Teen Titans #25

Teen Titans #25 (On Sale: November 1969) has a powerful cover by the late, great Nick Cardy.

The Teen Titans take a dramatic turn in "The Titans Kill a Saint" by Robert Kanigher and Nick Cardy. You might say that this is the issue where the Titans go from being a book about kid sidekicks to a book about a group of young adults. I'm actually pretty surprised that Kanigher is the one to pull this off, though most likely the change was initiated by Dick Giordano.

In an absolute classic art job by Cardy we begin with the Titans and the Hawk and the Dove watching a surgery take place and blaming themselves. Later in the recovery room they attempt to talk to the patient, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Arthur Swenson, but as they do so, he dies. In shock and tears the Titans are called to the morgue for a meeting of some sort. When the dejected Titans leave a short time later they run into Lilith, onto whom they try to foist some of the blame for Swenson's death, but she will have none of their nonsense and splits.

The Titans think back to how it all began a few hours earlier at the Canary Cottage Discotheque, where they met a dancer named Lilith, who knew who the Titans were even in their civilian identities and asked to join the team. She said her power is that she just knows things, like she knows the Titans will open the door to death tonight. They blow Lilith off and leave running into a peace rally, where Dr. Swenson is speaking. As the crowd begins to get heated, the Titans head for a back alley to change only to run into the Hawk and the Dove doing the same thing.

Back inside they all do what they can to control the crowd but when a man pulls a gun, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and the Hawk and the Dove all jump him and try to wrest the gun from his hands. It goes off and the single bullet strikes Dr. Swenson in the head. Speedy rushes them all to the hospital, where our story began. We also learn that when they went to the morgue, they were confronted by the Justice League who told them that they had violated their most sacred duty and that something must be done about it. Superman tells them that they must act as their own judge and jury and Batman warns that if they do not reach a decision by the day's end that the JLA will execute punishment on their own.


The great Nick Cardy

The Titans wander the streets, finding themselves eventually at the docks, where they are met by a small boat containing Lilith and Mr. Jupiter, the richest man in the world. Jupiter says he has an urgent government mission that he wants the Titans to undertake, but that the mission may change them forever and may even cost them their lives. Lilith leaves them, saying she knows she is a reminder to them of what has happened. The Titans go with Jupiter back to his estate to hear more.

Jupiter explains that he is in charge of a secret training project to prepare teens for the task of handling the world's problems and asks them if they will join. Robin bows out, saying that he has already committed to college. Though he leaves, the rest of the Titans and the Hawk and the Dove accept and are taken to Jupiter's secret headquarters on the 13th floor of his skyscraper complex, a floor run completely by computers.

There the Titans once again meet Lilith and give up their uniforms and fore go their powers to join Jupiter's secret project. This classic story was reprinted in Showcase Presents: Teen Titans Vol. 2 TPB.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Aquaman #53

Aquaman #53 (On Sale: July 1970) has a classic cover by the late, great Nick Cardy. Good lord they don't get much better than this!

It is 1970 and there is a rumor going around that California is going to have a major earthquake and sink into the Pacific. Kind of hard to believe these days, but this rumor got so much traction that then governor, Ronald Reagan found some flimsy excuse to be out of the state the day it was supposed to happen. Just a funny last minute schedule change his people said, but we all knew. "Is California Sinking?" by the SAG team (Steve Skeates, Jim Aparo and Dick Giordano) taps beautifully into this 1970 paranoia as only Steve Skeates could.


It opens on a mundane scene of a secretary typing away in an office, oblivious until the last moment to what is happening around her. From that startling scene we flip the page to one of Jim Aparo's great splash (no pun intended) pages, showing the power of his triple-threat penciling, inking and lettering. IS CALIFORNIA SINKING?


Well, is it? Californian millionaire Elliot Harlanson (gotta love that name!) has just been told that it will and what that means to him is his beautiful home will sink with it. And Elliot is having none of that. But he is being told that he can save his home, and California in the bargain, if he just buys an atomic bomb and blows up Atlantis. Because, you see, it is the rising of Atlantis that will cause the sinking of California and if Atlantis does not rise, well then, California does not sink! Or at least that is the story being peddled by Elliot's visitor, a mysterious "scientist" who we shortly learn is actually an agent of O.G.R.E. (Organization for General Revenge and Enslavement), who can't afford to buy an a-bomb of their own. They plan on seeing that Aquaman is in Atlantis when Elliot's bomb goes off.

It is now two weeks later and, on the east coast, Elliot and his ever-present girl-friend meet the "scientists" from O.G.R.E. on a dock, where Elliot's submarine, atomic bomb inside, await. We find out that O.G.R.E. has enlisted the help of Black Manta to keep Aquaman by Atlantis and preoccupied. They have given Manta a gun that scrambles brain waves and Manta uses it to thwart an attack of sea creatures on him orchestrated by Aquaman. As Aquaman leaves Atlantis to confront Manta, the sub leaves the Florida coast heading for Atlantis.

When Manta uses the gun on Aquaman, the Sea King is able to counteract the gun's affects by concentrating on getting Manta. While Aquaman takes care of Black Manta, Aqualad and some Atlantian police take care of Manta's men. When Manta mumbles something about "They said I'd have nothing to worry about," Aquaman wants to know who "they" are and sort of, well, beats the information out of Manta. When Manta confesses that he got the gun from O.G.R.E., Aquaman knows something bigger than Manta and a gun is going on and he begins scouring the area around Atlantis looking for danger.

Meanwhile on the shore the O.G.R.E. "scientists" have a run in with the feds. who take them down only to be told that they are too late to save Atlantis or Aquaman.

Back at Atlantis, Aquaman sees the sub coming in close and sends a giant squid to capture it. Caught in the squid's grasp, Elliot freaks out, "You act like you don't care what happens to my beautiful, spacious home!" and accidentally whacks a lever. The lever that releases the bomb! Learning what he has done a distraught Elliot proclaims, "I'm too rich to die! Do something!" But there is nothing they can do while caught in the squid's grasp.

Aquaman sees the bomb however and races toward it at speeds only the King of the Sea could muster. Alas, he is still to slow and the bomb hit the sea floor!

And bounces harmlessly away. It is a dud! Inside the sub, Elliot is furious! "Wait till I get my hands on the rat who sold me that bomb!" His girl-friend tells him to, "Just cool it!"

In the epilogue a few days later the feds tell Aquaman the O.G.R.E. are being taken care of by them and not to worry. They also tell him that they have let Harlanson go, as he was duped; he actually thought he was saving California from destruction and had no idea that Atlantis was populated. When Aquaman talks about the act a fate that resulted in a dud atomic bomb the feds reveal that they actually took care of that, or rather their agent on the inside did. That is when Elliot's girl-friend, in reality Agent 03, Honey James, shows up.

Aquaman says that he let Manta go, as the revelation that Manta was being duped by O.G.R.E. was more than enough punishment. After they leave the feds and head back for Atlantis, Aqualad wonders what will happen to Atlantis's people should it rise from the ocean depths. Aquaman says not to worry as that would not happen till well past the year 2000, so they have plenty of time to figure it out.

"And so our story ends. Yet, once question remains unanswered..." Shots of the secretary going under water... "Is California Sinking?" Shamefully, shamefully never reprinted.

Edited by Dick Giordano.