The Titans Companion

What can I say? Lots of Pérez art, lots of information, lots of behind-the-stage information about various Titans series throughout the years. Recommended for all fans.

I'm eagerly waiting for Volume 2!!

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the popular New Teen Titans DC comic book series, Titans Companion is an engaging survey of the history of the series through interviews with creators Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Len Wein, Eduardo Barreto, and other fan favorites. A comprehensive Silver Age section also has interviews with Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, Dick Giordano, among others. Illustrated with black-and-white comic panels and rare character sketches, Titans Companion is a "must-have" for fans of the series, or anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes look at creative decisions in the comic book industry (such as choosing to dress Nightwing, formerly Robin, in dark colors to make him less of a target but exposing some of his chest to appeal to female fans, now that his legs are covered). Very highly recommended reading for all Teen Titan fans.

Top notch retrospective of the early Titans eras. Not quite as good as the All-Star Companion, but enjoyable nonetheless. It's definitely a must-own for Titans fans!

I stumbled on this book almost by accident. It contains numerous interviews of the Titans creators, allowing the reader to get an inside look at the group from the 60s to the mid 90s. The emphasis is naturally on the most successful run of their history-the Wolfman/Perez years of the 80s. Anyone looking for a synoposis of each issue will be disappointed, as this is not the book's focus.

The Titans Companion is a great source of information for fans of the world's greatest teen super-group. It's formatted with dozens of interviews with just about everybody who's ever worked on Teen Titans, The New Teen Titans, Tales of the Teen Titans, New Titans, Team Titans, and whatever other incarnation the teams had. Cadigan has taken the liberty of breaking up certain interviews (Wolfman and Perez come to mind) chronologically, which allows you take in the Titans one era at a time. Reading from start to finish, it's amazing to witness the transformation from a team of four sidekicks trying to bridge the generation gaps to a horde of dysfunctional, de-aged, gritty warriors.

If you're hoping for a comic-by-comic guide of what happened with the team, stick to the internet. I was able to piece most of it together, but there were bits and pieces I needed some more help on.

The book has TONS of b&w artwork, either reproduced panels or convention sketches--they're fantastic!

As somebody who's never read much DC at all, let alone Titans, I learned that Wondergirl was originally just Wonderwoman at a younger age (ie, not Wonderwoman's sidekick). When she showed up in Teen Titans, all of a sudden an origin had to follow, and it's followed poor Donna Troy ever since! Deathstroke the Terminator, and Vigilante both sprung from the pages of New Teen Titans. Speedy's little heroin addiction apparently never came up in the Titans! And that there were a lot of character's I'd never heard of who've joined the Titans over the years, including the Joker's daughter, who was actually Two-Face's daughter, who called herself Duella Dent and fought as Harlequin (not the Batman:The Animated Series one), and who according to Len Wein in a lettercol of DC's Who's Who #15 "show's up at Donna Troy's wedding and Dick Grayson accusing (sic) her of lying. She admitted to the deception and points to her recent addition of 50 pounds, keeping her out of crime-fighting. Since she was never a major character, nor did she ever have her own series or origin, it was decided to omit her reference (from Who's Who) since she will not be seen again."

Suffice it to say, I'm now dying to find a Titans issue with Duella as an active crimefighter in it, to see how the writer's played it. There's a lot of examples like this, where I felt like I was at a a MENSA party or something. I was mingling, meeting people, and listening to fascinating conversations, the whole time thinking "man, I've *got* to find out more about this!"

-Tom