Tales of the Teen Titans #51
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTales of the Teen Titans #51 marks the debut of Qurac, DC Comics' fictional Middle Eastern rogue state that would become a recurring geopolitical backdrop across dozens of titles — from Superman to Suicide Squad — for decades to come. The country's ruler, President Marlo, whose physical resemblance to Saddam Hussein was deliberate, introduced a strain of real-world political allegory into DC's superhero universe that was notably rare for mainstream comics of the era. The issue also serves as the opening chapter of a two-part Jericho-focused arc that deepened the post-'Judas Contract' fallout, using the suspicion Changeling casts on Jericho — still tainted in Gar's eyes by Terra's betrayal — to show how trauma and paranoia fracture team cohesion even among heroes. As one of the final all-new-story issues before Tales became a reprint vehicle with #59, it also represents the tail end of a genuinely original creative run on the newsstand title.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Issue #51 arrives in the specific publishing limbo created by DC's 'hardcover/softcover' experiment: the flagship storytelling had migrated to the higher-quality Baxter-paper New Teen Titans (vol. 2), leaving Tales of the Teen Titans to run original stories that chronologically preceded the Baxter series by roughly six months before eventually becoming a reprint book. Writer Marv Wolfman scripted the issue with interior pencils by Rich Buckler and inks by Bob Smith, while George Pérez — who had moved his main artistic focus to the Baxter series and then to Crisis on Infinite Earths — contributed the cover and is credited as co-editor alongside Wolfman. Originally solicited for February 1985, the issue was delayed a month and shipped in March, as documented by DC's internal release schedule.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: March 1985; on-sale date approximately March 6–10, 1985 (originally solicited February 1985 but delayed one month per DC Releases #10).
- Story title: 'The Jericho Imbroglio!' — Part 1 of a 2-part arc concluded in Tales of the Teen Titans #52.
- First appearance of Qurac, DC's fictional Middle Eastern nation intended as an analog of Iraq; the country is not yet named in this issue — that name appears explicitly in issue #52.
- First appearance of President Marlo of Qurac, whose physical resemblance to Saddam Hussein was noted by DC's own wiki annotators.
- Creative team: Writer Marv Wolfman; penciler Rich Buckler; inker Bob Smith; colorist Adrienne Roy; letterer Ben Oda; cover by George Pérez; co-editors George Pérez and Marv Wolfman.
- Characters featured: Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Jericho (Joseph Wilson), Changeling (Garfield Logan), Starfire, Cyborg, Lilith, Adeline Wilson, and Cheshire — the last of whom was created by Wolfman and Pérez and had debuted in New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983).
- Plot: Cheshire is hired by President Marlo to abduct Adeline Wilson (Jericho's mother); Changeling, already suspicious of Jericho in the wake of Terra's betrayal, attempts to arrest him; a frozen alien in Alaska is discovered by S.T.A.R. Labs, seeding the next story arc.
- Published during the window (Tales #45–58) when Tales carried all-new stories that took place before the concurrent Baxter-series New Teen Titans (vol. 2) continuity; with issue #59, the title became a reprint book.
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