New Teen Titans #32-37 + New Teen Titans Annual #2
Originally released in 1983
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art by George Perez
The Teen Titans are struggling with lots of personal issues, with Wally West and Dick Grayson feeling particularly lost, and questioning if they should even be superheroes given what else has been going on in their lives. Raven's still afraid of demonic possession, Starfire is concerned about the status of her relationship with Dick, and Cyborg's upset after finding out that the woman that he loves is engaged.
Meanwhile, Terra slowly becomes more accepted by the Teen Titans. She's frustrated, because she's not treated like a full member and doesn't even know the names of the other members of the group. (they all know each other's secret identities, but refer to each other by codenames around Terra) However, Terra sets out to prove herself by fighting Deathstroke. She does well both on her own and when the rest of the team shows up, doing better than the rest of the team. While Deathstroke gets away, Terra manages to become a more trusted member of the group.
...exactly as Deathstroke planned it. It was revealed sooner than I expected, but in these issues, we discover that Terra has been working for Deathstroke the entire time to infiltrate the Teen Titans, learn their secrets, and help Deathstroke destroy them.
Robin's issues with being a superhero aren't helped by the district attorney Adrian Chase, who uses Robin's status as law enforcement to go after a mobster who had been selling drugs to kids. When this gets Adrian's wife and family killed and Adrian himself on the verge of death, Chase becomes the killer known as Vigilante. (I'm not sure if he was intended to be a Punisher reference or not - their backstories and modus operandi are very similar)
Throughout these issues, mobsters and mercenaries are getting information from an enigmatic being known as "The Monitor". The seeds of Crisis On Infinite Earths are being sown here, though it seems out of character for the Monitor (who's trying to save the multiverse) to sell his information broker services to gangsters. (from what I recall, it's explained in Crisis)
The Monitor hires a group of mercenaries to fight the Teen Titans and kill mobsters who refused to pay him for information, though I only recognized one of them, a woman named Cheshire. From what little I've seen of the Young Justice cartoon, she has a major role in that, though I don't know if she's as important in the comics or not.
Roy Harper also makes a brief appearance in the first few issues here, though I'm shown very little to make me like him. I'm sure he's a better person in solo books or Green Arrow issues, but here, he forces himself on Starfire and doesn't seem too concerned with helping the Titans.
Jason Todd also makes a cameo appearance, though he's borderline unrecognizable. It feels like the Teen Titans side of Dick's life and the Batman side don't overlap, though maybe that's my lack of familiarity with most of DC's history talking.
Despite the personal problems that the various characters face throughout these issues, some of them wind up in a positive place. Donna Troy is engaged to Terry Long, while Cyborg discovers that Sarah Simms isn't actually engaged. (the man who told him that has an unrequited crush on her and, as it turns out, severe issues that cause him to hold a room full of people hostage)
Issue 37 crosses the team over with the Outsiders, who I recently read about in The Other History of the DC Universe. Given that this is a point where Batman's leading the team, and Robin has becoming more Batman-like as this run has gone on, I was concerned about what's going to happen. Naturally, the first meeting between the two teams is a fight, though it's because Terra thinks that the Outsiders kidnapped a doctor who could potentially give away that Terra's been lying about her past. (though none of the Titans need to meet this doctor in order for them to suspect that)
Metamorpho is seemingly the only voice of reason here, though that's because Batman and Robin are elsewhere. In a pleasant surprise, Dick telling Bruce that he's ending their partnership as Batman and Robin is done in a fairly cordial manner, far from the dramatic blow-ups that I've come to expect when Dick makes the jump from Robin to Nightwing - he feels that he's outgrown the role and explains that to Bruce calmly.
Naturally, the two teams work together to take on the Fearsome Five, a group of Teen Titans villains. Somewhat concerningly, Raven is able to use more of her powers as Trigon's focus seems to be elsewhere - that seems like the sort of statement that will come back to haunt the team later. Issue 37 ends on a cliffhanger that will presumably be continued in the pages of "Batman and the Outsiders", but I decided to stop there. Progress is definitely being made as the intrigue rises and a turning point seems just up ahead. "The Judas Contract" is supposed to be a major Teen Titans story, and it starts off in issue 39, so I'm not too far from that point.
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