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Darcey McLaughlin - Geek World

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We are back with our continuing look at The New Teen Titans. Time for the Judas Contract.

The storyline involved a contract by the organization HIVE given to Deathstroke to take out the Titans. Feeling the Titans were responsible for his son's death, Deathstroke agreed and used his teenaged lover Terra to infiltrate the team and figure out their secrets.

Eventually Deathstroke strikes, taking out the Titans one by one, capturing all but Dick Grayson, who for several issues went without a costumed identity after giving up the Robin role.

The storyline is a turning point for the Titans for several reasons. For one it introduces the Nightwing identity for Grayson, an identity he maintains to this day. It also saw the introduction of Jericho.

The character is Deathstroke's other son. Made mute by one of his father's enemies, Joseph is a softhearted and gentle soul who is an artist. He has the power to take over others' bodies by making eye contact with them.

He joins forces with Nightwing and they are able to rescue the Titans, but Terra dies in the process and Jericho becomes a Titan.

The success of the Titans prompted DC to start a new The New Teen Titans title using higher quality paper and available exclusively through comic shops or subscription. For little more than a year DC published the original book as Tales of the Teen Titans before cancelling it.

The book would eventually become just The New Titans. But it would finally run out of steam. Towards the end of the run, the book began to take on characters who had never had anything to do with the Titans again and the book would end with issue No.130 in 1996.

Since then, DC has tried several times to return the Titans to its former glory as one of their top books. During the 90s there was the Team Titans, a group from the future featuring a version of Terra. It lasted two years.

DC's next attempt was a complete departure with an entirely new team lead by a teenaged Atom (don't ask). That failed miserably.

Then there was The Titans featuring adult team members from various versions of the Titans. Originally written by controversial writer Devin Grayson, the book failed to catch on with fans. It hung around for four years before being cancelled.

DC's last attempt was in 2003 when uber popular writer Geoff Johns launched Teen Titans, a new book with a mix of new legacy characters, like Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash, with older mentors like Beast Boy and Cyborg and a reborn, younger version of Raven.

The book returned the Teen Titans to the top 10 in sales and was very well received by critics. Johns was able to bring back the glory days of the Wolfman/Perez Titans but without copying it.

Unfortunately, factors outside of the book, ones seen in DC's major event titles, have taken a toll on the Titans. Johns would also eventually leave the book. While it is still a solid read and a good seller, the quality has slipped recently.

There is also a new Titans title featuring the adult Titans members. It launched in April. The reviews and sales have not been great but the company still seems committed to the book — for now.

Back to the tower

That's it for this week. Want to weigh in on the Titans? Contact me at mclaughlin.darcey@miramichileader.com or look me up on Facebook.