Flex Mentallo vs. Lucy Van Pelt

.....I know that it's off-season to be using football metaphors so soon after the Super Bowl, but the goal posts have been moved again. For those who have just walked in on this movie, you can check the last three blog posts for details. The short recap is that in the fall of 2011 DC Comics announced that they would publish a deluxe hardcover collection of the Flex Mentallo mini-series published under the Vertigo imprint in 1996. This is germane to this blog because the character Flex was created by Grant Morrison for his run on Doom Patrol in the early 1990's. Morrison turned the series' scripting chores over to Rachel Pollack, who wrote all of the issues under the Vertigo imprint. After Doom Patrol was cancelled Morrison wrote the mini-series as a self-contained story. About two years later DC announced that it would republish the story as a paperback, but legal challenges (which DC eventually won) caused plans for the book to be shelved indefinitely. Since then there have been a few sporadic announcements of their intention to finally publish it, all fruitless.

.....Over the past decade, Pollack's run on Doom Patrol has also remained uncollected and out of print (as has the bulk of the Vertigo comics featuring DCU continuity characters), but Morrison's pre-Vertigo run has been entirely reprinted as six paperbacks with the Vertigo logo. The newly announced Flex Mentallo hardcover would also (more logically) be under Vertigo according to its original solicitation last fall. However, the original projected date of publication (February 1st) has been regularly nudged since the new year began. Shortly after my previous post the Diamond Distributors website announced that the release date for direct market outlets had been changed to March 28th, putting it in line with DC's own website. General interest booksellers would sell their copies the following Tuesday (April 3rd). This week the March cancellation announcements were posted on Diamond's website and once again the hardcover escaped the axe, but today when I checked DC's website the direct release date had been changed once again to April 4th. Good grief, Charlie Brown.

.....I suppose that by the middle of next week the Diamond shipping updates will reflect the new date and non-direct retailers will similarly change theirs to April 10th. The question on my mind is whether they will be sent a replacement promotional script. At the moment the sites I checked (Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indigo) all carry the same capsule description, presumably supplied to them by DC. The description mentions that this is a Vertigo series. The sites each name DC as the publisher with the book's 'stats' (cost, length, ISBN #, etc.), which is what they do with all Vertigo trades. "Vertigo" is also how DC first categorized the book on its website where it maintains completely different pages for Vertigo and DCU trades, with each list containing both published and pending titles. At some point after I began tracking it, though, the still unpublished hardcover was removed from the DC website's Vertigo trade page and added to its DCU trade page. The significance of this is that there would be no point in doing this if the character would never see print again in new stories.

.....Grant Morrison's non-Vertigo Doom Patrol comics were reprinted as Vertigo paperbacks when John Byrne began a new Doom Patrol series in 2004. According to Byrne, he was told that the characters were to be newly introduced to the DCU as though they had never existed before, thus the Morrison run would be relegated to a non-continuity Vertigo status. The concensus seems to be that there was more money to be made in movies or animation with the concept than in print, but only if there was no baggage in the backstory. Byrne or no Byrne, they were going to be relaunched to establish any new identity that would more easily transfer to screen. There are accounts from outside of comics fandom that a movie option for the Doom Patrol name was indeed sold to someone, but events of the last five years make it hard to believe that those plans, whatever they were, will ever be realized. During the Giffen run all the previous incarnations of the DP were reintegrated into DC continuity just before the notion of having coherence across an imprint became some kind of taboo at DC. If the Flex hardcover had been originally listed with the DCU trades, then it would have been keeping with the publisher's current trend of just not caring about the distinction. But moving it after the fact was a deliberate act. Why? Why would the continuity status of a character who hasn't had an adventure in fifteen years matter to a company that doesn't maintain any sense of continuity in the books they currently publish? The two opinions I've heard is that Vertigo will be phased out as an imprint or else Flex Mentallo the character will be brought into the DCU, possibly as a supporting character or guest star in an ongoing series. Maybe Morrison and artist Frank Quitely will give him a short story of his own to contribute to DC's annual Christmas anthology, because at the rate the hardcover is going that would be a good way to tie in to its eventual release.

DP05-BT02 Flex Mentallo trade news 2

.....I've been amending the post on the Flex Mentallo trade solicited last year because the Diamond distributor's website has been posting changes to the announced release date(s). Noting that the first attempt to bring this mini-series into collected form is sometimes memorialized on some web-sites by giving it an April Fools' Day release date, I wondered if there was any significance to the fact that the recently announced shipping changes for this current attempt are edging closer to that date. It might be a coincidence. April Fools' Day doesn't fall on a Wednesday this year, so it can't be exactly the same. And it does make a good graduation gift. So I breathed a sigh of relief when the distributor's cancellation announcements for February last week did not include it. I was encouraged again this week when it did not appear among the shipping changes posted Tuesday. Then something occurred to me.

.....The market gravitation towards trade formats means increasing audiences turn to other information sources besides those tailored to the direct market. I started to investigate this by going to dccomics.com and found this:.....

http://www.dccomics.com/dccomics/graphic_novels/?gn=20897

.....Still a $23 hardcover (and still in color; thank goodness for small blessings these days), but on the company website it's being released on March 28th, not the 21st, which is the most recent date for the direct market. Amazon is expecting it April 3rd, the following Tuesday. That is in keeping with the standard practice with the past decade in which the non-direct (i.e. returnable) market waits for non-returnable copies to sell in the first wave. The really curious part? Amazon acknowledges the title as being under the Vertigo imprint, something that may have little or no meaning for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters, etc. But DC's own website? DC maintains separate lists on separate pages for Vertigo and DCU titles. The new Flex Mentallo trade is listed under DCU. Why? Barnes & Noble also gives the April 3rd date and same ISBN as Amazon but only identifies the publisher by the parent company, DC Comics. (This is a common practice of B&N and many other booksellers not specializing in comics; the same is true of Sandman, Hellblazer, and Preacher titles they carry.) Even so, B&N does mention Vertigo in the product description, identical to the one for Amazon. So, unless one of the two highest profile booksellers in North America is cribbing copy from the other, I'm guessing that their product descriptions of yet-unpublished works were provided by DC themselves. "The Fact Is..." until the book is actually published we may never know if this is a clerical goof or if DC is planning on using Flex in their new, shaky continuity.

DP09-AP(e) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....Barring cameos I haven't yet discovered or which may yet surface before the Flashpoint to-do plays out (we'll see how long DC's readers can sustain nostalgia for The Age Of Apocalypse, if at all), this was the last of the Doom Patrol appearances during Giffen's run that take place in earlier periods. During the most recent Doom Patrol title there were three issues which each focused on the history of an individual member, giving a coherent account of their passage through all the prior periods. I haven't included those because they'll be reviewed here in the context of the rest of the series at some far future date after the preceding periods have been reviewed.

.....The topic of this post is DCU: Legacies, a ten-issue limited series that ran #1(07/10) to #10 (04/11). Each of the first five issues covered a period of roughly ten years from 1935 to 1985 and the last five issues each covered a period of roughly five years from 1985 to 2010. Each issue has a serialized main story in which a retired policeman named Paul Lincoln recalls the history of DC's super-heroes and his occasional brushes with them (not unlike the photographer in Marvels). The chapters are written by Len Wein with short framing sequences drawn by Scott Kolins, but a different art team for the main body every two issues who also provide the standard cover. Each issue also has a short back-up story featuring a different group of related characters by yet a third art team who provide the variant cover for that issue. I mention this because Cliff Steele appears on the cover of issue #4(10/10), but only on the standard cover.

.....The Doom Patrol don't appear in the back-up stories, but their brief significant inclusion in issue #4 shouldn't be discussed without first mentioning something about #3. DCU: Legacies #3(09/10) "Powers And Abilities!" is the first of two parts drawn by José Luis García-López and inked by Dave Gibbons. The cover blurb, "The Silver Age Is Here!" pretty much gets the main point across with the standard cover being a white background and the sedately posed seven founders of the pre-Crisis version of the Justice League of America. Although Superman and Batman almost never appeared on the covers of early JLA comics, they had made cameos in the stories since the three trial issues in The Brave And The Bold #28(02-03/60)- #30(06-07/60). I say "almost" because they appear as chess pieces on the cover of Justice League Of America #1(10-11/60), as miniature background figures on #5(06-07/61), as Felix Faust's fingers on #10(03/62), as smoke in bottles on #11(05/62) and finally fully visible on the cover of #19(05/63), long after they had become fully active in the stories. However, that lack of visual presence translated into a total absence when the JLA's origin was reformulated after Crisis On Infinite Earths. One of the major effects of the Crisis is that after the surviving worlds and their respective histories were combined into a single synthetic Earth, Wonder Woman passed into legend, a final gift of the Gods when it became clear to them that they couldn't prevent her from being wiped from physical existence (and subsequently people's memories). The original Golden Age Wonder Woman became fictional in the post-Crisis Earth and was remembered that way by everyone. A younger, otherwise identical Wonder Woman emerged at the end of the Legends mini-series who didn't recognize any of the characters who had been her predecessor's teammates in the JLA. In the new scheme of things, Black Canary took Wonder Woman's place in JLA history and Superman and Batman were eliminated from the origin completely, joining a short time later. Similarly, Supergirl never existed in post-Crisis history (until several variant versions were later introduced) and so the Doom Patrol adventures with her in Superman Family #191(09-10/78)- #193(01-02/79) and Daring New Adventures Of Supergirl #7(05/83)- #10(08/83) would thereafter be remembered as having happened, but with Power Girl in the role of Supergirl. For DCU: Legacies #3 to return Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to the origin of the Justice League calls into question exactly to what extent these post-Crisis revisions are being dismantled. Did the story in Legends not happen? Did the Doom Patrol have adventures with Supergirl or Power Girl? Both? Neither?

.....DCU: Legacies #4(10/10) begins with the right half of an interlocking García-López/Gibbons cover, indicated only by the edge of Superman's cape and shadow. Even without the continuation of images, though, issues #'s 3 and 4 are clearly parts of a whole. The cover of #4 also has the white background, the parallel blurb "The Next Generation Has Arrived!" and seven heroes, in this case the five founders of the Teen Titans in c.1965 uniforms plus Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Robotman (Cliff Steele). Curiously, and I don't know if anyone else is disturbed by this and I don't know if it was intentional, but Aqualad's hair here is straight. Short, matted or tousled, but straight. It appears this way in the interior pages as well. In his earliest appearances in Adventure Comics beginning in 1960 his hair was not only straight but light brown. After Bruno Premiani drew the first teen sidekick team-up story in The Brave And The Bold #54(06-07/64), Garth's subsequent appearances with his peers were (a) drawn mainly by Nick Cardy, (b) under the name Teen Titans and (c) sporting black hair in thick curls. Actually, for much of the 1960's Cardy drew Garth in both Teen Titans and Aquaman. On Teen Titans he would even ink the pencillers who took over (Irv Novick and George Tuska) as well. When Jim Aparo took over the art on Aquaman's interiors, Cardy continued to draw or paint the covers. In the 1970's, Garth appeared less often in Teen Titans and Aparo continued Aquaman's feature in Adventure Comics (including covers) before following him back into his revived title which was closed out with Don Newton pencilling. I haven't seen Garth's back-up feature drawn by Carl Potts, which ran in Adventure Comics after the Aquaman feature vacated, but if it was anything like the various art teams that worked on Teen Titans when it returned in the late 1970's, it would have adhered to Cardy's thick, curly precedent. George Pérez certainly did for occasional New Teen Titans guest spots and the first Aqualad Who's Who page. In fact, Pérez added visual detail to individual curls and gave Garth's hair more of a perm or afro style. The thinking must have been that his origin (coming from an underwater civilization akin to Atlantis) would imply a look more common to Mediterranean cultures (Greece, Italy, Ethiopia) than the freckled Midwestern boy he resembled when Ramona Fradon drew him. As prolific as García-López was at DC since the mid-1970's, it isn't easy finding an example of him drawing Aqualad in a story. These two examples seem to have been prepared for promotional or merchandising purposes. They're both dated 1982. Note Garth's hair:

http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=34464&mode=search&sessionid=3fafb5a444eb83579edde842da559c10

http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=34463&mode=search

.....Garth's hair seems black and wavy. It's consistent with Cardy, if not Pérez. It's Aqua-Dondi. So why the change in the look for what is meant to be a period-specific portrait? I doubt that it's Gibbon's inks. Ten years earlier, during the "Silver Age" one-shot event, Gibbon inked Cardy himself on the cover of the Silver Age: Teen Titans #1(07/00). Garth's hair looks straighter than Cardy's ever drawn it, but still thick past the ears. But Pat Oliffe's interior pencils make him look more like his modern Tempest identity, short with small tight curls. Whatever the reasoning was for the look used on DCU: Legacies #4, it couldn't possibly have the same impact on Doom Patrol history as would restoring Wonder Woman to JLA history. By relaunching Wonder Woman in the 1980's, Donna Troy's already murky personal story became notoriously impossible to reconcile, impacting not only Beast Boy/Changeling from their time together in the New Teen Titans, but Robotman, Mento and both the new and old versions of the Brotherhood Of Evil, who returned to activity between 1981 and 1986 in New Teen Titans, Teen Titans Spotlight and other Titans related titles. Extraordinary hoops were jumped through to accommodate post-Crisis continuity without throwing out some of DC's best-selling work since the start of the Comics' Code Authority. By restoring Wonder Woman to the Silver Age it becomes necessary to sift through the dozen or so existing Donna Troy origins to find one or more that enable us to retain the 'Gar Logan on Paradise Island' subplot from 1981.

.....Before the DP actually show up there's a full-page illustration, page 6, with 37 villains representing the Silver Age and not one of them with a connection to the Doom Patrol (the giant gorilla in the back is Grodd, not Mallah). What's even weirder is that prominently in the foreground we see Mongul, who first appeared in 1980.

.....On page 11, panel 1, we see the Original Period Doom Patrol (Cliff, Rita and Larry) in their 1960's style uniforms battling the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. Cliff is tossing a lime green Volkswagon covered with a peace sign and numerous flower decals, for anyone who's been reading this far and is still not absolutely certain what decade this was paraphrasing. The accompanying narration tells us:

• "But the Metal Men weren't the only ones inspired by the example of the Justice League... In Midway City, a group of super-powered misfits calling themselves the Doom Patrol made their presence known."

.....In a previous post, DP05-AB "The Wilderness Years", I list Doom Patrol activity between the end of the series under the Vertigo imprint and their relaunch by John Arcudi. Part of that activity was tentative reintegration into DCU continuity and a significant part involved long overdue looks back into the group's history before Crisis as seen through a post-Crisis lens. JLA Year One placed their formation before the JLA's in a story originally published in 1998, only to have that order reversed just two years later in a lowly text piece in Secret Files & Origins Guide To The DC Universe 2000. It's hard to argue that this story is establishing anything other than consensus regarding who came first. And after this summer's Flashpoint reboot there's no telling what history will look like. And aside from tying into the Doom Patrol's guest spot on the animated television show, "Batman: The Brave And The Bold", I don't see the point of devoting two whole pages to reenacting the Original group's 1968 death scene. While pains are taken to get the name and population of the targeted fishing village correct-- Codsville, Maine and 14-- there are still goofs. Cliff is standing at the end, despite being depicted with the glowing halo of the magnetic charge that paralyzed the tiny servo motors in his legs. Madame Rouge is not mentioned and appears only as an indistinct figure in the background of one panel (page 21, panel 5), despite being instrumental to the original story. Finally, as seems to be the case increasingly, Zahl introduces himself as "General Zahl". He was actually Captain Zahl when he commanded the submarine that attacked the DP. He promoted himself to General Zahl while on land years later, some time between disappearing at the end of Doom Patrol #121(09-10/68) and reappearing in New Teen Titans #13(11/81)- #15(01/82). Even if someone didn't know that particular bit of trivia they ought to know that the title 'general' means nothing on a ship. Captains, admirals, ensigns (maybe) but not generals would be in charge of a ship. He might as well be calling himself 'pope' or 'your waiter for this evening'.

.....Closing out 2010 are DCU: Legacies #5(11/10) and #6(12/10). This time the interlocking standard covers are by George Pérez, depicting a chaotic moment during Crisis On Infinite Earths. Not that it's germane to the Doom Patrol, but I have to stop here to point out the cover to #5 is a scene that actually takes place in the comic book. On page 19 you'll see many of the same characters in the same poses and engaged in the same activities but seen from a different angle. Except for the two pages of framing sequence drawn by Scott Kolins in each issue, most of the serial chapter in #5 was pencilled by Pérez and inked by Scott Koblish. For #6, Pérez and Koblish split the inking chores on Jerry Ordway's pencils.

.....In the framing sequence of issue #5 narrator Paul Lincoln cites the death of the Doom Patrol as the catalyst that led to darker, grimmer moods in later metahuman adventures. On the splash page he holds up an old issue of Timeline Magazine with the DP on its cover. To bolster his point he cites the Joker's return to senseless murder, which was actually deemphasized while he had his own title in the mid 1970's. It was only after that title was cancelled that he became part of Englehart's and Rogers' return to classic villainy in Detective Comics. It's also worth finding his arc in the Huntress back-up feature in Wonder Woman a few years after that. It was in those appearances that the Joker was reestablished as a dangerous killer. More convincing is when Lincoln next refers to the Fleischer/Aparo Spectre stories from Adventure Comics. Those stories raised eyebrows and 'led to meetings', as they say. They are conveniently available as the trade Wrath Of The Spectre, which has been in and out of print but often offered both new and used. Lincoln is on to something; comics did get darker long before Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Unfortunately, as a character within DCU super-hero continuity he is uniquely unqualified to present the evidence that falls outside of that continuity. The early 1970's in comic book publishing were notable for sword & sorcery fantasy, horror and supernatural anti-heroes, jaded cosmically aware demi-gods, dystopian futures and black and white magazines not subject to the Comics Code Authority. All true, but nothing of which he would be aware. The death of the DP was certainly an unusual way to end a comic book series, but 1968 was practically a bloodbath compared to the "Summer Of Love" the year before. In fact, that issue would have been released in late July and still on the stands when protesters outside the DNC were brutally murdered. This was after the assassinations of MLK and RFK, as well as Prague Spring and the Situationist riots in Paris. The next few years were drenched in Altamont, Kent State, the My Lai Massacre, slum riots, prison riots and well-connected persons rigging the military draft so that the poor would die in their place. It's hardly fair to say that the 1970's began with a dark mood because the Doom Patrol made the ultimate sacrifice. It wasn't just comic books that became grimmer. Books, movies and music did as well. There was an over whelming sense that persons in authority were not only failing to guide civilization into peace and prosperity but were actually committed to preventing them. If Spiro Agnew sneering that he didn't have to pay taxes because he was better you didn't convince people of that, Richard Nixon ordering burglaries of his political enemies certainly did.

.....Of course, the Doom Patrol's story didn't really end in 1968 and the nine-year gap until their return becomes a one-issue gap in DCU: Legacies. Gar shows up without comment with the New Teen Titans on page 7 of issue #5. On page 10, he's with the slightly revamped (1984+) NTT, which is portrayed as contemporary with the debut of the New Doom Patrol. It's clear this is meant to be the Showcase #94(08-09/77), from General Immortus attacking in a one-man flying saucer to Robotman's temporary ROG-2000-esque body. It's especially temporary here, since it's drawn correctly in panels 2,5 and 6, but then reverts to a conventional 1960's head for an inset panel portrait. Also, Lincoln's comment "Yes, the Chief's widow had found the remains of Robotman and rebuilt him-- even as she gathered together a brand-new team of misfits." makes one wonder how much of the Doom Patrol's adventures is known to the public and how much is presumed. Cliff was rebuilt by Doc Magnus, not Celsius, but that information might be classified. The general public might assume otherwise or might have been told otherwise.

.....A very public event, the COIE, fills the end of issue #5 and the start of issue #6. Negative Woman passes through page 20, panel 1, while Gar manages to finally get a line in on page 21, panel 1. Both make the cover of issue #6, although Gar has switch from an elephant carrying Nightwing to a pigeon carrying the Atom in his barbarian warrior phase. Tempest appears as well. Only Gar appears inside though, in a recreation of the conclusion to Legends on page 18.

.....The whole DCU: Legacies series will be available as a hardcover trade this fall. Barring delays, it is scheduled for release August 24th, 2011. I'm debating whether to look to other media to cover all the other retro period depictions during the Giffen Period, such as the animated Batman team-up mentioned earlier or even action figures. As it is I'm going to collect my thoughts, dive into my comics and look for a new thread. Here's hoping all the links work!

DP09-AP(d) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....This is actually the second half of an analysis of the story "Out Of Time" from The Brave And The Bold #34 (07/10)- 35 (08/10). In the previous post I provided the details of the creator credits and the rosters for the four teams involved. There's also my reasons for placing the story in the period of comics published c.1964. Anyone who had difficulty using the links provided in the previous post should check them again. They've been embedded again in a different manner and seemed to be working better than they did initially. Sorry about that.

.....This is a time travel story, which is a common enough plot device in comics that it shouldn't ordinarily require an explanation or map to guide the reader. The complications, and subsequent confusion on the part of many readers, can follow when travelling into the past multiple times results in crossing your own path and impacting the chain of events that brought you back in the first place. Douglas Adams once famously said that the most difficult part of time travel isn't really the mechanics of moving through time, it's conjugating the verbs afterward to describe what you did. The longer the story and the more often the trips taken, the more common will be the complaints of confusion, generally. Take Avengers Forever as a textbook example. Now put the Legion Of Substitute Heroes in control of a time machine and watch them try to 'fix' things. Thus we come to the following dual attempt to disambiguate the order of events, once in the order they take place in the world and once in the order they are experienced by the cast. That cast is abbreviated here for convenience: [DP] is the Doom Patrol, [LSH] is the Legion of Super-Heroes, [Subs] is the Legion of Substitute Heroes and [I5] is the Inferior Five.

.....First, the 'real time' account of events. Although the Original Period Doom Patrol stories were first published in the 1960's, the time in which they took place changes. Following what I suspect was Roy Thomas' approach of time compression employed at Marvel in the 1970's to explain why Peter Parker was allowed to pursue an undergraduate degree for thirteen years without being called up for academic review, DC since at least as far back as Zero Hour has used a similar conceit in which three to five years of publishing translates to one year in the life of the characters, working backwards. As a rule of thumb, if the story you are reading today references a story from the past, take the number of years since it was published and divide by, say, four. Subtract the result from the year of the newer story. For instance, if a story is published in 1965, then in 1969 stories it would be treated as though it took place in 1968. In 1977, it would be treated as though it took place in 1974. In 2005, it would be treated as though it took place in 1995. Thus, Lian Harper did not look 24 years old when she died. The three-to-five year standard would make her anywhere from five to eight years old. The reason I mention this is because segments in which the LSH locate the DP will be described as c.1964 in this post with the understanding that this is the period which they are obviously intended to evoke aesthetically. It is not actually stated anywhere in the story in what year those scenes occur. However, it is explicitly stated that the [Subs] find the [I5] in 1972, which is why I've included that scene and other specified dates with scenes from the Time Stream. The story does nothing to indicate whether the [DP] was formed and/or active before, during or after 1972 in this continuity frame of reference. Since, for these purposes, any of those scenarios would work equally well, we're not going to fret over it right now. Likewise, although the modern [LSH] is set in the 31st century, I'm referring to their home as the 30th century to conform to the c.1964 motif. If you want to know why that distinction is important, the best possible explanations can be found with the [LSH]-related links in the previous post.

• {c.1964; #34/p.9} [LSH] arrive from the future (using Time Bubble 1) in [DP]'s headquarters and ask for their help.
• {c.1964; #35/p.17} While [LSH] and [DP] discuss the problem in a different room, [Subs] and [I5] arrive (using Time Bubble 2) and switch machines, taking off in the one in which [LSH] arrived (Time Bubble 1).
• {c.1964; #34/p.10} 7:15 minutes since page 9, [LSH] and [DP] return to the room where Time Bubble 1 was left and find Time Bubble 2 in a slightly different spot and speculate that it "shifted position". All but Caulder depart in Time Bubble 2.
• {c.1964; #35/p.18} The departure of the [LSH] and [DP] coincides with the Time Stream sequence {#34/pp.11-13}(see below).
• {c.1964; #35/pp.5-6} After [LSH] and [DP] leave, [Subs] arrive from 30th century (using Time Bubble 2) to find Caulder alone. Exercising characteristically poor judgement, their attempt to 'fix' their situation results in creating multiple anomalies of themselves.
• {c.1964; #34/p.22} [LSH] return [DP] to their proper time (using Time Bubble 2) and are greeted by Caulder shortly after he has spent an exhaustive afternoon (presumably figuring out how to collapse a telescoping time anomaly). [LSH] then return to the 30th century.
• {Time Stream; #35/pp.7-10} Having been set right by Caulder, [Subs] reach a timeline in which [I5] exist, in 1972 (using Time Bubble 2).
• {Time Stream; #35/p.11} [Subs] and [I5] realize that none of them can remember the Hawking Theorem, key to solving their problem. (In Time Bubble 2.)
• {Time Stream; #35/p.12-13} [Subs] and [I5] locate Dr. Stephen Bawking (probably in the 1990's), who explains the theorem to everyone. (In Time Bubble 2.)
• {Time Stream; #35/p.22} [Subs] strand [I5] 30 years in their future, on July 14, 2010 (using Time Bubble 1).
• {Time Stream; #35/pp.14-16} Dumb Bunny's pink fluffy tail gets stuck in the tachyon collector of Time Bubble 2, causing it to stop moving forward at 2193. Knowing that [LSH] beat them to finding [DP] (they found Caulder alone), [Subs] and [I5] return to {c.1964; #35/p.17} (see above) in order to switch time machines.
• {Time Stream; #35/p.18} occurs simultaneously with...
• {Time Stream; #34/pp.11-13}. After the time machines have been switched, [LSH] and [DP] travel forward in Time Bubble 2, which stalls at 2193. When they investigate, Lightning Lad finds and removes Dumb Bunny's pink fluff. He speculates that it belongs to Cosmic Boy because it matches his costume's color scheme. With the Time Bubble 2 working again, they continue on into the 30th century.
• (Both teams travelling forward can now reach the30th century. [Subs] and [I5] arrive after [LSH] and [DP]. See #35/p.19 below.)
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.2-3 in flashback} Lightning Lad returns to Earth after a patrol in a conventional space vehicle and witnesses a Black Hole event en route towards Earth. He races ahead of it to warn the Legion.
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.14-19} [LSH] and [DP] try unsuccessfully to drain the Black Hole (using Time Bubble 2).
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.19-20} [Subs] and [I5] arrive (in Time Bubble 1) before [Subs] initial disastrous attempt to view the Black Hole (see #35/p.3, below). This appearance also causes a 'time surge', with the difference being the presence of [LSH] and [DP].
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.20-21} The 'time surge' causes the efforts of [LSH] and [DP] to drain the Black Hole to have the same effect as though they had been working at it continuously for days (still with Time Bubble 2).
• {30th Cen.; #35/pp.20-21} [Subs] and [I5] witness the Black Hole being drained (in Time Bubble 1) and [Subs] decide to abandon their plans to try taking credit for [LSH]'s plan before anything else goes wrong.

....At this point the story diverges to two possible outcomes: one in which the Earth is destroyed and one in which it is saved. Because some of these scenes play out in concurrent parallel time lines, pinning down when something would have occurred relative to events that happened instead becomes understandably tricky.

• {30th Cen.; #35/p.3} Having just acquired Time Bubble 2, [Subs] materialize within viewing distance of the Black Hole event between the time Lightning Lad witnesses it and the time he reaches Earth to warn them. Somehow, their sudden emergence from the near future accelerates the Black Hole's approach towards Earth.
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.1-4} On Earth, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy are both awoken by Lightning Lad's arrival. He explains what he witnessed in space and that they must prepare a defense in the few days remaining. They then notice that the Black Hole's arrival is imminent and must resort to time travel to stop it at an earlier stage.
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.1} [Subs] watch a television report praising [LSH] for averting the Black Hole event with the help of [DP] by traveling into the past. Jealous, [Subs] decide to use the same method of time travel to replicate the feat and reap the glory.
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.2} This remains the most confusing sequence in the story. [Subs] enter [LSH] clubhouse to steal the Time Bubble. Their plan is NOT to: (a) take the bubble, use it and then return it at that moment in time so that no one will notice that it is missing; nor (b) take the bubble, travel backwards just one hour to where they know it was sitting before and get into the earlier version so that it never appears to have left (then make sure they get it back an hour later in time to return it right after their earlier incarnations took it). Instead they (c) take the bubble, travel forward one hour to where they find the bubble still there, take that bubble and continue on their adventure. Now, obviously (a) is the simplest approach, but nothing is simple where [Subs] are concerned. The (b) scenario, while reasonable on the surface, would require a time paradox of a time machine traveling backwards one hour, then sitting unoccupied for an hour (effectively traveling forward in time, albeit at 'normal' speed) until it is then used to travel backwards an hour again, in an infinite loop. This would mean that a time travel machine existed that was never manufactured and runs infinitely without ever being refueled. It would also mean that the time machine used in the adventure was picked up at the beginning of that hour and deposited at the end, with a separate existence from the one in the infinite loop. The (c) scenario only means that at some point between stealing the bubble and finding it again one hour in the future, the bubble had been returned after the adventure at some point during that hour. [Subs] then get out of the first bubble, get into the returned one, have the adventure and return during the hour and leave it for them to find again. All this just means that there is a different infinite loop, just a much, much longer one. The explanation for what's going on here, if there is one, is that [Subs] departing doesn't change the fact that [LSH] departed, too. Each took and returned Time Bubbles, but from and for each other, not themselves. What we have here is not a loop so much as a figure eight. If [Subs] took Time Bubble 1 one hour into the future to switch with Time Bubble 2, it could only be after [LSH] returned from the successful version of the mission, otherwise they wouldn't have a reason to set out and upstage them. Therefore, from the perspective of the machine itself, the [LSH] adventure concluded before the [Subs] adventure began. Yet, [LSH] concluded their adventure in Time Bubble 2 and presumably parked it in the clubhouse, then informed the media, who in turn broadcast the story, inflaming [Subs] who took the Time Bubble left by [LSH], moved it forward an hour and took it again at another point in its time, damaged it with Dumb Bunny's tail, went back to 1964 to switch it with itself at another point in time yet again, meaning that the Time Bubble used by [LSH] for the remainder of their adventure and parked where [Subs] found it and subsequently switched with itself an hour in its future has a separate timeline (and existence) from the Time Bubble [LSH] started with and [Subs] ended with, when they dropped off [I5] in 2010. But there's only ever been one Time Bubble. I've only been designating them '1' and '2' in order to keep straight when, in the bubble's history, it was being used. Eventually, either Time Bubble 1 becomes Time Bubble 2 or vice versa. What I've just described is instead two parallel continuities. Unless...

• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.5-6} [LSH] rush to the room where the Time Bubble is housed. Before they reach it, it appears to shift to the side. With no time to truly figure out why that happened, they dismiss it as a side effect of the extreme magnetic forces present due to the Black Hole. They board the Time Bubble in its new position and begin the successful version of the adventure. Had they reached the Time Bubble while it was still in it's original position they would have traveled to [DP]'s Original Period, brought them back to the 30th century to drain power from the Black Hole... and failed, resulting in the destruction of the Earth. The plan was good in theory, but the scale of the problem would simply be too overwhelming for it to have worked. Besides, they were running from the Black Hole in a timeline where it had already advanced too rapidly for them to confront. They knew their only hope was to intervene hours earlier, just after Lightning Lad became aware of it, creating a new timeline. So what really happened to the Time Bubble? The initial image of the bubble belonged in a timeline where [LSH] failed, a failure that was caused by the acceleration of the Black Hole's advancement, an acceleration caused by [Subs] (see #35/p.3, above). Therefore, the Time Bubble didn't go anywhere. It was still in the room, but part of a separate timeline in which [Subs] screwed things up. After [LSH] and [DP] succeeded and [LSH] returned the Time Bubble, [Subs] take it and go an hour forward, illogically expecting the bubble to still be there for them to find. The Time Bubble they find an hour in the future is the one that disappeared in front of [LSH]. Think about it; it's a time bubble that belongs to a timeline where [LSH] fail because of an effect caused by [Subs]. It has to be the second bubble [Subs] take, because it's the Time Bubble they were in when they caused it. The Time Bubble that takes them to it, an hour into the future, is the one that already succeeded in averting the disaster, creating a separate timeline, and was left there by [LSH]. Therefore, the Time Bubble that appears in front of [LSH] to replace it, the one that [LSH] assume is the same bubble shifted to the side by magnetic forces is the one [Subs] moved forward one hour. It, too, was in the room the whole time, but did not become visible to [LSH] until the timelines shifted. They take it, meet [DP] for the first time and, while they're out of the room, [Subs] and [I5] switch it for the earlier damaged incarnation, which [LSH] and [DP] use for the remainder of the adventure. Eventually [Subs] return it after stranding [I5] in 2010.
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.4} [Subs] discover that they inadvertently caused the Black Hole to accelerate it's path to Earth, destroying it. Now they have no choice but to duplicate [LSH]'s feat by retrieving [DP] from the past.
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.7-8} [LSH] witness the destruction of Earth one day after Lightning Lad's warning. They must travel backwards to a point before this timeline formed and somehow avert it.

.....Which they did.

╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣

.....And now, as promised, an account of events from the perspective of the only one, true witness to all of the events in this story: The Time Bubble.

• The Time Bubble sits, ready and waiting in the [LSH] clubhouse.
• {#34/pp.1-4} Lightning Lad witnesses the Black Hole event in space en route to Earth. When he arrives to warn the others, the Black Hole is suddenly almost upon them.
• {#34/p.5} [LSH] attempt to use the Time Bubble to avert disaster, causing an alternate timeline. They disappear.
• {#35/p.2} [Subs] arrive from an hour in the past in my future self. They board me. I am now referred to as Time Bubble 2.
• {#35/p.3} [Subs] try to witness the Black Hole event sometime after Lightning Lad discovers it, accidently causing its acceleration.
• {#35/p.4} [Subs] witness the destruction of the Earth.
• {#35/pp.5-6} [Subs] take me backwards to find [DP], but we arrive shortly after my future self has departed with [LSH] and [DP] on board. They briefly create multiples of ourselves before the clever monkey with the broken legs sorts them out.
• {#35/pp.7-10} [Subs] take me to 1972 and add five more monkeys to the crew, called [I5]. Their legs work... but they're not clever.
• {#35/pp.11-13} [Subs] and [I5] don't understand the Hawking Theorem and make another stop to have someone explain it to them.
• {#35/pp.14-16} Part of Dumb Bunny's costume gets stuck in my tachyon collector while we're traveling in the Time Stream. Because of this, I can't get past 2193.
• {#35/p.17} We travel back to a point between [LSH] meeting [DP] and the two groups departing. [Subs] and [I5] disembark from me and board my future self. So, there's that to look forward to.
• {#34/p.10 and #35/p.18} [LSH] and [DP] return from a briefing session believing that I am the craft they arrived in, when I am in fact the craft they will arrive in. Both groups board me and enter the time stream.
• {#34/pp.11-13} Inevitably, [LSH] discover that they can't get past 2193. They find and remove the pink fluff ball and soon we're back on course.
• {#34/pp.14-19} We stop in the 30th century right after Lightning Lad witnessed the Black Hole's approach but before [Subs] caused the time surge that pushed it towards Earth. [LSH] and [DP] make a valiant effort to drain the Black Hole, but the sheer size of it is too much for them.
• {#34/pp.20-21} The sudden, heroic appearance of my future self causes a time surge, but instead of accelerating the Black Hole's travel by several days, it accelerates the drainage by several days. [LSH] and [DP] are able to accomplish in accelerated time something that would have killed them in natural time. This must be the event that caused me to jump timelines when [LSH] tried to board me at the beginning of this mess.
• {#34/p.22} Back to the 20th century to bring [DP] home. This must be after my first arrival with [Subs] because the monkey looks exhausted.
• Home again, home again, jiggity jig. Whoever said working with teenagers will keep you young can go fry their-- ooh, wait, [LSH] are on the video news. They're getting credit for stopping a threat that nobody remembers happening. Good for them. Even if it didn't happen, who could get mad at that?
• {#35/p.1} Ooooooh, right.
• {#35/p.2} [Subs] enter my docking room to try and duplicate what [LSH] have just done in order to get the credit. At this point I'm referred to as Time Bubble 1. They think that they can take me without anyone noticing if they go forward in time one hour and take my future self. Well, that's just plain foolish; if you take me forward one hour, the room will just be empty for an hour until I get back. Oh, no, now I remember. I've already been through this. This is when the timelines shifted. Yes, there I am. There they go.
• {#34/pp.5-6} I've seen [Subs] dematerialize in my past self, but I'm still there. Now [LSH] are rushing in. They're looking panicky, they see my past self dematerializing. Now they notice me. They board me.
• {#34/pp.7-8} [LSH] take me one day forward and see the Earth destroyed by the Black Hole. They'll have to take me back through this timeline before it branched off into disaster, then go forward again into the one I've just been to.
• {#34/p.9} [LSH] take me into the past to fetch [DP]. They all go into another room to confer.
• {#35/p.17} Ah, yes, right on cue. [Subs] and [I5] arrive in my past self and leave it, er, me, in order to board my present self.
• {#35/pp.18-21} Back in the Time Stream and headed for the 30th century. We arrive shortly after I was previously here with [LSH] and [DP], but before [Subs] caused all that grief by accelerating the Black Hole. My only consolation is that I know what's going to happen. Sure enough, our appearance has caused the temporal wave that turned the efforts of [LSH] and [DP] into several days' worth of work.
• {#35/p.22} [Subs] seem eager to get [I5] back home. July 14, 2010... I thought we picked them up in 1972? Well, not my problem.
• I'm back in my dock, taking a breather. Too many alternate timelines just aren't good for you. I'll have to ask Brainiac 5 to replace my Claremont filter.

.....So that's it for now. In 1965, Lightning Lad lost an arm fighting "the Super-Moby Dick of Space". «sigh» I am so glad Mort Weisinger didn't edit Doom Patrol. That story was in Adventure Comics #332 (05/65). He and Saturn Girl would eventually become an item (I'm guessing after they found a pink puff ball in Cosmic Boy's colors in the Time Bubble's tachyon collector). Twenty years on, about the time COIE was published, Cosmic Boy and Night Girl became an item. Hopefully that did something to cool down the rivalry between the Legion and the Substitutes. By the way, the disambiguation above is my own personal attempt and not necessarily official DC continuity. I'd be extremely curious if anyone on the Legion blogs knows of an established timeline that's been leaked. Comments, criticisms, additions and detractions are all welcome in the comments section below.

DP09-AP(c) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....There are several kinds of period pieces in comics. Some are written to offer explanations for glitches in continuity or unresolved questions about a character's background. Some are pastiches or satires that are more about the period itself than the characters. In DC, where the Silver Age stories occur in an entirely different timeline from the post-Crisis stories, a period piece might be a way to operate outside the constraints of modern continuity, such as the Silver Age one-shots from about a decade ago. Last year we got a period piece that seemed to hope that we would become nostalgic for the future.

.....The Brave And The Bold #34(07/10)- #35(08/10) The story "Out Of Time" brings together four teams from the 1960's in what could only be a post-Crisis account of pre-Crisis events. This two-issue story arc is part of a larger thematic arc called "Lost Stories Of Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow" on the covers. The previous Straczynski issues (#'s 27-33) in this arc have been solicited as a trade paperback Team-Ups Of The Brave And The Bold to be released on August 24, 2011. These two issues were the last in the series; coincidentally (?) the last issue of the most recent Doom Patrol series was also omitted from the solicitation for the trade Fire Away, also scheduled for August 24. Of course, that's a bit more bizarre than the case of "Out Of Time" because the last issue of Doom Patrol was the conclusion of a story, not self contained. First, the credits:

• Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
• Artist: Jesus Saiz (including covers)
• Letterer: Rob Leigh
• Colorist: Tom Chu
• Assistant Editor: Chris Conroy
• Editor: Joey Cavalieri

.....The four teams make up nearly the entire cast. Except for two pages, there are no 'innocent bystanders' anywhere in the 44 page story. The selection of team members doesn't necessarily fix each team in a particular time, but strongly implies a certain era. First, the three founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes [LSH]:

• Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn)
• Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen)
• Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz)

.....Their contemporaries in the 30th century are the Legion of Substitute Heroes [Subs]:

• Chlorophyll Kid (Ral Benem)
• Fire Lad (Staq Mavlen)
• Night Girl (Lydda Jath)
• Polar Boy (Brek Bannin)
• Stone Boy (Dag Wentim)

.....The LSH first appeared in comics in 1958 and were introduced as coming from the 30th century. From the beginning it was always implied that these three weren't the only members and subsequent appearances would add new members, so many in fact that early on it became impractical to include them all on each mission. Ergo, this line-up could have been active throughout most of the feature's history with a few glaring exceptions. For a long time Lightning Lad was missing an arm and appeared with or without a metal prosthetic. Also, each of the three have worn a variety of costumes, including Cosmic Boy's very daring 1970's mostly-skin outfit. If pressed, I'm guessing most fans would place these uniforms in the early to mid 1960's. The Subs, on the other hand, were a smaller, closer-knit organization whose line-up stayed close to the list above from their 1963 debut until the introduction of Color Kid in 1966. The incarnation of the Doom Patrol also seems to come from a 1963-1965 time frame, since Caulder is not using his "Action Chair", introduced in Doom Patrol #94(03/65). Their line-up [DP] is:

• The Chief (Niles Caulder)
• Robotman (Cliff Steele)
• Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr)
• Negative Man (Larry Trainor)

.....Last (and it could be argued, least) is The Inferior Five [I5]:

• Merry Man (Myron Victor)
• Awkwardman (Leander Brent)
• The Blimp (Herman Cramer)
• Dumb Bunny (Athena Tremor)
• White Feather (William King)

.....The I5 were introduced in Show case #62 (05-06/66)- #63 (07-08/66) and 65 (11-12/66). The other three issues with 1966 cover dates featured The Spectre and both features moved on to their own titles in 1967. Both titles lasted ten issues, as well. The Spectre, of course, continued to find a variety of outlets for years after that. Not so, the I5. After two reprint issues in 1972, their only appearances tended to be 'summary' or 'taking inventory' type stories:

1. Showcase #100 (05/78)- A single story incorporating as many characters as possible from the first 93 issues of the series.
2. Ambush Bug #3 (08/85)- While COIE and Who's Who were being published, Irwin naturally provided his own guide to the DCU.
3. Who's Who...#11 (01/86)- Speaking of which...; they're on page 3.
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths #12(03/86)- Yes, incredibly they survived the 'event' in issue #10. They can be seen running behind Lois Lane while she makes a television news report from New York City (on page 15).
5. Oz-Wonderland War #3 (03/86)- I'll have to reread this carefully, but this might be an alternate Earth version of the group.
6. Animal Man #25 (07/90)- In the final Grant Morrison arc, Animal Man finds that the characters killed in COIE are materializing from Psycho Pirate's memory. I don't want to give away too much more, but I would highly recommend that any comics fan (well, mid-teens and older) read the three trade paperbacks compiling #'s 1-26 (plus the Secret Origins story). This story obviously implies that the I5 didn't make it, but since this issue and COIE #12 are both canon, let's just assume that this I5 is the one from Oz-Wonderland War.
7. Angel And The Ape #1(03/91)- #4 (06/91)- We learn Angel and Dumb Bunny are sisters. We also learn Sam Simeon is related to Gorilla Grodd. This Phil Foglio story (and his other from two years later, Stanley And His Monster), are long overdue for compilation.

.....Since then it's been Elseworlds cameos and Crisis event crowd scenes and other appearances that can be argued as taking place outside regular continuity, such as Dumb Bunny and Ambush Bug waking up after their Las Vegas wedding in Ambush Bug: Year None in 2008.

.....For DP fans not familiar with the abundant continuity issues plaguing the Legion Of Super-Heroes, there's good news. By using a c.1964-ish version of the team many of those problems become irrelevant. However, since this is unlikely the only place you'll be reading about/discussing this story, I should mention that the basic problem was that the LSH were created pre-Crisis and said to be inspired by Superboy, who traveled through time to join them. After COIE, DC went back to the basics of the Golden Age when constructing a new origin and history for Superman; i.e., he started his costumed career as an adult when he left the family farm and there never was a Superboy. Rather than cancel the immensely popular LSH title(s) or pretend their Gordian Knot of a history just didn't happen, a succession of mutually contradicting explications mounted until Zero Hour in 1994 and around the time of their Fiftieth Anniversary in 2008 it started getting unnecessarily freaky all over again. When this story gets discussed elsewhere any number of contentious plot points from the last three decades may surface in the conversation. To better grasp what these problems are and how to comprehend how Legion chronology works I'll have to refer you to Get-A-Life Boy's LSH Blog, specifically the following page:

http://sakerslsh.blogspot.com/2009/09/fixing-legion-chronology-for-last-time.html

.....I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the excellent blog The Legion Omnicom at

http://adventure247.blogspot.com/

.....and the LSH area of Cosmic Teams at http://www.cosmicteams.com/legion/index.html

.....In the next post I'll take you through the two parallel time travel stories page by page and event by event, both in real time and as they are experienced by the cast.

DP09-AP(b) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....The next selection is cover dated February 2010 but shipped December 9th, 2009.

.....Once the Giffen Period was under way in the summer of 2009 I felt as if I was holding my breath every time I read the new solicitations. Under the last four writers the feature veered in and out of continuity over twenty years: Morrison (in), Pollack (out), Arcudi (in) and Byrne (out). More importantly, the decision to operate in or out of continuity was never up to the writer in question. It was an editorial or administrative decision. By the end of Infinite Crisis it was known that they had returned to the fold, so to speak, but it had taken three years for them to be granted a title again. I was anxious to see how the team was treated as guest stars in other titles, under other writers. Any differences between Giffen's handling and another's might yield a clue as to what editorial stipulations were the ground rules, the operating parameters within which the writers were allowed to play. ("Yes, you can use that forgotten old mad scientist villain and place them on Oolong Island. No, you can't kill Dusty the Pilot.") We were told in advance that Giffen would be surgically reintegrating errant characters and plot elements into the title, which could take years to do correctly. Any hope of a short cut was worth following up on. There were guest appearances, but for that first year at least they were flashbacks to the Original Period.

.....From DC [Universe] Holiday Special '09 #1 (02/10) is a six-page story that goes by one title on the contents page ("Beast Boy & Doom Patrol In The Christmas Of Doom") and another title on the actual splash page ("The [Beast] Boy Who Hated Christmas!"). The credits were as follows:

• Writer: Sterling Gates
• Artist: Jonboy Meyers
• Colorist: Chuck Pires
• Letterer: Travis Lanham
• Editors: Adam Schlagman & Eddie Berganza
• (the present-day Gar also appears on the painted cover by Dustin Nguyen)

.....As far as I can discern, the story takes place at Christmas (of course) at about the time of Doom Patrol #105 (08/66)- #106 (09/66). The cast is Beast Boy (in mask), Elasti-Girl, Mento, Negative Man, Robotman, The Chief and Galtry. If you're trying to find this on commercial sites or fan databases, be aware that the word "Universe" only appears on the cover, not in the indicia. You might have to search for the name with it and without it.

.....In the story, after defeating a glass-domed giant robot on the corner of Drake St. and Premiani Dr., Beast Boy complains to the others about Christmas. Rita follows him home to find Galtry mistreating him and convinces Steve to adopt him. She tells Gar that the accident that gave her her powers also made her unable to have children. That's the closest thing to a bombshell here, since I don't recall that being mentioned in the original series and she's only just come back in the past decade. I haven't found anything to contradict or confirm it post-Crisis, but I'm still looking. Another possible bone of contention is that they give Gar's age as fourteen. It is true that in the last year of the series Rita and Steve referred to him as a teenager and he has always been short for his age. But it's also been well established that he was sixteen during the original New Teen Titans series (1980-1985). That would mean that his entire television career came and went in less than two years, to say nothing of the remaining third of the Doom Patrol series that would have followed the Christmas story had it taken place where I suspect it did. During Doom Patrol #105 there is a scene much like the one in the story in which Rita follows Gar home. When the issue begins the team suspects, as they have since his joining the group, that Gar has been exaggerating his mistreatment by Galtry. By the end of the issue they've learned otherwise. By the end of #106, Rita and Steve announce their intention to adopt Gar, which they eventually succeed in doing in #110 (03/67). The intervening issues are an unrelated multi-part story that occasionally cuts away to note the progress that Steve's lawyers and detectives are making in building their case. Since the Christmas story can't reasonably be shoe-horned into the existing scenes in the original series we're left to assume that this is yet another post-Crisis account of pre-Crisis history and that the original scenes are among the many things changed by COIE in the 1980's.

.....In the next story, continuity within DCU becomes a cakewalk compared to continuity within the story itself. Wear a helmet.

DP09-AP(a) Retro Stories During Giffen Period

.....In the various Period synopses early in this blog, beginning with "The Wilderness Years", I began to designate period pieces with the symbol [P]. The phrase "period piece" here means the same as it does in theater and film: a whole work that noticeably takes place in an earlier, distinctly different period. There's a qualitative difference between those stories and ones that include flashbacks to earlier periods for exposition purposes or ones that simply take place earlier in continuity within the same period.

.....At the time that I put together the synopsis for Gypsy Period 2 and the accompanying Trade Survey that follows it, I wasn't aware that Ambush Bug was going to play such a significant part of the current series. It's hard to think of him as a team member, since so much of what he is seems to be conscious and willing on his part, while the common bond among the Doom Patrol's members is that they were the results of tragic accidents. Irwin's parents may beg to differ with me, but that's my first impression. Had I known, I would have included the TP SHOWCASE PRESENTS AMBUSH BUG on both lists, early in 2009 (March 25th), right before the first DP volume and after the issues of TRINITY. Incidentally, the issues of TRINITY, which take place in an alternate timeline, pose a question of judgement for me. I've decided to judge them as I would Elseworlds stories. The Doom Patrol have experienced different states and different senses of existence often enough that it isn't immediately obvious which versions are 'real' and which aren't or even what 'real' means. The one time I've cut myself some slack in the 'comprehensive' aspect of these searches was when I decided to dismiss out of hand the Tangent 'Doom Patrol', not because of any concerns I had about the quality of the stories but for the simple fact that they were unrelated characters in a unrelated timeline in unrelated circumstances who were given the same name for Maximum Obfuscation Purposes best understood by DC's Marketing Department and whoever prescribes their medication. Not my kids, not my problem.

.....Speaking of kids, the last entry on the Gypsy Period synopsis is where we should start when considering period pieces, with some careful qualifications.

.....[juv.] Batman: The Brave And The Bold #7 (09/09) "The Secret Of The Doomsday Design!" by J. Torres (script) and J. Bone (art) with a cover by Scott Jeralds and edited by Rachel Gluckstern and Michael Siglain is an original story in the style of the Cartoon Network series. This is made for children but that would only be implied by the cartoon art of the cover. There's little in the way of trade dress that would suggest that to the casual observer. For instance, the checkerboard Cartoon Network logo is not present and DC's kids titles have dropped the Johnny DC logo and imprint identity, although they continue to use the character as the 'voice' of the editorial content. Below the UPC box there is printed "dckids.com", but that's less than an inch from the bottom of the page, almost literally beneath notice. It's been a long time since Helix, Piranha and Paradox were absorbed into DC or Warner Books' other imprints, but the past year has been an exercise in streamlining with the dismantling of Wildstorm/ABC and Zuda. A casual flip through a recent Diamond Comics Distributor catalog shows that the super-hero titles are now under a "DCUniverse" imprint and Vertigo is still there, but everything else, from Tiny Titans to Resident Evil, comes under the generic sounding "DC Comics" imprint.

.....This is clearly not DCU continuity, but anyone who has seen the animated television series that the comic book is based on would agree that it's a weird synthesis of periods whose result is something unique to the show, something it doesn't even share with DC's other animated projects. Starting with Batman himself, he doesn't resemble the versions from "Batman Adventures", "Justice League Unlimited" or "Young Justice". He doesn't even jibe with the tot-friendly "Super Friends" from the 2008 comic (or the 1970's cartoon for that matter). If anything, he calls to mind the animated opening sequence of the live-action 1960's "Batman" series, a fact they've actually played with when peppering the current animated series with visual in-jokes. In a way that's not entirely inappropriate. The show usually takes place in the present day but Batman's personality is generally like his comic book counterpart in the late 1960's, a period comparatively overshadowed by the campy TV show contemporary to it and the fantastic Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams issues that followed. While I personally prefer the O'Neil/Adams stories, the late 1960's stories weren't bad at all. They tended to distance themselves from the celebrity villains and pop-art self-awareness of the TV show and opt instead for straight-forward self-contained detective stories. In fact, the silliness of the TV show villains seemed to have soured both writers and readers on Batman's fetishistic rogues' gallery. They rarely appeared in the 1970's in either Batman or Detective Comics until Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers brought them back with a vengeance nearly a decade later. Despite the fact that the Batman of the current cartoon is fighting colorful villains, both he and the 1960's comic version are tight-lipped without being grim, relentless without being ruthless, perfect for kids who won't stand for something babyish but aren't quite ready for the Christian Bale version.

.....For their part, the Doom Patrol here are a synthesis as well. This story shipped over a year before the team appeared in the episode "The Last Patrol" (October 8th, 2010). A "B:TB&TB" spot was only a matter of time, since there had already been appearances by The Brain ("Journey To The Center Of The Bat", January 30th, 2009) and Mallah ("Gorillas In Our Midst", April 16th, 2010). But the version of the Doom Patrol who eventually surfaced in that episode was very close to the Original Period line-up: Cliff, Rita , Larry and The Chief. Shockingly, they even updated the 1968 self-sacrifice scene. The version in this comic book story not only adds Beast Boy but uses a version of Gar closer to that from the "Teen Titans" animated series, which preceded "B:TB&TB". The squad as a whole most closely approximates the "Homecoming" incarnation of the group. "Homecoming" was a two-part season premiere of "Teen Titans" (September 25th and October 1st, 2005) broadcast during the waning days of the Byrne Period. The premise is that Beast Boy introduces his current teammates to his adopted family, the Doom Patrol, when they are kidnapped by the Brotherhood of Evil. The remaining five episodes in that season's first leg (through November) use the Brotherhood as villains. In "Homecoming", The Chief is nowhere to be found and Mento is the leader of the group. The following spring that team configuration was featured in the comic book counterpart to the series, Teen Titans Go! #28 (04/06) and again months later in #34 (10/06). The cartoon version almost seemed coordinated with the DCU version from Teen Titans #34 (05/06)- #37 (08/06), the "One Year Later" story that immediately followed Infinite Crisis. In that story Gar has returned to the Doom Patrol and they decide to have Mento be their new leader after reassessing Caulder's people skills.

.....When the Doom Patrol eventually appeared in Batman: The Brave And The Bold #7 (09/09) the roster was Cliff, Rita, Larry, Beast Boy and The Chief. Mento isn't mentioned, but curiously although the team is wearing uniforms in the same style they used in the 1960's, the color scheme is Mento's purple and black instead of Original Period red and white. One can only assume that was done in the hopes of carrying over readership from Teen Titans Go!, where Gar has always worn those colors for some reason. The plot of the issue involves Cliff, Rita and Larry being kidnapped by the Mad Mod, who intends to cannibalize the material of their costumes (or in Cliff's case his body) to custom design a battle suit that takes advantage of the materials' adaptability to the DP's powers. The Chief, based on experience no doubt, assumes General Immortus is responsible and dispatches Gar to recruit Batman's help. The scene in which Gar finds Batman shows him swooping into the Batmobile in the form of a green bat crying, "Daddy! Daddy! I've been looking all over for you!" That line is particularly jarring to anyone who knows the personal histories of both characters, even by the standards of Gar's filterless humor. In his own life Gar watched his natural father (and mother) die, was stolen from the African king who adopted him and then was adopted by Rita and a reluctant Steve who years later tried to kill him. Batman not only watched his father (and mother) die but was himself a proxy father to at least three boys: Dick Grayson was his ward for years (for decades to readers) without ever being formally adopted; an adult Dick then stood by and watched Bruce adopt Jason Todd relatively quickly; Jason was killed shortly after that while in Bruce's care; Bruce then took in Tim Drake while Tim's own father was incapacitated, leading to complications when Tim's father recovered; and finally learned that Tim's father was murdered during Identity Crisis as a direct result of Tim's activity as Robin. And then there's Damian. Gee, Gar, why not invite Scandal Savage or Orion of the New Gods and make the adventure a 'daddy issue' trifecta?

.....The choice of Mad Mod as the villain should also be acknowledged as a nod to the animated "Teen Titans" TV show as much as the purple and black costumes. Between the cartoon and the Teen Titans Go! comic book, I can't recall him appearing anywhere else in the past decade. Having made only two outings in pre-Crisis comics, both while the Original Period Doom Patrol was being published in the sixties (the second just barely), it could be that he and the DP's roster were chosen to evoke that period, at least among older readers. Yet, I'd wager his use since being revived for animation in 2003 has caused most fans to forget his turn as a reformed supporting character in Dan Jurgens late 1990's Teen Titans comic book series. So then, is this issue an Original Period story, albeit from the Original Period of an alternate timeline? Only with that conditional 'out' could I feel comfortable saying yes. To argue in defense of that choice I should point out that neither Batman or Beast Boy mention Robin or the Teen Titans even as they're fighting a TT villain. If they had I might have reconsidered what possible analog DCU continuity period the story could have fit. There are few other clues, although there is a wink on the last page as the team are enjoying their restored uniforms. Larry says, "I've been considering a makeover. How do you think I'd look in a trenchcoat?"

.....The 2010 retro stories are next.

DP02-11 Beast Boy and Mal Duncan Part 6

.....[This post has been re-edited after May 4th, 2011 before original publication.]

.....As recounted in the Original Period reprint posts last year, Doom Patrol was one of several DC titles revived or created to run themed reprints briefly during 1973. Just prior to this the original run of Teen Titans was cancelled in the midst of an intense spate of experimentation with diversifying formats at DC. Three years later, just as the price of 32pp standard format comics was rising to 30¢ at DC they introduced two new reprint titles in their 64pp special format at 50¢ just before it was due to shrink to 48pp. Of special interest to this blog was DC Super-Stars #1 (03/76), reprinting Teen Titans stories. The cover was largely appropriated: two vignettes redrawn or reinked from the covers of the stories within; the four full-length poses (Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Speedy) that lined the left margin (in the same order) of every cover from #27 and #29 to #43; and the logo used from #19 to #43. There was also a blurb across the bottom announcing, "Extra-- Introducing The Teen Titans" followed by six faces: the five founding members and Lilith. And yet...

.....Between the reprinted stories is an unattributed article called "INTRODUCING THE TEEN TITANS"(N-1449). It's ostensibly narrated by the character Mr. Jupiter but probably written by editor E. Nelson Bridwell. It's only four pages of brief text pieces accompanied by appropriated spot illustrations, but... the characters profiled are the ten members of the group plus Beast Boy. There's no profile of the Russian teen Starfire or Joshua or any other character. Here's Mal and Gar's full text:

1. "Mal Duncan grew up in Hell's Corner, a tough slum district. The Titans first saw him when he protected his kid sister from young hoodlums who'd wrecked her lemonade stand. Later they befriended him and he proved he had the strength and wits to be a Teen Titan."
2. "Beast Boy (Gar Logan) was the son of a brilliant doctor. When the lad contracted a fatal disease, his father found a way to turn him into the one animal which could throw off the infection-- a Green Monkey. As a result, Gar has green skin and hair, plus the ability to turn into any kind of animal. He shared many adventures with the Doom Patrol and one with the Teen Titans."

.....Bridwell is credited with the closing text piece: "TALES OF THE TITANS" (N-1456) recounts the history of the group, noting the personnel changes on the team in chronological order and slipping in Beast Boy's one-time guest appearance, but again ignoring other potential team candidates Starfire and Joshua. Is it making too much of these filler pieces to suggest that there had been plans to put Beast Boy back into circulation with the Teen Titans as the means? The return of the Teen Titans title was still eight months off and the West Coast faction would not appear in it until a year after that when the New Doom Patrol made their debut in the revived Showcase. Bridwell did indeed have some hand in the Titans' title, but for a mere ten issues there's a surplus of editorial shifting around. The only consistent name is Jack Adler who began as Production Manager (#44-46), a position that was replaced with Vice President/Production (#47-53), also Adler. The first issue back (#44) was intended to be written by Nicholas Cuti (probably most famous as the creator of E-Man for Charlton) using a plot provided by Paul Levitz. It was eventually scripted by Bob Rozakis (retaining some of Levitz' dialogue), who stayed on for the whole series, despite also taking over for Gerry Conway's Corner on Secret Society of Super-Villains as of that series' #5(01-02/77) and sticking with his earlier gig on Batman Family.

[.....As a side note for trivia buffs: Conway himself had been editor of Super-Team Family for the first three issues when he announced on the letters' page that he was leaving that title so that Conway's Corner, his studio-within-DC, could put out SSSV. Replacing him on Super-Team Family as editor was Bridwell, who stayed for three issues and left just before Teen Titans returned.]

.....Aside from Adler in Production, there were two sets of credits regarding editorship. The nominal Editors were Julius Schwartz with Associate Editor E. Nelson Bridwell (#'s 45-50) and Jack C. Harris (who either didn't have or didn't list an assistant editor)(#'s 51-53). Rather than naming an editor, the first issue (#44) named Managing Editor Joe Orlando and Editorial Coordinator Paul Levitz. Their names disappeared for two issues but returned when Adler's position was changed to V.P. and all three of them stayed with those titles to the end. So Bridwell was only an Associate on the story that reintroduced Gar and only on the first of three issues. He might have thrown forward Gar's name at a meeting, but it could just as easily been Rozakis or Schwartz.

.....I wish I could say there was more consistency in the art than there was in edits, but the opposite was true. Only two issues (#'s 48-49) have the same penciller and inker team. There was a total of six pencillers and six inkers working in different combinations. The cover pencillers never did interiors, which was not uncommon at DC. Ernie Chua did covers to #'s 44-45 (inked by Vince Colletta) and Rich Buckler did #-s 46-53 (usually inked by Jack Abel). I am not certain which (if any) of these artists might have worked on the full page ad (L-510) that ran in Super-Team Family #7 (10-11/76) right after a reprint of Teen Titans #31(01-02/71). Most of the art from that page was shrunken and incorporated into the 'Daily Planet' motif editorial page a few weeks later (see the top left hand corner of this post). DC ran those Daily Planet pages weekly starting earlier in 1976 and that one was Volume 76, Issue 15, August 9, 1976. The ad copy that it excised from the original ad was:

".....You've seen THE TEEN TITANS as they were-- Now take a look at how they're gonna be! Robin! Speedy! Wonder Girl! Kid Flash! And introducing-- the Guardian! in "THE MAN WHO TOPPLED THE TITANS!" coming in the FIRST ISSUE of the NEW TEEN TITANS magazine! (Number 44, November-- on sale August 19th-- WATCH FOR IT!)"

.....The Daily Planet page added the second regular logo from the original run (from #19-43), even though all ten issues of the revival would use the earlier logo (from #1-15; the intervening issues-- 16, 17,18-- each had unique logos worked into the cover art). Since the Daily Planet page is essentially advertising, albeit in editorial form, why not just use the logo that would be on the newsstands a week later? After all, the editor of the Daily planet page was Bob Rozakis himself, the same person who wrote the series. It could have been a stylistic choice or a miscommunication between departments. On a practical level, the later of the two logos may be more legible after reduction, since the earlier logo utilizes a 3-D 'depth' effect (like the more famous Superman logo) that could get lost when shrunk. I don't know if anybody besides Todd Klein and myself care about these things, but the logos of comic books aren't printed in hand-crafted, stylized fonts by accident. If the fans' eyes didn't scan a sea of color for familiar shapes to pick out their favorite titles from chaotic convenience store racks in the pre-direct world of 1976, then publishers would have saved time and money by printing every series' title in the same font and in the same color on each issue.

.....The actual series ran on an irregular schedule. The cover dates were the even numbered months, plus November. The actual shipping dates were roughly three months ahead of the covers, meaning that the title was effectively bi-monthly with an extra issue for the summer in August. Some characters (Gnarrk) wouldn't appear again until Crisis, if then. Most would appear at Donna's wedding in Tales Of The Teen Titans #50 (02/85), which was cutting it close in terms of publishing if not continuity. Below is what I hope is the most accurate (to continuity) and comprehensive listing of appearances prior to Garfield chartering the NTT in 1980. Each of the Teen Titans issues will be reviewed in individual posts.

1. Detective Comics #462 (08/76) Robin appears in the conclusion of a Batman 3-parter.
2. Batman #279 (09/76) Robin appears.
3. Batman Family #7 (09-10/76) Robin appears in an Elliot S! Maggin story with Batgirl (Barbara Gordon).
4. Teen Titans #44 (11/76) Mal adopts the Jim Harper Golden Guardian costume, augmented by an exo-skeleton.
5. Batman Family #8 (11-12/76) Robin confronts Duela in a different identity.
6. Adventure Comics #446 (07-08/76) Robin makes a cameo in the Aquaman feature, calling by video-phone to locate Aqualad.
7. Teen Titans #45 (12/76) Mal defeats Azrael The Angel Of Death and is rewarded by Gabriel with a shofar. He is told to blow the horn in order to even the odds in a fight. Karen Beecher is introduced on page 5.
8. DC Super-Stars #10 (12/76) Robin and Wally appear in a story pitting Justice Leaguers against super-villains in a baseball game. If you ever hear cranky old-timers complaining that they don't understand why the Crisis reboot of 1986 was necessary, just show them this issue. Then hit them with it. Again and again and again.
9. Batman Family #9 (01-02/77) Robin confronts Duela again.
10. Teen Titans #46 (02/77) Robin brings Duela into the group. The Fiddler (from Earth-2) appears after All-Star Comics #63. When The Fiddler uses his violin's sonics to control rats and insects, Mal learns that Gabriel's horn can be used to wrest that control.
11. World's Finest Comics #243 (02/77), Batman #285 (03/77)- #286 (04/77)and Batman Family #10 (03-04/77)- #11 (05-06/77) Robin only appears. He appears in two different stories in Batman Family #11.
12. Teen Titans #47 (04/77)- #49 (08/77) After three self-contained issues, this is the first multi-issue arc and it has several concurrent plot lines. Most importantly relative to the Doom Patrol, Karen Beecher becomes Bumblebee. Initially she created the alter ego so that Mal (without his knowledge) could repel her staged attack and gain respect from his teammates. Instead, they defend Mal so fiercely that Karen is convinced that they already do respect him. Other lines include Aqualad becoming comatose due to a mysterious illness and is eventually taken to Atlantis for treatment. The team moves to a new headquarters in Farmingdale, Long Island, underneath a former restaurant which the team renovates into the nightclub they call "Gabriel's Horn". Mal wears a fan-designed Hornblower costume for one issue (#49). And weirdly, Duela is able to predict parallel crimes, claiming to have "a mental link with whomever planned" them-- that turning out to be Harvey Dent, Two-Face.
13. Batman Family #12 (07-08/77)- #15 (12/77-01/78) Robin's feature continues. Kid Flash makes a guest appearance in #14.
14. Teen Titans #50 (10/77)- #52 (12/77) This arc is the big one, the formation of Teen Titans West. Gar Logan, still called Beast Boy here, has not been used for so long that there seems to be some confusion about exactly how his powers work. In #50, when he transforms into an animal he retains a green head but his body becomes the natural color of that animal. In #51, he becomes completely green but still has a thatch of hair, even if the animal is not a mammal. The plot is needlessly confusing and centers on a villain named Mr. Esper who has managed to tap into the mental powers of the semi-retired Lilith. He uses those powers to cause chaos by levitating an ocean liner, turning a passenger train into a roller coaster and launching the Ferris building into the air, which are prodigious feats of telekinesis Lilith has never exhibited herself, before or since. Mal returns to the Guardian costume and hides from the others, including Karen, that he has lost Gabriel's horn. Aqualad returns, explaining that he must quit the group because his illness was psychosomatic and rooted in his feelings of inferiority within the Teen Titans. He stays long enough for a group photo of all fifteen combined members from both coasts.
15. Secret Society Of Super-Villains #8 (07-08/77)- #9 (09/77) and Super-Team Family #13 (10-11/77) Kid Flash guest stars. For some reason, this appearance seems to have dropped of the radar of some of the more reliable data bases. That could be because, like much of 1970's DC stories, it causes too many conflicts with post-Crisis continuity. The only reason I was able to include it here is because, by chance, I personally own some well-worn copies of all three issues.
16. Detective Comics #472 (09/77)- #474 (12/77) Robin guest stars in parts 4-6 of the Steve Englehart arc, remembered primarily for the Marshall Rogers art and the return of classic villains. #474 has a one panel cameo by Donna, calling Dick to an important meeting to take place in Teen Titans #53. There is also on that page a panel with portraits of Donna and Duela, but I'm betting that the panel of Donna on the phone by Rogers was the single reason George Pérez kept her in the red unitard for most of New Teen Titans. These stories were reprinted in the mid-80's in the Baxter paper mini-series Shadow Of The Bat (not to be confused with the 90's ongoing series). They are more readily available as the trade paperback Strange Apparitions.
17. Teen Titans #53 (02/78) The first and last page form a framing sequence in which Mal and Karen read a scrapbook containing the previously untold story of the Teen Titans' first adventure, a newly written and drawn story that makes up the rest of the book. The group started with a teaming of Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad in The Brave And The Bold #54 (06-07/64), but the name "Teen Titans" wasn't actually used until they returned in #60 (06-07/65), adding Wonder Girl along with the name and the logo they would eventually use on their own series. The story Mal and Karen are reading took place between the two and shows the boys and Speedy meeting Wonder Girl for the first time. She introduces herself as Wonder Woman's sister and claims she was sent by Hippolyta but the real story leading up to that scene would not be revealed until Donna's origin "Who Is Wonder Girl?" from New Titans #50 (12/88)- #55 (06/89). At the end of the frame sequence, the group again disbands (revealing the meaning of Donna's phone call to Dick in Detective Comics (above)). Roy tells Mal and Karen to "keep the books balanced". In lieu of a letters' page, a text page (probably by Jack C. Harris) discusses plans to use the various characters in the future. Mal and Karen were intended to appear in Secret Society Of Super-Villains, and that Bob Rozakis was supposed to be scripting it. Those plans never went forward.

.....And now, for what it's worth, the remainder of appearances prior to New Teen Titans:

1. Green Lantern #100 (01/78) Roy Harper/Speedy appears.
2. All-New Collector's Edition #C-56 ([3]/78) This was the tabloid-sized special better known as Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali. It had no month on the cover, but was advertised to ship December 12th, 1977, contemporary to March 1978 cover dated comics. The cover shows about a hundred real and fictional people drawn into the audience, including Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, Speedy and Wonder Girl.
3. Batman Family #16 (02-03/78)- #17 (04-05/78) Robin appears in both and with Duela and Betty Kane/Bat-Girl in #16.
4. DC Special Series #11([5]/78) Also known as Flash Spectacular and advertised for February 20th, 1978, this contains a short chapter in which Wally West graduates and the Teen Titans attend in their civilian identities: Dick, Garth, Donna, Roy, Mal and Duella.
5. Showcase #100 (05/78) Before COIE, before Secret Wars, this was a double-length one-issue story featuring nearly every character featured in the original run of Showcase (i.e., no Doom Patrol or Power Girl). That includes Hawk and Dove as well as Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Wonder Girl.
6. Secret Society Of Super-Villains #12 (01/78) Robin guest stars.
7. Karate Kid # 14 (05-06/78)- #15 (07-08/78) Robin guest stars; the story continues in Kamandi, but Robin is only mentioned in recaps.
8. Batman Family #18 (06-07/78) and Batman #302 (08/78) Robin appears.
9. Batman Family #19 (08-09/78)- #20 (10-11/78) Robin appears in both and with Duela in #19.
10. Flash #265 (09/78), 266 (10/78) and 269 (01/79) Kid Flash appears.
11. World's Finest Comics #251 (06-07/78) In the Green Arrow feature there is a review of Roy's career. Roy also appears in flashbacks in #254 (12/78-01/79) and 257 (06-07/79).
12. Superman Family #191 (09-10/78)- #194 (03-04/79) In the Jimmy Olsen feature, Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion try to find the Golden Guardian (they all met during Jack Kirby's time on the series when it was called Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.) Because the Teen Titans had the costume in storage, Mal, Karen and Roy help Jimmy retrace its path.
13. Detective Comics #482 (02-03/79) Dick is a guest star in the Batgirl feature.
14. Adventure Comics #461 (01-02/79) The Wonder Woman feature retells Donna's origin story with Roy in flashbacks.
15. Adventure Comics #461 (01-02/79)- #463 (05-06/79) Aqualad appears with Aquaman.
16. The Brave And The Bold #149 (04/79) Batman is investigating a gang recruiting teenaged runaways and enlists Dick, Donna, Wally and Roy to go undercover.
17. Detective Comics #481 (12/78-01/79)- #483 (04-05/79) These are the last Robin solo stories with Bob Rozakis scripts. Duela masquerades as the Card Queen.
18. Flash #277 (09/79) Wally appears.
19. Detective Comics #484 (06-07/79)- #488 (02-03/80) Robin solo stories scripted by Jack C. Harris begin.
20. Wonder Woman #265 (03/80)- 266 (04/80) When Mr. Jupiter appears to have been murdered (it turns out to be a trick), Donna tries to investigate.
21. World's Finest Comics #262 (04-05/80) and #264 (08-09/80) Aqualad appears.

.....And then one day DC Comics Presents seemed thicker than usual.

.....I'd like to say "...and that's it.", but of course things like this are never really over. There are always new stories being retroactively fit into earlier continuity, always minor cameos that escaped attention when lists like this are compiled and always little nuggets like this leaking out: although Mal and Karen didn't make it into SSSV, the throwaway villain Sizematic (from the Two-Face story in Teen Titans #'s 47-49) did, albeit in the unpublished issues #16 and 17. Also, when Hawk and Dove later appeared in The Brave And The Bold #181 (12/81) in a story written by Alan Brennart, they appeared to have aged considerably more than their former teammates concurrently appearing in New Teen Titans, by then a year into that series. As though to hammer home the point, the story title was a lyric from the Simon and Garfunkel song "Hazy Shade Of Winter", which not only dates back to their original series, but is a song about aging. They didn't appear again until Donna's wedding in Tales Of The Teen Titans #50 (02/85), where the continuity gaffe became the basis of an inside joke. On page 30 Donna introduces her new husband Terry to Hank and Don. Terry, who's aware of Donna's super-heroine activity, says, "Donna's often spoken about you, too. Funny, I got the impression you were older." Hank replies, "Yeah, lately everyone's been saying that." Mal and Karen at least paint a warmer picture. Talking with Donna, Terry and Lilith they seem happy to have put the Guardian and Bumblebee identities behind them after getting married themselves. Karen's taken up cooking and Mal had just published his first book. Mal then mentions to Lilith that he was sorry about Gnarrk, but the details of that go unsaid. It does indicate that however inactive they may have been that they weren't completely out of touch.

.....Speaking of out of touch, this blog has been buried in Teen Titans minutiae to establish background for Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher. Just as it reached the stories that brought them together, the current Doom Patrol series has been cancelled before Vox could be brought back into it. I'm going to have to touch on some of the other periods before going over the details of their Teen Titans appearances. And for once I'm throwing the floor open to suggestions. I have some seriously overdue music blogs to update. Another post for May is nearly complete here. After that? Without a current series, I'm open to suggestions. Any cryptic references from the past forty years you just haven't managed to decode? Any obscure characters you just can't place? Continuity qualms? Creator credit quandaries? If you leave a comment, it will alert me. That's intended for screening purposes, but it also grabs my attention, even after this post has aged. I'll know within 24 hours and I can respond much quicker than I can post something like the monster above. And, as always, if you have any additions or corrections regarding that monster then the comments section is an appropriate space for those as well. Enjoy.