630 TERMINAL CITY
1980s. In 2003, a Teen Titans animated series premiered that was aimed largely at a
younger audience with its anime style. Older fans appreciated that many of the sto-
rylines were based upon plots from the Wolfman–Pérez comics era. Th e series was
cancelled after fi ve seasons. Th e Teen Titans remain one of DC’s most prominent
superhero groups as their adventures continue to resonate with fans.
Charles Coletta
TERMINAL CITY. Terminal City is a nine-issue miniseries published in 1996 by the Ver-
tigo imprint of DC Comics. A sequel, the fi ve-issue Terminal City: Aerial Graffi ti, was
published in 1997. Both titles were written by Dean Motter and penciled by Michael
Lark.
Th e primary focus of both series is the rehabilitation of protagonist Cosmo Quinn,
once a famous daredevil performing as “Th e Human Fly,” but in the present time of the
story a common window-washer in the architecturally sumptuous Terminal City, a city
of deco glamour that has also fallen on hard times. Quinn hires enterprising young B. B.
as an apprentice window-washer and general sidekick when she learns that the promise
of construction work that lured her to town will never be fulfi lled. Terminal City com-
mences with the appearance of an amnesiac man with a briefcase bolted to his wrist.
Speculation over the identity of the man, and the contents of the briefcase, pulls to-
gether much of the rest of the cast, including policeman Captain Sahib and underworld
fi gure Big Lil. Th e amnesiac disappears shortly after the briefcase is somehow removed
from his wrist, and the briefcase itself is barely mentioned again until the epilogue at
the end of the series when it is found in the trash and taken away by a maniacal fi gure,
never to be seen again.
Th e amnesiac and his briefcase provide Motter and Lark with a pretense to
introduce Cosmo Quinn’s disgraced or absent friends from 1984, the year of the Brave
New World’s Fair. Among those making return appearances is big game hunter Monty
Vickers, who arranges for the comeback of another of the 1984 group, boxer Kid
Gloves. Gloves boxes “Evolution” in a series of matches against the Piltdown Man, a
Great Ape, and what Vickers claims is the missing link, a simian from Tibet. Later in
the fi rst series, Gloves boxes “Science” in the form of a robot. Th ough he defeats the
robot, Gloves dies in the attempt. Another leftover from 1984, Eno Orez, the Man
of 1,000 faces, succeeds in killing the current mayor of Terminal City after several
failed attempts, though Orez’s motivations for undertaking the assassination remain
unclear.
Terminal City: Aerial Graffi ti also features a man falling from the sky, but in this
instance the man’s identity is known from the start: he is Jose Hoff man, a bit player
in a criminal scheme that involves the opening of the Transatlantic Tunnel connecting
Paris and Terminal City. Aerial Graffi ti also introduces readers to more fi gures from the
1984 Brave New World’s Fair. Th is time, readers meet skywriter Raymond Alexander,
who writes obscene messages in the air over Terminal City that embarrasses the acting
mayor in front of business interests who might invest in the city’s revival. Also present
