By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal
Sep 1981
The Teen Titans travel to Paradise Island. Their one hope to save Changeling's life is the Purple Ray, a device created by Wonder Woman. It was used to heal Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman 1, Summer 1942) and it gave Donna Troy her powers (Teen Titans 22, Jul-Aug 1969). It doesn't always work but it seems like it is their best hope for bringing Gar back from the brink of death.
Gar is transported from the jet in a suspended animation chamber. His feet are not allowed to touch the ground. The other guys (Robin, Cyborg, Kid Flash) aren't welcome on the island home of the Amazons. If a man ever steps foot of the island, according to Wonder Girl, the Amazons will lose their powers and immortality. The guys take off on a separate mission to look for Changeling's stepfather, Steve Dayton.
Before the Amazons get started analyzing Gar's condition an intruder interferes with the operation of the Purple Ray. Wonder Girl investigates and discovers Hyperion, the Titan of Greek myth who has recently escaped from Tartarus. He had been imprisoned there for tens of thousands of years. Donna tries to lasso him but he shrugs it off. It has no power over him. He hypnotizes her and from there on she follows him everywhere and fights by his side.
Starfire and Raven come to their teammate's aid but Hyperion is too powerful. Starfire's bolts have no impact on him. He inflicts great harm on both of them, but they survive and recover quickly enough. Before they are back to strength Hyperion and Wonder Girl have teleported back to Tartarus to free his brothers and sisters.
Raven and Starfire team up with an army of Amazons and head for Tartarus. The army is led by Queen Hippolyte, Wonder Girl's adoptive mother. The Amazons encounter some resistance getting into Tartarus in the form of a green-skinned beast with 100 heads. Hyperion and Wonder Girl also had to fight their way into the underworld. In their case it was three giant Cyclopes that stood between them and the realm of the dead.
Hyperion tells his origin story which is also the story of the origins of the Titans and the Greek Gods. His plan is to revive his brothers and sisters, who were also trapped in Tartarus, and then head for Mt. Olympus. The extended plan is to settle some old scores and take over Mt. Olympus, where the Greek Gods live.
The issue ends with Starfire, Raven, Hippolyte, and the army of Amazons catching up with the Titans. By this time Hyperion has freed his siblings. Hippolyte tries talking Donna into leaving Hyperion and returning with her but Donna claims to have decided of her own volition to stay by Hyperion's side. It is where she says she wants to stay for the rest of time. Before Hippolyte can react Hyperion teleports himself, his siblings, and Donna out of there, presumably to Mt. Olympus.
One interesting detail is that one of the Titans is missing. There are just 11 of them (6 males, 5 females) instead of 12. The missing Titan is Thia, Hyperion's sister/wife. All the other pairs of Titan siblings/spouses are intact. Hyperion wants Donna to replace Thia. I wouldn't be surprised to see Thia return before this story wraps up in the next issue and prove to be in the decisive factor in the fight between the Wonder Girl and the Titans of Greek myth and the Amazons and the New Teen Titans (Starfire, Raven). Whether she does or does not I'm guessing that there will be some divine intervention before this story ends.
I've been looking forward to reading this story for quite some time. As with all the issues in this series up to this point, I had not read this one before. On the first read through I thought it was fairly straight forward both in the plot and in the way it was told. Going back through it as I wrote my summary of the issue I can see that it is more layered at least in the amount of detail that is included than it originally seemed to me.
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