BRONZE AGE MINUTE: Teen Titans #31
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Title: “To Order Is to Destroy”
Synopsis: During a campus visit, Kid Flash discovers that the student body is being controlled via an experimental brain operation.
Writer: Steve Skeates
Penciler: George Tuska
Inker: Nick Cardy
Review: This story is ripped from the headlines but unsure of what it’s trying to say. Is it an attack on the establishment? An indictment of the American college system? A critique of the youth culture’s inability to stay dedicated to change? This one practically screams “RELEVANCY!” Credit for effort, though.
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Title: “From One to Twenty!”
Synopsis: While on separate stakeouts in search of crimes, Hawk and Dove stumble across a counterfeiting racket.
Writer: Steve Skeates
Penciler: George Tuska
Inker: Nick Cardy
Review: This convoluted counterfeiting plot meanders but ends as most of this duo’s stories do: with Hawk punching and Dove ducking.
Grade (for the entire issue): C+
Second opinion: “Can we pretend this story didn’t happen? … 2-1/2 out of 4 stars.” – Craig Shutt, Comics Buyer’s Guide #1603 (April 2005) … Included on Alan Brightmore’s “Individual Comics That You Should Not Be Without” list, from “A Consumer’s Guide to D.C. Comics, Part 2,” Comics Unlimited #51 (October-November 1979)
Cool factor: Oh, that awesome, awkward tone. Props to the old Teen Titans for always trying to reach “the youth.”
Notable: The “Tell It to the Titans” letters page includes an LOC from future comic book pro Duffy Vohland.
Character quotable: “Is the will of the majority really that weak? Is it really that easily subverted?” – Kid Flash (or maybe Speedy; it’s hard to tell them apart out of costume this issue)
Copyright ©2023 Off the Wahl Productions, all rights reserved. Each week, T. Andrew Wahl offers up a Bronze Age Minute. For more reviews like this one, check out Wahl’s website, offthewahl.com.
