The New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 2

New Teen Titans (1980) #21-44

by Marv Wolfman, George Pérez (Illustrator)

The New Teen Titans--consisting of the sidekicks to heroes from across the DCU, including Robin, Kid Flash, Donna Troy and more--battle threats large and small and from outside and in. Betrayal comes from one of their own when it's revealed that their teammate Terra is secretly working the Titans' deadly enemy Deathstroke.

The New Teen Titans battle threats large and small in this massive hardcover collecting NEW TEEN TITANS #21-40, TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #41-44, NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1- 2, TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #3 and BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #5.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

736 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1984

About the author

Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A milestone in Comic Books' history


This Hardcover Omnibus edition collects "New Teen Titans" #21-37, #39-44 plus Annuals #1, 2 & 3, also "Batman and the Outsiders" #5.


Creative Team:

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Illustrator: George Perez


NOW THE DREAM IS COMPLETE

My wish of being able to read the best of the best of The New Teen Titans is fulfilled.

When I was initially checking out this gorgeous hardcover volume, I found odd that the issue #38 was missing. Luckily, a couple of months ago I was able to find precisely that issue, The New Teen Titans #38, in a lot of old comics in a local comic book store.

And it was real luck indeed since that issue #38 was precisely Who is Donna Troy?.

Without that issue, I'd have a great missing part on this very thick omnibus edition but it seems indeed that it was destined that I was able to read this great run of comic books. So, if you want to get this edition, take in account that you will need to find the single issue #38 and/or to get too the TPB of Donna Troy's story that I know it exists.

One very good thing of this edition that it contains complete the entire storyline of The Judas Contract that indeed without it, not only you could be missing an important part, it would almost make worthless the entire volume. But don't worry that this second volume contains that epic saga.

There is also a TPB of The Judas Contract in separate printing, so I don't know why they decided to take out Who is Donna Troy? while keeping The Judas Contract.

Anyway, this is a masterpiece yet again in the comic book history, the same as the volume one (see review of that here: New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol 1 ).


A HARD COMING-OF-AGE TO THE CHARACTERS

The process of maturing of this team get levels even more higher than in the first volume.

I was really eager to read this second volume since Terra (aka Tara Markov) is one of my favorite comic book characters. She is introduced on this volume and she became the new member on the team. The only new adition to the roster for the team since its creation so far (talking about properly of New Teen Titans).

Her impact on the team was decisive and her impact on comic book's legacy was historic without any doubt.

Also, this volume presents finally, the older sister of Starfire, the powerful and evil Blackfire (aka Kommand'r), (while technically she appeared in the issue of the origin of Starfire in the previous volume, but as a memory, here she appears in the current run of the title).

The whole creative work for the storyline of the kidnapping of Starfire and the mission for rescuing her was impressive to say the least, since Marv Wolfman and George Perez created a whole star system with deep details that easily can be side-by-side with any Sci-Fi Space Opera in prose novels or theatric films.

This edition contains also my very favorite storyline of all in The New Teen Titans that is the "Runaways" stoyline presented in two issues (that I was real lucky to find in American single issues some months previous to the buying of the Omnibus and that I was able to read when I was a kid in Spanish translated comic book issues), and here, you can read in the collected edition this powerful and down-to-earth story dealing with the sad situation of runaway teenagers facing real life threats.

Their compromise to the realistic in the story was like very few has ever been presented in the comic books' history.

You can watch this powerful team used to deal with alien invasions and interdimensional demons battling against real villains, real scum, nasty people who used teenagers for drug dealing and prostitution.

The rage of the New Teen Titans against this rotten people is without mercy.

Sadly, you would realize that even super-heroes are unable to really put a final stop to such massive social problem.

Powerful story is this "Runaways" storyline.

And of course, you will have "The Judas Contract", the most celebrated and iconic storyline in the run of New Teen Titans and a memorable masterpiece of super-hero comic books' history.

Again, in this second volume, Marv Wolfman and George Perez show how close and personal are the stories to their characters, how painful they mature, and even in victories, many times there is no place to celebrate.

They wouldn't be the same after this.

Growing up isn't possible without pain.

TITANS TOGETHER!

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to start this review by pointing out just how big this omnibus edition is. It's over 700 pages, hardcover, and has over two dozen individual issues of Teen Titans, plus one Batman and the Outsiders from a crossover story. Previously, you would have had to read The New Teen Titans Archives, Vol. 4, Terra Incognito, and The Judas Contract to read them all. What I'm saying here is that this book could double as a deadly weapon in a pinch, provided you can heft it, and is by far the most efficient way to read the entirety of what may be the most famous story told in the pages of Teen Titans: the complete Terra.

Along with the introduction of the Brother Blood cult, and a few issues with Starfire's evil sister, the main draw here is that you get everything from Terra's first appearance to her death. This is one of those stories that leave me wondering what it must have been like to read this at the time, getting only one issue a month. Did the first readers feel betrayed by Terra? Did they spot the immediate signs that not all was right with her? I can see them, but I know what's going to happen here. That doesn't make the story any less compelling to read, thirty years (yes, thirty!) later. Sure, both art and writing are a tad dated, but they're still solid pieces of work. And early 80s fashion or not, Perez's art is always beautiful to look at.

But I did find myself getting a little irritated with apparently dropped storylines. Brother Blood shows up in the first issue in this collection, but the story is seemingly dropped very quickly. And then it's picked back up again after about five issues without mentioning it at all. I am a little sensitive to this, as this kind of thing (painfully long storylines, not mentioned for months at a time before flaring up again) is the exact thing that lead to me giving up reading monthly issues a few years ago. How did this feel for Teen Titans readers at the time? I would have been irritated to have the Brother Blood storyline interrupted by several issues of Titans in Space.

Is that a small complaint? God, yes. I could barely put this monster down. Don't be scared away by the massive size, or by the fact that it's basically a period piece by now. This is great writing and great art in any decade. I have an emotional, nostalgic reaction to Titans, I admit, but you don't need nostalgia to see that this is a fine piece of work.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Teen Titans is the comic that got me hooked on comics all those years ago. You would think that nearly three decades later one wouldn't be able to enjoy the same things you did when you were eleven. You would be wrong though.

I still remember vividly the day that New Teen Titans Annual #3 (the finale of "The Judas Contract" arrived through our mail slot. I was a mail-order subscriber back then, and the comic showed up on a rainy day. I devoured it and re-read it a half dozen more times before gathering up the other three issues, and re-reading each of them.

Having the entire Terra epic in one (massive) tome is awesome. This is great comics with Wolfman and Perez at their peak, totally hitting their stride, and about to go off and reinvent comics with Crisis on Infinite Earths.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Thanks, Tara. But I'm only stripping away my identity, not my clothes. This is not cable TV."

Aaaaaanddd that is really all you need to know about this volume.

[Hamish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my comfort food during stressful times.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collects The New Teen Titans #21-37 (July 1982 - December 1983), 39-40 (February - March 1984), Tales of the Teen Titans #41-44 (April - July 1984), The New Teen Titans Annual #1-2 (1982-1983), Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3 (1984) and Batman and the Outsiders #5 (December 1983).

Moving strongly into the Bronze Age with this one and becoming a much stronger comic in general. This is really were the good stuff begins to take shape in the Teen Titans, partially because it's so awful (the birth of Vigilante, The Judas Contract, the move from Robin to Nightwing).

[KaldonAngorm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tremendo volumen. Las tramas del contrato de Judas, Hermano Sangre... Brutales. El dibujo es impresionante y el guión es genial, se va viendo como Robin deja de ser Robin y lo que le motiva para pasar a ser Nightwing entre otras cosas.

Como el anterior, el tomo que he leído es el de la edición del crowdfunding de ECC.

[Jenna Alcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, so glad I'm getting to read these, especially now, thanks George pèrez. Can't wait for the judus contract.

[Scott Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could've sworn I already reviewed this one...ah well. I finished this volume a few days ago, and it's fantastic. This is the first book I've read from DC (prior to the New 52) that really dealt with the character's normal lives in addition to their superheroic ones in the fashion that Marvel always had. I guess to some extent DC has always been interested in showing us the hero(heroine) in the man(woman), while Marvel has always focused on the woman(man) in the heroine(hero). In any case these are profoundly human characters, and when I read Wolfman and Perez talking about how they when writing the book they were most interested in what was happening to the various characters Vic Stone, Dick Grayson, Donna Troy etc. as people rather than just as Superheroes, I fully believe them. Good, good stuff.

Perez's work is beautiful here, although his development as an artist shows more here than places like his Avengers run with Kurt Busiek, where, many years later, he seems to have reached a more settled and mature style that betrays less issue to issue--or at least arc to arc--growth. Still the detail is fantastic.

Wolfman's work is equally powerful. This is a well-written comic book. We've moved to an era where comics are trying really, really hard to be film or television--primarily a visual medium with dialogue as spice. In fact, in some issues of just about every title I've read in the past five years or so--maybe closer to ten--the visuals have dominated almost to the exclusion of writing. I enjoyed the ideas when comics were a medium meant to be read as much as looked at, and the mixture of the novel's depth of interiority with such a huge visual element was/is (or for today perhaps could or can be) the mark of a tremendously unique medium with strengths that are its own. Wolfman's writing does that for me here, and the balance between the writing and the visuals shows powerfully.

[ダンカン · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of this new edition omnibus continues with more well-thought out stories - the introduction of Brother Blood, a hard-hitting story of teenage runaways, the return of the Fearsome Five, an introduction of a new character (Terra), Deathstroke returns and two members of the Titans left the group. This second volume is worthy read in so many levels - one that touches how reality is like for sidekick heroes and how they deal with real emotions that really speaks itself. I would highly recommend to read this.

[r.b. · Rating 5 out of 5]

the stories in this volume of The New Teen Titans are the ones I first read. in fact, they're the stories that hooked me as a reader in the first place, what started me on this path. I'm happy to say that they're just as thrilling as they were when I read them almost 30 years ago.

[Tommy Pett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The brother blood arc at the beginning of the book is pretty great and it really disappointed me that it was interrupted by the blackfire arc, but ultimately that arc was also great in a completely different way.

overall 9.0/10

[Cait]

I've read bits of this, of course, but it would be interesting to sit down with the whole story at once....

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even Better then the first book.

[El Neo · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are examples of what comics should be! Great art! Highly dramatic, but not cheesy melodrama. And kick-ass action sequences! Anxiously awaiting the third one in April!

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perez and Wolfman at their peak. Nuff said!

[Simon Farrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading just for the frankly fantastic 'Who is Donna Troy' issue, which may well be, one of the greatest comics I have ever read.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can find my spoiler-free review here:
https://www.nerdinthenoke.com/2018/08...