The Renegade Robins Club is taking a break from the Bat! And what do teenage superheroes do on the weekends? They hang with the Teen Titans! As Jason makes his transition from one side of the Crisis reboot to the other, he takes a little time to fill in for Nightwing!
Dick Grayson’s origin is retold for the post-Crisis audience in Secret Origins #13 (set right before the stories we’re reading this week). According to one panel in the story, Jason Todd’s origin remains unchanged…for now.
We are starting with New Teen Titans #20, but Jason very, very briefly appears in issues #18-19. He then briefly goes back home in #24 before returning for the second mission.
Background
At this point in the ongoing Titans saga, Starfire has been married off to a fellow Tamaranean, Karras. Dick Grayson doesn’t agree to be Kori’s partner on the side.
Jason Todd will return to Batman and Detective Comics in two weeks. Meanwhile, be on the lookout for more of Damian Wayne’s shenanigans next week as he joins in the Battle For the Cowl in the wake of Batman RIP!
That panel of Jason daydreaming about being sixteen is heartbreaking knowing that he dies before his 16th birthday (According to his death certificate idk if that’s still canon though).
Yeah. This arc in general is a peek into what could have been if things had played out a little differently. Unfortunately, some of the upcoming writers were in the “Batman doesn’t need a Robin” camp in the late 80s, and we know the results of that attitude.
He seemed more light-hearted to me in these issues. A lot of what we’ve been reading lately really showcases his abandonment complex, where he’s super concerned about Batman ignoring him in favor of Catwoman. In these Titans issues, he seems pretty overjoyed to have a place to belong.
I really liked that he finally told Donna to stop treating him like Dick Grayson. I also like that he pretty much saved the day by getting to Raven with her momma.
I enjoyed the aspects of his character that we’re brought out by him hanging out with others closer to his age. I would definitely have enjoyed new time with him with the team.
Not the Outsiders, at least not in anything other than a guest spot. The JLI would have made a joke out of him. A future adventure with the Legion would have been cool.
Brother Blood was more entertaining to me than Cheshire. As far as favorite issue, I don’t have one…my favorite moment was the one mentioned above when Jason and Donna have the conversation that leads to him pointing out he’s just a wee tyke.
Yeah, that was the highlight for me, too. Honestly, this wasn’t my favorite New Teen Titans story (or even close), but I did enjoy Jason’s dynamic with the team–and how it both paralleled and departed from Dick’s dynamic with them.
Marv Wolfman had what he has called the worst writer’s block of his life, at much the same time as he balked at the editorial direction he was being given. After completing what some consider the greatest super-hero story of all time, something about a Crisis, he had left his own ongoing Titans series a bit of a shambles in the process-- not intentionally, but the new Earth changes did hurt New Teen Titans. And, an extremely gifted sequential artist, Eduardo Barreto, was proving pretty darn wrong for the book. Paul Levitz was not above “filling in” for a couple of issues to cool DC’s writers down.
Jason here sounds a bit to much like Dick to be honest. As happy as I was to see Jason working with the Titans I couldn’t help but feel like he was more like a stand in for Dick’s Robin and not his own character here. I much prefer Moench’s take.
The dynamic was okay but again it felt like Jason acting like Dick rather than being himself even in the second story. Honestly I wasn’t a fan of the Teen Titans at the time and it really hasn’t aged that well so I doubt I would read more.
The Legion of Superheroes could have been interesting to see. I would have also liked to have seen Jason on JLI.
I liked the second story better but to be honest I don’t care for Brother Blood as a villain so I liked Cheshire better.
Moench’s version is certainly more complex than Wolfman’s (and more complex than most people seem to give it credit for, but that’s a different discussion). Still, I liked the juxtaposition between the experienced Nightwing and the novice Robin, especially when the Titans failed to remember which one they were dealing with on this mission.
How does Marv Wolfman’s take on Jason Todd compare to the versions we’ve seen from Gerry Conway and Doug Moench?
It’s definitely not as deep, though I suppose it’s understandable considering this is a guest spot in a team book that’s already full of established characters. I would say that nothing felt terribly wrong or out of character for Jason during this time. Like @ralphsix said, his eagerness to be part of the group does seem to fit with Jason’s abandonment issues as we see in Moench’s run.
How do you feel about Jason’s dynamic with the other Titans? Would you want to read more of these stories if they existed?
Like others have said, I liked how he had to deal with Dick’s legacy and having to tell them that he’s not Dick and they shouldn’t just treat him like he is just because he’s wearing similar short-pants. That said, I did like that they didn’t belittle him and call him a little kid too much, and he was able to do considerable things to save the day in both missions.
What other teams would you like to see Jason join? The Outsiders? The Legion of Super-Heroes? The JLI?
The Outsiders could have been interesting to see for an arc – I could imagine there being some interesting stuff with, say, Halo and having a crime fighter companion who’s her age for once. The Legion would have been cool. JLI would also have been interesting to see – I imagine Giffen/Dematteis would have done some interesting things with the more spunky, Post-Crisis take on Jason, they were really good at making jerkass characters fun and lovable.
Which story from this session did you enjoy the most? Who was your favorite villain?
I actually liked both stories pretty well. While it was cool to see in the first mission the first introduction of Roy’s relationship with Cheshire and their son together, I’ll still have to go with the second mission as my favorite. While it was a little slow in the beginning as the team keeps invading and retreating from Zandia like superheroic Wile E Coyotes, once the story picks up as Brother Blood is resurrected, it really starts to pick up. Because of that, I’ll also have to choose Blood as best villain of the missions.
