Teen Titans #10, DC Comics, July-Aug 1967

What appears to be a fireman on a motorbike? Welcome to the Teen Titans. First, three things of note from the fluff piece that is "Scramble at Wildcat":

1) After a couple issues showing the Titans' copter fly out of a billboard announcing the Batman TV show (which makes me wonder how the heroes' secret identities are handled on DCTV), Bob Haney finally seems to have watched an episode as he gives Robin a "Holy $#!T, Batman!" moment (sans Batman).
2) After teasing us with the Titans' scooters and having them hitch rides on the underside of trucks for a while, the Titans finally earn their licenses for real*. Robin gets a Bat-Cycle all his own, and Aqualad drives Archie's jalopy. It gets all the mermaids hot for his ultra-dense bones.
3) Wildcat (Ted Grant) is not in this story. It's the name of a town. Boo. Hiss.

So basically, Robin gets invited to a motorbike race in an oil ghost town which gets crashed by some bikers, including Scorcher, the guy on the cover. He's pretty dangerous with a hog and makes all the nice teens crash, drops Wonder Girl down a mineshaft, makes an avalanche fall on Robin, and straps Aqualad on the hood of a car in the scorching heat. (It was a bit irresponsible of the Titans to bring Garth to the desert, if you ask me.) As for Kid-Flash, they use "Mirage Mesa" to take him out.
Apparently, there's this area in the desert where things on one spot appear to be in another, like some natural Hall of Mirrors. Wha-!?! Oh, I forgot! It's a Bob Haney comic. I'm not supposed to notice the physics.

Anyway, the Titans escape their predicaments and defeat the bikers. We also learn a couple of things about Wonder Girl: Her bracelets can glow in the dark, and she was in the Paradise Island girl scouts where she learned to draw water from a cactus. I'm not kidding. Hey, Bob Haney basically invented the character, he can do what he wants with her, right? Best moment though:
If you're gonna be an acrobat with a license...

Scorcher gets caught in a fire and starts pleading like a little girl ("Sombody... save innocent little me!") - oh the irony - and the best teen racer learns a valuable lesson about respecting his grandfather in a subplot I won't bore you with - cue violins. Hey, only 5 more TT stories to go before I switch Showcases!

*I know they've been piloting the helicopter for a long while, but as everyone knows, there's no age limit on when you can earn that particular license. Or is that just Another Damned Lie My Father Told Me(TM) when I was growing up?

Comments

Mélanie said…
It's another damned lie your father told you ;)

http://www.helicopterscanada.com/tcguide.html
Anonymous said…
Here is the info from the official Transport Canada Site:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/general/personnel/gen.htm

Are you surprised your Dad told you lies? He was a Doctor, no?

Ehhhh...
Anonymous said…
Here is the link from
Transport Canada

My HTML is rusty