How do you see the Titans?

[Soubhagya]

I selected 'Junior Justice League'. But i don't agree with it fully. Ideally they begun as junior justice league. Like Dick Grayson was supposed to be the future Batman. But with time they developed so much on their own that they can't be called junior Justice League. They are Titans and they don't need to be Justice League.

But a Titan joining Justice League is a promotion. In our world they might be an equal and possibly exceed JL. But in DCU, Titans are not in the same level as JL. Ideally, they would become the Justice League taking the original's place while their successors can be Titans or the next generation. I see the future of DCU like this. But in real world the stories are always set in the now. So, they are almost equal to JL.

[Jon Clark]

The poll question didn't read to me as "Do you think the Titans should exist" as much as "How do you view the Titans In-universe".

The Titans started out as the side-kicks to the JLA. They may have graduated from that role as their main defining trait, but it still is part of how I'd expect them to be seen. To the average guy on the streets in the DCU the Titans will always be a step down from the League.

Now that type of thing is only an issue if you are comparing the two teams or trying to define the Titans in the scope of the DCU. Only an idiot would refuse help from the Titans because they'd prefer help from the League, And unless you caught them in an introspective the moment the Titans aren't walking around focused on being "the guys who aren't quite the Justice League".

You don't sell The Question, Wildcat or Doctor Mid-nite by focusing on how they are not equal to Batman, but you also don't really succeed by constantly trying to one-up Batman either. You sell your street-level vigilante by making him the hero of the story you are telling at the moment. You need to sell the Titans the same way- they aren't supposed to be outclassing the League every issue, just focus on how they are heroes where they are.

[SiegePerilous02]

If you write a title like Titans, your attitude should be, "My goal is to outsell the Justice League and make it look bad by comparison with Titans every month."

If you take the attitude, "My poor little comic will play second fiddle," then you'll struggle to do even that.

Neither approach would be helpful. The latter is indeed a defeatist attitude and does no good, but the former is over reaching. And is once again making the approach to the book about the JL.

[Moonwix]

The titans should be their own thing, they were that when they where a hit back In the 80s . But lately, they are definitely the junior justice league. In this case I'll vote both options.

[warzon]

The TITANS should be their own thing.TEEB TITANS graduate to become TITANS.just like the NEW MUTANTS graduated to become X MEN or MEMBERS of X FORCE.they don't need to be AVENGERS.DEFENDERS or NEW WARRIORS. their part of the X MEN family and that's how it should be with the TITANS.their are several title's they have been under.TITANS.TITANS L.A. NEW TITANS.TEAM TITANS.TITANS EAST.TITANS WEST.the NEW TEEN TITANS just to name a few.

[DurararaFTW]

There is nothing the Titans can do that the Jistice League can't do as well and if there was, that member ought to be in the Justice League. Having said that same applies to the Doom Patrol, the Suicide Squad and all the other DC superhero teams. None of them justify their own existence beyond randomly not wanting to be part of the best solution to whatever problem they are facing.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

There is nothing the Titans can do that the Jistice League can't do as well and if there was, that member ought to be in the Justice League. Having said that same applies to the Doom Patrol, the Suicide Squad and all the other DC superhero teams. None of them justify their own existence beyond randomly not wanting to be part of the best solution to whatever problem they are facing.

Well, the "best" part really depends on who they're facing, doesn't it? The League is the best solution for the likes of Despero or Darkseid. But if its Trigon or Sinestro or Krona, well, you might wanna call up the Titans or the GLC because those teams know those threats better.

[Trey Strain]

Neither approach would be helpful. The latter is indeed a defeatist attitude and does no good, but the former is over reaching. And is once again making the approach to the book about the JL.

Almost everyone here is saying that the Justice League is the measuring stick. So yes, that's the comic the Titans writer should try to beat.

[El_Gato]

The Titans should be gen xers of the superhero world. They aren’t the kids they are the young adults. They are the first generation of children to leave the nest. It’s really Tim Drake’s generation of heroes that are really getting screwed with DC’s idea to add yet another generation of heroes to the DCU. It would be one thing if the older leaguers were going to be aged out eventually,but we all know that’s not going to happen. Dick Grayson’s generation is safe though because they were the first generation of Young heroes so their role and presence will always be there. It’s all the middle and younger generations that are in trouble.

Umm you mean Generation Y aka Millennials right? Generation X are all in their 40's and 50's (born in the 60's and 70's). Millennials are the young adults of today, we are the ones in our 20's and 30's (born in the 80's and 90's). Generation Z are the kids (born in the 2000's).

[DurararaFTW]

Well, the "best" part really depends on who they're facing, doesn't it? The League is the best solution for the likes of Despero or Darkseid. But if its Trigon or Sinestro or Krona, well, you might wanna call up the Titans or the GLC because those teams know those threats better.

Justie League can easily be 20 people and thus include both mutiple people familiar with said monster and Superman.

[RepHope]

A lot of people ITT are trying to defend the Titans by saying that other "superhero" teams are also redundant, but that's not true. The Avengers protect the planet from conquerors and destroyers. The X-Men ARE different, they are specifically meant to protect mutants from humans and vice versa. They also protect the planet, but they have a political and social bent to them that helps them stand apart.

The same is true with the JL and the Suicide Squad. The JL is the best of the best heroes working together to protect the Earth. The Squad is a group of supervillains doing Waller's dirty work in exchange for reduced prison senses. It would make no sense for members of the Squad to be JL members (although Harley is probably going to become a JL member one day). The Squad can be involved in more morally suspect stuff that we'd never accept from the JL. You can have the SS kill civilians, betray each other, and basically just be a-holes without it getting repetitive.

But the Titans don't have that right now. They ARE at the moment, just the Junior Justice League. Not important enough to handle the big threats like Darkseid or follow up on the Rebirth plotlines. They're not young enough so that you can do the whole "figuring out what heroes they want to be" like the TT. They should already know exactly what they want to be, Dick has already decided he wants to be his own man with the Nightwing identity. Personally I'd have them handle the more down to earth matters. I'd have them get involved with politics because they're young and not afraid to upset the status quo like the League tries to avoid doing.

[SiegePerilous02]

There is nothing the Titans can do that the Jistice League can't do as well and if there was, that member ought to be in the Justice League. Having said that same applies to the Doom Patrol, the Suicide Squad and all the other DC superhero teams. None of them justify their own existence beyond randomly not wanting to be part of the best solution to whatever problem they are facing.

Not really. The Doom Patrol has their own weird niche that operates independently from the DC universe and isn't comprised of characters that have connections to the JL as previous supporting characters. The Suicide Squad is more prone to dirty work, and while it's composed of a lot of characters with connections to the League heroes, those connections/dynamics are different for a whole bunch of obvious reasons.

Well, the "best" part really depends on who they're facing, doesn't it? The League is the best solution for the likes of Despero or Darkseid. But if its Trigon or Sinestro or Krona, well, you might wanna call up the Titans or the GLC because those teams know those threats better.

In fairness, while the Titans beat Trigon the first time around, Azar did everything the second time and is the one who killed him. Even with the first time, if the League had listened to Raven, they could have done the same thing. The impressive part of the storyline is the young heroes doing something their mentors could do, not something they couldn't.

One of the annoying things about that otherwise great story was Raven losing agency and just being a corpse that Azar and the rest of Azarath's souls channeled themselves through. I kind of prefer the animated version's Raven just telling her father to GTFO, even if the rest of it was (understandably) too kidified.

Almost everyone here is saying that the Justice League is the measuring stick. So yes, that's the comic the Titans writer should try to beat.

The books trying to beat each other probably wouldn't be in DC's best interests. They would obviously want fans picking up both, not to choose the Titans over JL. And it would just invite more JL comparisons, which is the last thing the property needs.

[Jon Clark]

Justie League can easily be 20 people and thus include both mutiple people familiar with said monster and Superman.

But at that point the League becomes nothing more than costumes and powers. Sure there are things that require "all hands on deck", but a good writer shouldn't be basing his stories on every month revolving around a threat to all existence. But I want a Justice League that focuses on the interaction of individuals not the generic flying brick and dark street avenger battling omnipotent threat #J-12. So a team that has 5 Lanterns, half the Batfamily, the Marvels, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash-Barry, Flash-Wally, Kid Flash, Flashette, Martian Manhunter, Venusian Womanhunter. Brother Power the Geek, Red Bee, Ma Hunkle's pet goat, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and "the rest" might make sense from a power perspective but is not what I want to read.

To me you can tell a great story with Robin (Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian or even Carrie Kelley) where Robin is both not as impressive as Batman might be, but also is the focus and hero of the story. The Titans can be an impressive team that has interesting adventures but is not in the same class as the League- and that's OK. Not every player on the field needs to be MVP or an AllStar, they just have to win the game they are playing.

[El_Gato]

The problem with the Titans/Teen Titans/Young Justice/etc... Team boils down to 2 things:

1) Too many sidekicks/junior versions of Justice League members. This is a huge problem for the franchise as it just makes the team look less important when it is compromised of mostly lesser versions of the JL. Not only that but DC seems obsessed with introducing a new batch of them every 10-15 years (usually led by a Robin) with no real plan in place for the ones that came before.

2) Too many original, non sidekick members end up in limbo, once the creative team leaves. This is a HUGE problem, and it definitely says something when the franchise has been unable to introduce new characters that stick around, since the NTT era in the 80's. In fact the only original ones to stick around are characters created outside the franchise (ie Blue Beetle). The future definitely looks grimm for Dijinn, Crush, Balloon Boy (forgot his name) and that one dude on the Titans cover, they'll be joining Bunker, Solstice, Empress, Secret, Pantha, Hotspot, Argent, Red Star, Bushido, Wildebeest...etc in limbo soon.

[josai21]

The issue faced by the Titans and pretty much every younger hero is that they will never be allowed to truly grow up.

They will never be allowed to become the true mentors and heroes of earth because for that to happen...

Batman, Superman, etc. will all have to grow old. And DC refuses to let that happen. DC refuses to have a Batman/Superman in their forties or fifties except in elseworld titles.

I honestly would have so much more respect for DC if they allowed time to truly pass.

We were in a good place prior to the N52 I thought. 3rd Generation characters (Tim, Cassie, Connor, Bart) were all coming into their own. They were all starting to reach that Nightwing level of Graduation.

But that means Bruce, Clark, and Diana are getting older. That cannot happen.

The only way for the Titans to matter is for DC to let time matter and retire their older heroes.

I'm a millenial. Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman are not my heroes...they're my mentors. They're my legends. My heroes are Nightwing, Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Starfire, Arsenal etc.

Those are my heroes that I want to see grow...but I never will. Its bittersweet.