(Another reposted column that fits into my Silver Age Reread).
No, not a mystery in the story or about the story. The mystery is why the hell I bought it. Not that I hated the Titans or anything, but — well, let me start from the beginning.
The beginning, for me, growing up in England, was Justice League of America #30, the second half of the JLA/JSA battle with the Earth-Three Crime Syndicate. It was the first comic book I ever bought and I was instantly hooked. From that point on I bought as many comics from the PX — Dad was civil service on a U.S. base — as I could, though by parental decree that was only two a week. That partly explains my being a DC guy — I liked Marvel, I occasionally bought Marvel but I couldn’t keep up with the continued stories.
By the end of the 1960s, keeping up with any comics had become impractical. Dad had jumped into his own business, money was 
tight, and there was none for me to buy comics with. Given how much comics changed at this point, I’m not entirely sorry. This was about the time that the Metal Men got human disguises, Wonder Woman got the white pantsuit, Atom got saddled with Major Mynah and Denny O’Neill took over the JLA from Gardner Fox. As noted at the link, that was not a change I was okay with then, and I’m no fonder of O’Neil’s tenure now.
In 1969 my family moved to the Florida Panhandle, where my father returned to civil service work. It would be a couple of years before I resumed reading comics, and the first one I bought was Teen Titans #32, by Steve Skeates and Nicholas Cardy.
The mystery? For the life of me I can’t figure out why.
It’s not that I disliked Teen Titans. By my childhood standards it was perfectly decent super-fare, and Bob Haney’s attempts at hip teen slang didn’t bother me at all. As a British pre-teen it seemed perfectly plausible to me that American college students did say things like “We’re wild, woolly and full of gumdrops!” Rereading now, I can’t say the stories are A-list, but I’m enjoying the series.
That said, Teen Titans didn’t capture my heart anywhere near the way the Justice League or Flash did, or Hawkman, Green Lantern or Atom. The Avengers, my main Marvel purchase in childhood, probably ranked higher too.
So why when I started picking up comics again did I go with Teen Titans? I honestly have no idea.
Cardy’s art is great but art wouldn’t have convinced me at the time. The story — Kid Flash and Mal change history by killing a caveman, then return to an altered present structured around knighthood and sorcery — isn’t awful (though Mal’s repeated dialogue reminders that he’s a black guy from the ghetto come off very heavy-handed rereading as an adult) but it’s not amazing either. Thinking about reading the issue I don’t remember it triggering any excitement, whereas I remember vividly how Avengers #106 hooked me on Steve Englehart’s run.
So why TT #32? I suppose it might have been that there was nothing else available that day, but I picked up two-more Titans issues before I got around to renewing my acquaintance with Justice League of America or Flash. Sure, JLA was pretty “meh” until Len Wein took over, but I loved the team and as a tween I still wasn’t that picky.
I’m pretty sure at this point I’ll never know. Which is of absolutely no significance to anyone but me, but it’s my blog post.
Addendum. Revisiting this issue as part of my Silver Age reread, it’s way weirder than I thought the first time.
Following Kanigher’s #25 reboot, the Titans have been pretty grounded. Lots of serious, relevant stories with one or two more superheroic tales. Steve Skeates sudden swing to history changing and sword-and-sorcery is wildly different. Was he trying to shake things up? Impressed by Conan the Barbarian’s popularity? Skeates obviously liked the idea as (as Alan Stewart reveals), he’d planned to make the adventure run two more issues. Instead, Bob Haney took over partway through #32 (details of the transition at the link), finished things up early the following issue and launched a new plotline (details here).
I may have more to say about it later, but for now I’m done.
#SFWApro. Covers top to bottom by Nick Cardy, Gil Kane and Rich Buckler.
