Looking for Teen Titans #13? I spoiled that one thoroughly on Christmas (actually, The Christmas Carol spoiled it before that). You can check it out here.1968 opens with a story that is vastly more sophisticated than the patently ridiculous stories of the past 2 years. It's non-linear, mostly told in flashback, and that flashback starts with shots of the empty halls of Titans' Lair... and then you start to hear voices from the past before the images resolve themselves as well.
That is pretty fancy stuff for the writer that brought us an orbiting DJ and a teen caveman! Maybe it's artist Nick Cardy's influence, as I've always found him willing to experiment with panel shapes, etc. Doesn't always work, but at least he tries. In this case, it works beautifully.The story is about the Gargoyle, a villain who's been brought to justice by the Titans in the past, unjustly he claims, and wants revenge on them. Who is he? Nobody knows. Not fat enough to be Ding-Dong Daddy Dowd. Not British enough to be the Mad Mod. Not stupid enough to be the Scorcher. Who else is there? Mr. Twister? The Separated Man? One of the Flips? Shakespeare's evil twin? Akkuru the caveman? A member of Diablo? The Ant? Baltzer the Beast Master? The spy who loved Honey Bun? Captain Tiger? The Deliverer? Scrounge? Speedy, high on crystal meth? I'll let you guess*, but it's not revealed in this issue.
A subplot in Teen Titans OTHER than Hippolyta trying to micro-manage Wonder Girl's life? That IS surprisingly sophisticated!
"Don't forget to polish bracelets" Nag nag nag.
Anyway, Gargoyle's plan is to set the Titans against each other as to who is responsible for the Gargoyle's alleged frame-up. All suspicion falls on Robin, and the Gargoyle uses mistrust as a catalyst for sending the Teens to Limbo, a ghostly dimension where he can control them. Robin too gets sent to Limbo in an intense opening scene where he throws his costume into an open grave and gives in to evil.
But wait! He was only acting! And if you can believe that actors can just become Two-Face at will when Tommy Lee Jones never managed it in Batman Forever, then you will believe Robin can screw over the Gargoyle (a second time?) in this story. One fight in Limbo later and the Gargoyle loses his magic ring, gets lost between dimensions and the Titans are all back to normal. Yay!
Bonus Cardy panel I love: Robin fighting across today's headlines.
Oh yeah, that's classic.*Comic book geeks and dirty cheaters who immediately went to some wiki or encyclopedia may not participate in this guessing game.
Comments
"I'll let you guess*,"
Your asterisk doesn't refer to a footnote.
Where is the footnote?
We, as blog readers, are entitled to our footnotes, goodameet! You can't put an asterisk and not the footnote! Wake up Siskoid!
SHOW ME THE FOOTNOTE!
Huh, so it would have to be someone they thought readers would be excited about. Well, Mr. Twister was the first villain, so that's something going for him, and whatever happened to him was pretty open ended, so those both go for him. I can't think of why the hell he'd suddenly be a gargoyle, but since it is still Bob Haney, I'll go with it. Probably wrong though.