Tales of the Teen Titans #42
Published and © by DC, May 1984
Title: “The Eyes of Tara Markov!”
Synopsis: As the Titans train and go about their daily business, Terra covertly collects intel for the Terminator.
Writers (co-plotters): Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Writer (script): Wolfman
Penciler: Pérez
Inker: Dick Giordano
Review: The team of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez had already made the “day-in-the-lives” issue a signature of this series (see reviews of New Teen Titans #8 and #20), but they subvert their own trope with the pending treason of “The Judas Contract.” While the post-#MeToo landscape has provided some thoughtful reconsideration of this arc, Terra’s mix of power, sociopathy and underage sexuality remains unsettling, terrifying and heartbreaking. The Terminator, a character built around ego and extreme control, is blind to the hurricane he’s primed to unleash. The Titans’ world – and a generation of comic-book fans – would never be the same.
Grade: A
Second opinion: Recommended by The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide (second edition), 2003.
Cool factor: “The Judas Contract” is one of the premiere arcs of the Bronze Age.
Not-so-cool factor: The Terra/Terminator relationship is all kinds of ick.
Notable: First cameo appearance of Joseph Wilson, who would later join the Titans as Jericho.
Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is a 95¢ Canadian variant of this issue. … According to MyComicShop.com, there is also a Mark Jewelers variant.
Character quotable: “I have always sensed corruptness in you. A feeling of inner evil.” – Raven, sharing a takes-one-to-know-one moment with Terra
A word from the co-creator/artist: “After two years establishing Titans as a bona fide hit for DC, Marv and I sat across from one another in that diner booth and he told me about this new character he had just invented: a 15-year-old named Terra. She was to be the first new Titan to join the team since the inception of the series, but she would also be the first to die. Thus was ‘The Judas Contract’ born.” – George Pérez, in a 1998 essay reprinted in The New Teen Titans Volume Seven, 2017
Editor’s note: This review was written May 17, 2025.
