Thursday, March 06, 2008

A Gift Basket Might Help

I was reading New Teen Titans #5 last night, and Raven tells the Titans about how she first went to the Justice League for help against Trigon. Unfortunately, Zatanna tells the Leaguers that she senses evil within Raven, and so this may be a trap. Not surprisingly, this means the League is not going to be lending a hand.

I wonder though, did Zatanna ever apologize to Raven? You know, a little, "Hey, I'm sorry I told the League there was evil within you, and so we shouldn't trust you, even though you were telling the truth about an evil force moving towards our universe, bent on conquest. Friends?" True, Zatanna was right about the evil, Raven admits as much, but really, they're the Justice League, they get lured into traps all the time. Heck, Hal Jordan probably got trapped multiple times a week, just by villains putting up signs saying "Ladies Night" over the entrances to their secret lairs. And they always escape. So what's one more trap, if that's what it would have turned out to be (which it wouldn't have, but obviously the JLA wasn't aware of that)?

Of course, I'm not clear on whether the League outright told Raven thanks, but no thanks, or whether Zatanna's comment was enough for Raven to figure she needed a new plan, leading her to give up on using the League on her own. That might make a small difference, but really now, I think everyone has some evil in them. That doesn't mean they can't sincerely want to do good, or that you shouldn't trust them.

5 comments:

Tom Bondurant said...

To be fair to Zatanna and the League, she/they might have been ready to apologize just before Raven went whole-hog EVIL! at the start of the Baxter series. After the Titans defeated Trigon (and Raven disappeared), Aquaman congratulated the team on behalf of the (Detroit) League, so both sides might well have figured they were good.

SallyP said...

It's absolutely true. You CAN lure Hal Jordan into your clutches by putting a "ladies night" sign up outside of your lair. The flip side, is that once he discovers that there are in fact, NO ladies, Hal has a tendancy to get cranky, and next thing you know, you have to get a new lair.

CalvinPitt said...

tom bondurant: I didn't know the League congratulated them. Thank you for the info. Two other questions, if you don't mind: was that in New Teen Titans or Justice League (it might tie into another post I'm thinking about), and what is the "Baxter series"?

sallyp: That's why it's important for super-villains to have attractive female lackeys. And some guys too. Equal time and all that.

Tom Bondurant said...

It was in New Teen Titans vol. 2 #6. Issues 1-5 saw Trigon conquer Earth, specifically including Batman, Superman, the Amazons, and the (Detroit) League, and issue #6 was the epilogue.

"Baxter" refers to the kind of paper (i.e., not newsprint) that NTT vol. 2 was printed on. In the early '80s, DC decided to launch Titans and Legion titles which would be direct-market exclusives, and would be more expensive, but feature better paper and printing. After a year or so, the original newsstand/newsprint series would then reprint the stories from the "Baxter series." Thus, New Teen Titans vol. 1 was renamed Tales of the Teen Titans. Reprints started with Tales #60 and ran for about thirty issues, I think, before the book was cancelled.

So there you go. Sorry for the lateness of my reply. :)

CalvinPitt said...

tom bondurant: OK, that clears things up. I had read about the direct market only titles on Wikipedia, but didn't see that term. Thanks for even more information!