The New Teen Titans, volume 12

The New Teen Titans (Collected Editions) #12

by Marv Wolfman, Paul Levitz, Eduardo Barreto (Illustrator)

Marv Wolfman's legendary run on The New Teen Titans continues in this collection of late '80s adventures, featuring the team facing the threat of Brother Blood and more!

In the latest collection of Marv Wolfman's seminal run on The New Teen Titans, the Titans face a new threat--the Hybrid, a bizarre team created by former superhero Steve Dayton! The threats continue as Brother Blood returns, and the Titans fight the Brotherhood of Evil in Zandia! Can the team rescue Nightwing and Raven in time?

Collects Tales of the Teen Titans #84-88 (1984-), The New Teen Titans #24-31, and The New Teen Titans Annual #2.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fantasy

312 pages, Paperback

First published December 29, 2020

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

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the team split up over the last year, most of them decide to return when the Hybrid attack. They are like an evil Doom Patrol that Mento (Beast Boy's stepdad) forced together after he went nuts. The team then decides to leave Aqualad in the clutches of the Hybrid to go after Brother Blood. That's where almost all this book lays, as Nightwing and Raven have been brainwashed into the Church of Brother Blood. The whole plot is the Titans trying to track down their teammates and take down Brother Blood. There is also a bedtime story that Wonder Girl tells her stepdaughter by John Byrne that is pretty great.

DC please keep these New Teen Titans trades coming. You still have a long way to go to collect the rest of Marv Wolfman's run.

[Arthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series has really grown on me. The Titans FINALLY realize how much they mean to each other and happily reunite to take down the baddies.

What I liked:

1) Jason freakin' Todd. He's my absolute favourite character in Rebirth so it was great to see a baby-faced version of him as Robin in this volume. He's refreshingly honest about his inability to keep up with the Titans, but still so determined to try. Honestly he's so adorable that I'm rethinking my previous stance on the whole Death In The Family call in to vote situation. Obviously I started reading comics long after the Red Hood was introduced, and am so grateful for the storylines that came out of it. Initially I figured people voted to kill Jason Todd (or rigged a machine to call in and vote) for the sake of the story; It raises the stakes of every encounter and honestly if killing Batman's kid partner is a possibility in the DC main universe, then nothing is off the table. But now that I see how wholesome and sweet his character was I'm kind of mad that people voted to kill him. It still spawned my favourite comic series in the main universe and gave birth to some great arcs like Under the Red Hood and Hush, but at what cost?

2) The Titans finally value their friendship. After the whole debacle of Changeling and Cyborg going off on their own, Dick running off to find Raven (and get away from Kory) and Donna forming a new team of old members, the heroes finally find their way back to each other and express their appreciation. The heart of Titans is their love for each other and I'm glad they finally recognized that in this comic. It was great to have Wally back willingly as well. He was a good friend and original member of the Titans so it's nice to see him coming into his own as the Flash.

3) The Mento conflict. I really liked the way the Titans were forced to reevaluate their standard attack-first method when they were fighting Mento's mutations. The mutants were very clearly working against their own will and it greatly increased the intensity and stakes of the battle. I also like how Changeling was forced to decide between fighting Mento or Brother Blood.

4) The Brother Blood conflict. Maybe this is because the series has grown on me but I thought the Brother Blood conflict was handled much better this time around than the first time. There were genuine ups and downs in the battle, where I truly wasn't sure whether the Titans would win or be defeated. Dick Grayson was under much stronger mind control this time, so I was actually on my toes, waiting to see whether he would break through the control or not, and I was glad that he didn't do so easily. Also, Brother Blood had Raven in his control, and I've learned that Raven is easily the most powerful of all the Titans and can do a lot of damage if she chooses to. There were actual moments when I wasn't sure she and Dick would break Blood's hold on them, which was a stark contrast to the last time, when I was sure Dick wasn't going to kill the titans. I also thought the story of the Brother Bloods past was intriguing, even though none of the characters I knew and loved were in it, which is a big deal for me. I don't really understand why Brother Blood keeps choosing to have children if he knows his son will usurp his position though.

5) Twister. I really liked this interlude of Twister being the 'villain.' She was a character that very quickly earned my sympathy, and even though she was only in one or two issues, she had an emotional impact on me. I felt bad for the 18 year old kid who was twisted into that creature, and for her inability to understand what's going on around her. I was happy for her when her family declared their love for her and that she believed it and spared their lives. I would love for her to come back and be helped by the Titans (perhaps in a Bizarro- Red Hood kind of way).

6)Dick finally coming back to the Titans. As a Dick Grayson fan, I liked the concept of his asshole-ness the past few volumes being a result of Brother Blood's control but it also felt like a bit of a cop out. Even the best people can be assholes when they are hurt, and while it made him less likable, seeing Dick treat his friends poorly after Kory's marriage made him more realistic. I did love his support of Jason though, and would love more brotherly scenes between them.

7) Batman & co. choosing to help the masses and trust the Titans to fend for themselves. At first I was pretty mad that Batman wasn't swooping in to save Dick when he saw his son acting brainwashed on television, but after Franny called in the cavalry, it was nice to see him trust his kid's team to save themselves.

Overall, a pretty great volume and I'm eager (and hoping I won't have to wait a year) to read the rest.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

It feels like Marv Wolfman is out of ideas at this point in his New Teen Titans run. Volume 12 picks up some of the leftovers from the last collection, but the foes and the plotting are increasingly outlandish.

The first part of the collection introduces us to "the Hybrid," a bunch of humans mutated by Beast Boy's insane step-father to have animal characteristics/powers. They're thoroughly generic, reluctant villains who are ugly and dull to boot. Worse, Mento (the insane step-father in question), has godlike powers but can't quite commit to actually defeating his enemies, which makes for an artificially drawn-out storyline.

The repetitive pacing continues with the volume's main focus, the final showdown between the Titans and Brother Blood. This section is filled with a bunch of mindless action and artificial obstacles. The Titans fight, get taken hostage, escape, face off with the Brotherhood of Evil, win, lose, then somehow walk away after blowing up their whole facility?

Then the story kicks off again, with the Church of Blood inspiring a global rapture with the promised resurrection of their leader, Brother Blood. Nightwing and Raven are hostages in the church, which should make for some interesting tension, but the whole thing feels ridiculous. The world is really chanting and cheering for the resurrection of some guy they've never heard of wearing a skull mask? Pretty poor judgment, believers.

It all builds to a climax that feels like a weaker echo of the Dark Phoenix Saga. The characterization is tired too--Beast Boy regresses into boring, sexist comic relief, and the rest of the cast seems to reset instead of showing any kind of growth.

On the whole, I think Wolfman's Teen Titans run is an engaging read, but here it dropped hard into diminishing returns territory.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This run on Wolfman's long running series are the most modern and dark issues so far. Brother Blood started off as a televangelist gone too far but by this stretch is more of an authoritarian who relies on disinformation to grow and indoctrinate his supporters as well as fracture the Titans. It feels like foreshadowing of 2020 politics with a healthy dose of heavy metal satanic panic thrown in. After some recent stumbles, Volume 12 feels like a return to form for Wolfman but, at least in this current storyline, the joy and playfulness from earlier volumes feels like a distant memory.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes a little too weaving, but this was an epic story for the Titans and everyone gets a piece of the action returning to their glory days somewhat. The artwork was amazing and the dynamics between characters was pretty cool. We did get a lot of villains in this space, but it made it larger than life.

[Nico D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh boy! The return of Raven to the books, and the Church of Blood returns as enemies? How exciting!

Oh, and Azrael is back too. Yay.

We start with the reappearance of Steve Dayton, Gar’s stepfather whose usage of the mind-altering Mento helmet has left him showhow more derange. He also grew a beard! Since the last time we saw him, he went on an adventure in Swamp Thing and then started High Evolutionary-ing some human-chimera creatures to act as his main enforcers in his twisted desire to ruin Gar’s life. Said chimeras include the creatively named “Human Pterodactyl” who’s sort of a palette swapped Sauron from Marvel in a metal diaper, an male archeologist named “Gorgon the Terrible” (one guess at what his power is) and his archeologist wife, who was slapped in a bikini and given the moniker the “Horrible Harpi.” Dayton lacks in creativity what he makes up for in sexism.

Dayton’s hate for Gar is nearly cartoonish at this point. Gaia help me, despite Harp’s unfortunate design (she looks like an even more stripperific Li Mei from Mortal Kombat Deception) I’m a little moved by her and her fellow chimera’s loss of autonomy. They feature heavily as the early volume arc villains before disappearing to assumedly reappear when we pick up the Dayton plot (again) even though I’d like it to end now. It just won’t die. Made even worse when, as things are put on pause so the Titans can finally go deal with the looming threat of the Church of Blood, , we learn the team knew Dick and Raven had been abducted for months and didn’t act on it. This kind of thing keeps happening and it weirds me out. It feels impossible to imagine this group of people—this family— just willingly allowing anyone, especially Dick freaking Grayson, to be abducted for months without taking action of some sort. Talk about your flash forward to how DC will handle the Ric Grayson thing. Comics, man.

I wonder if these issues were working on “real world” time via the publishing dates. The sliding scale of comic timelines makes me think it’s safe to assume every time someone mentions the “months” Dick has been gone, we should condense it into weeks. The alternative is too depressing. It’s made worse when Garth is abducted trying to stop Dayton, so the team decides he’ll be fine, they might as well go on the Church of Blood questline instead. Do you have to be in the enemy’s clutches a minimum for forty-eight days before the team sees it reasonable to rescue you? Is that information in the Employee Handbook?

Despite my grievances (bye Garth, I guess. Hope you don’t die) things really pick up in the Church of Blood arc. Like when we revisited Trigon and Koman’dr, the second run at these early Titans antagonists shows a more confident writing style from Wolfman. The focus feels less concerned with keeping the book afloat and more comfortable taking a methodical, slower pace to examine character and delve into the backstories of the baddies we’re dealing with. There’s also the history of what came before, which gives us more time to mine the depths of storytelling instead of spending time expositing and setting up our antagonist as a credible threat. Like the issue focused completely on Koman’dr in the previous volume, we get to witness the compelling history of Brother Blood and his church. Effectively immortal, every new man who takes the title of Brother Blood is cursed to be slain by his son, who will then take over as the new Brother Blood. Tho I guess if one of the Brother Blood’s ever grows up to be gay or ace, he won’t sire a child and he’ll get to be powerful forever. So, y’know. Queerness prevails once again. Unfortunately for Blood, but fortunately for the Titans, that’s not the case here.

Mother Mayhem, who in many ways feels like the “true” villain of the arc, gets some focus too. Behind every great man, etc etc. Good for her. Love to see it.

Kory returns on the cover of the second issue collected in the volume… despite not appearing in the issue proper. It’s not until midway through the following issue that she returns to Earth and the Titans. Talk about misleading. But it’s good to have Kory back on the team, and—as always—watching her and Donna kick ass together is a joy. It goes underrepresented in fandom at large, but they really are the female equivalent to Gar and Vic’s brOTP. The book is less focused on any individual character, and instead the entire team gets a chance to shine. Kory slots back into the team as if she’d never left, acting as their main muscle while showcasing a newfound sense of maturity. Donna struggles with leadership in Dick’s, and I totally get where she’s coming from even though I think she’s doing a pretty stellar job considering she had to lead the team through their unofficial disbandment. Aside from one gag-worthy, heavily implied, sexual encounter with Terry, Donna is thankfully mostly husband-less in the volume. Terry gets a few moments alone where he gets to worry about Donna, probably because he isn’t busy whining about work now that he’s unemployed due to his own poor choices. That might’ve been cruel. I probably don’t care.

Speaking of audience stand-ins, a more true-to-form version of Wolfman appears in a quick gag where his new house is destroyed and it’s a legitimately cute bit. I already like him more than Terry.

Gar has all the drama with Dayton early in the volume so he’s in Ultra Instinct Drama mode. He packs it away to help save his friends from the Church of Blood (everyone just forgets about Garth, I guess), but it resurfaces kind of hilariously in the last pages of the volume where he’s all like “I’ll save dad even if I HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!” He looks middle aged in the panel. It’s funny. But seriously, chill out Gar. The team will go with you. As soon as Garth has been captured for the mandatory forty-eight days. Have patience.

Vic and Joey don’t have as much drama to sift through this volume. It frees them up to be Good Bros to the rest of the team, though special mention goes to Victor’s drawn-out battle with Brother Blood in the finale. There’s at least two times the entire team would be dead if not for him, and seeing the (justifiably) sullen, reluctant hero of the early Titans days acting as the last bastion keeping his team alive, every bit the noble hero, made me have Feelings. Vic is great.

Wally’s temporary return to the team is still welcome as he seems to have finally shaken off the bad juju he’s had for, like, ten volumes. I’m starting to find love for him again, and I’m thankful for it. It’s sad loving a character via adaptation and then finding their original canon self so… blowhard-y. He’s been coming along. His moment in the final fight with Blood, where he removes his own mask to try and reach Raven under Blood’s control, was such a perfect moment of selfless heroism that I got a tiny bit misty eyed.

Frances Kane continues to be a fun character to have around. She’s a welcome voice of opposition to the team’s heroics. She’s powerful and kind, but her lack of confidence in herself and her power is a wall she can’t seem to overcome. Her wrestling with her regret at not going with the team vs. her resentment they even asked feels so real. Her romance with Wally is routed in friendship, and I love to see it. Even knowing that she and Wally aren’t endgame, I really appreciate their dynamic.

The revelation that Blood had been altering Dick’s mental state to make him more of an asshole since their first encounter kind of reads like Wolfman backpedaling on some writing decisions he made, but I’ll allow it. Here’s to hoping the era of moody Dick is starting to reach a conclusion. Raven also gets to finally feel like she’s going to be part of the group again after quite some time away. She gets a truly epic ownage at the end of the story, and though she’s still not nearly as hammy as she has been in the past, I’m excited to see her growing up. Hopefully she’ll stick around for a while. Going forward, tracking what happens with her is probably the thing I’m most interested in seeing.

I’ve really waffled on Raven and Wally’s relationship. It’s been all over the spectrum but as it stands at the end of the volume I’m feeling it. Whatever ‘it’ is. “The feelings that remain have no name… and no words follow.” Excellent payoff showing a complex bond between these two.

Now for some odds and ends:

Out of context, Vic came off as egregiously horny early in the volume. “I appreciate the thought, Salad-Head. Now, what say we get inside before I rust all over your ugly little face.” (…) “Sometimes you just don’t know how good things are for you until they’re being forced down your throat.”

The cover for the final issue is a battle among the Titans and the Church of Blood. Starfire is fighting Wally on it, as if she’s being controlled. This never happens in the story proper, but it does look cool.

Oh, yeah. Azrael is here. I don’t know why. I also don’t care. I’m ready for him to make like Icarus and fly too close to the sun.

Jason’s friendship with Donna is precious. I also love the short moment he gets with Dick at the end of the book. He and Dick aren’t close, but you can tell Jason kind of wants to be, while Dick seems to be warming up to him. It’s going to make what’s to come all the more painful.

Gar alternates between looking twelve and sixty-five based on the profile.

How old is Vic’s new girlfriend? She’s an acclaimed scientist. He’s like, maybe nineteen.

Kimiko aka Dr. Light (the good one) gets a cool cameo. She’s so underutilized but so cool.

Some superhero costumes are iconic and badass. Donna’s red suit. Wally’s Flash uniform. Raven’s white dress. And then some are ugly as sin, like Brother Blood’s whatever-da-fuq he’s wearing.

Kory picking up Dick in a bridal carry is my everything.

Arella deserves a vacation.

[Liz.Loki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

First thing first, I didn’t finish reading issues 24-25 because they were full of zionist propaganda, I skimmed through them to get a general understanding of what was happening and that’s it. I stand with Palestine against their oppressor, and both DC and Marvel have a history of supporting Israel, which is why I pirate all my comics. I suggest you do that too.

That said, once the slop propaganda was over, I enjoyed the rest of the story. Brother Blood isn’t a villain I particularly like but it was cool to see the Teen Titans working together to save Nightwing and Raven, who got brainwashed by him. I enjoyed the team dynamics and I loved that Jaybin got to be part of the team too!

[Ramón S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the plot is lame with things unresolved or solved in a simplistic manner but I liked the whole thing, specially the growth of Eduardo Barreto as an artist and the whole Brother Blood Saga.
I hate the sexual jokes of Challenging, the superficial character of Starfire. Donna Troy, Cyborg, Jericho and Nightwing are my favorites.
Raven is an interesting character but still is not well developed .
There are certain good values kept: for example the protection of each life.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last year or so of his run aside when it was clear that characters were being forced on the book by management that no one involved REALLY wanted to use, Marv Wolfman's stint on Teen Titans is AMAZING stuff.

So why the three stars? Most of this volume was either plotted by Wolfman and written by Paul Levitz or was co-written by Paul Levitz. Levitz is a damn good writer. What he was doing with Legion of Super Heroes around this same time proves it. I first read all these individually in cheap box pickups in my teen years. But seeing them in trade and getting to read them closer to proper order and in a shorter amount of time makes ONE thing very clear. Writer A being a great writer and Writer B being a great writer, working together you get an even better comic' is formula that doesn't always hold true. It can work masterfully if both writers are on the same page. However, it is clear this was not the case for Wolfman and Levitz. A key character, The Flash (Wally West), is clearly seen going on the plane to a mission at one point... but when the team arrives, he is nowhere to be seen. He shows up again, no explanation, with some back up. Other characters motivations switch on a dime.

While in a lot of ways, the last three issues-- one LONG ass fight scene perhaps the longest in mainstream comics-- are the best issues of the volume. But nothing signifies the divide between the two writers more than this. ONE of them clearly wanted this to be the middle act of something much much bigger (I suspect Wolfman) whereas another (I suspect Levitz) was saying 'this storyline has been going almost non-stop across two titles, with only occasional gaps for other dangling plots and the Crisis tie-ins, for almost two years. Please, can we bring it to a somewhat satisfying conclusion?'

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teen Titans of this era is generally a very solid run, with compelling character arcs and fun stories with a lot of drama. This was an epic tale about the Church of Brother Blood. I have to say, the Brother Blood ranting that went on issue after issue became unbelievably repetitive. I started to skim his rantings to his audience as it went on and on and on and on.

However, the real highlight here was the Brother Blood's epic origin story. It takes up a substantial portion of the book and at first flipping through, I was not looking forward to it as all the Titans are not involved. But it was really great and exciting, kind of like a Game of Thrones type epic that spans generations. I really got into it. Bring on volume 13, though I am totally out of shelf space.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty solid volume, the first half is a little weak and becomes ignored and meaningless by the brother blood arc, but if you forget all about the first issues then it's really good. Just stop worrying about Garth lol.

I have so many thoughts/notes that I put them on the individual issues:
The New Teen Titans #24
The New Teen Titans #25
The New Teen Titans #26
The New Teen Titans #27
The New Teen Titans Annual #2
The New Teen Titans #28
The New Teen Titans #29
The New Teen Titans #30
The New Teen Titans #31

[Anthony Wendel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won't lie, this one was a slough to get through. This volume starts with one storyline but quickly abandons it with too many loose ends in place. Overall the entire volume seems like it is working to get a better feel for where to go with the story as the roster of the Titans is a bit influx with several regulars being off to setup future storylines. Definately not the best installment of this legendary run from Wolfman.

[Sarospice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alot of dangling storylines get resolved in this volume including the long running Brother Blood, and it's very satisfying. No Perez, but the art holds up and Wolfman still seems invested in all these characters.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the weaker volumes in the series, but it picked up after the Brother Blood origin issue.

[Greg Callahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)

[Troy-David Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume covers arcs occuring after the Universe-altering effects of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The arc begins with Steve Dayton, a.k.a. Mento, and his madness-driven attack on the Titans, and centers heavily on Brother Blood. Woven throughout is the rebuilding of the team following their individual trials and troubles, pulling them back as a family of sorts.
The story is vast and intricate, ambitious, and features the storytelling genius of Marv Wolfman.
The weakness of this volume is in the scripting: the characters, while always “in character”, do not have a natural sound or flow. Sometimes the dialog is just stiff, other times it seems weakly sophmoric; probably because the characters are supposed to be “teens” after all.
Good use of guest stars, and very good use of historic continuity ( there is mention of the classic “War that Time Forgot”) as well as more contemperaneous stories ( like Swamp Thing #50, where Dayton goes crazy).
Overall, it’s an excellent series of stories.