Teen Titans #17

New Life

Dan Jurgen Story & Art
Phil Jimenez Guest Finisher
Gregory Wright Colorist
Comic raft Letters
Dana Kurtin Associate Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor

Our cover shows the leader of the Teen Titans, Atom, holding all the special guests of this issue in his hand. Theoretically, I guess he could do this since he now has the ability to grow to giant size as well as shrink to atom size, but this cover is more of a symbolic representation. To Impulse's right is his old friend, Damage, whom we haven't seen since the New Titans days. Most of the rest of these people don't matter too much, although I will point out Robin, Superboy, and flying right in front of Atom's face is Captain Marvel Jr., who is also part of the Unlimited Access series.

There's quite a bit going on in this issue, but very little of it involves Impulse. So let's just skip ahead to the part where Ray Palmer decides to hold open tryouts for the Teen Titans. And since this is the '90s, Ray sets up a Titans Web page to make the announcement. Ironically, though, word spreads best when a national TV news station picks up the story. Bart Allen sees the news report and thinks the tryouts will rock, but Max also saw the piece and doesn't seem too impressed. On the appointed date, a large gathering of heroes meet on the roof of a night club, and Impulse, naturally, is the first to arrive.

Impulse calls Ray "Atom Ant" and wonders why he thinks of him as a little kid. Atom doesn't know what he's talking about, but he is ready to accept Impulse on the team without an interview. However, Max Mercury suddenly arrives and forbids Impulse from joining the team, citing school, grades and homework. So Max drags Impulse away and out of the story.

I could end my recap right here, but I'll throw in a few highlights. Damage does a rather poor job of explaining his powers and his role during Zero Hour, and he unwisely tries to demonstrate his powers by blowing up the food table. This makes everyone quite upset, and they reject Damage's application. Robin arrived with hopes of applying, but upon seeing all the publicity the Teen Titans were causing, decided that Batman wouldn't approve his entry on such a high-profile team. So the Boy Wonder ducks out before even interviewing.

Atom is also willing to give Superboy a spot on the team, but it turns out Superboy only went there for the party atmosphere and to tell the Teen Titans that their teammate Risk was recently arrested. But the Titans aren't completely out of luck. They do recruit Captain Marvel Jr., along with a few other, lesser-known heroes. And Arsenal, former leader of the New Titans, is also there to lend a hand.


There's not a whole lot to say about this issue. It basically was little more than a publicity stunt — throwing in a bunch of high-profile characters to attract some attention, but ultimately sticking to the script of focusing on the relative unknowns. The excuses made by the big names were quite lame. And I was disappointed nobody mentioned the New Titans in this issue. It would have been great for Impulse to have had a little reunion with Arsenal and Damage. It's a little sad to see that Arsenal is still hanging around the Teen Titans when he is old enough to be doing something else. And poor Damage, who was once Impulse's best friend, is left out in the cold and obscurity.

I only have the digital copy of this issue, so there's no letters or ads this time. Next time, we'll return to the main series with Impulse #34.