The New Teen Titans #1

A revival nobody expected to last

The Teen Titans began in 1964, when Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad teamed up against a weather-controlling villain called Mister Twister in The Brave and the Bold #54. The group took its name in 1965 and got its own series in 1966. That run ended in 1978 after a brief revival, and the team was off the shelves.

In 1980 DC tried again. The new team first appeared in a preview insert in DC Comics Presents #26, cover-dated October 1980, and The New Teen Titans #1 followed with a November cover date. The Grand Comics Database gives an on-sale date of August 14, 1980. The issue cost 50 cents and ran 36 pages.

Wolfman and Perez did not expect a long run. Wikipedia's history of the series says the pair initially thought it would "only last six issues, due to overall poor sales" across the line. They were wrong by decades.

Wolfman and Perez

Marv Wolfman was born in Brooklyn on May 13, 1946. At Marvel he wrote The Tomb of Dracula with the artist Gene Colan beginning in 1972, creating the vampire hunter Blade, and he served as the company's editor-in-chief before stepping back to write. He left Marvel in 1980 and moved to DC.

George Perez was born in New York City on June 9, 1954, to Puerto Rican parents. He started in 1973 as an assistant to Rich Buckler, debuted at Marvel in 1974 and made his name on The Avengers and Fantastic Four, known for detailed art and crowded group scenes. He moved to DC in 1980.

The first issue credits both men with the plot, Wolfman with the script, Perez with breakdowns and Romeo Tanghal with finished art and inks. Adrienne Roy colored it and Ben Oda lettered it. Wolfman also wrote a one-page text piece inside the issue on the revamped team, titled "You CAN Come Home Again!"

Seven teenagers and an alien princess

The 25-page story opens "A darkly lit chamber aboard the slave-ship Q'st'r..." Starfire escapes her Gordanian captors and reaches Earth, while the mysterious Raven has manipulated veterans of the original Titans and a few new recruits into coming together. The story is split into an epilogue and two chapters, "The Birth of the Titans!" and "New York Nightmare!"

Robin, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl came from the old team. Changeling, Beast Boy under a new name, joined them. Cyborg, Starfire and Raven were new creations by Wolfman and Perez, and all three join the team in this issue. The issue also introduces Grant Wilson, who becomes the villain Ravager in the next issue. Issue #2, cover-dated December 1980, introduced his father, Deathstroke the Terminator.

Because the three new heroes debuted in the DC Comics Presents #26 insert a few months earlier, collectors treat that preview as their true first appearance. The New Teen Titans #1 is the first issue of the series itself.

From cancellation risk to top seller

Instead of folding, the series became one of DC's top-selling titles of the early 1980s and helped revive the company's sales. The team was compared with Marvel's X-Men as a commercial franchise.

The 1980 series ran 40 issues, through March 1984. Its high point was "The Judas Contract" in 1984, in which the team is betrayed by its member Terra; it won the fan award for favorite comic book story of 1984. Other celebrated arcs included "Who Is Donna Troy?" and "A Day in the Lives." Perez left the follow-up series after its fifth issue, and in 1985 he and Wolfman made Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12-issue series marking DC's 50th anniversary.

A key book with a big print run

No print run or census count appears in the sources consulted here. No postal statement of ownership was filed for the series for the 1981-1982 sales year, even though it was reputedly DC's most popular title, so its early circulation is not on public record. What the market shows is that high-grade copies are plentiful for a Bronze Age key: in 2025 and 2026, CGC 9.8 copies sold online for roughly $230 to $384.

The top of that range was a CGC 9.8 copy that sold at auction on October 15, 2025, for $384. The Grand Comics Database lists separate direct, newsstand and British versions of the issue, which buyers distinguish when comparing prices.

Titans everywhere

The characters introduced here moved far beyond comics. Cyborg became one of the most frequent Titans and was played by Ray Fisher in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). Khary Payton voiced him in the 2003 Teen Titans animated series and Teen Titans Go!. Deathstroke, born in the second issue, got his own series in 1991.

Perez went on to reboot Wonder Woman from 1987 to 1992 and to draw JLA/Avengers in 2003. He retired in 2019, announced in December 2021 that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer and died on May 6, 2022, at 67. Wolfman was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2011.

The numbers

Cover price

50 cents

Pages

36; lead story 25 pages

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted

Census

No verified CGC census count found in the sources consulted

Series length

40 issues, November 1980 to March 1984

Editions

Direct, newsstand and British

Timeline

1. 1964

   Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad team up in The Brave and the Bold #54.

2. 1966

   Teen Titans gets its own series.

3. 1978

   The original Teen Titans series ends.

4. Oct 1980

   A preview insert in DC Comics Presents #26 introduces the new team.

5. Aug 14, 1980

   The New Teen Titans #1 goes on sale for 50 cents, cover-dated November 1980.

6. Dec 1980

   Deathstroke debuts in The New Teen Titans #2.

7. 1984

   "The Judas Contract" runs and wins the fan award for favorite story of the year.

8. Mar 1984

   The 1980 series ends with issue #40.

9. 1985

   Wolfman and Perez launch Crisis on Infinite Earths.

10. 2003

    The Teen Titans animated series begins on Cartoon Network.

11. May 6, 2022

    George Perez dies at 67.

12. Oct 15, 2025

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $384.

The world in 1980

• Feb 22, 1980

  The U.S. Olympic hockey team beats the Soviet Union in the "Miracle on Ice."

• Mar 21, 1980

  President Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics.

• May 18, 1980

  Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57.

• May 21, 1980

  The Empire Strikes Back is released.

• May 22, 1980

  Pac-Man is released in arcades.

• Jun 1, 1980

  CNN launches.

• Nov 4, 1980

  Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter for the presidency.

• Dec 8, 1980

  John Lennon is shot and killed outside the Dakota in New York City.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The New Teen Titans #1 is number 81 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (73 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Wolfman and Perez expected the series to last only six issues.
• Cyborg, Starfire and Raven actually debuted months earlier in a preview inside DC Comics Presents #26.
• The first issue introduces Grant Wilson, son of Deathstroke, before Deathstroke himself appears.
• Marv Wolfman, who co-created the new Titans, had earlier co-created Blade at Marvel.
• The original Teen Titans fought a villain named Mister Twister in their first team-up in 1964.
• Changeling, one of the new Titans, was Beast Boy under a new name.