Tales of the Teen Titans #44

History

The issue is the third chapter of 'The Judas Contract,' a four-part storyline by writer-editor Marv Wolfman and artist-editor George Pérez that ran through Tales of the Teen Titans #42–44 and concluded in the 1984 Annual. Wolfman and Pérez had been jointly plotting their New Teen Titans run since the early 1980s, with seeds for the story — including Terra's introduction as a sleeper agent and Deathstroke's contracted grudge against the team — planted as far back as New Teen Titans #2 (1980) and Terra's debut in New Teen Titans #26 (1982). The creative team worked in close physical proximity, famously developing stories together in person, and reportedly designed Terra from the outset as an irredeemably villainous character — a deliberate subversion of reader expectations — so they would not be tempted to soften the betrayal. Issue #44 was also a transitional publishing moment: the concurrent launch of a new-format New Teen Titans Vol. 2 meant the original series was renamed Tales of the Teen Titans, with #44 and Annual #3 serving as the dramatic capstone before the line split into dual formats.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Dick Grayson as Nightwing — the identity he assumes after permanently retiring as Robin, a role he had held in DC continuity since Detective Comics #38 (1940).
• First full costumed appearance and naming of Jericho (Joseph Wilson), Deathstroke's mute son, who possesses the metahuman ability to take control of other people's bodies through eye contact — a power described as a mutagenic side-effect of the same military experiments that enhanced his father.
• The issue contains the first comprehensive secret origin of Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade Wilson), recounted by his ex-wife Adeline Kane-Wilson, covering his enlistment, military career, the experiments that gave him enhanced abilities, and the family tragedy involving Jackal that left Joseph mute.
• The story is 'The Judas Contract: Book Three — There Shall Come a Titan!', written and edited by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, with interior art by Pérez, Dick Giordano, and Mike DeCarlo; cover art by George Pérez.
• The Nightwing name is drawn from a Kryptonian mythology Superman had shared with Dick Grayson — in pre-Crisis continuity, Nightwing and Flamebird were the vigilante identities Superman and Jimmy Olsen used in the bottled city of Kandor, serving as that world's analogues to Batman and Robin.
• The issue was reprinted in the 1988 trade paperback New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, which collected all four chapters of the arc.
• The broader 'Judas Contract' storyline has been adapted multiple times, most notably as the 2017 DC Universe Animated Original Movie Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, directed by Sam Liu, and as the narrative backbone of Season 2 of the live-action Titans television series.
• Publication date is cover-dated July 1984, with both a direct-market edition and a newsstand edition distributed to newsstands.

Cast · 19 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Tales of the Teen Titans

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#43 1st appearance — Jericho

#51★

#51 Pre-first appearance — Azrael

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#45 1st appearance — Maude Stone

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#56 1st appearance — Jinx

Variants (2)