#recombatants

Titans vs “Science”

Unofficial Crossovers -

Tales Of The Teen Titans #48 November 1984, Pencils/Inks George Pérez - The Teen Titans Vs The RECOMbatants

TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #48 NOVEMBER 1984 BY MARV WOLFMAN, STEVE RUDE, GEORGE PEREZ, AL GORDON, MIKE DECARLO AND ADRIENNE ROY

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

At Dayton Labs in Nevada, scientists have created artificial intelligent life in the form of four super-powered humanoids: Aurora, who can create realistic illusions; Dreadnaught, who possesses super-strength; Topaz, who controls magnetism; and Pseudos, who is a shape-changer. Learning that they are slated for destruction by their creators, the four Recombatants escape into the streets of Las Vegas, where the Titans are summoned to battle them. 

After an inconclusive skirmish, the two teams agree to return to the lab together. Revealing that Aurora accidentally caused two men to suffer fatal heart attacks during the Recombatants' escape, the scientists declare that the four artificial beings must be destroyed, but the Titans defy them. In the confusion, the Recombatants flee. Realizing that they will never be allowed to live normal lives, they deliberately blow up the lab's central core, preventing the creation of further artificial life, and destroying themselves in the process. 

Meanwhile, back in New York, Gar Logan begins planning Donna Troy and Terry Long's wedding celebration at Dayton Estates, and Terry receives some unexpected wedding presents from his students. 

After the Titans return from their mission, Joe Wilson attempts unsuccessfully to help the stricken Raven.

DNAGENTS

The DNAgents is a comic-book series created by writer Mark Evanier and artist Will Meugnio] and published by Eclipse Comics in 1983. It was later picked up briefly by Antarctic Press.

The series centers on a team of superheroes created through genetic engineering by the Matrix Corporation to act as superhuman enforcers for the head of the company.

Both Marvel Comics and DC Comics expressed interest in publishing The DNAgents, but Evanier and Meugniot decided against signing with them because they would have had to give up the TV and merchandising rights, and since both Evanier and Meugniot had extensive backgrounds and contacts in the television industry, they were confident that they would be able to sell DNAgents as a TV series without help from a publisher. Mike Friedrich served as an agent for Evanier and Meugniot, submitting The DNAgents to five different publishers. When all five offered to publish it, they decided on Eclipse Comics, a large independent publisher, for the amount of creative freedom they were ready to allow and for their strong plan for promoting the series.

In issue #14, the DNAgents engaged in a "non-crossover" with the Teen Titans comic where each team faced a homage of the other with the DNAgents meeting up with "Project Youngblood" while the Titans dealt with the genetically-engineered "ReCombatants" in Tales of the Teen Titans #48. At the end of both stories, the homage/parody teams sacrificed themselves to save the main heroes.

REVIEW

Tales of... will became a very interesting title from this point, as all its stories will happen before volume 2, which was already being published (except for the last story that leads into Crisis).

As a result, Raven es pretty much absent from this story until one of the epilogues and Gar is on leave (this is a nice touch, as he is still recovering from Tara’s death, we know he comes back for Volume 2, but they can make him recover in the second title).

As for the recombatants. It’s a nice story but feels like it isn’t a Titans’ story. Like, these characters took over the book for one issue. Even everything that happens doesn’t seem connected to anything, I have the feeling this will happen often in this title after issue 50.

Steve Rude special style doesn’t stand out that much here, it seems like he managed to stay in the tone of the book.