The New Teen Titans #17

Mar 1982 · DC · 0.60 USD; 0.20 GBP

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“The Possessing of Francis Kane!”

★ 1st appearance — Magenta

About this Issue

The New Teen Titans #17 marks the debut of Frances Kane, the childhood friend of Wally West who would eventually evolve into the conflicted magnetic villain-and-sometimes-hero Magenta — a character still active in DC continuity decades later and adapted for live-action television in The Flash (Season 3, portrayed by Joey King). The issue is also significant for the way it cross-pollinates corners of the DC Universe: the villain driving the plot is Doctor Polaris, a Green Lantern rogue, whose scheme to exploit Frances's latent magnetic abilities to escape extra-dimensional exile ties the Titans organically into the wider DCU without feeling like a forced crossover. It showcases the series' characteristic blend of soap-opera character work — Kid Flash's personal life bleeding into a full team crisis — and science-flavored resolution, with Cyborg ultimately identifying the energies as magnetic rather than supernatural and deploying a S.T.A.R. Labs device to end the threat. The issue opens a long narrative thread for Wally West's romantic and emotional life that writers would revisit well into the post-Rebirth era.

writer Marv Wolfman · artist, writer George Pérez · artist, inker Romeo Tanghal · colorist Adrienne Roy · letterer John Costanza · cover George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal

ComicBooks.com Value

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CGC 9.8 · 84 in census $70

CGC 9.6 · 21 in census $29*

CGC 9.4 · 7 in census $20*

CGC 9.2 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 9.0 none in existence

CGC 8.5 none in existence

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CGC 8.0 none in existence

CGC 7.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 3 in census $20*

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

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CGC 9.8 $60 CGC 9.8 $75

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More listings for this title

FN $3.98 NM- $7.49 CGC 9.8 · Signed $99.99 CGC 9.8 · Newsstand $115 DC Comics Teen Titans, All Series (Team, New), Single Issues, You Pick! $2 New Teen Titans DC Comics Comic Book Bagged Boarded #17 $3 The New Teen Titans Shes Possessed Issue 17 March 1982 DC Comics $3.71

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History

The story was plotted collaboratively by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez — the Grand Comics Database credits both on plot — with Wolfman supplying the finished script, Pérez on pencils, and Romeo Tanghal on inks, the regular production team that defined the book's Bronze Age run. Adrienne Roy handled coloring. The issue appeared with a cover date of March 1982, squarely in the title's commercial peak, when the Wolfman-Pérez New Teen Titans was among DC's strongest-selling books. An early character concept for the future Magenta by Pérez appeared separately in DC Sampler #2, indicating the character had been sketched out in advance of her debut issue, with an original working name of 'Polara' and a red-and-blue color scheme rather than the magenta-and-white she would later wear.

Trivia · 9 facts

First appearance of Frances Kane (introduced here, her name misspelled as 'Francis' throughout this issue), who would later become the magnetic villain-and-antihero Magenta beginning in Teen Titans Spotlight #16 (November 1987).
Story title: 'The Possessing of Frances Kane!' — a 26-page done-in-one story with cover and interior art by George Pérez (pencils) and Romeo Tanghal (inks), scripted by Marv Wolfman; plot credited to both Wolfman and Pérez.
Cover date: March 1982; published by DC Comics as part of The New Teen Titans (Volume 1).
Doctor Polaris (Neal Emerson), a Green Lantern villain, appears as the behind-the-scenes antagonist, using Frances's latent magnetic powers to try to free himself from an extra-dimensional prison where Green Lantern had trapped him.
Cyborg's detective work is central to the resolution: he deduces that the destructive energies are magnetic — not supernatural — and uses a S.T.A.R. Labs-created anti-magnetic device to cure Frances.
The full seven-member Titans roster appears: Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Raven, Starfire (Koriand'r), Cyborg (Victor Stone), and Changeling (Garfield Logan).
An early design sketch of the future Magenta by George Pérez was published separately in DC Sampler #2, with her original working name listed as 'Polara' and a different red-and-blue color scheme.
The issue has been reprinted in multiple collected editions, including New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 3 (DC, 2006), The New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 1 (2011 and 2017 editions), and The New Teen Titans TPB Vol. 3 (2015), as well as international editions in French (Arédit-Artima, 1984), German (Egmont Ehapa, 1985), and Swedish and Norwegian Semic editions (1985).
Frances Kane made her live-action debut in Season 3 of The CW's The Flash, portrayed by Joey King, in an episode titled 'Magenta.'