REVIEW CORNER: Tales Of The New Teen Titans # 1

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Penciller: George Perez

Inker: Brett Breeding

Colorist: Adrienne Roy

Letterer: John Costanza

Cover Date: June 1982

Rating:

Continuing my look at George Perez’s wonderful body of work, this week I’ll take a look at Tales Of The New Teen Titans # 1.

This issue gives us the origin of Cyborg through the backdrop of a camping trip (Which I felt was a genius move on Wolfman’s part); Victor Stone proceeds to tell the Titans about his childhood and how was used by his parents in their experiments to boost his intelligence. it was because of his parents’ endless experiments that he lacked any social companionship, that is until he met up with a local street gang leader named Ron Evans who turned out to be a not-so-good influence on Victor.

The issue chronicles such details as Vic attending public school to his being injured in a gang fight. As many of us know, Victor comes in contact with a protoplasmic creature from another dimension that not only killed his mother but was responsible for his injuries, resulting in him becoming a half-man & half-mechanical parts and having to learn how to adjust to his new body in a five-month span.

This mini-series highlighted the brilliance of Wolfman and Perez’s collaboration as they told Cyborg’s origin with compassion mixed with triumph and tragedy that help shaped Victor Stone into the definite hero that he is, especially in the scene where Vic comes face-to-face with his old friend Ron Evans (Who took his militant philosophies too far); Perez’s artwork always shines when he was working on New Teen Titans so this issue is no exception as his attention to detail as well as displaying emotions in the characters he draws helps in making the story come alive with such radiance.

This is an issue I highly recommend for anyone who’s either a George Perez fan or a New Teen Titans fanatic because of the fact that this may be one of the best origin stores to date (Apologies to the origins of both Superman and Spider-Man) and at the same time, remind you how important Cyborg is to the DC Universe.

Well, that’s it for me. I’ll be back next week with another review so thanks for sticking around and I will see you all next time.