One of the great things about comics is how reading one inevitably leads to reading another. After re-reading Kurt Busiek and George Perez's 2003 JLA/Avengers as part of my series on DC/Marvel crossovers, I felt compelled to re-read Devin Grayson and Phil Jimnez's 1998 JLA/Titans miniseries.
Although smaller in page count, scale, stakes, cast and history (and, set in a single publisher's fictional universe, no doubt less logistically challenging), the Grayson/Jimenez book resembles JLA/Avengers in its ambition, and its efforts to successfully juggle a huge roster of heroes (giving most of them at least a moment of their own) and its completist posture.
JLA/Avengers teamed not only the current line-ups of the two teams, but also many of their past incarnations (at least briefly) and, by its climax, every single hero who had ever been a Leaguer or an Avenger (plus an awful lot of their villains) put in appearances.
JLA/Titans, meanwhile, featured the then quite large, post-"Rock of Ages" Justice League and, as it neared its climax, plenty of reserve Leaguers. It also featured every single living Titans character, one-panel cameo/mentions of all of the deceased ones, every super-heroic character who had been an ally of the Titans (and/or had assumed the legacies of them), plus Young Justice, Mary Marvel, Catwoman and, at the climax, one-panel appearances by Lex Luthor, The Joker and Circe, because, at that point, why not...?
It also, in its layouts and visual style, bears more than a passing resemblance to Perez's JLA/Avengers. Jimenez is an apparent Perez fan, and the late artist seemed to influence Jimenez's own art quite a bit, both in his very realistic and detailed rendering, as well as panel-packed layouts. Flipping through the pages of JLA/Titans, it's hard to imagine any artist other than Jimenez even attempting, say, 10-to-20-panel pages, or filling them with such big crowds of characters and highly detailed backgrounds. Excepting Perez himself, of course.
A DC Comics fan whose favorite book by far was the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter/John Dell JLA and a fan of writer Devin Grason and artist Phil Jimenez, I of course bought and read the series as it was originally released in three oversized issues. At the time, it seemed like a book made particularly to appeal to me, despit the fact that, at the time, I had read relatively few Titans books (None of which were from the Marv Wolfman/George Perez team, which seems to be the best regarded era of the then almost 35-year-old franchise).
When I went to re-read it though, I looked for a trade collection from the library before approaching my comics midden of single issues in plastic bags in big, white long boxes, as I usually do. I found the 1999 collection, entitled JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative, which also includes the Grayson-written, Paul Pelletier-pencilled and Dexter Vines-inked lead story from the 1999 Titans Secret Files & Origins #1, which kicked off the 50-issue, 1999-2003 Titans ongoing (of which Grayson wrote the first 20 issues).
That's the cover above. It's not the best cover. Jimenez basically assembles parallel heroes from the ranks of the two teams who fight one another in the story (although Batman and Nightwing's "fight" is simply a long verbal argument), with Arsenal and Martian Manhunter an awkward fit—Oliver Queen was dead at the time, and Connor Hawke was no longer on the League—and Superman kind of presiding over everything. It's not terribly representative of what one might find inside the book, which finds dozens of heroes from both teams doing battle as an alien menace threatens to pull the moon from the sky.
I'm also not crazy about the sub-title, which is basically unnecessary (it's not like there's another JLA/Titans comic that this one needs to be distinguished from), and, though accurate, it's sort of meaningless; it might as well be called "The Maguffin Plotpoint".
The term "Technis imperative" is used in dialogue during the proceedings, but I'm not sure "Technis" would have meant too much to JLA readers at the time, and it means even less so these days; it comes from something near the end of Wolfman's run on the 130-issue New Titans series, from around the point he was essentially putting away the main toys of his New Teen Titans run with Perez.
I suppose I'm lucky I found this trade at a library, given that it's over 25 years old at this point, and DC never re-collected it anywhere...which seems strange for a such a big story, given that it has a Crisis or line-wide crossover's worth of characters in it, that it's attached to the oft-collected and re-collected JLA and that it features such superior work from Jimenez, who seems to have remained popular enough with fans and the publisher that he's been working regularly with them for decades now (Grayson's star, by contrast, hasn't fared as well over the years. DC has collected precious little of her work, despite its quality. I suppose it's unlikely DC will ever collect the Grayson Titans run and its associated comics; maybe this will end up in some sort of collection of Jimenez's work though, akin to the Legends of the DC Universe: Dough Mahnke or DC Universe by Mike Mignola trades they've published...).
The plot is rather heavily tied to that of the last years of Wolfman's New Titans, with Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Changeling (as Garfield Logan was still going by then) having by then been mostly absent from the DCU for a while, and the five Titans founders more active in their own books and/or those of their mentors than as any kind of unit. Familiarity with New Titans seems fairly important to this book, although Grayson and Jimenez, who co-plotted it in addition to pencilling it, do provide all of the necessary information.
In December of 1998, when the first issue of this book shipped, the most recent Titans book was the 24-issue, 1996-1998 Teen Titans by writer/penciler Dan Jurgens and inker George Perez, which featured four new teen heroes: Argent, Joto, Risk and Prysm. They were led by the recently de-aged Atom Ray Palmer, in a new costume with a vest, and they were later joined by original character Fringe and Captain Marvel Jr. (I had only read a single story arc of it, "Then and Now," which ran from #12-#15 and guest-starred original Titans Nightwing, The Flash, Tempest and Arsenal, the latter of whom adopted his Kingdome Come-inspired "Red Arrow" costume during it. Looking at it the series' covers on the Grand Comics Database, I see they also went to Skartarsis at one point; I'd be interested in reading that.)
Its final issue had just shipped two months previous, and one assumes that Grayson's pitch for a Titans book had already been accepted and was in the process of being created. JLA/Titans reads, in retrospect, as a bridge between Jurgens' Teen Titans and the upcoming Titans, using JLA's popularity to help launch the next iteration of the title and, perhaps, justify the return of the founders and some of the more popular characters to the team.
Indeed, one way to read JLA/Titans is as a celebration of the team's history and legacy, a book meant for Titans fans, and for making new Titans fans.
As for the Justice League, JLA was entering its third year that month, and "Rock of Ages", Mark Waid (and Devin Grayson's!) fill-ins, the two-part Starro story and DC One Million were all in the rearview mirror. Morrison and company had just launched a three-part story pitting the League against General Eiling-in-The Shaggy Man's-body (who DC would start referring to as "The General," though I preferred "The Shaven Man") and his team of US government-sponsored heroes.
At the time, the team consisted of the new "Big Seven" or "Magnificent Seven", plus Plastic Man, Zauriel, Steel, Huntress, Orion, Barda and Oracle.
The first issue of JLA/Titans finds many of those Leaguers gathered on their lunar Watchtower base, where The Atom Ray is helping Steel, Orion and Barda install some sort of towering piece of New Genesian technology. Meanwhile, on Earth, a plainclothes Changeling is with Argent in what must be the monitor room of the dissolving Teen Titans' headquarters.
Both begin to note strange activity, like some high-tech, morphing droids that look a little like slick, mechanical jellyfish targeting and capturing various heroes as diverse as The Flash, The Atom, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and Starfire. And electronics all over the world going haywire. And, most visibly, a huge alien mass of mechanical debris approaching Earth, a mass that eventually engulfs the moon, setting off earthquakes and various other disasters around the world.
The issue involves a lot of heroes throughout the DC Universe observing and reacting to these phenomena and talking to one another about them. Every time one of the jellyfish droids targets a new character, Jimenez presents a little panel of the character apparently from the drone's point of view, featuring a portrait of the character, as well as their name, their team affiliation (here, always an iteration of the Titans) as well as powers.
It quickly becomes apparent to readers (and to Batman), that these drone are abducting heroes who were formerly Titans, no matter how briefly (like Kyle, Supergirl and Impulse, for example, who were only on the team for some of the final iteration of Wolfman's New Titans, the Arsenal-lead team that lasted 15 issues after Zero Hour...which I would nevertheless love a trade collection of).
These captured heroes are all then placed in virtual realities that are often pretty funny, like one in which Nightwing is hugged by a smiling Batman, which makes him realize he's in a virtual reality simulation, or one in which Flamebird is playing tennis with a bunch of Dick Graysons in Robin costumes, or one in which Tempest is presented by Aquaman with all of his past girlfriends combined into a single being ("Uh...thanks, Arthur, but--" he stutters in response.)
They are all being gathered beneath Titans Island, the space entity's beachhead on Earth. As the League beings to realize that any time the entity is attacked, as Orion does vigorously with the astro-force, Batman eventually insists that the entire League assemble on Titans Island to deal with the "hostage" situation, which has already claimed their members The Flash and Green Lantern (and The Atom). Oh, and Catwoman also shows up for some reason...presumably just so Grayson and Jimenez can have her fight Pantha for a few panels later.
What precisely is going on takes an explanation of events from New Titans, which Changeling gives at length. Cyborg Victor Stone had allowed himself to be absorbed into "The Technis--that cyber-alien collective all into exploring and cataloging and stuff." He took the name Cyberion (and a new body), but, when the rest of the collective was destroyed, he decided to carry on their work, with Gar at his side...until he started getting too remote and too weird for Gar, who ultimately returned to Earth.
Apparently, sometime after Gar left, Raven, who only ever appears in the story in a luminous golden "soul self" form, Vic's consciousness started using the Omegadrome, a shape-shifting super-technology once possessed by the alien Jarras Minion, to start acting upon "the Technis imperative" to rebuild itself, using what abandoned spaceships and other debris was available to make itself planet-like (that's the thing that's absorbing the moon). Then, beset by loneliness, what was left of Vic set about rebuilding the Titans, collecting them all...using not his own memories of his Titans, but various databases that included all of the Titans ever.
Once the captives have all been freed, Orion is ready to destroy the crystalline computer units housing Vic's "soul" in order to take out the menace, but Changeling pleads with the JLA to stop attacking it, as it would essentially kill what's left of Victor Stone. In the brief debate that follows, Flash sides with his old friends over his current teammates, and Changeling challenges Orion and the JLA: "If you try to hurt him again, I'll stop you."
Orion, whose inherent hotheaded nature has been driving the conflict up to this point, responds, "I believe the Earth saying goes: You and what army?"
A turn of the page reveals a bravura splash page, with the 13 heroes on the League's side (which The Atom and GL have sorted themselves to, despite their brief tenures on incarnations of the Titans), facing off against some 26 Titans, as Changeling shouts, "THIS One!"
Jimenez must have known this page was fire, as he included a little box with his signature in it, as well as the words "after Perez (of course)." I'm not sure which Perez image this is in reference too, though. (Perhaps one of you Titans fans in the reading audience might...?)
Then there's a page of various too-eager-to-fight characters engaging one another. Risk jumps to attack Orion, who backhands him ("Impertinent whelp"). Tempest blasts Aquaman with his eyebeams when his mentor grabs him, shouting, "I am SO SICK of you man-handling me!" (Was this a recurring element of their relationship? If so, it's never resolved, but in the denouement it's played for laughs, when Aquaman vigorously slaps Tempest's back.) Green Lantern creates a construct of a mech and blasts The Flash, saying, "Great. Look what your kids' table team is starting, Flash").
Another turn of the page, and we get an amazing two-page spread, dominated by a long shot of various pairs of heroes in a dramatic mish-mash of settings, ten panels inset along the bottom showing various characters reacting, Batman explaining that Cyborg is apparently creating a virtual reality environment setting, while there's a cryptic panel of Martian Manhunter using his mental powers that will only be explained later, and the teams devolving into battle.
This battle dominates the second issue, and is fairly spectacular, as Titans confront their mentors, characters with similar powers pair off (alien warriors Starfire vs. Orion, shape-shifters Changeling vs. Plastic Man, angels Supergirl vs. Zauriel and so on).
As the battle rages, Batman and Nightwing argue in relatively wordy panels that are off set by all the action going on around them, and Cyborg's consciousness continues to gather new allies for the Titans, now sending out those little collector droids to assemble allies like Rose Wilson, Magenta, Thunder and Lightning and more.
On the last pages, Batman reveals that the League was engaging the army of Titans in order to keep Cyborg distracted protecting them, although it's never entirely clear to which degree various characters were just following the plan, and to what degree they were really intent on fighting. As Young Justice and League reserves appear on the island, the issue ends.
In the final issue, the two teams work together: That is how the superhero team-up ritual goes, after all.
Superman leads a dozen or so characters to tackle Cyborg's moon-absorbing planetoid and retake the Watchtower, while Batman gives Nightwing and a team of Titans (basically the five founders plus Changeling) a chance to get through to Cyborg in space and abandon the moon for the damaged computers on Titans Island, in which they want to download his consciousness.
Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes divide up into pairings to tackle fallout, like the debris that starts crashing to earth.
At the risk of spoiling a 26-year-old story, everyone succeeds, although not necessarily how they planned, with Cyborg's consciousness eventually being downloaded into the Omegadrome itself, the character taking on a new design of a golden-colored, shape-shifting metal. He would keep the look through the upcoming run on Titans, until Geoff Johns could change it, first writing a story in which Victor took on his original Perez design (only with the metal parts being gold, rather than silver) and, later, restoring his traditional look when he relaunched Teen Titans in 2003 with a combination of Young Justice and Titans characters.
The book ends with a four-page epilogue illustrated by Mark Buckingham and Wade Von Grawbadger, the art team of the upcoming Titans ongoing. I do wonder if they drew this sequence to spell Jimenez, who plotted and penciled the series' previous 110 pages (all inked by Andy Lanning), or to preview the work of the upcoming art team.
Regardless, it's clear that Jimenez is still responsible for the layouts, as each page is full of panels, and reads, like the rest of the book, a good four or five times more densely than what was by then standard in super-comics.
These scenes are set at Guy Gardner's superhero theme bar Warriors (Guy was one of the League reservists who joined the story in its third and final issue, and has a small but significant role), and essentially feature more interactions between the heroes, only here they are friendly, rather than any kind of fighting. Interestingly, many of these parallel pairings from the JLA vs. Titans fight.
So, for example, Mirage, who cast an illusion of herself as J'onn's dead wife, here asks J'onn if he would like to hold her baby, and Impulse, who had previously tied Plastic Man in knots at superspeed, now pesters Plas to shape-change for his amusement. The sequence involves a reconciliation of sorts between ex-lovers Nightwing and Starfire and points to lingering awkwardness between Kyle and Donna.
It ends with Guy unveiling a new exhibit in Warriors, a statue of the five founding Titans...and a dedication from the creators to seven previous creators, from Bob Haney to Dan Jurgens, thanking them for "creating and sustaining such wonderful characters."
While JLA/Titans may end there, this collection does not.
After a "One week later..." caption, the Grayson/Pelletier/Vines story from the Secret Files special appears. This tells the story of how the new line-up of the team is formed, with each of the five founders, realizing they had drifted apart at the climax of the miniseries, rejoining themselves, and each each of them suggesting a nomination. They then divvy up who goes off to recruit who.
So in addition to Nightwing, The Flash, Tempest, Arsenal and Troia, the new team would include Starfire, Damage, Argent, Cyborg and speedster Jesse Quick, the last of whom is the only one who had never actually been a Titan before (Though she was on the version of a team that Arsenal is shown trying to get going in Morrison, Val Semeiks, Prentis Rollins and company's DC One Million; I guess Grayson liked that idea).
Though no one nominates Changeling, they do offer him membership, and he declines for personal reasons, saying he wants to try to get a career in Hollywood going again. Other characters hoping for or declining membership appear in the story, like Flamebird, Duella Dent, the former Herald and Bumblebee. Oh, and Supergirl, who memorably whispers something very dirty to Arsenal about what she considers "a good time." ("An angel with a mouth like that!...Does your boss know you talk like that?")
Despite the huge cast in the JLA/Titans, Grayson and Jimenez do a fine job of giving each at least a bit of the spotlight, especially among the Leaguers and the Titans founders. Even Barda, who has relatively little to do throughout, gets a neat two-panel sequence during the League/Titans battle, wherein Rose Wilson calls her out and introduces herself as the one who's going to take her out. Jiminez draws the much taller Barda simply looking down at the defiant Rose, a bemused smirk on her face.
That they are able to give so many characters a moment or two or ten (Superman and, perhaps oddly given the creators, Wonder Woman seem to get the smallest share of attention throughout) is due largely to Jimenez's presence, and his ability to pack so many panels, and thus so much action, into such a relatively short book. Though only three issues and around 100 pages, there seems to be as much action and overall content in this story than in most six-issue arcs, or even a year of some books.
I've long been a fan of Jimenez's, as both a writer and an artist, and his work here is, of course, superior. Like Perez, his characters are extremely realistic, and yet all distinct from one another too, seeming like their "real" selves, rather than drawings. That is, his Dick Grayson reads and feels like the real Dick Grayson, rather than an artist's drawing of Dick Grayson, if that make sense.
I particularly like seeing specific iterations of characters rendered in his style. Batman, for example, has the long ears and the odd points at his shoulders that many artists in the late '90s were drawing him with, but these more expressionistic elements of other artists take on a new light here; this Batman's costume, for example, seems to have literal spikes built into his shoulders, rather than his cape just resting that way.
(I didn't really care for Jimenez's Plastic Man though, I confess. He had the plastic-y sheen to his skin that Porter was drawing him with at the time, and Jimenez doesn't seem to ever have drawn him at rest, but always engaged in some form of stretching or morphing. I recently re-read the Justice League Zero Hour tie-ins, in which Jimenez drew Elongated Man, and both heroes seemed to have rather unpleasant looking, thick coils of rope-like neck. I'm tempted to say that maybe Plast just doesn't look right if rendered with too much detail, or when imagined in too realistic a style, but then, I did like Perez's version of him in JLA/Avengers, and I've always enjoyed when Alex Ross has tackled Plas, and it doesn't get any more realistic than a Ross painting.)
I do wonder what a modern reader, coming to this book relatively cold, might make of it.
Not only are we now decades, rather than years, removed from the stories that left, say, Cyborg and Raven where they were when this story picks up, but the franchise seems to have made several dramatic departures from the superhero team as a group of friends and chosen family that is central to their depiction in this book, notably so with Johns' previously mentioned Young Justice/Titans hybrid team, and the New 52 reboot (which basically applied the "Teen Titans' name to rebooted versions of the Young Justice characters) and the Damian Wayne-lead team.
Also, the Wolfman/Perez-inspired versions of the characters that appeared in the cartoon series and live-action TV series seems to have quite heavily influenced the way the characters are now depicted, to the point where the old Raven seems to be an entirely different character than the one who from the original comics.
Still, for all the departures over the last few decades, DC does seem to veer back to the founding characters regularly, and the current Titans line-up is basically that of the founders plus the most popular of the Wolfman/Perez characters.
And I have to imagine Jimenez's artwork would be as appealing to superhero comics readers of 2025 as it was in 1998.
Although I guess the point is somewhat moot, as many modern readers won't get the chance to read this comic unless DC decides to collect it at some point...
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