Gar Logan on Space Trek 2022

[sun_soraya.insanejournal.com]

We didn't have any New Teen Titans stuff recently, and with the scans of Gar Logan's first appearance a few days ago I thought I could dig out the Gar issue from the Tales of the New Teen Titans mini series (1982).
Flashbacks of Gar getting sakutia are repeated every now and then, but the TotNTT mini also has a few nice scenes of Gar's tv show Space Trek 2022 plus the Titans sitting around a camp fire being all cute and kind with each other (which I miss these days).
So, Space Trek, camping Titans, Hot Dog drama and Gar Logan in top shape are right ahead:

The setting: the Titans are on a camping trip to spend time with each other while not fighting bad guys. Vic and Raven already talked about their past, and now it's Gar's turn. He starts with his sickness, the death of his parents and the Doom Patrol and then comes to his days as an actor. Oh, and he has trouble with his hot dogs...



Love the parody here... Tiffany's costume is just a big NO, though (but look how cuddly Dick and Donna are...)



I'd seriously love to watch that show.







Gar and Jillian were dating some time ago. Of course, the happy days don't last long: the Arsenal kidnappes the girl. Unfortunately Gar doesn't have his costume at hand, so he loses his normal clothes while changing into a bird to follow them (except for his pants, apparently).





And here's Perez drawing Gar with full body hair...
While Jillian's bound to some kinda rack, Gar gets trapped in an airtight cage with electrified walls. The identity of the Arsenal is finally revealed: it's Gar's ex-guardian Galtry, who only wanted Gar's money. He plans to get it now in exchange for Jillian's life. Gar has to call home, but can't get Questor to send the money, so Galtry runs off with Jillian and leaves Gar to suffocate...



Gar frees himself, follows Galtry and Jillian, changes into several animals, beats the villain and rescues the damsel in distress. Sadly I can't show the rest because I'm hitting the page limit.

Instead have a short look at the shirt Donna's wearing at night (from the prior issue):



... it just has to be custom-made.

Comments

[halialkers]

It always amuses me that Toon Raven was done as a Goth while Comics Raven liked the pink. ^.^

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Kory's breasts are rather tremendous.

I don't understand Dick's Lizzie Borden joke. Gar says he's a great cooker of hot dogs, but he keeps letting them burn up in the fire? I assume Dick's referring to Lizzie Borden allegedly murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet? Why would Lizzie Borden teach him to burn his hot dogs? Is it some very confusing reference to the mutton breakfast on that hot August day? I don't get it, Dick!

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Kory's breasts are rather tremendous.

Heroes really aren't hard to find...

[star_of_airdrie.insanejournal.com]

Lizzie Borden? Perhaps the no remourse part... as in destroying the hotdogs without remourse.

does Kory have on the dreaded purple arrow shorts she had on in other parts of the camping trip?

[sun_soraya.insanejournal.com]

does Kory have on the dreaded purple arrow shorts she had on in other parts of the camping trip?

You mean these (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/903021.html)?
She wore the shorts in NTT #6 (1984), which is a nod to the Tales of the New Teen Titans mini series from 1982 where they first went camping. The scans above are from the mini series, so sadly no arrow shorts here. :)

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

The only thing I can think of is the burning of the 'light blue dress' and/or axe handle.

Big stretch to hot dogs, Dick, even if that is it. I don't get it either.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I noticed that too and thought: Dick, I thought you were supposed to be the wit.

Oh wait, I forgot: his thing is puns.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Good lord, that big panel on the first page...Gar looks like a sleazy middle aged man....

[tacobob.insanejournal.com]

I think he was trying to "Out-Creepy" Wondergirl's husband.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I think he was usually drawn with a young Mickey Rooney as a guide, and he really could look that odd, even as a kid.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

But he thinks he's being suave.

[werehawk.insanejournal.com]

This was a classic (1986?). I was 13 or so at the time and Changeling became one of my favorite characters. Along with Power Pack and, yes, Booster Gold.

[ladytimedramon.insanejournal.com]

Same for me... that was the beginning of my Gar addiction (well, Gar and Mon-el).

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Hey, porcupines can't really fire their quills. That's just in cartoons.

Then again, my understanding is that Changeling can turn into fictional animals, so who knows how it's supposed to work...

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Yes, Gar can become fictional creatures.

And note that Dick says "knowing you", which might suggest imply "ignoring anything to do with biology, this WOULD work, and that means you'd probably give it a try".

Nice to see that when they think "inescapable death traps" even the TITANS first thought is "Robin!" :)

[lonewolf23k.insanejournal.com]

In his last battle with Madame Zahl, Gar actually turned into creatures that didn't even exist. He was so filled with rage that he was turning into things right out of his imagination.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

if they had to they'd probably say they were alien creatures and he was tapping into the Red

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

He can do alien creatures without needing an excuse, he became a Gordanian during the Citadel War, and a Parademon in the X-Men/Titans crossover.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

that's fine. But I think imaginary ones do need an excuse

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Easily done. Gar is potentially the ultimate metamorph, able to assume the properties of any imaginable, viable, organic creature, but he usually only becomes KNOWN creatures because he knows their biology and can rely on them (Even then he augments them so he can always talk in his forms, even if they shouldn't be able to). Becoming non-standard forms is risky since he doesn't necessarily know how they work.

That's why, when he went slightly nuts attacking Rouge and Zahl, he took weird forms because he wasn't thinking straight and just didn't CARE whether it was safe or not. Likewise when possessed by the Trigon Seed thing, it over-rode his normal safety cut-offs.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Shouldn't that mean he can become a Daxamite or Martian?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Interesting... he can't become other humans as far as we know, but I suppose a Martian or Daxamite is technically as alien as a Gordanian so should be as feasible.

[blakeyrat.insanejournal.com]

Even if they could, breaking glass? That's pretty out-there.

I don't see why he couldn't turn into a strong animal with long claws and break the glass that way, like a bear.

[sun_soraya.insanejournal.com]

He had already tried the bear on the prior page 18 (which I didn't post), and for some reason it didn't work.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Gar can become real animals, and animals he's seen. That includes ones on TV, in movies, in pictures. He just needs to visualize it.

Leading me to wonder: has anyone ever really explored how far his powers might actually go? And that it's not just animals, really, he can potentially become?

[cleome45.insanejournal.com]

There are few things more brain-breaking than trying to analyze how shape-shifting ought to work: if it made a lick of sense.

Please don't encourage me. I'll be up all night, and I don't even have any bourbon to help along the "idea process" at the moment. :/

[bluejaybirdie.insanejournal.com]

This gives me warm fuzzies. The first comic I ever read was the Gar-centric story where someone's after his old castmates in one of the vol. 3 TT trades. I never knew it had a canonical basis!

[sun_soraya.insanejournal.com]

I like Gar-centric stories in general, the boy needs some love. :)

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

From what was said in that mini (the one collected in "Beast Boys and Girls"), it's pretty funny to realize that Gar was somewhere between the Wesley and the Scrappy of Space Trek 2022. Apparently half the troubles the ship ran into were Gar's fault.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Space Trek 2022

I wonder if Harvey Dent ever watched that show . . .

[dcanacek.insanejournal.com]

Not past the second season.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

I guess it did go to crap after Garfield left.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

but look how cuddly Dick and Donna are...

Whilst I would never argue the sheer huggability of Dick Grayson, I think it's more that they are just completely relaxed and comfortable around each other. It's part of what makes this team of Titans so interesting, I really can't imagine Tim and Cassie EVER being as relaxed with each other as their "elder siblings" took for granted.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

This series of New Teen Titans was very physical and sexualized, even in the ordinary non-sexual interactions: lots of lounging about the pool together, hugging, flirtatious banter, clothes tattered in fights. And of course the Baxter magazine became more forthright about Dick and Kory's sex life than mainstream comics had shown before.

A lot of that was George Pérez's talent, of course. The comics historian Robert C. Harvey saw his approach to the human body as a big part of the magazine's appeal: "His people were statuesque hunks and glossy glamour girls, hothouse heroes and heroines cavorting in shapely perfection amid uncluttered and tastefully appointed settings."

It may also have been a reflection of the times. By the mid-1980s young people had become aware of HIV, and attitudes toward sexuality swung back. Some people find Terry Long creepy now; back then he was innocuous.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

A lot of that was George Pérez's talent, of course. The comics historian Robert C. Harvey saw his approach to the human body as a big part of the magazine's appeal: "His people were statuesque hunks and glossy glamour girls, hothouse heroes and heroines cavorting in shapely perfection amid uncluttered and tastefully appointed settings."

Good times... good times... :)

[sun_soraya.insanejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't mean it romantically or something along these lines; I've never shipped Dick/Donna and prefer their special and really close friendship.
I just remember that I didn't get that close-friends-feeling when I first read the NTT issues that came out before the mini, maybe because they were so action-packed. It was more that I knew they were close friends but had to look for it, while it was clearly jumping at me in this issue.
Or maybe my memory is just messed up.
I agree with Tim and Cassie. In some TT v3 issues it even seems a bit forced by the writer to me.

I'm curious to see how Dick, Donna and the other few Titans will be on the new JLA run. That's pretty much the only thing I'm interested in there.

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

You know, I wouldn't dare to be a sci-fi writer in a superhero universe. Whatever name or appearance one might come up with for an alien race, something out there could have it.

And then come to Earth and sue for defamation.

Or declare war.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Hey, we never know our luck, if might happen for real. When the otherwise saintly, universally revered for their benevolence, species known as the Borg arrive for real on OUR Earth, they'll probably blow us apart for suggesting they're conquering, soul-less monsters.

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

I am reminded of the Borg from the 27th century.
http://www.angryflower.com/borg27.gif

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

There was a great Astro City issue, featuring a comic book company that used "real" heroes for their material. Eventually the head editor (sort of a Funky Flashman-type) was threatened by heroes and beaten into a full-body cast by villains, and decided that the audiences wanted stories about cosmic heroes and villains, guys so powerful that "they wouldn't give a rat's ass about earth."

The next day, the main character (a writer) shows up to work, only to find the whole building inexplicably vaporized.

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

I have read the story and have probably picked up the idea there.

I am a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't had this idea on my own.

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

"have" not "had"

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Years before that, Hero Alliance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_Alliance) did a story where the Alliance discover a comic company has been publishing a series where they were being depicted like the Giffen and DeMatteis JLI. They were NOT best pleased, but they couldn't do much about it since they WERE heroes.

Their nemesis, on the other hand, was NOT as gentle and his indication to the publishers as to what would happen if they continued to depict him, or his foes (He had his pride) in a comedic light, would have nothing to do with the due process of libel laws.

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

Crazy! I've never even heard of Hero Alliance. Sounds interesting.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I have a number of the issues, must see about posting some.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

This seems like the best place to drop in a contextless panel.


And the icon version, free to anyone.

[auggie18.insanejournal.com]

Ah, Beast Boy. Ironically, the only character to consistently have body hair.

[sun_soraya.insanejournal.com]

And so much of it.

[magus_69.insanejournal.com]

Mmmm... I know...

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

I wonder if this story eventually made its way to Roy's ears.

"The Arsenal, huh? Cool name."

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

That's what I thought. =D Why isn't Roy here, anyway?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Simple, Roy wasn't a member of the New Teen Titans, neither was Garth/Aqualad. Roy wasn't even a full time hero at this point, he spent a lot of time working as a DEA agent/consultant. He showed up from time to time, and helped a time or two, but he wasn't a regular.

He seemed to get more involved in the shady ops side of things, until eventually he moved in and took over the Titans when he more or less forced the team to align with the Government and Dick left in disgust. Yup, Roy was "a suit" for "the Man", Oliver must have been SO proud.

[cleome45.insanejournal.com]

I would have given anything to see Gar emerge from under the drawbridge as Yosemite Sam. :D