Truth In Advertising: Titans#1 (NSFW)

In a more honest world, this is what the ad for Titans#1 would have looked like:

JUDD WINICK

IAN CHURCHILL

TITANS #1

PUTTING THE "TIT" BACK IN "TITANS"!

But seriously, folks, this is just sad.

I've been following various Teen Titans incarnations since I started reading comics. In fact, "Teen Titans" was one of the books that first got me hooked on superhero comics when I was a kid. And I'm not talking Wolfman/Perez Titans. I'm talking Haney/Cardy Titans. Old school Titans. Back when I was 9 years old and starting to read my older cousins' and friends' comics.

Being a Titans follower has had its peaks and valleys. For every "Requiem for a Titan", "Judas Contract", "Who Is Donna Troy?", "Technis Imperative", or "Titans Tomorrow" storyline, we've had to suffer through stuff like the Deo Kids or "A Very Special Damage", or Bill Jaaska. We've seen Dick Grayson evolve from Robin to Nightwing, but we've also seen Cassie "Wonder Girl" Sandsmark devolve from a spunky, independent young heroine to a needy codependent who keeps getting her ass kicked. So it hasn't always been easy.

But the Titans were one of the first indelible impressions the superhero comics world made on me when I was a nine-year-old kid.

Now picture a modern-day 9-year-old reading Titans#1 and seeing this:

Not a pleasant thought, especially if you are the parent of said nine-year-old. If my pre-teen nephew or especially my pre-teen niece were reading something like this, I'd fling it away from them as if it were a poisonous snake.

I won't lie to you and say that I don't find the image of Starfire above pretty. But I'm a grown man. If I want to see pretty pictures of naked or scantily-clad women in erotic poses, I have plenty of options. There are plenty of places I can read that.

The question here is whether an all-ages superhero team adventure comic should be one of them.

And, no, I'm not going the old Freddy Wertham route here. I'm not asking "Should DC be allowed to publish a book like this?"

I'm asking whether or not they should publish it.

Period.

Well, at least there are Titans books out today that I would have no qualms about giving to my younger relatives.

Too bad the main current-continuity books aren't among them.

(Special thanks to Samantha.)