InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "This man has no neck."

sun_soraya (sun_soraya) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-07 23:45:00

Entry tags:

char: raven/rachel roth, char: starfire/koriand'r, char: terry long, char: wonder girl/troia/donna troy, creator: george perez, creator: marv wolfman, group: teen titans, publisher: dc comics, title: teen titans

A serious competition for Terry Long?!
As requested I continue posting random 80's Teen Titans stuff.

So... not happy with Terry Long being Donna's lover? Too old? Too annoying? Too creepy? And on top of that a silly haircut? Well, in New Teen Titans #11-12 (1981) he's getting a rival:

See for yourself if the new guy in town can keep up with Terry!

The context: in an intense battle with Deathstroke Gar got shot and is now on the brink of death. To save their friend the Titans fly off to Paradise Island where Gar hopefully can be healed by the Amazon's Purple Ray. While the girls take Gar down to the island the boys leave for a different mission in Africa. And somewhere else...

Meet Hyperion from the Titans of Myth! And before the obvious encounter with Donna, let's take a quick look and compare him with Terry:

Hair: ... well, give Terry a shave and put some flowers in his hair and they could be brothers.
Age: with more than 30.000 years Hyperion wins here - to be fair, Terry might look old but he's actually only 29.
Factor of annoyance: most of us were a bit angry at Terry because he ruined Dick's speech at the campfire scene, but at least you can get a word out in his presence... not so sure here.
Factor of creepiness: ... I always found the Titans of Myth pretty creepy, too.

Hera help me, too, for I cannot bear his enormous ego...

You heard Kory, Dick is the only real man on earth!

And off they fly... to Tartarus once again. After battling a few cyclopses they manage to free the other Titans of Myth:

Together they decide that it's about time to throw Zeus and the other younger gods from the throne. Also: Kory, Raven and the Amazons are on their way to rescue Donna (bringing even Athena herself along), but Donna being Hyperion's new first lady doesn't really care.
Instead in the next issue they head off to Mount Olympus...

Epic battles are fought there and in the end the Titans of Myth win, turning the younger gods into stone.

Momma's here and she doesn't approve of Donna's new boyfriend.
They try to talk things out. Athena being the awesome mod explains that the new peaceful world the Titans of Myth were talking about unfortunately comes without freedom and free will.

And war they get! Kory frees Zeus and before the situation gets even worse, Athena can finally talk sense into everyone. Everyone? Not quite! Hyperion still has something to bitch about.

I know this single page was already included in the Donna&Terry love story post, but it's the epilogue, I can't leave it out...

I'm so bold to say that with Kyle Donna's taste in men changed for the better.

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cleome45
2009-09-07 11:07 pm UTC (link)

Lately I've been feeling like I'm a bad person for never finding Terry all that creepy, even though I read all those stories way back when. [shrug] Maybe it's because I didn't think of Donna as a teenager, even though "Teen" is in the comic's title every damn month. Or maybe it's because even though Terry is obviously older than she is, he sure didn't look (to me) old enough to be a parent to a grown woman. That is, he didn't look as old as any real-life parents of teenagers that I knew at the time-- including my own parents. :p

OTOH, that whole thing where Donna is enthralled and touching her own face, etc.? *That* has always struck me as creepy.

Go figure. [shrug]

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	fredneil.livejournal.com 2009-09-07 11:34 pm UTC (link)
	Enthralled? I thought she was having an orgasm. Which would have been fairly out-there in 1981. Now? She definitely would be having an orgasm. And it would most likely involve body parts other than her face. I never thought I'd miss 1981. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cleome45 2009-09-07 11:44 pm UTC (link)
	Uh, yeah. That, too. But I was trying to be polite. :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

freddylloyd
2009-09-09 03:05 pm UTC (link)

Lately I've been feeling like I'm a bad person for never finding Terry all that creepy, even though I read all those stories way back when.

I, too, read these New Teen Titans stories in the early 1980s, and never thought Terry Long was creepy. Still don't.

The latter-day reaction against him seems to be based on:
* changes in fashion. For those of us who lived through the era of unbuttoned shirts, facial hair, and shorts that were actually short instead of Capri pants for men, Terry's look just isn't that strange.
* to some extent, changes in mores. Recognition of HIV and sexual harassment gave a different edge to the sexual atmosphere pervading the New Teen Titans. Even though the scripts make clear that Donna is a grown woman, isn't Terry's student, isn't young enough to be his daughter, etc., some people still disapprove of the relationship.
* how Terry's character developed later, when he began to act out Marv Wolfman's problems with writer's block and became less refreshing and more annoying.
* the paradox that Wolfman put into the character from the beginning: how someone superpowered like Donna was attracted to an ordinary man.

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