Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
"Okay? O-kay? Lookit: this is me... dragging in the mail. AGAIN.
"Now: lay off, f'the luvva Odin!"
[Part Whatever + 2]
Referring to Unca's recent "If I
Ran the Teen Titans..."
article as "controversial" would be somewhat akin to referencing the Grand Canyon
as "a dimple in the earth." 
Fine. Fine. Unca knew good and well, before embarking on said Voyage Perilous, that the seas would be choppy ones; the deckhands, surly and unshaven; and the meals, vile...
... however: he had failed to take sufficiently into account, ultimately, that more than a few of you diehard TITANS faithful, out there, might have some difficulty in decently navigating the perilous attitudinal straits between objection... and being objectionABLE, outright.
Not to gandydance around the point, ultimately...
... more than a few of you little poindexters need your mouths washed out with boric acid, when it comes to this whole silly, overheated "disappointment-with-the-current-status-of-the-TITANS" business.
Unca's gonna tell you all a little story, here, by way of preamble:
This all takes place back during the dour, bygone days of the Dan Jurgens TITANS era; on the (now defunct) TEEN TITANS message board, (then-)sponsored by AOL.
People were -- as they say --
Up In Arms.
They uniformly hated the writing.
As one, they hated the art (which I kinda liked, actually; ain't no flies on Jurgens as a penciler, boy).
They flat-out loathed and despised the characters.
There were regular and scurrilous postings objecting even to how the staples were arranged along the spine, issue in and issue out.
Hated hated hated E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G
about the title, in other words.
Now: the (then-)editor of the TITANS title -- whoever the hell it was; Unca's long since forgotten -- was a semi-regular visitor to said boards, at that juncture...
... and: he (or she; drat, drat that pesky Alzheimer's!), as the Jurgens run was winding down, polled the board regulars, as to what they (the party faithful) thought might be necessary, ultimately, in order to make the danged book more commercially viable than diptheria cultures at a restaurateur's convention.
With a sole TWO exceptions -- i.e. Unca, and a fellow poster by the name of Kerry Aldrich (helluva nice guy, by the way; hi, Kerry!): the overwhelming, resounding selection for New TITANS Boswell was: Devin Grayson.
Because: the aforementioned Ms. Grayson was a public (and vocal) TITANS fan, of long duration; and because she had, only just recently, authored a Dick Grayson and Donna Troy story entitled (if memory serves) "Just Like Riding A Bicycle," or somesuch, in a (then-)recent issue of BATMAN CHRONICLES. (Unca's read the story in question, certainly... but: it was a few years ago; and he's no longer certain as to the exact title of said effort; or, really, even what the actual plot of same might have been.)
He/She (the editor, I mean; Unca's reasonably certain that Ms. Grayson IS, in fact, a "she"; being a "Ms." and all) also polled said board regulars as to which half-dozen "prior" Titans were the most "essential" to making the TITANS book a viable, ongoing fiscal concern, overall; and which two NEW characters should join the team, as "Titans Elect."
Nightwing, Troia, Starfire, Arsenal, Flash and Tempest (in that order).
Damage and Jessie Quick.
Sound familiar,
people...?
The "Titans-As-Family" partisans -- with whom Unca does feel a certain sympathy, in all honesty; being a cranky and shamelessly nostalgic oldster, himself -- Got. EVERYTHING. THEY. BLOODY. ASKED. FOR, in other words.
Got the characters they wanted, sans exception.
Got the writer they all but demanded.
... and: no one's happy with the book, apparently.
And: its sales are in the proverbial toilet.
Were Unca a DC editor,
people... he'd doubtless be thinkin': "... well, then... the silly
fans don't know what they want, really, when it comes to the freakin'
TITANS."
Now: it's all well and good, one supposes, to object that: "... well, yeah, Unca... but: she [Devin] isn't doing 'em [the Titans] the way that we/I remember(ed) them, goldang it!"
Well, duh.
That's because the TITANS "as you all remember 'em" was never, ever -- all freighted fannish mythology to thhe contrary -- "about" any specific cast of characters, per se.
Not in the same way that (say) THE BLACKHAWKS were/are all "about" the same seven recurring characters, over and over and over again, throughout the decades, world without end, amen.
Certainly not in the same way that (again, say) THE FANTASTIC FOUR were/are all "about" the same four recurring characters (mercifully brief She-Hulk inclusion aside), over and over and over again, throughout the decades, world without end, amen...
... and most assuredly NOT in the same way that (once more, say) THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN were/are all "about" the same four or five recurring characters, over and over and over again, throughout the decades, world without end, amen.
That's pretty much why -- when Marv Wolfman and George Perez first cobbled up the team roster for NEW TEEN TITANS #1, back in the early '80s -- they went with a scant handful of "old" members, and fleshed out the ranks with a whole passle o' bright/n'shiny newbies (Changeling; Cyborg; Starfire; and Raven, initially; with Danny Chase, Jericho, Kole, Terra, and any number of spandexed etceteras riding hard on their heels).
The "gimme" of the TITANS concept, in other words -- right from Day One, really; no matter how many numberless reams of well-intentioned "fan fic" aside -- has never been about "family."
Not without stretching the commonly
accepted definition of the perfectly simple concept of "family" way, way
beyond even the most elasticized meaning of the term, at any rate. (There
are only slightly fewer Titans, after all, than there have been Legionnaires,
at this juncture. Are they all "family," too, then?
How about everyone who's ever written or drawn a TITANS comic?
How about the afternoon crowd at Shea Stadium...?)
Well: on to a few of the less poisonous and objectionable e-mailings on the subject, then; with the following, by way of auctorial codicil:
If your letter suggested (even in so-called "jest") that Devin Grayson got her job at DC by "sleeping her way to the position": Unca didn't use your points, even in excerpt.
There were a depressingly great number of you who tendered that wholly ill-founded observation.
You people -- if you'll all kindly allow a solicitous Unca to offer the suggestion -- need to get a bloody grip.
In any event: let's start out with not-frequent-enough correspondent Charles Glasgow, of home.com, who observes:
"It is not certain that it was a flaw in the concept (original Titans get back together) -- it could, indeed most likely was, a flaw in the
execution. (My God, Devin... what are you doing to Donna? Byrne didn't do half as much to her! And at least he'd returned Donna's memories to her before he left! And how on Earth could the same person who wrote that waycool ARSENAL mini-series then turn around and turn Roy Harper into such a clueless jerk? And let's not even discuss Nightwing's love life, and how much of Mr. Dixon's ultra-plus stuff you just plain ignored or ran roughshod on there...)"
Charles is quite correct, of
course, in raising the objection that, no... we can't rest absolutely certain
on the assumption that Original TITANS Line-Up Equals Really Bad Comics, From
This Day Forward. (Unca certainly wouldn't mind ponying up a few bucks
per month should -- oh, say -- Alan Moore or Grant Morrison decide
to essay the effort. Unca isn't completely mad, after all.)
However: accepting as a "given" the perfectly reasonable and straightforward notion that most working comics scribes AREN'T Alan Moore, or Grant Morrison; Unca does believe that the fannish "dream team" TITANS roster is, at this point, well and truly "played out," dramatic and/or thematic possibilities-wise.
Unca does believe, also, that -- post-Wally [FLASH] West's ascension into the land of the spandexed grown-ups [i.e., the JLA]; post-Donna [TROIA] Troy's "Byrne-ization" as Cosmic Rape Victim; post-Dick [NIGHTWING] Greyson's new "grounding" as a Bludhaven-focused "reality"-type character (well... given the fact that he wears a costume and fights crime, I mean) --
... plain and simple: the TITANS of such (apparently) fond fannish memory just plain ol' don't exist no mo', no mo'; and that NO writer unwilling to endlessly rehash the same eight or ten favored Wolfman/
Perez plotlines or themes, over and over again, could ever end up making the diehard TITANS faithful really and truly "happy."
Unca will go it one better, in fact:
Judging from the plurality of the e-mail he's received on the matter, thus far: he genuinely doesn't believe said faithful could (or would) accept anything but said rehashing(s); so adamantine and unyielding are their (stated) notions, re: What Makes For An Acceptable TITANS Comic.
If Unca's wrong, in said estimation... well, then, he's wrong.
He most probably isn't,
though.
Too, Charles: leave us not forget that Roy Harper is a former junkie; sired a child, out of wedlock; and (of course) once performed in a rock band with the unlikely name of "Great Frog."
By Unca's clear-eyed
estimation, then: Roy has always been "a clueless jerk."
Charles continues:
"Cheeks, they [the longtime TITANS fans] got the writer they wanted. Then they found out that her talent had evaporated. If we'd known in advance what exactly Devin was planning to write, we'd have voted for Rob Liefeld instead. And gotten a better deal."
Wellllllllllllllllll: Unca doesn't know, quite frankly, 'bout that whole "evaporated" business, Charles. Ms. Grayson's tenure on (say) BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS, thus far, has had at least as many "hits" as it has had "misses," overall. (e.g.: issue #1's stunning examination of the Batman's "blind spot," when investigating a murder; issue #2's perceptive look at the underlying dynamics of the Batman/Batgirl relationship; and issue #5's Key/Azrael match-up were all standouts, certainly.)
However: he acknowledges, of course, that Mileage May Vary, legitimately,
on matters such as these.
"I know that blaming comics fanboys for everything wrong in comics is your hobby, your career, your pet obsession."
"A commission handed down by The Almighty," actually, Charles.
"But, contrary to popular belief, they're not the only reason comics sales suck today."
Of course not, Charles! Kevin Dooley, Rob Liefeld and
Scott Lobdell have to share some of the blame, ultimately!
[*rimshot*]
On the other hand, however: it IS the fanboys, traditionally, who purchase (and make commercially successful) the efforts of any pro writer or artist one cares to name, push come to shove.
I mean: it's not as if Unca's mom is out there, scooping up great,
heaping armloads of KISS: THE PSYCHO-CIRCUS... y'know?
"My theory [Charles concludes] is that Devin does all her best work as limited series, guest writer, and one-shots, ya know? Give her a requirement to to crank out a story every month, and she chokes. [...] Her newfound habit of retconning things just for the sake of retconning [...] and her soap opera plots and her obsession with hooking everybody up with everybody else sexually is turning Devin into the daytime TV queen of comicdom. The very same fanboys who wanted her several years ago now wince at the mention of her name -- because we had NO idea that she'd suddenly turn into this!"
Now, see: this is where Unca ends up getting all... whaddyacallit...
confused, like, Charles.
By your own admission, mind --
[UNCA'S ASIDE: ... and Charles, to his everlasting credit, readily
confesses (in an excerpted portion of his e-mail; Charles writes nice, long
letters) that he, too, recalls the Polling-Of-The-TITANS-Faithful, just
as Unca earlier recounted; thereby providing Unca with much-needed assurance
that, no, he hasn't gone all doddering and senile quite yet, thankyouverymuch.]
-- the fans "got the writer they wanted."
Based solely, incidentally, a single published offering; a "short-short" within another title entirely.
A "short-short" which -- and Unca already praised Ms. Greyson earlier, remember, earlier, re: her tenure on GOTHAM KNIGHTS; so, no fair blithely re-interpreting this as an anti-Greyson "shot" -- was almost entirely plotless, really; and focusing, with single-minded relentlessness, on, y'know, all that sensitive "touchy" stuff about how the characters Really and Truly Feeeeeeeeel About Each Other, As People.
Out of the vast and sprawling entirety of names available to them, mind -- your Waids; your Busieks; your Barrs and Ordways and Isabellas; your Dixons and Morrisons and Kesels and Peyers -- you guys went for Devin. Based upon that offering; demonstrating THAT approach.
... and, now: you're all getting (I think we can all agree upon this much, at any rate) "Just Like Riding A Bicycle," writ large.
Over and over and over again.
In all nekkid honesty, then, Charles: yeah. Yeah... Unca genuinely believes you are all getting what you voted for, several years ago.
Bet you all wish you'd listened to Unca then, by golly, don'cha...?
The unfailingly courteous and pleasant Rupert Griffin, of hotmail.com, writes in to rebut, as follows:
"Even as a long time Wolfman TITANS fan, I wasn't disturbed by your 'If I Ran The TITANS...' piece. [...] What I do find significant is your approval of writers like Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson and your unquestioning belief in some of the myths this pair (or rather, their followers on the message boards) have promulgated."
As made manifest and plain, elsewhere in this mailbag section, Rupert: Unca doesn't give a used Dixie Cup what the message board hoi poloi
hold as Holy Fannish Writ (and/or what they don't).
Unca's (admitted, gladly) high estimation of BAT scribe Chuck Dixon's auctorial abilities is based solely upon said gent's published efforts, re: BIRDS OF PREY (a monthly "must-buy," in Unca's aged opinion); ROBIN (ditto); NIGHTWING; and the most flat-out enjoyable run on DETECTIVE since the brief, abortive Steve Englehart/Marshall era...
... and all of this, mind, even given that Unca is demonstrably of the
opinion (read the Dixon interview again, Rupert)
that said author's stated belief in the whole "Urban Legend" thingie makes no
frickin' sense whatsobloodyever. (Now, that's impressive
-- !)
... and, as for being in the auctorial thrall of Ms. Grayson: Unca is rapidly coming to accept that he simply cannot win, in this regard.
Say something
nice about GOTHAM KNIGHTS, and you're a camp follower; poor mouth her TITANS,
and the other team labels you a godless heretic.
Unca's contrasting opinions on both series stands, dammit.
Make of that what you will, people.
(... and, incidentally: should Ms. Grayson -- or anyone enjoying regular communication with Ms. Grayson -- would like to e-mail Unca to arrange for an interview, the better to respond to any/all of the appraisals foregoing: CheeksMite@aol.com.
(If only because Unca's genuinely beginning to feel that -- after all of this
-- the lady deserves something like equal time, re: a reasonable
shot at rebuttal.)
"I say significant because your belief reflects the state of fanboy opinion at present (not that I confuse you with the fanboys) but not the opinion of fans who don't buy BATMAN and THE TITANS in the same numbers anymore."
" [...] The first myth is that Devin Grayson is a good writer. She isn't: she's terrible -- read that NIGHTWING annual she wrote, and the (now infamous) TITANS/JLA crossover."
Actually -- and at the (apparent) risk of being tarred and feathered as a soulless Grayson sycophant, once more <g> -- JLA/TITANS is plainly credited as being co-written by Phil Jimenez.
(Not that Unca doesn't agree, mind, that the end results were fairly
dire, regardless of whom ends up being blamed for that'un.
All I'm sayin', is: let's spread things decently around,
shall we...?)
However, Rupert: Unca's "take" on that particular effort is that what made it so "infamous," ultimately, was the incessant, gong-like "Fam-il-
LEEE! Fam-il-LEEE!" thing that went on for so bloody long,
throughout, it ended up giving Unca one mean mutha of a migraine.
[UNCA CHEEKS' ASIDE: ... and, you know what, people...?
[If your characters actually need you to keep having them mindlessly parrot, issue after blinkin' issue, how much they're all, y'know, bonded and familial, like...?
[... then: they aren't.
[Not really.
[If said characters do, in all actuality, constitute anything even remotely resembling a "family"...
[... then: it really kinda oughtta come through to the casual reader without all the auctorial heavy breathing and howdy-doo, ultimately.
[I mean: has anyone ever seen ... oh, say... the Blackhawks (seven
men who've been living and working together since the days of Tojo and Hitler,
f'chrissakes) spending several pages per issue reminding one another of how
bloody much they mean to one another...?]
"Possibly, she may have some talents, but writing TITAN and BAT characters isn't one of them."
Well, hell, Rupert: somedamnedbody awarded the lady the
coveted silver loving cup, back when the question actually came up, back
on the TITANS boards.
Again --
(... and Unca doesn't want anyone -- least of all Rupert, now; you hear, Rupe? -- should take any of Unca's responses, here, as condemnation either or Rupert or his opinions; we're jes' talkin', here, is all)
-- she GOT the gig on the strength of "Just Like Riding A Bicycle"; a story focusing upon one TITANS character (Donna Troy) and one BAT character (Dick Grayson).
I mean: who's kidding whom, here...?
"It's interesting that you don't like Starfire, because fans of Dixon-Nightwing loathe her - they hate her. Dixon has done his best to extirpate her memory."
Good.
"Nightwing shacked up with her fifteen years, but Dixon gives her -- or Dick Grayson's previous girlfriends -- nary a mention. And the Dixon fans like it that way."
Well... c'mon, though, Rupert.
Unca finds it perfectly plausible that one might be a Nightwing fan of
ANY stripe or vintage, ultimately -- say, a Dennis O'Neil "Nightwing
fan," or an Alan Grant "Nightwing fan" -- and still intensely
dislike (as does Unca, obviously) the wide-eyed and chirpily... ummmmm... pneumatic
"Hello!-I-Am-A-Space-Bimbo! LUV ME!" Starfire.
Now: Unca is painfully aware, of course -- and, if he hadn't been before now, the e-mails these past two weeks would have handily disabused him of that notion -- that offering said opinion numbers one as First Heretic, insofar as the TITANS faithful are concerned.
It is a concretized article of faith, in fact, within said circles,
that Roundly Disliking Starfire is tantamount to confessing a deep-seated abhorrence
towards puppies; kittens; li'l baby bunnies; and the greater portion of Jewel's
musical catalogue, entire.
(... and this has always plain ol' puzzled the holy heck outta Unca, just so long as we're on the subject; given that such an overwhelming percentage of organized TITANS fandom is distaff, in nature, I mean. Doesn't the whole smarmy concept of chesty, oh-so-innocent alien princesses greedily lip-locking with the first thing sporting tights and a "Y" chromosome they see, upon arriving planetside, strike any women out there as being kindasorta... oh, I dunno... a freakin' adolescent male SEX FANTASY, ultimately -- ?!?
(I mean: I'm. Just. Sayin'.)
"I will say that you've spurred me into getting off my ass and writing another article for FANZING, this time on Dick Grayson. Writing this mail has produced a result in that it's helped me clarify a few themes."
... and Unca -- for real; no foolin' -- eager looks forward to reading
it, Rupert!
"Before I forget. You write that:
[Well into the dramatically dire (and less charitably recalled) "second half" of author Wolfman's TITANS tenure -- in which more than one significant storytelling miscue was made, along the way ("Kole"...? DANNY CHASE -- ?!?) -- the formerly fascinating and alluring Raven was "neutered," thematically; "cured" of her uniquely daemonic tendencies, and transmogrified, forthwith, into just another sappy "let-me-share-my-
feeeeeeeelings-with-you-for-eighteen-or-twenty-pages" types so weirdly beloved by a certain stripe of comics fan, nowadays.
[@#$% it. This is comics.
[Unca Sez: bring the bitch back. ]
"Unca Cheeks, where were you in the Dark Raven period? For the last fifty or so issues of THE TITANS, Raven was turned into a demon- bitch again. She died in the "Titans Hunt" period, came back to life, trashed Nightwing and Starfire's wedding, turned other Titans -- including Changeling and a Nightwing clone -- into demons, and attempted to take over the universe.
"The story arc was incredibly long, impossibly dreary, damn silly and is remembered and loathed by all TITANS fans. It finished off the Titans book and Wolfman's career in comics. Nowadays, you only need to whisper 'Dark Raven arc' into the ear of any TITANS fan and watch them shudder."
Unca shamefacedly confesses that -- so unrelievedly awful and beyond hope of
salvaging he found the aforementioned "Titans Hunt" -- that he promptly
dropped the title, upon said arc's conclusion; and (thus) was spared all recounted
nonsense regarding "Nightwing clones" and the like. (... although he is
much pleased, certainly, that Dick Grayson was spared the ultimate indignity
of being wedlocked to an ambulatory inflatable space "love doll.")
Nonetheless, Rupert -- regardless of how beyond the pale the (re-)corrupted Raven may have been thus rendered, by author Wolfman; Unca simply flat-out refuses to even so much as countenance the possibility that said character might ever have been a nigh-legendary a four-color feebette as the simpering and ineffectual "White Raven," all things being equal.
I mean: some things are well and truly beyond all imagining, ultimately.
Point Irrefutable: Raven was NEVER more fascinating or hypnotic a character than she was in those first fourty-five or so issues of the Wolfman/Perez TITANS run.
End of sentence. End of paragraph. End of story.
Finally, then: it falls to TITANS Fan Numero Uno Nicolas Juzda to enter the squared circle opposite Unca, re: all things appropriately TITANS-ish.
(... and Unca would just like to take this opportunity to apologize to good
Nicolas -- as well as both Charles and Rupert, earlier -- for mercilessly editing
their incredibly well-thought out [but incredibly lengthy] letters, throughout
this exercise. It's just that Unca would like to finish this column
sometime before the onset of the next millennium, is all.]
"EVERY Titans line-up of note has been led by [Nightwing]. The sole
exceptions are the post ZERO HOUR thing that lasted until Jurgens' equally lame replacement for the Titans.
"Any man who would take Dick Grayson out of the Titans might as
well take Captain America out of the Avengers. Any group that calls
itself the Titans sans D.G. is deluding themselves. And any comic that
solicits in Previews under the name TITANS without Master Grayson is just marking time until he gets back."
This is probably as good a place as any, really, for mean ol' heretical Unca
to cheese off any of the TITANS vanguard still reading, at this juncture, by
baldly stating that -- in his estimation, at any rate -- there simply
aren't any "essential" Titans, the way there incontestably are
(say) "essential" JUSTICE LEAGUErs, or "essential" AVENGERS.
In the instance of the JLA, for instance: the whole editorial raison d'être in the first place is: "The World's Greatest Super-Heroes." That means, obviously (in DC's case) Superman and the Batman, at barest minimum.
The Avengers, on the other hand -- who (again, in Unca's opinion) cab
fairly lay better claim to being "family" than can the Titans, what with
the long-running Vision/Scarlet Witch/Wonder Man triangle;
the Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch brother/sister act; the marriage
of Hank and Janet Pym; etcetera, etcetera -- boasts characters
who were specifically created to act as "anchors" for said team, over
the long haul. (The Vision being the most prominent of these, certainly;
and leave us not forget that Kirby and Lee resurrected Captain America
within said comics' pages for a clear and specific reason, of course.)
The Titans, on the other hand...?
Dick Grayson is, indisputably, a "bat"-character. (Anyone wishing
to contest this observation is more than welcome to take the matter up with
Jerry Robinson.) Wally West graduated from said team into
the BIG "league," for goodness sakes. And Donna Troy is... well...
is anybody's guess, quite frankly. Whomever she's supposed
to be, today. (Probably Hawkman, at this rate. I
dunno.)
Of the original foursome, then... that just leaves Garth. And Unca done went and included him, all right...?
(... and, of course: all of this is incidental, surely, to the
reality of said series' actual, baseline premise, from Day One: that of the characters within being y-o-u-n-g "JLAers-in-waiting."
And -- as presently extrapolated, at any rate -- the Original Four are
kinda sorta long in the tooth to play the eager, still-learning spandexed
tyros.)
"I know you feel he is better served as a Bat-character. Well, he was a Bat-character for decades before he was in the Titans (as you yourself point out, elsewhere on this site) and ALL the finest and most
memorable moments starring him prior to his ongoing series occurred with the Teen Titans in some incarnation. [...] He made Dick grow up. He made him a character in his own right, not the second half of "Batman and Robin" who never did much but punch out henchmen and tell awful puns. He made Dick a detective (see "Who Is Donna Troy"). He made him a leader (see... any TITANS, actually). He made him Bruce's equal (see the BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS/TITANS crossover and TALES #50). And, yes, he gave him a relationship."
Nic and I have already gone over this point, hammer and tongs, via e-mail; so I trust he won't overmuch mind Unca repeating himself, here (or the way Unca phrases same, in good-natured rebuttal)...
... but: migawd! This is precisely the sort of blinkered,
wholesale historical revisionism which leaps most frequently to mind, unbidden,
whenever Unca thinks of TITANS fandom, overall.
In order, then:
*** Dick Grayson "grew up" in BATMAN #217 ["One Bullet Too Many";
December, 1969; Frank Robbins, author], when the character was -- all
of a sudden, like -- unilaterally progressed to college age, and shipped
off to Hudson University. Not a TITANS "moment," obviously.
*** Similarly, Dick Grayson has been a "detective" virtually since his
inception; routinely solving his own bloody CASES, mind, within
the pages of his long-running solo strip in STAR-SPANGLED COMICS, circa
the '40s (among other venues). Again: nothing convincingly TITANS-ish
there.
*** Of course, Dick Grayson was "a leader" long, looooonnnnnng
before author Wolfman got anywhere within eighteen or twenty miles of
said character. Unless Unca was just plain ol'... whaddyacallit... hallucinating
all of those Bob Haney and Steve Skeates issues of the original
TITANS run, I mean.
*** Dick Grayson also enjoyed no fewer than three romantic relationships, prior to the coming of She-Whose-Brains-All-Reside-
Within-Her-Mammaries: Bette [BATGIRL] Kane, throughout
the '50s; longtime college girlfriend Lori Elton, courtesy of author
Mike Friedrich; and Barbara [BATGIRL] Gordon, within the
pages of Bob Rozakis' BATMAN FAMILY. (Unca's read himself a whooooooole
lotta "Bat"-books over the years, you see.)
*** ... and, of course: no one, EVER, is truly the
Batman's "equal." F'chrissakes, Nic.
" [...] despite the fact that I know this will hurt my pro-Dick arguments -- "
Boy... and people call me Mr. Potty Mouth -- !
" -- I actually think that the Titans were not so much a "JLAers in Training" as a peer group for teenage heroes. They seemed more intent on hanging out and kidding each other than Realizing Their Full Potential.
"I am aware that it follows that the TTs of today should also be a
peer group of teenage heroes, and Dick would be the old geezer ruining the fun. But I think that the original niche of the Titans has been somewhat co-opted by YOUNG JUSTICE, freeing the Titans up from original conceptual limits. Your opinion may differ."
Another way of looking at this, however, is: had the hardcore TITANS faithful not stubborn (and -- if truth be told -- somewhat selfishly, in Unca's estimation) absolutely insisted upon said imaginary characters "growing up" to begin with: the team's rightful position within the DCU hierarchy might never have been "co-opted" in the first bloody place... si?
Which is as neat a counter-argument as any, really, versus this whole fannish "let the characters age 'realistically' " folderol.
Eventually -- like it or not -- SOMEbody's gonna "age" 'em right outta
the time and place where you most liked 'em, as a fan of long standing.
And then where are you huh? I'm askin', here.
As you all can plainly see, then: people had a whole lotta "issues" with Unca's projected TITANS line-up, really...
... none of which, however -- upon the most sober and considered reflection,
these past few weeks -- have done much to actually convince Unca that he is/was
wrong, in this particular instance.
Again, in summation:
*** ... longtime TITANS loyalists -- clearly; demonstrably -- desire nothing so much, ultimately, as they do for Things To Stay Exactly The Same As They Were Back Then, during the heady, halcyonic days of the Wolfman/Perez era. (Note, for instance, all the fannish scowling and high dudgeon over the "Dick'n'Kory" issue; an ideological stance -- it should be pointed out -- studiedly and forevermore at odds with the simultaneously cherished "let 'em grow" dictum, by the by.)
This may well be the best bestest approach, TITANS-wise, for all Unca
knows. (Unca lost his fabled omniscience, you see, in the wake of that
tragic accident in his youth; the one involving the gardening shears, and the
sackful of kittens.)
However: Everything The Same, Forever And Ever, World Without End, Amen wasn't the approach said writer/artist combo opted for, back in the golden day; and look how well that turned out.
Look at it this way, people:
Could an infusion of "fresh blood," via roster makeover, actually hurt
matters any, right about now...?
*** ... too: it might just be time (or well past it) for said faithful to bite the storytelling bullet, and allow as how maybe -- just maybe, mind -- the incessantly "touchy-feelie," bleeding-hearts-on-each-and-every-
character's-sleeve" held in such apparent high esteem by those sitting in the first few pews might actually serve as something of a major turn-off, insofar as the newer parishioners in the rest of the church are concerned.
Unca sometimes fancies (based upon a plurality of the messages he sees posted on the various message boards; as well as some of the... ummmmm... riper fanfic making the rounds) that the average longtime TITANS loyalist would love nothing better than for each and every TITANS comic to be something along the storytelling lines of a Donna Troy "Wedding Issue," or yet another tiresome "Who Is Donna Troy" offering; all long, heart-tugging conversations and in-depth ruminations upon earlier installments within the published canon, in other words.
(I mean... be stone honest with Unca, now, TITANS people: if the
very next issue were to be advertised, in the PREVIEWS catalogue, as
"Who Is Donna Troy? [Mark IV] PLUS: A Titan Gets
MARRIED!"... you'd all be lined up three feet deep at the cash register,
wouldn't you...?)
Well: guess what, folks...?
That is -- really and truly -- one unremittingly lousy way to run a storytelling railroad; assuming one has any bloody interest whatsoever in appealing to (and selling to) any potential readership larger than yourselves, ultimately.
Seeing as how it's all but calculated to make any TITANS fledgling or
"newbie" feel like an intruder upon the four-color proceedings, I mean.
... but: this is a discussion we've had many times before, hereabouts, certainly; concerning other comics, and their respective hardcore constituencies.
Fine. Fine, then. Go right on ahead and let the bloody title morph, via fannish consensus, into the Lobdell X-MEN, writ small. See if Unca cares.
Unca has the whole of the first TEEN TITANS run to read and read
again, after all.
As always, crew: Unca seriously doubts whether any other comics site out there enjoys a better, more literate and thought-provoking readership, pound for putative pound.
You all certainly work double overtime, keeping Unca on his rhetorical toes, at any rate.
Keep it up, willya...?
"MORE COMIC BOOKS," YOU SAY...?
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