Pitch a Direction: Titans

[Godlike13]

Ya, they need to break away from the idea that the Titans is highschool/college or a stepping stone. A Justice League B team isn't necessarily a better position, or at least it shouldn't be. Its saddens me that that's how low the Titans have become, and that the current creators on it actually perpetuate that very idea.

[Dr. Poison]

I'd like the mission of the Titans to be similar to the current cartoon Young Justice mission. Train and mentor younger heroes while doing first strike work for the Justice League but no silly camouflage costumes. The mentors would be:


Nightwing
Donna Troy
Flash
Arsenal
Tempest
Bumblebee
Kyle Rayner


Trainees would rotate in and out as they graduate from their lessons. This would include characters like:


Superboy(Jon Kent)
Signal
Lagoon Boy
Zachary Zatara
Flamebird
Golden Eagle
Freddie Batson
Darla Batson
Bunker

[Jackalope89]

I'd like the mission of the Titans to be similar to the current cartoon Young Justice mission. Train and mentor younger heroes while doing first strike work for the Justice League but no silly camouflage costumes. The mentors would be:


Nightwing
Donna Troy
Flash
Arsenal
Tempest
Bumblebee
Kyle Rayner


Trainees would rotate in and out as they graduate from their lessons. This would include characters like:


Superboy(Jon Kent)
Signal
Lagoon Boy
Zachary Zatara
Flamebird
Golden Eagle
Freddie Batson
Darla Batson
Bunker

Not sure Bunker would be a Trainee. Though, he did come back in Red Hood Outlaw. Jason found him in a pod-thingy.

[Badou]

Ya, they need to break away from the idea that the Titans is highschool/college or a stepping stone. A Justice League B team isn't necessarily a better position, or at least it shouldn't be. Its saddens me that that's how low the Titans have become, and that the current creators on it actually perpetuate that very idea.

I don't think it is possible for the adult Titans to be looked at as anything other than this though. It is why you have to separate them from the brand into something else if you want to try and position them into something that isn't stepping stone or under the League.

I'd like the mission of the Titans to be similar to the current cartoon Young Justice mission. Train and mentor younger heroes while doing first strike work for the Justice League but no silly camouflage costumes. The mentors would be:


Nightwing
Donna Troy
Flash
Arsenal
Tempest
Bumblebee
Kyle Rayner


Trainees would rotate in and out as they graduate from their lessons. This would include characters like:


Superboy(Jon Kent)
Signal
Lagoon Boy
Zachary Zatara
Flamebird
Golden Eagle
Freddie Batson
Darla Batson
Bunker

This set up only works if they have characters like Nightwing, Donna, Wally, and so on become actual Justice League members. Where they are looked at and treated as full JL members with them training and looking after the younger generation being one of their responsibilities while in the JL. Since if you don't do it then you run into the same problems we have now. With the Titans working under the JL and in the JL's Headquarters, but aren't looked at or treated as JL members or equals to the other adults. It undercuts their position as heroes and undermines them as adults where you have the JL constantly looking down at them. On the YJ show they have the former team members grow up and join the JL and the team remains actual teens.

There was that line from Miss Martian in the recent JL Annual where she was talked about how much bigger and important being on a JL mission was compared to the Titans missions and a simple line like that devalues the Titans as a whole. It is a perfect example of what I mean.

[Zero Hunter]

That is the main problem. DC makes it seem like every other team is not as important as the Justice League. It is the same with the X-Men and Avengers over at Marvel. It is like you are not a "real" hero until you make it to the big team and until you do your just a rookie. It makes me mad when you see characters like the Titans treated like kids when in reality they have been doing it longer and have more experience than a lot of the so called "adults". Badou is right that even dumb throw away lines like the one he listed just show the mindset of todays writers and why books with younger characters get treated like jokes.

[Dr. Poison]

I don't think it is possible for the adult Titans to be looked at as anything other than this though. It is why you have to separate them from the brand into something else if you want to try and position them into something that isn't stepping stone or under the League.



This set up only works if they have characters like Nightwing, Donna, Wally, and so on become actual Justice League members. Where they are looked at and treated as full JL members with them training and looking after the younger generation being one of their responsibilities while in the JL. Since if you don't do it then you run into the same problems we have now. With the Titans working under the JL and in the JL's Headquarters, but aren't looked at or treated as JL members or equals to the other adults. It undercuts their position as heroes and undermines them as adults where you have the JL constantly looking down at them. On the YJ show they have the former team members grow up and join the JL and the team remains actual teens.

There was that line from Miss Martian in the recent JL Annual where she was talked about how much bigger and important being on a JL mission was compared to the Titans missions and a simple line like that devalues the Titans as a whole. It is a perfect example of what I mean.

I get what you're saying but at the end of the day, that's just bad writing. The writers shouldn't have the Leaguers refer to the adult Titans as "lesser heroes" or doing "lesser deeds". After all, the Leaguers trained these heroes when they were their sidekicks so what does that say about them? We need to have DC Editorial get writers on board with showing the adult Titans the proper respect whether they're official members of the League or not.

[Korath]

I get what you're saying but at the end of the day, that's just bad writing. The writers shouldn't have the Leaguers refer to the adult Titans as "lesser heroes" or doing "lesser deeds". After all, the Leaguers trained these heroes when they were their sidekicks so what does that say about them? We need to have DC Editorial get writers on board with showing the adult Titans the proper respect whether they're official members of the League or not.

Even if the Leaguers don't say it outloud, it'll be obvious from the Titans deeds that they are a lesser team, simply because the editors will push the JL for the big events, and make fodders out of the Titans. It's especially a glaring problem from the Fab 5 who, with the exception of Wally and Dick, are basically carbon copies of their mentors in the public mind.

[king81992]

Even if the Leaguers don't say it outloud, it'll be obvious from the Titans deeds that they are a lesser team, simply because the editors will push the JL for the big events, and make fodders out of the Titans. It's especially a glaring problem from the Fab 5 who, with the exception of Wally and Dick, are basically carbon copies of their mentors in the public mind.

The solution to this would be to keep the Titans out of these big events. Titans as a 'lesser team' would only work if they were actually competent and for whatever reason the public and the JL thought they were losers. However, the writers have been writing the Titans as incompetent losers who can't do anything right.

[wvchemteach]

I like the idea of the Titans being made into sort of what the X-Men were at one time.

Have the Titans run an underground school to train new metahumans in the responsible control and use of their powers.

Have Donna Troy as the Headmistress and have Garth, Lillith, resurrected Wally, Roy, Kori, Rachel, Victor and Garfield teaching the recruits with off-campus missions to save/recruit new students.

Have Dick be a recurring character who in his own book is travelling internationally with Haly's circus with the Skullgirls and Run-offs on a permanent recruiting mission.

[Digifiend]

I'd like the mission of the Titans to be similar to the current cartoon Young Justice mission. Train and mentor younger heroes while doing first strike work for the Justice League but no silly camouflage costumes. The mentors would be:


Nightwing
Donna Troy
Flash
Arsenal
Tempest
Bumblebee
Kyle Rayner


Trainees would rotate in and out as they graduate from their lessons. This would include characters like:


Superboy(Jon Kent)
Signal
Lagoon Boy
Zachary Zatara
Flamebird
Golden Eagle
Freddie Batson
Darla Batson
Bunker

The blue and purple Shazams? You do realise they're not called Batson, right?

Cyborg's ties to the Titans should be fully restored. Don't demote him from the JL, have him manage a Titans team on the side.

This already happened. In Justice League Odyssey, Starfire and Cyborg are old friends. But in New 52, they were strangers. Vic never interacted with her before No Justice.

[Kaijudo]

Rather than try to shoehorn the characters into a "mission statement" team that could apply to any collection of characters, regardless of whether they were Titans or not (how many teams with different line-ups have we seen where they were going to go after the criminals BEFORE they attack?), I'd lean into the idea that they are all trying to figure out where they belong...they're not Teen Titans/Young Justice, nor are they Justice League. I'd embrace that uncertainty (the same kind of thing that people in their twenties in the real world feel as well, where they're not kids anymore but haven't fully developed into being adults) and, borrowing a bit from the Defenders and the old "Hard Traveling Heroes" GL/GA storyline, make that the crux of the team...or, a non-team.

Basically, after jettisoning any members who have their own books/supporting cast or are so inextricably linked to their "family" that you can't pull them away (sorry, Nightwing), I'd put a group of Titans on the road, trying to figure themselves/their world out, and fighting whatever criminal element they come across along the way. Make it a global thing, so the book could also serve as an atlas of the modern DCU. For the team, I'd probably select folks who something like this could lend itself to, vs. people who can race across the country in a blink of an eye (sorry, Wally). With that in mind, the line-up would be Arsenal, Donna, Garth, Lilith, Bumblebee, Mal Duncan, and Golden Eagle (or, if we're going by current continuity, replace Arsenal with Hawk and Dove).

[Marxtles]

I would maintain and elements of the Titans current and previous functions. I would maintain their presence to train new and younger heroes but also make them the Justice League's backup team. They are all heavy hitters by now and were trained by the World's Greatest Super Heroes.
I would create a lineup consisting of:
Nightwing (Richard Grayson)
Donna Troy
the Flash (Wally West)
Tempest (Garth)
Miss Martian (M'gann M'orzz)
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)
Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)
Supergirl (Kara Davners / Kara Zor-El)
Steel (Natasha Irons)
Starfire (Koriand'r)

These are the best and brightest of their generation of heroes. Nightwing, Kyle and Barbara already have experience in training other heroes and can use their experience and family connection as an example to the younger heroes. I would also love to see Wally and Kyle reestablish their pre-52 friendship and would like to see Dick's interactions with Kyle. Have them become friends in a way that Batman and other Green Lanterns have never been able to accomplish.

The next generation of hero teams I would create would be:
Young Justice:
Red Robin (Tim Drake)
Impulse (Bart Allen)
Superboy (Conner Kent / Kon-El)
Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark)
Aqualad (Jackson Hyde)
Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
Teen Lantern
Sideways (Derek James)

Teen Titans:
Robin (Damian Wayne)
Superboy (Jonathan Kent)
Kid Flash (Wallace West)
Red Arrow (Emiko Queen)
Beast Boy (Garfield Logan)
Raven (Rachel Roth)
Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore)

[Jekyll]

Ray Palmer with Wally West and Dick Grayson put the 90s team back together and head off to defend and explore the microverse.

[Lightning Rider]

It's so difficult because the set of characters collected as a team basically outgrew their theme. That's not to say their characters have no value anymore, but they were at first sidekicks who found friendship with each other, and then lost kids who needed stability and direction and a support network. You can't maintain that purpose without infantilizing them, and you can't move them on from it completely without betraying the concept that made them so successful. So you're stuck trying to avoid making them a bootleg Justice League, but also trying to emphasize their maturity.

It's no surprise then that a few of the suggestions here are "put them on their own Earth for an adventure" or "set them out into the broader world" or "micro verse!" It speaks to the fact that maybe, as a team, they just don't have a place in the DCU proper anymore.

I'd rather see them treated like individuals with their own mini series or ongoing title that rotates who the focus is on, and see them team up sporadically in smaller groups or pairs in support for each other. The only time I'd team them up for a bigger threat or event if it's related to one of their hallmark villains, preferably Deathstroke. They know him better than anyone else, and they have a personal history with him. With the way Priest has developed Deathstroke's family, there's potential there.

[Dred]

It's so difficult because the set of characters collected as a team basically outgrew their theme. That's not to say their characters have no value anymore, but they were at first sidekicks who found friendship with each other, and then lost kids who needed stability and direction and a support network. You can't maintain that purpose without infantilizing them, and you can't move them on from it completely without betraying the concept that made them so successful. So you're stuck trying to avoid making them a bootleg Justice League, but also trying to emphasize their maturity.

It's no surprise then that a few of the suggestions here are "put them on their own Earth for an adventure" or "set them out into the broader world" or "micro verse!" It speaks to the fact that maybe, as a team, they just don't have a place in the DCU proper anymore.

I'd rather see them treated like individuals with their own mini series or ongoing title that rotates who the focus is on, and see them team up sporadically in smaller groups or pairs in support for each other. The only time I'd team them up for a bigger threat or event if it's related to one of their hallmark villains, preferably Deathstroke. They know him better than anyone else, and they have a personal history with him. With the way Priest has developed Deathstroke's family, there's potential there.

It's almost like other factors outside of how good the characters are dictate their continuous misuse.