Tales of the Teen Titans #56

Aug 1985 · DC · 0.75 USD; 0.95 CAD; 0.35 GBP

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“Fearsome Five Minus One!”

★ 1st appearance — Jinx

About this Issue

Tales of the Teen Titans #56 marks the debut of Jinx, an elemental sorceress who would become a persistent Fearsome Five mainstay and one of the more enduring villains in the Titans' rogues' gallery across four decades of comics, animation, and live-action television. The issue lands at a pivotal editorial moment — it is among the final handful of all-new story installments in the Tales of the Teen Titans title before the book transitioned entirely to reprints with issue #59, making this part of a small window of original Copper Age content for the series. Within the story, Raven's struggle against Trigon's corrupting influence is pushed forward, threading the title into the larger pre-Crisis narrative that Marv Wolfman was building simultaneously across two concurrent Titans books. Jinx's cameo introduction here, followed by her full appearance in issue #57, set the template for a character versatile enough to carry into the New 52, DC Rebirth, and a prominent HBO Max live-action role.

In "Fearsome Five Minus One!", the Fearsome Five storm a prison to free Jinx, forcing Starfire, Wonder Girl, and Nightwing into a desperate attempt to stop them—only to be overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Cyborg undergoes a crucial procedure aimed at making his appearance more human. Written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Chuck Patton with inks by Mike DeCarlo, this 1985 issue blends high-stakes action with personal stakes, all rendered in vibrant colors by Adrienne Roy and lettered by Albert DeGuzman, with a cover by Patton and DeCarlo.

writer Marv Wolfman · artist Chuck Patton · inker Mike DeCarlo · colorist Adrienne Roy · letterer Albert DeGuzman · cover Chuck Patton, Mike DeCarlo

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VF) $6

Flagged key issue — estimate limited by sparse sales.

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

Raw — MINT ▾ $9.99–$14.99 3 listings

MINT $9.99 MINT $10.99 MINT $14.99

Raw — NM ▾ $4.99–$24 7 listings

NM $4.99 NM $5.19 NM $5.95 NM $9 NM $9.95 NM $24 NM $24

Raw — VF/NM $6.5 1 listing Raw — VF+ $4.4 1 listing

Raw — VF ▾ $2.49–$12.99 5 listings

VF $2.49 VF $3.07 VF $4.99 VF $6.99 VF $12.99

Raw — FN/VF $11.87 1 listing Raw — F/VF $3 1 listing

Raw — FINE ▾ $2.95–$14.99 2 listings

FINE $2.95 FINE $14.99

Raw — FN $4.98 1 listing Raw — VERY GOOD $2.25 1 listing Raw — VG $3 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $1.49–$80 41 listings

Verified matches for Tales of the Teen Titans #56 · eBay asking prices, seen 28 days ago

More listings for this title

Tales of the Teen Titans DC Comics Comic Book Bagged Boarded #56 $3

Related listings we couldn't confirm as this exact issue · 1 total · seen 28 days ago

Read it digitally

DC Universe Infinite DC’s subscription reader ▸ Amazon Kindle Buy the digital edition ▸

Opens a search on each platform — digital availability varies by title.

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

Tales of the Teen Titans was itself an artifact of DC's ambitious mid-1980s 'hardcover/softcover' publishing experiment: when The New Teen Titans relaunched as a higher-quality, direct-market-exclusive title in August 1984, the original newsstand series was renamed Tales of the Teen Titans and continued running original stories — set chronologically earlier than the premium book — before eventually becoming a reprint vehicle. Issue #56 was produced by writer Marv Wolfman and penciler Chuck Patton, the same team responsible for creating other diverse characters of the era including Gypsy and Vibe. Wolfman was at this point writing both Titans titles concurrently, managing two interlocking but temporally offset continuities, and issue #56 opens the three-part 'Fearsome Five Minus One!' arc that would serve as the vehicle for Jinx's formal introduction to the DC Universe.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date: August 1985 (released May 1985); part of the Tales of the Teen Titans ongoing series (Volume 1), which ran from 1984 to 1988.
First (cameo) appearance of Jinx — an East Indian elemental sorceress and Fearsome Five member — created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciler Chuck Patton; her full first appearance follows in issue #57.
Story title: 'Fearsome Five Minus One!' — Part 1 of 3; internal title 'The Last Days of Cyborg!' also associated with the issue's Cyborg subplot.
Creative team: Marv Wolfman (writer), Chuck Patton (penciler/cover artist), Mike DeCarlo (inker), Gaspar Saladino (letterer).
The issue advances Raven's ongoing Trigon corruption subplot, showing her empathic powers dangerously amplified and nearly causing lethal harm, a thread central to the lead-up to the 'Terror of Trigon' storyline.
Issue #56 is one of the last original-story issues of the title: Tales of the Teen Titans became an all-reprint book beginning with issue #59, reprinting the concurrent direct-market New Teen Titans (Vol. 2) series at roughly a 15-month delay.
The series existed as DC's newsstand counterpart to the Baxter-paper New Teen Titans Vol. 2 under the 'hardcover/softcover' initiative — one of only three DC titles in that program alongside Legion of Super-Heroes and Batman and the Outsiders.
Jinx has since appeared in the Teen Titans (2003) animated series (voiced by Lauren Tom), Teen Titans Go!, multiple video games, and made her live-action debut in Season 4 of HBO Max's Titans (portrayed by Lisa Ambalavanar).