Late To The Party: The Judas Contract

Growing up, my access to comics and the variety of comics was limited. The internet wasn’t a thing, book stores only stocked British publications which reprinted years old material (primarily from Marvel) so a lot of ‘bigger’ comic stories and runs I found later on. In another semi regular series by yours truly (cause I have to justify them keeping me around apart from taking out Ray’s trash), I’m going to review older comics that are considered classic from a fresh and modern perspective, enjoy!

I never really got into the Teen Titans as a concept much, I knew who the characters were thanks to various media and them appearing in other comics, but I never felt compelled to check out any run starring the characters until some years ago. When I started reading and enjoying the Geoff Johns Flash run, I wanted to also read his Teen Titans run because as far as I was aware, that was the comic that really put him on the map. From what my good pal, fellow reviewer and DC archive robot gained sentience Ray Goldfield tells me, Johns run was the last the title had where it was at a consistently strong quality. Over the various years, the Titans franchise has run foul of poor creative decisions, bad editorial and other factors too numerous to name. So it was never a big pull to check out any of their stories, but of course the one story I knew of was the Judas Contract. This was what Born Again was to Daredevil or Year One was to Batman, it was considered THE Titans story that all others before and after are measured against. Given I’ve amassed quite a bit of reading material over time, I always put off checking it out myself until my good friend J.R. Loflin kindly gifted me the trade for Christmas just past. I make a point of trying to check out anything I’m gifted asap, mostly out of the feelings of guilt otherwise, but also because if someone has spent money to send me something and gambled on me like it then I certainly should try it. The Judas contract collects the three issues previous to the main story and the four parts where the named story plays out.

So how did I find it, especially given I know very little about the Teen Titans apart from the limited exposure I mentioned above? Well it was great and given the creative team, I could kind of tell it would be from the get go. I don’t need to hype up or tell readers of this article how great Marv Wolfman and George Perez are, both men have had many iconic runs at both major companies across several properties. They both have an incredible body of work spanning decades with Wolfman still working for DC on various mini’s featuring characters he co-created, and Perez has been working diligently until the announcement of his retirement only a few weeks ago. Both men reinvented the Teen Titans franchise, introducing Cyborg, Starfire and Raven to the team as well as giving them their most iconic enemy in Deathstroke, who of course has crafted his own legacy in comics. They made the book DC’s top seller, rivaling the X-Men titles in popularity which if you consider where the book stands these days and has stood for nearly two decades, quite crazy. Clearly with their performance on this title and on this arc, DC took notice. At a time where the publisher was also putting out the likes of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, Wolfman and Perez delivered such a high quality and popular book that the company gave them the responsibility of delivering Crisis On Infinite Earth’s- the event that changed everything for the company during a period where events were major game changers and had lasting major effects. Their contribution to the company and to DC is immeasurable so their names alone told me I was in for a good time.

The story, in short centers around Deathstroke infiltrating the Titans team by implanting his own disciple/protégé/lover into the group in the form of Terra, a sociopathic young girl who can manipulate the earth. In this story, Deathstroke uses knowledge of the Titans which Terra gained to catch them off guard, defeat them and bring them as contracted to an organization known as H.I.V.E. When reading a long running franchise I’m not familiar with, I usually expect one of two things or perhaps if it can be done well, both. I expect either to be filled in on everything I need to know which can be arduous and dull for long time readers or the narrative to be so good that I don’t care about knowing every little thing and I can piece together what I need to myself either through character interaction, or if I really am curious, going back and checking out everything I can get my hands on. We’re in the collection age after all, but other avenue’s like Comixology and publisher online platforms make it easier to go find out more if you like. Heck, at worst you can go to Wikipedia or ask a friend in the know about anything you might think you might be unclear about. The internet makes all this stuff ludicrously simple.

That being said, I found the narrative easy to dive into. I was familiar with the characters, for the most part with the exception of Donna Troy, but there was nothing that took me out of the story or I felt I had missed out on to enjoy the story. The three issues leading into the Judas Contract let me get an idea of the team dynamic at play and what each character was like during this period. Even the character I was most familiar with by far, Dick Grayson, I would still need to understand to a certain extent in general terms. Sure I can tell you a lot about him, but this version of him at this exact time, I need to know who that is. Take any character and they are likely vastly different to how they were 10 years ago and 10 years before that they were vastly different, etc, etc. The characters are at their core the same, but due to changing times and different creative voices, they get continually reinvented, often without us realizing so that they can still be enjoyed in 10 years time or 10 years after that or so on and so forth. The comic did a great job giving me a basic read on the team’s dynamic and who everyone was and what everyone’s relationship with each other was like. This was done in subtle, nuanced ways without dragging the story which kept a brisk pace and engaged me throughout.

I do wonder how much of a shock to readers that the situation with Terra was. I knew it going in and had seen the story adapted very loosely in the second season of the original Teen Titans show, but given that Wolfman’s introduction to the book mentioned death threats that were a result of the reveal (proving that idiocy in comic fandom is not a new phenomenon sadly) I’d say it was quite a big reveal. A traitor in the midst has been done before this story and after, but it seemed that in this story, it was a real slow burn. The Titans mention Terra having been a part of the group for a year and are in such shock at her actions that the majority of them refuse to believe that she’s not somehow being manipulated or controlled in some way, even when she is spewing venomous insults and trying to kill them. The majority of the arc revolves around Terra, Dick and Beast Boy, but everyone does get good moments to shine. I can’t tell you any more about Donna Troy than I could before this story, but I liked her here and she seemed like a well rounded and likable character. I feel the strength of the arc and the stuff I enjoyed most revolved around Deathstroke. My favorite two parts were the issues were he has his issue long battle with Dick while we learn how he took out the rest of the Titans and the origin issue which gives him more depth. Both these issues are great and make Deathstroke a more interesting character to me. In some ways I’m reminded of how some people say the Punisher is like if you took Captain America and put him through a different war experience, Deathstroke is like that, but times 100. He’s a bad person but not evil, he had a curious sense of honor and seems like he has a lot of layers to him making him an interesting villain and potential protagonist which he has been of course up to and including the highly regarded current ongoing penned by Christopher Priest.

The arc has action, drama, emotion and great character moments and stunning art. Early on in the story, in the lead up to Judas Contract the issue where Wally West decides to leave the group and Dick decides to stop being Robin are handled really well. These are two major decisions for these characters and major events in their history, but not only are they handled in the same issue, but they are handled really well. I also think it’s a great and important choice by the creative team that they didn’t try to redeem this version of Terra. She’s shown as an unrepentant, malicious killer under she is the cause of her own undoing. The title seems to lay the foundations of redemption, but don’t go in that direction with the group instead choosing to honor her as a hero for the sake of her family and for the good things she did even though she was never doing it for the right reasons. It’s an interesting decision that I think is really unique and I think now most adaption’s of this story do have her redeeming herself, which I think does take away from the tragedy of her behavior somewhat, but here of course we get the honest truth- sometimes people can’t be saved.

Some things I didn’t enjoy: I’ve never been a big fan of the oversexualisation of female comic characters. I understand why its done, but unless it’s part of the characters personality or whatnot, I often find it distracting. Here the story spends some time sexualizing Starfire and, yes, there has been worse. Heck, this character has had worse, but I noticed it so I’ll state it. Now to be fair, Starfire seems oblivious to how she looks to others which in line with the animated Starfire who seemed adorably constantly clueless, a version of the character I really like. She’s also shown as a complete badass, so this off sets the scenes of her parading about in a bikini or being in a very revealing costume (which is likely the fashion of her people or whatever). Plus the story never depicts Donna or Raven in such fashion AT ALL so I just assume as a new reader that being depicted as overly sexy, sometimes for humorous purposes is just part of what the character of Starfire is. In a similar vein, the relationship between Deathstroke and Terra is one I find hard to process. I mean, its super creepy for a lot of reasons and would never fly in any way these days. The comic never glorifies the relationship and it is presented as deeply disturbing and troubling. It does seem to be in sharp contrast to how Deathstroke is otherwise depicted in the rest of the story, but it doesn’t ruin the story for me. It stands out as odd, but its likely supposed to, I’m probably again just taken back mostly because I don’t think we’d see a scene were say Ms. Marvel (Kamala Kahn) was in a relationship with Reed Richards or whatever and yes, I know the characters are very different and the context is very different, it’s just the parallel that sprung to mind. It just wouldn’t happen now so seeing it is a jolt to the system.

Overall though, the Judas contract is a great read that’s well written with believable characters and some stunning art. Does it make me want to read more? No, but I’m glad I have it in my collection and will read it again, possibly several times over many years. I can see why it has its place in comics history and although I didn’t go gaga bananas over it, I enjoyed it a great deal which speaks to the stories strength given I’m not much of a Teen Titans fan to start with.

A classic by two creators who seem to be at an all time peak, should I have expected any less?