Man, The Titans Get Hunted A Lot...

For a rather mundane title, "Titans Hunt" seems to come up a lot.

I was reminded of this while reading an interview with writer Dan Abnett about the coming Titans Hunt book from DC Comics. Being that there are large gaps in this blog's "(New) (Teen) Titans" page, this seemed like a good time to fill them a bit, since Deathstroke is so often involved with that group.

I've added some covers and a couple of issues from the New Titans series that ran from 1984 to 1996. My Titans fanhood has come and gone over the years, so I can't claim to be an authority on them, but it seems to be consensus that the 14-issue period between numbers 71 and 85 is referred to as Titans Hunt (see Comicvine for an example).

Deathstroke was very prominent in the book during that period, spending much of the time leading a ragtag group of Titans family members on a search for the abducted team. As the rather dramatic cover at right displays, he ultimately finds himself needing to combat a possessed version of his son and needing to make a pretty tough decision.

Those books came out in the early 90's. The other Titans story to take that name featured a totally different team and was released several years later.

Starting in 1996, Dan Jurgens wrote and drew a Teen Titans book featuring a mostly new team of young heroes, along with the Atom and Captain Marvel Jr. Titans Hunt ran from issues 21 to 24 of that series. The basis of the "hunt" is that one of the team members, nicknamed Risk, appears to have killed a villain in battle and is wanted by the authorities as a result.

Deathstroke steps up to the plate in issue #22 (also now added to the Titans page) and captures the team over the course of five pages for some anti-alien group called The Veil. Sounds very similar to how he took on his son's contract with HIVE against the original Titans way back in his first appearance, doesn't it? Can't imagine that's a coincidence.

The only slight downside is that Deathstroke is still wearing the blue and black outfit that he changed to briefly at the end of the first volume of his own series. There have been worse redesigns, I suppose, but I could never get used to the hubcaps on the shoulders. And what the hell did they replace his staff with? A cattle prod?

That's Risk getting acquainted with Slade's boot heel, for those who are unfamiliar with him.

'Stroke must have seen something in that character that I didn't at the time because he recruited him for his team in the Titans East story that ran in early 2007 (that's him over Slade's left shoulder below), almost a decade later.

Risk had lost an arm in a battle against Superboy Prime during Infinite Crisis (first panel below) and has since encountered him again to similar results (second panel).

Yikes. Why don't you just get lost before he start going after your legs? Love the sound effect consistency, however.

Anyway, I doubt Slade will be recruiting Risk for anything again any time soon.

One last thing about the East storyline; there actually seems to be a Tiny Titans version of it, released shortly after the original.

Slade's looking pretty suave in that suit!

Hard to imagine the story being made kid friendly (obviously they're not being fully faithful to the original version) but it's tempting to buy it anyway. They're using mostly the same Titans East characters so maybe a Tiny Rose Wilson appears too? If she does, I'll bet she doesn't carve her eye out to be more like dad. ;-)

Anyway, now we need to pay attention to see if Slade is involved in the upcoming story that takes the Titans Hunt name. I haven't seen his name in the solicitations yet, but he has such a strong connection to that team that it shouldn't surprise anyone if he makes an appearance.