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The early 1980s saw a veritable explosion in mainstream comics. Starting a few years earlier, with the steadily accelerating sales of Marvel's Uncanny X-Men, interest in super-team books soared. It was during this period that two of Marvel's star creators moved across town to take a shot at reviving one of the weakest teams ever.
I've read thousands of comics, in my life. Some of them have been fantastic and some have been just as extraordinarily bad. Of those comics, few equalled The Teen Titans for lameness. Take a bunch of teen sidekicks, mix in a collection of weak villain, throw in a dash of excruciatingly bad dialogue (courtesy of the middle-aged writers) and you have DCs answer to the "generation gap". And one of them, through a case of mistaken identity, wasn't even a sidekick to begin with. Wonder Girl was originally the young Wonder Woman, in an old flashback story. The pseudo-hipster lingo makes these books hard to read, without groaning, but, thankfully, that's not why I'm here, today.
Today, I'm here to talk about The New Teen Titans, or one of them, in particular. Picture it, there I was, reading my copy of DC Comics Presents (I regret that I am unable to come up with the issue number, my bad) and there, in the middle of the book, is a special preview of the New Teen Titans. Now, I can't say I was very excited to see it, except for the writer and artist on the thing. Marv Wolfman and George Perez had made their marks at Marvel and that made this new Titans project potentially interesting.
Of course, this was at a time when DCs "icons" were untouchable, so the team leader, Robin (of Batman and...that guy) was still sporting his short yellow cape and spangled trunks (and his embarassingly hairless legs). Fortunately, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl had decent costumes, to offset Robin's poor fashion sense. But Wolfman and Perez weren't content merely to rehash the old Titans lineup, they had some new characters to satisfy those of us who thought the old team was terribly under-powered and boring. First they brought in an old ally, Gar Logan, formerly called Beast boy, now rechristened, Changeling. Three all-new members were people touched by tragedy. Raven, the daughter of an extra-dimensional demon, Cyborg, whose ravaged body was rebuilt with his father's love and technical genius and the beautiful alien princess, Starfire.
Starfire caught my attention (hey, I was only seventeen at the time!!), partly because her powers and origin resembled one of my own characters in almost every respect, but also because she was visually appealing (stop it!) from a design standpoint. Humanoid as she was, she was just different enough to keep things interesting. Then there's that scene where she first meets the newly gathered team. She doesn't speak a word of English, of course, so she uses a talent she's rarely, if ever, used since, she grabs the bare-legged boy in the spangled speedo and kisses him. Now, I don't know about you, but few things could communicate "friendly alien" to me as quickly as a buxom, auburn-haired beauty in a purple, metallic bikini planting one on my lips. As a side-benefit, she somehow telepathically gained a command of English from her contact with the flustered boy wonder.
Now, you might think that it was only adolescent hormones that sparked such interest in the new character, but that's not it (to be honest, I always thought Wonder Girl was sexier). More than her visual depiction, Starfire's personality, as we came to know her better, made her that much more interesting. In many ways, she was a stranger in a strange land. Even with the information she had absorbed from Robin in their first kiss, she was still confused as to why we do things the way we do, in this world. It's always interesting to see the world through new eyes, and Marv Wolfman managed to work that into Starfire's character.
An exiled princess from the planet, Tamaran, Koriand'r was impulsive, powerful and beautiful. More than that, she was a trained warrior, with a warrior's sense of right and wrong which was sometimes at odds with the heroic ideal embodied in her team-mates, especially Robin and Wonder Girl. More than once she had to be restrained from killing a villain who'd had the misfortune to cross her path. I liked that. I liked that she wasn't afraid to feel like killing a particularly heinous criminal, once in awhile.
Over the years, I've lost track of Kori, as she's affectionately known to her friends and fans alike. I gave the latest Titans book a chance, for a few issues, but couldn't stick with it. At some point in her history, someone decided it was a good idea to cover Kori's gorgeous legs in the same metallic-looking purple material her old costume was made from, and I think that's a travesty! Seriously!
For my design, I went back to Perez's original lines. I removed the large collar-piece and went with simple shoulder straps, this seems more elegant, to me and lightens to overall feel of the costume. I also moved the "bikini" top pieces somewhat, pulling the bottom ends around to the sides. This should reduce some of the tendency to "fall out" of the top, when she has to twist or bend. A little glue might not go amiss, anyway.
I changed very little, on the bottom half, preferring simply to widen the "belt" on the old design. Her boots and arm-bands I left pretty much alone. I always liked them.
So, that's what I have, this time around. Any comments or suggestions, email me!
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