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Today, with a new Arrowverse show seeming like Teen Titans meets 21 Jump Street, see when the Teen Titans first went undercover in the comics.
In “When We First Met”, we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, “Avengers Assemble!” or the first appearance of Batman’s giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man’s face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
As CBR reported a couple of days ago, it is very possible that there will be a new Arrowverse (or whatever CW calls its DC shows now) series starring David Ramsey as his Arrow star, John Diggle, called Justice U. It is still very early in the production process, so the whole thing might fall apart, but at the moment, the series is set to feature Diggle recruiting five young metahumans and then have them go undercover as freshmen at a local university while Diggle continues to train them as superheroes.
The young superheroes concept, of course, reminds people of the Teen Titans (since there is currently a Titans series on HBO Max, that is likely why that name wasn’t used) and the undercover aspect reminds people of 21 Jump Street, the late 1980s/early 1990s TV series that made Johnny Depp a star as Officer Tom Hanson, a young cop who joins a special undercover unit where the officers all look young enough to go undercover in high schools and colleges (I just recently did a TV Bingo bit with 21 Jump Street). They have an older Captain who oversees them in the Diggle role in Justice U.
This made me think it would be fun to go back and see when the Teen Titans went undercover as regular teens for the first time in the comics!
HOW DID THE TEEN TTIANS FORM?
What would become the Teen Titans started in The Brave and the Bold #56 (by Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani), where there is a conflict in a small town between the adults of the town and the teenagers of the town, and the teens ask some young heroes to show up and give a talk…
The funny recurring shtick that Haney did in these early issues is that the adult mentors of the teen heroes are always constantly dismissive of their young proteges. Every time, it’s like, “Man, teens suck, right, Aquaman?” “Definitely, Batman!”
When the three teen heroes arrive, though, they discover that the teens in town were now all missing, but Robin discovered that the note left by the teens was a fake, based on the most spurious of suppositions, that the teens said “music” instead of “jive”…
In the end, it turns out that the teens had been captured by a villain who was enforcing some weird contract with the town, but the three heroes save the teens. The time away has made the teens respect their parents more and the parents respect the teens…
Four issues later, the heroes returned, only now they are calling themselves the Teen Titans. They are called into action at another small town where the teens were running the city for the day…
and they are shocked to see the city attacked by the Separated Man, a giant whose body parts all, well, you know, separate…
The Teen Titans run into action, with their mentors again looking down on them…
As an aside, of course, Wonder Girl was, at the time, a younger version of Wonder Woman and not a distinct character.
THE TEEN TITANS GO UNDERCOVER AS THE FLIPS
Showcase #59 sees Nick Cardy take over as the artist on the Teen Titans feature, as the teen heroes all enjoy the music of the Flips, even though their adult mentors insult their music…
However, the band that everyone loves, The Flips, appear to be committing a crime!
The Flips, though, insist that they were being framed…
So the Teen Titans show up to help the Flips clear their name…
When the Flips appear to commit ANOTHER crime, Robin has an idea, and it involves the Flips seemingly being cleared of their charges…
Yes, the Titans, of course, disguised themselves as the Flips to prove that someone else was doing the same thing!
I don’t think that that really counts as the sort of undercover deal we’re looking for (when the Titans would go undercover as regular teens), so let’s keep going!
THE TEEN TITANS HAVE A NEW MISSION
The Showcase, well, you know, showcase, worked and the Titans got their own series by Haney and Cardy, and the first issue gave them a new setup, with the teens going to work for the Peace Corps…
This FINALLY impressed their mentors…
However, in the second issue, despite working for the Peace Corps, they go on a mission just from a teen calling them on a ham radio to say that there is, like, a caveman teen living amongst them…
THE TEEN TITANS GO UNDERCOVER TO DEFEAT A BIZARRE NEW VILLAIN
Finally, in Teen Titans #3, the government asks the Teen Titans to look into a city with a lot of dropouts…
The heroes discover that the teens there have all gone to work for a special design mechanic…
The Titans meet him and he’s a weird guy named Ding Dong Daddy and the Titans quickly discover that he’s using these tricked out cars to commit crimes and help OTHER criminals commit crime!
The teens who work for him won’t believe that, so the Titans decide to go undercover as “regular” teens to first help the workers fend off an attack from a gang…
And then they are let into Ding Dong Daddy’s team of teen mechanics…
They then prove that he WAS a crook and they arrest him and the teens agree to go back to school…
If anyone has a suggestion for a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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