If You Wrote Comics: The Teen Titans

[Zero Hunter]

DC already has the blueprint on how to do the Teen Titans with how they were handles in the Young Justice animated show. They are just too stubborn or short sighted to see that the way the teen character were set up and used in that series is better than anything with the teen heroes has been in the last 20 years in the comics.

Returning to Wolfman/Perez lineup for the 10th time is not the answer. There is no way to recapture that time.

Just make it a big team working under the eye of the Justice League with members coming and going as the story demands it. Some members are only around once in a while to train while others make up the core of the team.

Red Robin (Tim Drake), Wonder Girl, Stargirl, Bunker, Raven, Beast Boy, Aqualad, Blue Beetle, Superboy (Conner), Impulse, Power Girl (Tanya), Kid Flash, and Miss Martian. Other teen heroes would drop in from time to time to either train or go on certain missions.

[Ascended]

DC already has the blueprint on how to do the Teen Titans with how they were handles in the Young Justice animated show. They are just too stubborn or short sighted to see that the way the teen character were set up and used in that series is better than anything with the teen heroes has been in the last 20 years in the comics.

Dude, with only a few exceptions that cartoon did everything better than the last 20 years in the comics.

[Assam]

Never mind.

[The Dying Detective]

The Titans have been dead as a comic book franchise for a very long while no, in part because DC has been trying oh so hard to reinvent them over and over again and get as far away from the only time ever it was successful.

And from the West too. Most American comics too. It's mostly just corporate superhero comics that do this.

Stifled by being forced to keep the same limited bunch of decades old characters somewhat relevant.

At this point it doesn't wok anymore because the audience is almost entirely driven by nostalgia. Readers who like fresh and new stuff don't look for that in books like Titans or Batman or Justice League.

Hey if even DC reverted things back with Nightwing they at least showed that a broken cuckoo clock can be right twice with him. Not really loss of creativity can come in many different forms like how in Japan people became obsessed with writing stuff that has harem in it and I don't necessarily appreciate how people tend to copy and paste certain archetypes like your typical idiotic shonen character whose goal is to be the best at whatever it is he wants to be or how shojo manga tends to be about nothing but romance and little else. And it's those things that make me feel like very few writers here don't strive for excellence as well trying to make something more individualistic while there are things that set the stories apart it often actually looks the same even the art style feels like it was copied and pasted. And I'm have a bad feeling even China may fall into a similar trap as their animation scene has begun to find it's stride. Well DC has to find a way to save themselves and if they won't why not the readership?

[Jekyll]

Ray Palmer returns from the microverse to find the Titans in disarray. He reflects on his time and experiences in the Teen Titans when he was de-aged and decides to take them under his wing and mentor them. He receives a cryptic message from one of the original members from his team. The message asks for help and gives him a clue to their location. With the help of the current Titans he is mentoring, they set off to find his missing teammates!
If you can’t tell what my favorite Teen Titans run is, then you need to read this fantastic run

[Armor of God]

DC already has the blueprint on how to do the Teen Titans with how they were handles in the Young Justice animated show. They are just too stubborn or short sighted to see that the way the teen character were set up and used in that series is better than anything with the teen heroes has been in the last 20 years in the comics.

Returning to Wolfman/Perez lineup for the 10th time is not the answer. There is no way to recapture that time.

Just make it a big team working under the eye of the Justice League with members coming and going as the story demands it. Some members are only around once in a while to train while others make up the core of the team.

Red Robin (Tim Drake), Wonder Girl, Stargirl, Bunker, Raven, Beast Boy, Aqualad, Blue Beetle, Superboy (Conner), Impulse, Power Girl (Tanya), Kid Flash, and Miss Martian. Other teen heroes would drop in from time to time to either train or go on certain missions.

Except YJ is just a general DC universe show, it had nothing to to do with comics versions of either TT or YJ. DC already publishes a bunch of JL books and solo books for many characters. They have no real incentive to stuff Batman, Superman, Lex, Savage, Ra's etc on a permanent basis in a team consisting of Red Robin, Superboy etc.

[The Dying Detective]

Absolutely. I long ago realized that you can't please everyone. I'm of the mind that you do your best, tell your best story, and hope enough people like it that you can call it a success, to some degree. But there's always going to be people who hate your work. Hell, All-Star Superman is widely regarded as one of the greatest Super-stories in history, or at the very least the modern era, and there's still people who hate it.

I also have a healthy disregard for the opinions of fans (myself included) so I take everything we say with a grain of salt anyway.

Get what you mean though it's rare to find anything that's bullet proof Watchmen sounds bullet proof even though it didn't sell as well as the the Dark Knight Returns.

For characters like that, who are fairly well adjusted people, it'd be one of two things that brings them to this team; either they're ignored by the heroic community and have nowhere else to go for training/experience, or they disagree with the methodology and mindset of the adults and want to find a new way to be heroes. These would be the kids saying "Okay, Batman's been around for years and Gotham is still a crappy city....what is he doing wrong that we could do right?"

Sitting back and looking at it, this idea of mine for the Teen Titans really does pull very heavily from the runaways in Young Justice (who I even planned on using as a more extreme and unreliable counterpoint to my rebel Titans!). So you'd have some kids there who aren't completely angry at the whole world, but recognize that there are different ways to be a hero, as well as kids who don't want anything to do with anyone over thirty and are just angry at everyone.

I see that works and without the most balanced kids around there's no way those like Rose Wilson would stay together at all.

For heroes like that, I have a rip-off of the Young Justice cartoon in mind (again! Man, I gotta start stealing from somewhere else!).

Okay, you remember a while back we were discussing the League growing, and what a large scale heroic organization might look like? I said I had an idea for "The Justice Nation" (because I'd feel bad stealing Morrison's superior "Justice Legion" name). This teen team, the Justice Nation Academy, would spin out of that. Part of this new organization's goals would be to prepare the next generation for taking over as the world's leading heroes, because any mission could be the big names' last. So they bring in some of the most talented teen heroes (like Stargirl) and sidekicks (like Supergirl, Robin, etc) and put them into a training program overseen by Donna Troy and Cyborg (I'd have both Wally and Dick doing other things). My Justice Nation pitch really covers the whole DCU.....it's a highly ambitious idea that DC should probably never run with)

So very much like the YJ show, but without the covert aspect. That's a cool idea, but teenagers being covert? Only if they're trying to sneak out after curfew.

Sounds good maybe you steal from Mission Impossible or maybe James Bond instead? Tom King's Sanctuary idea sounds like it's on par with your idea.

Damn bro that's cold.

DC has published far dumber ideas than mine!

And I'd argue that the Titans, as a franchise, has been dead for a while. Or at least in a deep coma.

Well I can't help when DC won't let any new direction for Teen Titans come out and actually work. Still if the right man came on board and that writer has a big enough name DC might allow him or her to take the Teen Titans to whole new level. And editorial might just keep their hands to themselves.

[OBrianTallent]

I actually (and apparently are one of the few who do) like the proposed plan for the Titans. The only change I would make is to create Young Justice with Tim, Conner, Cassie, Power Girl (renamed Titania...a play on her name), Blue Beetle and maybe Aqualad (if he doesn't go to TT.) I would also include Bumblebee and Mal in this title as kind of like home parents to have a bit of a mentor presence occasionally (similar to Red Tornado in the original YJ series.) This would give younger characters that the Titans find a place to go...similar to how the X-Men used to work. Hey, it worked well for them...why not?

[astro@work]

I think TT has been mostly stalled for years because DC doesn't get WHY the Wolfman/Perez era worked so well.

Yes, the roster was good BUT at the time we didn't have any idea at first who Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg were. And Beast Boy was pretty underdeveloped going in.
What worked was: a mix of old & new characters.
Serious time exploring the backstories (NOT just villain of the week).
Clear relationships between the characters, built slowly over time.
Members from previous rosters showing up when it fit the story and worked organically.
Slow burning story arcs built up slowly over time.

The only run that has come close was Johns' run, where some additional new characters were added and developed well.

[Ascended]

I see that works and without the most balanced kids around there's no way those like Rose Wilson would stay together at all.

Exactly. Gotta have *some* stable people on the roster, or you end up spending every issue trying to justify the team staying together at all. With a few voices of reason, you only have to justify the team periodically.

That's also part of what the YJ runaways would be there for. They're the more extreme version of my Teen Titans, so the team can look at these other kids as a kind of cautionary tale; sometime to make sure they don't stray too far afield. The League on one side (ineffective, old fashioned, something to rebel against) the runaways on the other side (too wild for anyone's good).....it gives the Titans a clear avenue to follow.

Sounds good maybe you steal from Mission Impossible or maybe James Bond instead? Tom King's Sanctuary idea sounds like it's on par with your idea.

Oh, I steal from everyone, like a good writer would. (not that I'm saying I'm a good writer, I'm just saying I try to copy good habits lol )

My Justice Nation concept does borrow heavily from various other stories and properties, but there's original stuff in there too.

Well I can't help when DC won't let any new direction for Teen Titans come out and actually work. Still if the right man came on board and that writer has a big enough name DC might allow him or her to take the Teen Titans to whole new level. And editorial might just keep their hands to themselves.

I would definitely like to find out what DC management think of the franchise, what their expectations for it are, etc.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I vote for Ascended's ideas because you got be forward thinking with the Titans rather than nostalgic.

[Agent Z]

Exactly. Gotta have *some* stable people on the roster, or you end up spending every issue trying to justify the team staying together at all. With a few voices of reason, you only have to justify the team periodically.

That's also part of what the YJ runaways would be there for. They're the more extreme version of my Teen Titans, so the team can look at these other kids as a kind of cautionary tale; sometime to make sure they don't stray too far afield. The League on one side (ineffective, old fashioned, something to rebel against) the runaways on the other side (too wild for anyone's good).....it gives the Titans a clear avenue to follow.



Oh, I steal from everyone, like a good writer would. (not that I'm saying I'm a good writer, I'm just saying I try to copy good habits lol )

My Justice Nation concept does borrow heavily from various other stories and properties, but there's original stuff in there too.



I would definitely like to find out what DC management think of the franchise, what their expectations for it are, etc.

Okay I do like most of your ideas but the bolded? DC has way too many stories like that and it wouldn't look good to take the team consisting entirely of non-white and at least half non-American heroes and depict them as wild extremists. It reeks of a teenage equivalent of What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and The American Way.

[dietrich]

I would get rid of the teen part and just choose a roster that syncs up with the best known version
Nightwing
Cyborg
Raven
Starfire
beast boy maybe add Wally West.

Damian's generation can be Young Justice with a roster that has

Robin
Superboy
Red Arrow
Aqualad
Young Kathy
The teen GL
KF
Shame there is no wonder girl

[The Dying Detective]

I would get rid of the teen part and just choose a roster that syncs up with the best known version
Nightwing
Cyborg
Raven
Starfire
beast boy maybe add Wally West.

Damian's generation can be Young Justice with a roster that has

Robin
Superboy
Red Arrow
Aqualad
Young Kathy
The teen GL
KF
Shame there is no wonder girl

There's always Lyta Trevor Wonder Woman's daughter from the old Earth 2. You're missing Donna Troy for Dick's generation.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I was fond of Team Defiance (Deathstroke's attempts at going straight by having his own superhero team) so I'd take another crack at it.