Speedy's back, but he's still not a full member. I don't know if it's the heroin talking, but he keeps referring to himself as the guest-star and looking into the distance at hallucinations he calls his "readers". It's a sad thing. Say no to drugs, kids!Speaking of drugs, I love the "Life in Titans' Lair" portion of these comics. This time around, it's the return of the Titans' bulletin board. They're now showcasing message from famous people like the Beatles and President Johnson. More interesting is the last note...
So apparently: 1) They have phones on Paradise Island. 2) Hippolyta has some way of eavesdropping on her teenage daughter. 2.5) Or maybe she reads the comic every month. In the Haneyverse, this is actually possible. 3) Hippolyta feels her daughter is wearing entire too much make-up for her age. This is apparently a universal problem going back 3000 years.As for the story, the Titans answer the distress call of a boy genius (175 IQ) who won "the coolest summer job of all" for his hard work. That job? "Guest student assistant" for some great scientist who works alone on a secluded island in the Pacific Northwest. The kids must've been ripping each others' throats to get that one, eh? The problem, as we'll find out, is two-fold. First, some enemy spy is forcing the kid to steal and hand over top secret research (more on this later). Second, there's a big fire-breathing sea snake that looks like Cecil (of Beany and Cecil fame) in the lake surrouding the island.
Speaking of Guest Students, Speedy returns, so you know what that means:
Somebody overdoses at the beach party and the Titans have to hold an impromptu burial.
Nooooooooooo. What it actually means is that we get to see a bunch of neat trick arrows. My favorite:
The retriver arrow! I like it cuz it's got a fishing line attached to a reel on the side of the quiver. We also get drill arrows (for sinking boats), a submerging torpedo arrow (I bet that one sees a lot of use), and a monster-tamer arrow that blows up the sea snake revealing a team of scuba divers.
What this would have done to an "actual" monster will be a mystery for another day. I also won't ask how scuba divers could control this thing to make it look like Nessie. No, the real question is why the big reveal had to be spoiled on the cover (where the snake is much more mechanical, incidently). Was ADD alive and well in the 60s that they thought the kids would forget it by page 19? (I did, but that's neither here nor there.)
So what was the top secret research? The formula for nerve gas. Yep. Top scientist offers student summer employment for high IQ teenager whose interests include chemistry and genocide. Apply at Some Lonely Island Far From Your Parents or the Police. Which brings up the point that the well-armed spies should have just been able to stroll into the lab and take the file.
But seriously, how many fire-breathing robot Cecils would that have required?
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