Doug: Hey, look what we found! Man, it's been awhile since we had a guest post. We are happy to welcome back our pal from the Great White North, Mike Wilson, to the reviewer's chair. He has the New Teen Titans on his mind, so strap in for the first part of a 2-part retrospective. Thanks, Mike!
"The Judas Contract" by M.S. Wilson
M.S. Wilson: Not too long ago,
Doug did a review of New Teen Titans #2 that drew a lot of praise for that
series in general, and for the "Judas Contract" storyline in particular. NTT has
always been a favourite of mine and I'd been considering a review of the Judas
Contract for a while, so here it is. The story originally ran in Tales of the
Teen Titans #s 42-44 and New Teen Titans Annual #3. I just happen to have the trade paperback
which also contains New Teen Titans #s 39 and 40, and Tales of the Teen Titans
#41, which act as kind of a prelude to the Judas Contract. To keep this review
from getting too long, I'll just sum up the three lead-in issues before I get
to the main story.
As for backstory, all
you really need to know is that Terra is a teenager with the power to control
earth, rocks, mud, etc. who first met the Titans when terrorists attacked the
Statue of Liberty back in New Teen Titans #26. Terra seemed to be working with
the terrorists, but claimed she'd been forced into it. The Titans, feeling sorry for her, took her
into their ranks. Since then, she's been helping them while complaining that
they don't trust her because they won't share their secret identities. In
hindsight, that seems like a huge red flag, but at the time, it just seemed
like a girl with trust issues trying to get closer to her new friends; as it
turns out, there was a little more to it...
New Teen Titans #39
(Feb 1984)
"Crossroads"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
"Crossroads"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
This issue starts
with the Titans in Alaska, smashing their way into a facility that seems to be guarded
by soldiers... American soldiers, as Cyborg points out. The Titans make short
work of them and break through a steel door to find ... a trap! Who's
surprised? Anyone... anyone... Bueller? They're caught in a high energy cage
by the minions of Brother Blood, but they bust out and take down Blood's
people.
In the aftermath, we
find out that Terra is a bad guy; how do we know? Because she's drinking and
smoking! Oh, and she's hanging out with the Terminator (or Deathstroke, as he's
more usually known these days). Terra's been spying on the Titans with a camera
implanted in a contact lens. It sounds like Terra's been working with him for a
while, gathering intel on the Titans to help him take them down. She and
Terminator seem to be more than just friends here; Wolfman later tried to
downplay it, but it seems pretty clear that Terra and Terminator are meant to
be lovers here, even though she's only sixteen. Terra sees a photo of
Terminator's wife and kids and wonders if he's getting soft; he wonders the
same about her, so they go outside to spar a bit. Terra seems pretty powerful,
and pretty unstable, as she almost kills him. She also says she hates the
Titans because they're "sanctimonious do-gooders", which isn't the
most compelling motivation, but I guess it's meant to show how screwed up Terra
is.
Later, Terra heads to
Titan Tower for the monthly meeting. She runs into Kid Flash (in his civilian
ID as Wally West) and when they get to the meeting, Wally says he's quitting
the Titans. This has been an ongoing thing since the new series started; Wally
wasn't all that keen on joining in the first place. Robin also makes an
announcement ... he's not going to be Robin anymore. He's not quitting, but has
decided he needs a new identity to get him out of Batman's shadow. Terminator
is still watching through Terra's eye-camera as the meeting breaks up. Wally
leaves with Frances Kane and Dick and Kory watch them go.
New Teen Titans #40
(March 1984)
"Lifeblood"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
"Lifeblood"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
This one starts with
Brother Blood being resurrected for the umpteenth time. Back in New York, Gar
(Changeling) Logan and Tara (Terra) Markov are being tutored, but Gar keeps
acting like an idiot (yeah, I know, what else is new?) and the tutor quits.
Gar's guardian, Steve Dayton, gives him hell (apparently that was tutor number
six) and says Gar better smarten up or he'll send him to (gasp) public school!
The horror... the horror...
On the way to a news
conference, Gar calls Tara out on some of her fibs and her attitude. It almost
sounds like she might be having second thoughts about her double-crossing ways.
The news conference is a Q and A sort of thing between Brother Blood, the
Titans, and some politicians. They're debating whether America should send
weapons to Zandia (Brother Blood's country) or not. Wolfman gets into a lot of
topical stuff here ("If we don't arm them, the communists will"...
oh, that old chestnut); Brother Blood says he doesn't want weapons, his
government does and he gives a speech that seems to strike a chord with many of
the young people watching, despite the Titans' warnings about Blood being evil.
That's another topical reference, with Blood appealing to disaffected youth who
feel like they don't belong anywhere... shades of the Manson Family, the SLA,
Jim Jones, the Moonies, Hare Krishna, and so on.
They realize Blood is
a master of propaganda and swaying public opinion, so Dick disguises himself as
a reporter and convinces three politicians to go to Zandia on a fact-finding
mission. He tags along, but his disguise doesn't hold up to scrutiny and he's
captured. When the Titans get an emergency signal, they head over to Zandia (in
a cool submarine) and tunnel up through the island, with Terra doing most of
the work. They fight Blood's henchmen, but are gassed and captured. Dick seems
to be brainwashed and is now working for Blood. That's one of the few
complaints I had about the New Titans series... they seem to recycle
villains/plots quite a bit: Brother Blood (or his successor) comes back over
and over, with Dick "joining" him again in the Baxter series (as well
as Raven); Trigon keeps coming back, so do Terminator, Blackfire and the
Gordanians, and don't even get me started on how long they drag out the
Wildebeest story. Anyway, the rest of them are hung up over Blood's pit full of
... well, blood. He says that by bathing in the blood of his enemies, he gains
their strength and he'll soon add the Titans' power to his own.
Tales of the Teen
Titans #41 (April 1984)
"Baptism of Blood"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
"Baptism of Blood"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Romeo Tanghal
The Titans manage to
bust loose and are attacked by some weird-looking monsters. During the fight,
Cyborg saves Terra and she's kind of shaken that he'd do that for her; another
sign she might be feeling guilty? We also see Terra's bloodthirsty side come
out, when she suggests just wasting everybody in Blood's temple ... though, to
be fair, Starfire seems to agree with her.They make short work of them and
Blood says he'll take them on by himself.
To answer Doug's closing question: yes, yes indeed. I stopped reading NTT somewhere just before this whole Tara/Terra thing started really heating up - somewhere in the mid-30s I think. So regretfully, I missed this one, which is considered one of the major story arcs of the entire series.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review and rundown, Mike. Great selection of images as well - they just further whet my appetite.
Also got a laugh out of your 'smoking and drinking' comment. Yep, that used to be the surefire signal that any female character was bad, esp. in comics. Also, I tend to agree about her apparent affair with Deathstroke, who is old enough to be her grandfather, I think. Very skeevy.
Anyway, I think I'm going to start looking around to see if I can't land a reasonably priced copy of the tpb...
This was indeed a major turning point for the Titans title. It was a fun and engaging read up until now; with the advent of more Blood-related subplotting, the early excitement seemed to dissipate and perhaps it overpowered NTT a bit.
ReplyDeleteLater when it came to the Baxter series (after Perez left..), I personally felt it weighed down the series to a crawl. I recall several reader's letters agreeing to that. It was indeed hard to watch Dick's brainwashing (with Raven's support), and to me the title lost some charm by this point, especially in the after issue 8 or 9 of the Baxter edition, going on for the next dozen or so issues when I departed all together.
Terrific review, Mike. I read the first parts of this arc when they came out, but missed the ending as I was dropping comics at the time left and right. This title was one that got dropped, so it will be nice to see the ending after all these years. Like Edo, I'm going to be looking for that tpb.
ReplyDeleteIt never fails to amaze me, looking over the art you provide, how much detail Perez fits into a panel. Incredible; makes you wonder how his eyesight is holding up. Great stuff.
Oh, and the Terra / Deathstroke thing; pretty creepy indeed...
I'll echo everyone's repulsion at the implied Deathstroke/Terra tryst. It stood out to me the most when I read this the first time, and to be honest it remains the main thing I recall of the story.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how old Terry Long was supposed to be, but I always had a similar vibe from him. I know I'm "judging a book by its cover", but I never ever saw he and Donna together.
Doug
Great review Mike! I prefer the earlier Brother Blood story in NTT #21-22, but certainly Terra is an interesting character and this story arc is highly regarded. Yes very sharp detail in the art as Redartz says, especially when Perez inks himself as in issue 39. Looking forward to the rest!
ReplyDeleteDoug, in NTT #12 it says Terry Long's age is 29.
Awesome job dude!! Love me some classic NTT. I have the entire series up through "The Judas Contract" reprinted in TPBs, and I plan to start reading them all shortly (probably this weekend). Should be a fun trip.
ReplyDelete@Doug: Well, at least Donna's legal! Terry always came off as older than 29 or 30, at least to me. I'm not bothered quite as much by he and Donna being together as some people are; we'll see Terry in the second half of my review, on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, everybody. I've always loved this storyline and it's great to relive all that cool Perez art and Wolfman angst.
Mike Wilson
"Also got a laugh out of your 'smoking and drinking' comment. Yep, that used to be the surefire signal that any female character was bad, esp. in comics. Also, I tend to agree about her apparent affair with Deathstroke, who is old enough to be her grandfather, I think. Very skeevy."
ReplyDeleteThere's a panel in the old X-Men series where Jean Grey is at the beach and there are clearly cigs on her beach towel. THAT is how you knew she was going to go Dark Phoenix!
I never understood why Deathstroke (note the name!) was held to some kind of a high standard. He was clearly dead set on massacring a group of kids, but having underage sex was a bridge too far?
Overall, though, this was an interesting arc. Wolfman and Perez had spent the first 25 or so issues (and mini-series) fleshing out the team and the solidifying their alliance, and then followed that, almost like a marriage after a return from the honeymoon, with all sorts of outside strains and influences upon the group, setting the stage for how an infiltrator such as Terra could take them down. The Titans were largely distracted, especially Raven, who, under ordinary circumstances would have perceived the threat and dealt with it, but was too busy fighting her father's influence.
This was the exact comic (#39) that got me back into comics. During my sophomore year, after giving them up in high school (I think I bought into that old trope of "putting away childish things," big mistake). My buddies and I wandered into a 7-11 and there was this striking cover. The funny thing was, I was never a DC fan. But anyway, thousands of dollars later and a lot of enjoyment, here I am.
ReplyDeleteGreat review Mike. Sorry I am late to the party. Just wanted to say that the artwork you shared in the post is really great; it never gets old. That double page splash is a classic. I always wonder how long it takes to work on something like that. It is just packed with detail.
ReplyDelete