How do you see the Titans?

[Lee Stone]

Do you see it as an equal to the Justice League? Or at least it's own thing?
Or do you see it as a 'Junior Justice League' where the members must 'graduate' to being Leaguers?

Do you see them as X-Men is to Avengers? Where the members aren't Captain America, Iron Man, Thor level of status, but they're still very capable?
Or do you see them as New Mutants is to X-Men? Where the members are considered lesser until they're rewarded with membership in the big team?

[Raijin]

I lean towards both. When there are big threats. No one is asking where the Titans are. They call on the Justice League. But then again i think they are as capable as the League. However, what can the Titans do that the Justice League can't?

[reni344]

I lean towards both. When there are big threats. No one is asking where the Titans are. They call on the Justice League. But then again i think they are as capable as the League. However, what can the Titans do that the Justice League can't?

I agree with this. I enjoy the Titans team, but they are not needed if the Justice League is around. I think they are capable, but they don't have a purpose that distinguishes them.

[Vinsanity]

Redundant.

What's the point when you have the JL, GL Corps, Suicide Squad, and the TT?

[byrd156]

Redundant.

What's the point when you have the JL, GL Corps, Suicide Squad, and the TT?

This argument will always baffle me, it's for entertainment and a vessel for storytelling. In-universe you could argue for most super teams being "redundant".

[Raijin]

I agree with this. I enjoy the Titans team, but they are not needed if the Justice League is around. I think they are capable, but they don't have a purpose that distinguishes them.

This is why I'm not as big of a Titans fan as i used to be. They're just 'Generic Superhero Team' to me. I'm about to get The Outsiders back. Gerard is killing it on Doom Patrol. The Terrifics are doing FF better than FF. Steve Orlando has The Unexpected, etc, etc. With all these exciting things. What can a Titans book really do for me? There are Titan fans on here that won't let me hear the end of it. But my mind will not be changed.

[Badou]

They are supposed to be their own team, but they are far, far off from being anywhere near equal footing to JL with how they have been used and treated. They are a joke. There is a reason Cyborg fans don't want him to get pushed back down to the Titans. I really have no idea what they are supposed to be. Teen Titans are easy as they are young heroes learning how to be heroes. They don't need such a defined mission statement, but the adult Titans can't lean on that excuse anymore.

I just don't think adult Titans work because once they are adults they are basically just lesser versions of the JL heroes. They do become redundant, but they can't officially join the JL because there is already Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and so on in the JL. So Dick and the rest becoming full JL characters will never happen unless DC removes Bruce, Diana and the other founders. So the adult Titans are stuck forever in this limbo of being a team with no real direction. It's why DC threw their hands up and just folded the adult Titans into the JL but won't make the adult Titans JL characters.

[Raijin]

Would love to see the adult Titans either:

1. Join a Justice League.
2. Focus on their own solo adventures. (I always thought Roy, Garth and Donna had serious solo potential. Especially Roy. I find him extremely relatable. It's almost uncanny.)
3. Start their own teams.

I don't blame DC. I blame the fans. They don't know how to let certain things go.

[Vinsanity]

This argument will always baffle me, it's for entertainment and a vessel for storytelling. In-universe you could argue for most super teams being "redundant".

I get that it is for entertainment and story telling but we have seen from the Titans, the same stuff over and over. Dick Grayson being like Batman and no one trusting him, Trigon and so on. It just gets dull and more of the fun stuff happen elsewhere.

There's no purpose with them as a team

[WillieMorgan]

I don't think that the Titans will ever be able to repeat the 'lightning in a bottle' impact that the Wolfman/Perez run made for DC at the time. The characters themselves seem stuck in a permanent limbo between their late teens and adulthood and permanently in the shadow of the Justice League.

Up until the last year or so I hadn't personally read a Titans related title since my own teenage years. They seem to appeal to younger readers more. I'm currently trying to correct that neglect.

[Digifiend]

They are supposed to be their own team, but they are far, far off from being anywhere near equal footing to JL with how they have been used and treated. They are a joke. There is a reason Cyborg fans don't want him to get pushed back down to the Titans. I really have no idea what they are supposed to be. Teen Titans are easy as they are young heroes learning how to be heroes. They don't need such a defined mission statement, but the adult Titans can't lean on that excuse anymore.

I just don't think adult Titans work because once they are adults they are basically just lesser versions of the JL heroes. They do become redundant, but they can't officially join the JL because there is already Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and so on in the JL. So Dick and the rest becoming full JL characters will never happen unless DC removes Bruce, Diana and the other founders. So the adult Titans are stuck forever in this limbo of being a team with no real direction. It's why DC threw their hands up and just folded the adult Titans into the JL but won't make the adult Titans JL characters.

You're right, the problem fans had with Vic joining the League was that it came with the New 52 reboot, so his Titans history was erased. Most people would be happy if it was changed so that he got promoted - and it's definitely heading that way. Justice League Odyssey, hopefully, will do that by having Starfire already know him.

[Korath]

They are supposed to be their own team, but they are far, far off from being anywhere near equal footing to JL with how they have been used and treated. They are a joke. There is a reason Cyborg fans don't want him to get pushed back down to the Titans. I really have no idea what they are supposed to be. Teen Titans are easy as they are young heroes learning how to be heroes. They don't need such a defined mission statement, but the adult Titans can't lean on that excuse anymore.

I just don't think adult Titans work because once they are adults they are basically just lesser versions of the JL heroes. They do become redundant, but they can't officially join the JL because there is already Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and so on in the JL. So Dick and the rest becoming full JL characters will never happen unless DC removes Bruce, Diana and the other founders. So the adult Titans are stuck forever in this limbo of being a team with no real direction. It's why DC threw their hands up and just folded the adult Titans into the JL but won't make the adult Titans JL characters.

That's also my take. Teen Titans are easy, they are kids trying to figure what kind of heroes they want to be. That way, whatever direction the team end picking is valid. If they want to emulate the JL they can, if they want to be drastically different, they can. And they can find a middle ground.

The problem that I have with the Titans isn't even that they rehash the same storylines over and over, because it's clearly a problem of writers actually being far too beholden to what came before and unable to take the franchise to new grounds. I mean, I'm not saying that the Titans couldn't do what The Terrifics are doing, or the Unexpected/Outsiders will do, obviously they can. But it would require a change in the kind of relations the characters have. F.R.I.E.N.D.S did an awesome sitcom, but it doesn't make a credible superhero team. I don't think that it's possible to have sitcom drama and the level of gravitas expected from a team tackling big threats. I don't mean that humor should be banned since some teals have a lot of funny moments (like The Terrifics recently) but they aren't the same lind of fun which I have come to associate with the Teen Titans who became Titans since the first tv series (which worked because the characters were teens).

[Sutekh]

2. Focus on their own solo adventures. (I always thought Roy, Garth and Donna had serious solo potential. Especially Roy. I find him extremely relatable. It's almost uncanny.)

After Dick, Roy does seem to me the most viable as a solo character. Donna and Raven would be my next choices. Wally, as well, but he's already had a good solo run as the Flash, back when Barry was dead, and now that Barry is back, I'm not sure if DC knows what to do with him.

[Sutekh]

This argument will always baffle me, it's for entertainment and a vessel for storytelling. In-universe you could argue for most super teams being "redundant".

Yeah, I don't get this logic either. I've already seen one TV show, why would I ever watch another? We already have one choice of food for dinner, why would we ever want another choice, can't we just eat the same thing for every meal, forever? We already have a football team, why would other cities / regions want their own teams, and what's with having different sports, if we already have football, do we need basketball, or baseball, or hockey, or soccer? We've already got a kind of car, why do we need a dozen different redundant makes and models?

Yeesh.

[SiegePerilous02]

Neither poll option really fits with how I see them, but I have conflicted feelings about them anyway. The NTT era is the best the franchise has ever been, but I don't think it's possible to recapture that lightning in a bottle effect no matter how much I'd love to see that team lineup again and that history restored.

They were fine when they were the original group of sidekicks and we got to see them grow up, and the majority of the team roster wasn't populated by characters with connections to the League. That was their premise, and it still could have worked even with them growing up into young adults, and it even did for a while. Adding new generations of sidekicks behind them and giving the Titans name to them has created the stigma that the Titans can only ever be a team of sidekicks and/or teenage heroes, so that's why so many look at Nightwing, Donna and the rest and consider them losers for hanging onto their after school club name, and why Gar and Raven have to be de-aged in order to be part of the group.

Even ignoring all that, they never grew into another purpose beyond just being another superhero team once they reached adulthood and grew out of the "the sidekicks are working together away from their mentors for the first time" premise which the next generation got a hold of. Especially with the Fab 5 at the forefront, it looks like a mini-Justice League. The JL is the big leagues, the new sidekicks get their old role, the Doom Patrol handles all the weird ****, and the Suicide Squad speak for themselves. The adult Titans have nothing to make them stand out, the stories are boring, and no writer has been able to add something new and exciting to the mythos of any significance since Perez left. It's always possible a new writer will come along who can utilize the best of the old while pushing the franchise into a new direction, but it hasn't happened yet. I honestly wouldn't mind them going on another break and have DC wait until they can really get behind them with a solid creative team and idea.