra, the first of a race of "New Gods", who arms the entire group with white power rings to combat Sinestra. They do their best but aren't a match for their foe, dropping one by one to her Black Lanterns, and it is Metra's direct intervention which saves the day in the end as she reveals that Sinestra is possessed by the Black Hand, and reborths both halves of this evil as twin planets of light and darkness.

First off -- White Lanterns? Black Lanterns? I know -- it sounds silly, but here in this alternate universe story, completely unrelated to actual DC continuity, it's a fun little diversion. Let's just hope nobody ever reads this story and gets the asinine idea to insert a spectrum of Lantern colors into the mainstream DCU! That would be... dopey, I guess, to say the least.

(This concludes the scathing sarcastic commentary portion of our post.)

THE NEW TEEN TITANS #25 & ANNUAL #1

"WAR!" | "FINAL CONFLICT!"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Embellisher: Romeo Tanghal
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Carl Gafford | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: On Okaara, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Raven, and the Omega Men defend the imprisoned goddess X'hal from the Citadel forces. Meanwhile, aboard a Citadel ship overhead, Cyborg saves Changeling from the slavers holding a gun on him. Cyborg, Robin, and Changeling hijack the ship, using one slaver as a guide, and head for the Citadel's homeworld to find Starfire.

Meanwhile, during the fight on Okaara, Raven is nearly overcome by the darkness in her soul, but manages to pull herself together. Subsequently, X'hal orders the battle to an end and departs to turn herself over to the Citadel.

Robin, Cyborg, and Changeling reach the Citadel planet and infiltrate the slavers' temple. But one of the Omega Men, Demonia, has stowed away on their ship and reveals herself to the Citadel's leader, Damyn, pledging to serve him and informing him of the Titans' presence.

Robin and the others locate Starfire, along with Damyn, Blackfire, and X'hal, now imprisoned. Believing Starfire dead, Robin flies into a rage and attacks. Cyborg takes Damyn hostage in an attempt to end the fight, but Blackfire kills her leader to claim his title as her own. She then orders Robin, Changeling, and Cyborg taken into custody alongside Starfire.

THE NEW TEEN TITANS #23 & 24

"KIDNAPPED!" | "CITADEL STRIKE!"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez | Embellisher: Romeo Tanghal
Letterers: Ben Oda (#23) & Todd Klein (#24) | Colorist: Carl Gafford
Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: While the Titans speak with the District Attorney about their assault on Baron Blood, Blackfire arrives in orbit of Earth and sends her slavers to attack New York. Starfire is captured and the aliens escape, but the Titans capture one of their ships. Using it with the long-dormant ship that brought Starfire to Earth, the Titans head into space to rescue their teammate.

But no sooner do they board Blackfire's ship, than her defenses get the best of them, and she jettisons them into space before leaving Earth's solar system. The Titans are rescued, however, by Superman, who is aboard the Justice League's satellite headquarters. But when Robin urges the Man of Steel to head out and stop Blackfire's escape, he admits that he can't, as he's recently suffered a drastic decrease in power.

My Thoughts: The story continues organically from the Brother Blood chapters, as we pick up with the Titans in voluntary custody for their meeting with the D.A. We also learn that Bethany Snow, an antagonistic reporter introduced last issue, is a member of Blood's church and seems to be running a deliberate smear campaign against the Titans.

THE NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 - 3

Over the course of three years, DC released more than sixty issues of Marv Wolfman's and George Pérez's classic NEW TEEN TITANS in a set of three Omnibus volumes. The books are huge and sturdy, with a very attractive trade dress and interior design. The blue used for the dustjackets is also featured prominently throughout all three volumes, giving them a lovely uniformity. Outside and in, these books are very nicely assemble packages.

But where I'm concerned, it seems there almost always has to be a negative. In the case of these books, that comes in the form of the binding. These books feature glued, rather than sewn binding. Marvel has been utilizing sewn binding the vast majority of their hardcovers for years now, but DC has yet to catch on. And when you're dealing with books this thick, glued binding can be a real detriment to the reading experience. The pages don't separate apart at the gutters, leading to occasional loss of artwork and/or text, especially as the series progresses and Pérez begins experimenting with full-bleed artwork. And of course, any two-page spread suffers due to the glued binding as well.