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keirou-kun · 4 months

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So because I have zero self control and no one told me not to, I'm gonna scream about my favorite story from the original 1960s Teen Titans comics. This is Issue 14, the story entitled 'Requiem for a Titan!', and it is my go-to example for how Dick Grayson has just always been Like That™. A lot of the stories from this era are a little cheesy for my taste. Not bad! Just clearly products of their time. This one, though, with a little updating of the language, could have been written in a more modern series and I adore it. This got long, so I'm just gonna hide it under a cut.

So! Let's begin with the set-up! This story starts in medias res, with our bad guy meeting Robin in a creepy-ass graveyard and no information on how or why they're even there. Our bad guy, by the way, is called the Gargoyle, for obvious reasons.

that is, indeed, a fucking gargoyle.

The open grave is Robin's, of course, and Gargoyle has Robin throw in his cape, his tunic [revealing that beneath the tunic Dick Grayson is wearing what looks like a freakin' onesie with scale armor on the lower half, good lord XD] and - after some serious hesitation on Dick's part, bc secret identity oh no! - his mask. During this hesitation, we also find out that somehow Gargoyle has not only captured but somehow turned the other three Titans [Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Aqualad] over to his side, because they get used as a threat to force Dick's hand: do it, or fight your friends, basically.

not my secret identity...! fine, you win, Gargoyle.

So he does it and then has to focus on…something, we don't know what, but whatever it is makes him look hideous for a hot second before Gargoyle beams him off to a place called Limbo, where the Gargoyle rules supreme, oh no!

nice Two-Face imitation there, Dick.

Now we flash back to see just how the fuck Robin ended up in this predicament to begin with. So, in this run, there's various ways for people to get in touch with the Teen Titans directly, and one of them is apparently via a thing called Titan Hook-Up, where anyone can demand a five minute spot on TV if they have a message for the Titans. Apparently the Titans themselves pay for it, but since they're all literal teenagers who probably don't have part-time jobs due to, y'know, being junior superheroes, I gotta wonder who's actually footing the bill.

it's probably Bruce, let's be real here.

So the Gargoyle goes on, gets his time, and immediately claims to be an ex-con the Titans not only unjustly accused but deliberately withheld evidence of innocence of just to ensure they'd put him away. Not all of them, though! Only one of them did this dastardly deed, because only one of them actively knew. The Gargoyle threatens revenge on all four if the guilty party doesn't fess up. Of course, none of the Titans have any idea who this guy is or what the hell he's talking about, especially since he doesn't match the description of any of the bad guys they've caught so far, but, uh-oh…trouble in paradise; Wally, Garth, and Donna all immediately jump to Robin as the potentially guilty party!

gee thanks guys

An unspecified while later, the team gets called out to go deal with a potential riot at a theatre over a concert that got canceled. That bit of suspicion has been growing in the minds of Robin's teammates, though Robin himself apparently has no concerns of his own on that score.

thanks for that vote of confidence guys.

Unfortunately for the team, it turns out the theatre is empty and the whole thing was a ruse; they've been lured straight into a trap by the Gargoyle, oh no! Robin, naturally, starts doing what he's always done, taking the lead and trying to get the team to jump into action to deal with their enemy. Unfortunately for him, his teammates' suspicion paired with the Gargoyle reminding them that only one of them supposedly screwed him over means that…well…

nice to know you care, team.

At which point the Gargoyle uses his magic ring - just go with it - and a beam of energy transports everyone but Robin to a place called Limbo, a plane ruled by none other than the Gargoyle. He'd wanted to trap all four of them in Limbo, but it seems that our Boy Wonder hadn't harbored any doubts or suspicions about his team at all! Typical Dick Grayson tbh.

that's our boy tbh

Robin, intent on trying to defeat the Gargoyle on his own and get his friends back, immediately goes after the guy, only to find himself suddenly attacked by each of his former teammates in turn; turns out, anyone in Limbo hates everyone in the real world. Even worse, they're all somehow giant-sized. Kid Flash literally flicks Robin across the theatre, Wonder Girl uses the power of her bracelets to throw him into one of the balconies, Aqualad chucks him right back at the stage where Wally's waiting to turn this into a game of catch. Things are not going well for the Boy Wonder, especially since in amongst all this is the Gargoyle egging them on.

Ultimately Robin manages to break his momentum by grabbing a cable, but a poorly-timed sandbag knocks him out, leaving him helpless. Meanwhile the cable he grabbed turns out to be a high voltage cable which starts a fire, driving the Gargoyle away before he can kill Robin himself and leaving Dick unconscious as the fire spreads through the theatre.

that can't be good.

Fortunately the fire trucks are already responding and Robin, of course makes it out while everyone else assumes the other three are dead in the fire. I mean, their helicopter even explodes [it was parked on the roof] and there's no sign of anyone but Robin coming out of the blaze, so why would they? And Robin can't tell anyone the truth, because who'd actually believe it? So he gets to walk all the way back to their secret base trying to figure out how he's going to keep on crime-fighting as a solo act.

you couldn't find a better nickname for wally? come on.

Except, guess who's waiting for him at the secret hideout! Gargoyle and the others, oh no! The Gargoyle's going to take his now-evil Titans and start doing crime and evil, and probably use this as their base, which of course means they can't have Robin interfering. Rather than stay and fight, Dick dives through an escape hatch - a convenient laundry chute, actually; unsurprisingly his own design - that the others can't use right now because their phantasmic Limbo-created forms are too big.

whoops.jpg

So now Dick has no team, no base, and no idea what to do. His costume's torn, he's narrowly escaped death by inferno, he's just really not having a good time of it right now. So what's a Boy Wonder to do? Call it quits and go home? Oh hell no.

he's just always been like this, okay.

He takes on a sudden crime wave - spiked by the apparent death of three of the Titans - on his own, because of course he does. And it doesn't really go too well for him, because this boy is probably all of fifteen years old and not exactly used to being a solo act right now but he's too damn stubborn to stop and ask for help. Things come to a breaking point when he's got civilians feeling sorry for him.

dick honey no

And that leads us to that hill with the gravestones and the Gargoyle, so now we're all caught back up. The Gargoyle now has all four Titans in Limbo and, therefore, under his control to begin a crime wave the likes of which the world has never seen…

Or does he?

you sneaky son of a bitch, Grayson.

Turns out this is just part of Dick's own plan to find his teammates. He's exactly where he wants to be, and it doesn't take him long to find the others. Takes him even less time to start fighting them, knocking Aqualad for a loop wth a single kick and throwing Kid Flash at him a second later. Wonder Girl, however, takes a little more finesse than Robin apparently has, considering she not only lands one hit on him, she lands several.

dick is now really the time...?

But this, too, is all part of Dick's plan, since what he needed was for her to get angry enough for Limbo to start resonating with her emotions, thereby bringing the Gargoyle back from the real world so Dick can actually fight the real bad guy. Because Dick has managed to come to Limbo without being twisted or changed by doubt or suspicion or evil, even though that's the only way the ring can send people from the real world to Limbo. So how did he manage this?

He faked it.

HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THIS. fuckin' "That's what spies do. We lie." energy right here.

Dick fucking Grayson managed to fake out a magic ring by faking evil thoughts…and he did it by focusing on his anger, I guarantee you, considering he himself states he did it by concentrating on how good the Gargoyle would look behind bars. He did this with spite and anger and somehow managed to look more evil than any other human the Gargoyle has ever seen before in the process.

So now Dick takes the fight to the Gargoyle. Or tries, anyway. He might not have his cape or mask, but he does still have his utility belt. Unfortunately, in Limbo, everything is the reverse of the real world, so a smokescreen automatically disperses, magnetic repulsion actually attracts, and nothing's really working. The Gargoyle finally manages to sever the belt entirely, which not only removes Robin's access to his gadgets but also reveals the truth about what he wears under that red tunic.

that's a fucking leotard. he's wearing a onesie. not even short-shorts, it's a onesie. Dick why XD

However! Robin's not out of the fight yet! He manages to grab his belt and use it as an impromptu arm guard, while also pulling out one last gadget that will save the day!

no, tiny tools, my one weakness!

The pliers are used to break the Gargoyle's magic ring - the one that transported everyone to Limbo to begin with - and doing that means that neither the Gargoyle nor Dick - nor the others - can stay in Limbo any longer. Unfortunately, since the Gargoyle is currently stuck to Dick's arm that means that they're both getting sucked into the space between worlds…until the release of energy throws the Gargoyle clear. Too far out of reach for Robin to even try to grab hold of him again. Not that he wants to.

dick pls

Fortunately, our heroes all reappear on that creepy hilltop in the real world, and even more fortunately none of the three who got caught seem to have any memory of what happened or how they got there. Dick gambled on destroying the thing that brought them into Limbo and it paid off. And he was willing to reveal his identity to his teammates to do it.

okay technically she has back in issue 11 but shh we'll just pretend that never happened it's fine >w>

Are some plot elements a little ridiculous or cheesy? Sure, but no more so than some of the shit we see; cheesy and ridiculous is a comic book staple, after all. It's mostly the dialogue being used, but give it a bit of an update in terms of phrasing and slang and possibly nicknames and honestly this story wouldn't be at all out of place in a modern run. I really kinda love it.

#Musings #dick grayson #teen titans #classic comics #robin #boy wonder #dc comics #geekery #bluebird

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