COVER STORY: New Teen Titans #38
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What makes the best comic book covers? It is a great topic for debate. For us, as individuals, there is no wrong answer, of course; it is purely subjective. But, with a little thought it’s possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best images are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously planning to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.
It is a story about family – blood and otherwise. And it is also a classic mystery; hence all-star illustrator George Pérez’s brilliant noir cover for his and co-creator Marv Wolfman’s The New Teen Titans #38…an atmospheric, painted comic book cover that both collectors and fans fondly remember to this day.
In “Who is Donna Troy,” the Titans’ de-facto leader Dick Grayson, in his final outing as Robin the Teen Wonder, pits his detective skills to good use by giving Troy/Wonder Girl – one of his oldest and closest friends – the perfect gift. It seems that Robin wants to finally discover his friend’s mysterious past, for both her and him, and does so by piecing one clue together after another.
The character of Wonder Girl was originally envisioned to be a younger version of the DC’s Amazing Amazon, just as the original Superboy was the Man of Tomorrow when he was a lad. Yet, the adventures of Wonder Woman’s younger self – be it Wonder Girl or Wonder Tot – was presented under the pretense of being an “Impossible Tale.” But when DC Comics banded its teen sidekicks together as the Teen Titans inside the pages of The Brave and the Bold, the publisher included Troy as Wonder Girl in the mix, introducing comic book readers to a new heroine without a past.
As far as the excellence of The New Teen Titans, a comic book series that has stood the test of time by both thrilling and delighting readers for decades, it can be seen on the very cover of this book. Of course, wait until you read what Wolfman and Pérez have in store for readers within it pages. It’s well worth the price of this still sought-after book.
–Scott Braden