Teen Titans #31
Published and © by DC, January-February 1971
Title: “To Order Is to Destroy”
Synopsis: During a campus visit, Kid Flash discovers that the student body is being controlled via an experimental brain operation.
Writer: Steve Skeates
Penciler: George Tuska
Inker: Nick Cardy
Review: This story is ripped from the headlines but unsure of what it’s trying to say. Is it an attack on the establishment? An indictment of the American college system? A critique of the youth culture’s inability to stay dedicated to change? This one practically screams “RELEVANCY!” Credit for effort, though.
•••
Title: “From One to Twenty!”
Synopsis: While on separate stakeouts in search of crimes, Hawk and Dove stumble across a counterfeiting racket.
Writer: Steve Skeates
Penciler: George Tuska
Inker: Nick Cardy
Review: This convoluted counterfeiting plot meanders but ends as most of this duo’s stories do: with Hawk punching and Dove ducking.
Grade (for the entire issue): C+
Second opinion: “Can we pretend this story didn’t happen? … 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.” – Craig Shutt, Comics Buyer’s Guide #1603, April 2005 … Included on Alan Brightmore’s “Individual Comics That You Should Not Be Without” list, from “A Consumer’s Guide to D.C. Comics, Part 2,” Comics Unlimited #51, October-November 1979
Cool factor: Oh, that awesome, awkward tone. Props to the old Teen Titans for always trying to reach “the youth.”
Notable: The “Tell It to the Titans” letters page includes an LoC from future comic-book pro Duffy Vohland.
Character quotable: “Is the will of the majority really that weak? Is it really that easily subverted?” – Kid Flash (or maybe Speedy; it’s hard to tell them apart out of costume this issue)
Editor’s note: This review was written Aug. 25, 2022.
