“Come In! And Know Me Better, Man!" | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans Christmas Carol is a unique bit of fun in our study, because it isn't an actual adaptation, but simply an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. The Titans have noticed similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with their current case, so they're using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem a crooked, old sinner named Ebenezer Scrounge.

Kid Flash impersonated the Ghost of Christmas Past and showed Scrounge a photo of his younger self with an old flame. It was a sad, half-hearted attempt to show Scrounge a better version of himself, but we don't really know that Scrounge was all that much better off in the past and there's no reason to think that the tactic will actually work to change Scrounge. Except that of course it will because Bob Haney wrote this and he wasn't exactly known for nuance or subtlety. It'll work because A Christmas Carol worked.

One thing that definitely worked though was that Scrounge thought he was seeing an actual ghost and he was terrified of it. So in this year's scene, he runs out of his junkyard office and tries to make it home through the snow. He's stopped though by Robin (his green glove gives him away to the readers, if not to Scrounge) in yet another half-assed Christmas Ghost cloak like the one Kid Flash used, just a different color. 

He claims that he's here to show Scrounge how his stinginess hurts other people. Scrounge is still scared to death of these ghosts, but hasn't shown any desire to repent yet. 

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans Christmas Carol isn't an adaptation, but an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. The Titans have noticed similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with the Titans' current case, so they're using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem Ebenezer Scrounge.

Kid Flash poses as a makeshift Ghost of Christmas Past, but only chooses one scene from Scrounge's past to show him, via an old photo. It's a picture of Scrounge with someone named Alice (instead of Belle). 

What's weird - and there's plenty weird about this version - is that Scrounge says that Alice jilted him and married someone else. He doesn't say who she left him for or why. And there's no way for Kid Flash to know any of those details either. I'm not even sure how Kid Flash found the photograph. Does Scrounge just have it on his desk? The Titans haven't had a lot of prep time for this.

As far as I can tell, Kid Flash is simply making deductions based on what he sees in the picture. He claims that Scrounge was young, handsome, popular, and loved by a beautiful girl, but if Scrounge is accurate, then maybe Alice just dumped him because he was socially awkward or had bad breath.

Whatever the real background, it's impossible to predict what effect this is going to have on Scrounge. He's terrified of the Spirit and wants to get away, but Kid Flash hasn't really confronted him with anything about his past that explicitly needs changing. With this pretty sad attempt done, Kid Flash leaves Scrounge and allows him to escape his office.

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans Christmas Carol isn't an adaptation, but an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. The Titans have noticed similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with the Titans' current case, so they're using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem Ebenezer Scrounge.

Kid Flash poses as a makeshift Ghost of Christmas Past, but there's only one part of Scrounge's past that the speedster references and it doesn't have anything to do with the miser's first job. So what I'm saying is that the Titans version skips this year's scene.

“I Was a Boy Here!” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans version of A Christmas Carol isn't an adaptation, but just an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. The Titans have noticed similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with the Titans' current case, so they're using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem Ebenezer Scrounge.

Kid Flash poses as a makeshift Ghost of Christmas Past, but there's only one part of Scrounge's past that the speedster references and it doesn't have anything to do with Scrooge's boyhood or school life. Which is a long way of saying that the Titans version skips this year's scene.

“Your Reclamation, Then” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans version of A Christmas Carol isn't an adaptation, but just an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. Once Robin noticed the similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with the Titans' current case, he had the idea of using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem Scrounge.

So late on Christmas Eve night, when Scrounge is finally alone in his junkyard, Kid Flash shows up and pretends to be the Ghost of Christmas Past. It's never spelled out in the story, but I assume that he's vibrating his molecules at super speed in order to pass through that wall.

Unfortunately, his costume is a rush job and looks more like the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Accurately representing the story isn't really the kids' point. They're just using its general approach.

“More of Gravy than of Grave” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

Index of other entries in The Christmas Carol Project

Hey! We finally have new ground to cover on Teen Titans #13. When we last left the story, Bob Ratchet's son, Tiny Tom had asked the Teen Titans help him uncover a smuggling ring involving Ratchet's boss, Ebenezer Scrounge. But before the young heroes could get involved, the smugglers were startled by another person in Scrounge's junkyard. The villains fought the shadowy figure, but he beat them up and sent them running for their truck. With no evidence of any wrong-doing, the Titans and Tom decided to follow the stranger instead, who led them to Scrounge's house.

The stranger turns out to be Scrounge's old partner, Jacob Farley, who's "as good as dead," because he's escaped from prison and on the run. Apparently, he and Scrounge sold some defective material a while back that got someone hurt. Neither knew that the product was defective, but Scrounge had figured out how to remove any blame from himself and let Farley take the whole fall. Farley wants to murder Scrounge, but the Titans intervene and stop him.

Unfortunately, Farley and the Titans are now all trespassing on Scrounge's property, so Scrounge threatens to call the police if they don't leave. Farley flees out a window into the snowy night and the Titans realize that they have no choice but to leave Scrounge alone.

Finally, Robin - who was reading A Christmas Carol earlier - makes the connection between Dickens' characters and the names of the people involved in this adventure. He comes up with a plan to "get Scrounge to change his miserable ways."

This adaptation is just for fun, so I'm not analyzing it the way I do the others, but there are a couple of things worth noting. Scrounge is a miserable jerk, but the comic goes out of its way to insist that he's not a real criminal. He rents his junkyard to criminals, but he thinks he's found himself a moral loophole because he doesn't actively participate in the smugglers' activities. That means that he can be redeemed at the end without having to go to prison himself.

Farley doesn't really start Scrounge on that path though. All he does is give Robin the final piece he needs to make the Christmas Carol connection. Scrounge is still in complete denial that he's done anything wrong and - as we'll see next year - his attitude towards work and Bob Rachet are as nasty as ever.

His Usual Melancholy Tavern | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

Index of other entries in The Christmas Carol Project

I covered way too much of this version in the first year of the project, so it's still waiting for us to catch up. Next year we'll have some new stuff to say about it, but in the meantime, here's the Teen Titans investigating the goings on at Scrounge's junkyard.

“If Quite Convenient, Sir" | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

Index of other entries in The Christmas Carol Project

We already covered this scene in the very first (and so far, only) post on the Teen Titans adaptation, because it's part of the introduction to Scrounge and Ratchet. But it's been a couple of years since I've gotten to write about the Titans story, so I should at least share another panel that's related to this year's scene.

Back to a real adaptation tomorrow as we move into cartoon versions.

Old Sinner: Teen Titans (1968)

Though my original intention was to stick to more-or-less faithful adaptations of A Christmas Carol instead of spoofs or homages, this one's so ridiculously goofy that I'm adding it for kicks. It opens with the Teen Titans (still just Robin, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, and Kid Flash at this point) sitting around their clubhouse and reading. Most of them have comics about their adult partners, but Robin's enjoying A Christmas Carol, something that he gets grief for from his pals, Wonder Girl in particular. "That story's definitely ungroovy these days!" she says. "Who could believe in such uncool characters as Scrooge - or Bob Cratchit - all that old jazz?" Man, that Bob Haney could write some dialogue, eh, Daddy-o?



Robin caves to peer pressure and puts Dickens away in favor of the latest issue of Batman. Meanwhile, across town at a private junkyard (awesomely named Junk-O-Rama), proprietor Ebenezer Scrounge is arguing with his employee Bob Ratchet over the setting on the thermostat.

I tell you, if Haney's version of hep-talk was enough to make me rethink reading these stories (au contraire, it's so not), Nick Cardy's art would be enough to keep me around. Junk-O-Rama is a snow-covered playground of lost treasures that looks like it was designed by Tim Burton. The office, for instance, is in an old school bus with a functional smokestack sticking out of the side.

After Scrounge and Ratchet argue about the heat, they start in on whether or not Ratchet gets Christmas off the next day. Since this is happening at the same time as the Titans' earlier conversation, it means that Wonder Girl, Aqualad, and Kid Flash were making fun of Robin for reading A Christmas Carol ... ON CHRISTMAS EVE! Who's your Scrooge now, you little punks?



Back to Scrounge and Ratchet though, if we're going to analyze them in the same way we have the other versions, Scrounge looks positively wicked. He's younger than Scrooge is usually depicted and has huge, pointed eyebrows and a hairstyle that suggests devil horns. Surprisingly, he's gentler on his employee than Scrooge usually is, going so far to address Ratchet as "my good fellow."

Not that their relationship is equitable or even pleasant. When Ratchet complains, he whines like a child pleading with his parent. "Couldn't we turn up the heat a little?" "But everyone celebrates Christmas!" And like a child, he's stronger in his objections when he's thinking to himself than when he addresses his boss.

Scrounge finally relents on the whole day-off thing as long as Ratchet gets all his work done before he leaves for the night. In fact, he's eager to get Ratchet out of the office and lets him leave early. As we quickly find out, Scrounge is up to something illegal and doesn't want Ratchet to know about it. This is a major departure from Dickens, but since it's a Teen Titans comic first and a Christmas Carol adaptation second, we're going to need some criminal activity to get the heroes involved.



What's going on is that Scrounge is leasing out part of the junkyard to smugglers. It's a crazy operation in which the smugglers import duty-free junk from overseas and then use a fancy ray gun to make it brand-new so they can sell it for a hefty profit. Of course, they could save themselves some shipping costs by just turning the junk already in Scrounge's yard into new items (or better yet, patent the technology and live comfortably off the profits), but that's not brought up. Ladies and Gentlemen: Bob Haney.

Unfortunately for the crooks, Ratchet's wheelchair-bound son Tiny Tom has come to the junkyard to visit his dad (not realizing that he's gone home early) and learns about the scheme. Tom tells Ratchet, who confronts Scrounge, who - no surprise - doesn't really care as long as the smugglers keep paying him. In fact, he threatens to fire Ratchet if he goes to the police about it and decides that Ratchet does have to work Christmas Day so that Scrounge can keep an eye on him.

We learn that Ratchet's a widower with no other kids to clutter up the story. He needs his job in order to buy an electric wheelchair for Tom, so he agrees to abide by Scrounge's decision. Tom, on the other hand, knows who he can go to without involving the police: The Teen Titans!



Tom comes back with the Titans a little later and they find the smugglers still there. Before they can catch the bad guys transforming the junk though, the villains are startled by another person in the junkyard. They fight the shadowy figure, but he beats them up and sends them running for their truck. With no evidence of any wrong-doing, the Titans and Tom decide to follow the stranger instead. He leads them to Scrounge's house.

Which is where we'll stop for this post. There are no nephews or charitable solicitors in this version, so it'll be a couple of years before we come back to it. Suffice to say that the shadowy stranger is a stand-in for a Dickens character, so we'll pick up this version again once the other versions have had a chance to catch up.