The Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (Pre-Recording Discussion / Questions)
fredzilla
Posts: 2,131
For those of you that listened to the last BOMC (Episode 1567: Sex Criminals Vol. 1) and want to be part of the next BOMC installment, the next book CGS will be reading is the Teen Titans four part story "The Judas Contract." As @wildpigcomics noted in Episode 1567, the trade can be a little difficult to locate as it's been out of print for a while.
It would be much better if you were to purchase the book from the fine retailer and show sponsor, In Stock Trades, but seeing as the book is out of print and IST didn't have any copies when I checked, you may have to seek other avenues for your fix.
But fear not, faithful BOMC readers, right now comiXology is having a sale on the Cyborg books. This includes Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 for a whopping $0.99 each (part four is in Annual #3 for $1.99)! An out of print arc for only $5 sounds like a good deal to me.
Once you have your book(s) and have read them, let the comments and questions commence below!
It would be much better if you were to purchase the book from the fine retailer and show sponsor, In Stock Trades, but seeing as the book is out of print and IST didn't have any copies when I checked, you may have to seek other avenues for your fix.
But fear not, faithful BOMC readers, right now comiXology is having a sale on the Cyborg books. This includes Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 for a whopping $0.99 each (part four is in Annual #3 for $1.99)! An out of print arc for only $5 sounds like a good deal to me.
Once you have your book(s) and have read them, let the comments and questions commence below!
Comments
Edit: After some further research, a DC wiki shows the original trade consists of:
The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #39-40
Tales of the Teen Titans #41-44
Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3
All issues are currently only $0.99 on comiXology except for the annual.
chris
I remember how ground breaking it seemed at the time, and now like much of that era of Titans, it basically could not be part of current continuity :(
Q: Is Peter joining you for the call? I've listened to all the Titans Tower episodes, but if I remember correctly, those ended with like issue 6 or 7 of the title. I've love to see that whole era covered in some sort of podcast form, but there doesn't seem to be any NTT focused one out there (frankly I don't think the new versions are all that exciting).
I jumped on the comiXology deal when it came out and finished this a few weeks ago. The only Teen Titans I've read was Geoff Johns' reboot years ago. When looking into this story, I read a review from someone that said this series was DC's version of the X-Men. I was a big reader of the late 90's X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, and with that statement, I was intrigued.
One of the things I've always felt with the DC universe is that there is a lot of history to the characters. Often, that history is hard to break through as a new reader. With a small amount of Titan knowledge this story was a little difficult to get into. The trade begins with a two-part story with the return of Brother Blood. I had to search Wikipedia in order to find out who he is/was and even that was slightly headache inducing (apparently there's been eight incarnations of someone claiming the name "Brother Blood"?). Regardless, I understood the significance of the story--Wally West quitting the team and Robin deciding to take some time off and ultimately a change in superhero persona--a time of change in Titan history.
Once the "Judas Contract" begins, it was fairly easy to follow without a whole lot of background knowledge. What really bothered me as I was reading was Terra. I'm not sure if she appeared that way to longtime readers and fans, but I could barely stand her. I understood her role in the story (she played the role of Judas to the collective Titan's Christ), but her character and dialog were like nails to a chalkboard to me. I knew that a little about Terra from Brad Meltzer's JLA run (which was mostly Geo-Force talking about his sister), but I had no idea that she was like this. Perhaps it was that her role was just a little too over the top for me? What really frustrated me was the way she acted toward Gar. I understand he was a little annoying as he tried pursuing her, but she was bitch to him without any sympathy or compassion. I felt this carried over into how she treated all of the Titans. That and the Titans seemed pretty oblivious to what was going on. But it was mostly just Terra's character that rubbed me the wrong way. Deathstroke didn't even seem that evil; he was just trying to fulfill the obligation of his son, Jericho.
Even Judas felt some remorse after betraying Christ: "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that" (Matthew 27:3-4, KJV).
A great villain is one that you can sympathize with. I couldn't do that with Terra. I'm not even sure what her motivation was for betraying the Titans? If this was Wolfman's intent for this character, he pulled it off. A fun story and worth my time nonetheless. I'm happy to have given it a read.
Edit: BTW - George Perez is going to be at a small, local con in Denver this November. If I end up going, maybe I can get a chance to meet him and ask him about this story and Terra?