Teen Titans #12, DC Comics, Sep-Oct 1967

1967... While Apollo is in full swing, NASA is using its old Mercury crafts to send a radio DJ into space for more than a week. It's no wonder the Russians are winning the space race! It's all going fine, and kids around the entire world can dance to his music simultaneously, until he starts sending coded maydays. Wonder Girl realizes something's wrong with her sense of Amazon timing and it's Titans to the rescue before D.J. Deejay is pulled off the air and into the void.

But what's the trouble? Robin believes DJ is being watched, but Aqualad chalks it up to watching too much Batman on TV... I don't even know how to understand this statement, so I won't try. Thanks to DJ's messages, the Titans are able to intercept a cowboy stealing Mount Rushmore with a raygun.
This is the work of "The Deliverer" who "always delivers on time". After evading capture, he tries to steal the Sphinx and manages to hurl it into orbit where DJ is being held hostage by... "Aliens! That's the answer to everything! Aliens stealing Earth's greatest monuments." Yes, that IS the answer to everything. Excluding the question of WHY?!?, of course. Don't worry, the aliens are defeated, the Sphinx is brought back to Earth, and the DJ is alive and well.

Now, you may think that it's pretty ridiculous for NASA to send a DJ into outer space, but there are plenty of other things that are different in the Haneyverse compared to our world (or indeed, any reasonable comic book world):

1) Everyone has always called their transport the Titan-Copter, but the door to its hanger calls it the Teen-Copter. And later, Robin calls it the Bat-Copter, though it does say Teen Titans on the side. A rose by any other name, I guess.

2) Human flesh can withstand the rigors of outer space, so long as you've got an air supply.

3) The Nile is full of giant statues as yet undiscovered by archaeologists as well as "pharaoh-sized" crocodiles.
4) NASA makes Mercury modules that fit four.

5) The Sphinx is much smaller than you'd expect.
6) Cutting the cheese is a good way to kill vultures.
1967... The year NASA went broke, but we danced all night and day to some groovin' tunes. 2007... 40 years later, I end it all on a fart joke.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hehe, there was a D.J called DJ DeeJay this weekend at the improv tournament too.
Siskoid said…
Yes! I noticed that too!

What were the chances?

You played a good tournament Pout, by the way. My utmost respect and felicitations.