How about a Titans line reboot ?

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

We will get another Titans book eventually. The low quality of the TV show and a hostile editorial means that it's going to be a while.

Uh...the show got pretty good reviews.

[Dzetoun]

Uh...the show got pretty good reviews.

And more to the point, it’s apparently the most commercially (although not critically) successful of the DC Universe offerings. But, strange and counterintuitive as it seems, success in TV and movies does not carry over into comics in any reliable way. The sales of Green Arrow and Supergirl, and for that matter Archie, have remained generally low despite successful CW shows. Conversely, Tony Isabella recently said on Twitter that DC Comics, as such, has almost nothing to do with decisions about the various TV series, which he used to explain why Black Lightning can be a minor character in the DCU while having his own TV series.

[Aahz]

Don't see it. I mean Young Justice has just started and the current Teen Titans run is probably the best Titans book they did in a long time.
Scrapping that to reboot the adult Titans (and bring back a lot of their C-list members) would be waste.

[Godlike13]

The TV show is surprisingly good. It tries to be relevant and doesn’t lock itself to a traditional thinking, but at the same time stays true to core character themes. The show gets it.

[Godlike13]

And more to the point, it’s apparently the most commercially (although not critically) successful of the DC Universe offerings. But, strange and counterintuitive as it seems, success in TV and movies does not carry over into comics in any reliable way. The sales of Green Arrow and Supergirl, and for that matter Archie, have remained generally low despite successful CW shows. Conversely, Tony Isabella recently said on Twitter that DC Comics, as such, has almost nothing to do with decisions about the various TV series, which he used to explain why Black Lightning can be a minor character in the DCU while having his own TV series.

It’s harder see, and sometimes almost invisible, but then Thanos cracks to top 10. So we have seen outside media have an effect. But it’s an investment. Just the tv show isn’t going to skyrocket sales, they have build on it and combine it with better creator backing and bigger involvement. Then maybe they would see results. We have seen them do this with Suicide Squad, and Titans isn’t a terrible seller as it is. At least with the right characters.
And maybe it’s time the different parts of DC start better coordinating, rather then seemly working against one another. The Titans show seemed like it provoked the comic side to start burying the franchise and its characters.

[HandofPrometheus]

DC keeps effing them up.

One problem is that they keep messing up the core cast when they're the main sellers of the Titans franchise. Cyborg lost all connection with his closest friends, Raven can never stay an adult and is forced to be part of every young generation, Garth just gets ignored, Donna can never have a stable fanbase due to terrible management, Wally just keeps getting shi$$ed on, and Roy just keeps getting himself in horrible stories. X-men do stupid stuff with their main cast but you would always see them at large and in top billing.

Second, DC does nothing to build upon the secondary characters at all. Bumblebee and Mal are stuck in the same storylines and always appear in 5 issues then goes into limbo for another century. The rest are always killed off or placed in limbo. Then you get unnecessary new characters every relaunch. While the X-men introduce a lot of new characters they utilize their secondary cast waaay better than the Titans franchise. New Mutants, X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, etc.

Third, mediocre writers are always placed on the comic. No high talented writers are placed within the Titans franchise. Johns was the latest one (arguable to some) and that was YEARS ago.

I agree with new editorial or management. It's time to clean house.

Titans is successful but I didn't expect it to have an impact. Hell, the cartoon barely had an impact and a lot of people love that.

[Aahz]

While the X-men introduce a lot of new characters they utilize their secondary cast waaay better than the Titans franchise. New Mutants, X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, etc.

They tried to do Titans teams with completly new characters (Team Titans, the 1996 Titans) but that was not really successful.

[Lee Stone]

They tried to do Titans teams with completly new characters (Team Titans, the 1996 Titans) but that was not really successful.

It was poorly done.
Mainly because they were completely new characters and there was no reason for Titans readers to buy it after the crossover.

And Marv Wolfman left the book after 12 issues.
His replacement? Jeff Jensen.
You know... Jeff Jensen, The guy that wrote... absolutely nothing before Team Titans.

Coincidentally, Wolfman left Teen Titans Spotlight after six issues and it survived 15 more issues before it was cancelled, as well.

[caj]

It was poorly done.
Mainly because they were completely new characters and there was no reason for Titans readers to buy it after the crossover.

And Marv Wolfman left the book after 12 issues.
His replacement? Jeff Jensen.
You know... Jeff Jensen, The guy that wrote... absolutely nothing before Team Titans.

Coincidentally, Wolfman left Teen Titans Spotlight after six issues and it survived 15 more issues before it was cancelled, as well.

I could be wrong, but I think this was the time that DC editors came in and basically took over the decision making for both Titan books even though Wolfman was still writing them. The whole Wildebeest/Jericho storyline was basically shoved on Wolfman without much of his input, as well as Team Titans. I'm sure that didn't help with the failure of Team Titans, as well as the writer changes you pointed out.

[titanfan]

Actually Wolfman said he loved the initial changes he made to the team with the Wildebeest/Jericho storyline. Titans had been a stagnant book without any roster changes for like ten years so it was about time. The problem is all of the various crossovers (Armageddon 2001, War Of the Gods, etc) made that storyline really drag out. The first half of the storyline (and the conclusion) was excellent.

Team Titans got one of the hugest promotional pushes for a new team from DC comics in that era. A little bit of an X-Force rip-off but oh well.

They obviously should have rebooted Titans to it's most iconic form (80's version) during the new 52, but for some reason didn't do that. But be careful asking for a reboot, the last time they did it, we got "Graduation Day".

[Lee Stone]

Reposting this from the Titans Appreciation thread:

What if DC really had tried to make the Titans into an X-Men-sized franchise?

While I do think that Peterson's influence on tone was detrimental to the title... he did have some good ideas about strengthening the Titans as a franchise by bringing Deathstroke back into the book and giving the Titans a second team title.
However, I don't think Team Titans was the best way to go.

Looking at Marvel's tactics with X-Men, especially in the '80s and '90s, they would periodically re-invent the line-up of the X-Men and launch new teams by splitting off some of the popular characters into a new series.
Excalibur used Kitty, Nightcrawler and Rachel.
X-Factor was the founders, which included Cyclops, someone that had been in X-Men for forever.

Imagine if, instead of getting a team of unknown nobodies and an alternate reality Terra... we got...

The Titans West team that Wolfman had been planning, but with Cyborg and Changeling being the transfers to the new team.
I've looked at his original thoughts for the line-up, and after adding Changeling, I would drop Diah H for two females: Bumblebee and Dr. Light (Kimiyo).
This would've given a line-up of:
Cyborg (leader)
Changeling
Bumblebee
Red Star
Thunder
Lightning
Dr. Light II

A much stronger pull than Team Titans, I think.

And since DC and Marvel are always taking cues from each other...
A second Titans spin-off team could've been the Fab Five (ala X-Factor): Nightwing (leader), Troia, Tempest, Flash and Arsenal.

As for who would remain in the main book, they'd still have Starfire (who would naturally become leader), Raven, Pantha, Jericho and some new members.
Wolfman could've been already building up the new members to replace Changeling, Cyborg, Nightwing and Troia... if they had been thinking about expanding like this.
And constant crossovers with the other two books would ensure that they would still be making regular appearances.

The Titans at the time were entering their 20s and had dropped the 'Teen'.
Kimiyo could be in her late 20s or mid 30s. Don't think they ever gave any clues other than her profession requiring college experience.
But then, Captain Britain was a little up there in years when he joined Excalibur.

I considered Firehawk, but didn't want to pull her away from Firestorm.
Lilith was possible, but I really wanted to expand the Titans by adding someone who has not been associated with them but would still fit.
Lilith would probably end up on the Fab Five team, first as a supporting member alongside Mal.

[caj]

Imagine if, instead of getting a team of unknown nobodies and an alternate reality Terra... we got...

The Titans West team that Wolfman had been planning, but with Cyborg and Changeling being the transfers to the new team.
I've looked at his original thoughts for the line-up, and after adding Changeling, I would drop Diah H for two females: Bumblebee and Dr. Light (Kimiyo).
This would've given a line-up of:
Cyborg (leader)
Changeling
Bumblebee
Red Star
Thunder
Lightning
Dr. Light II

A much stronger pull than Team Titans, I think.

Absolutely agree with this.

[MajorHoy]

. . . They obviously should have rebooted Titans to it's most iconic form (80's version) during the new 52, but for some reason didn't do that.

The problem with that would have been admitting the de-aged adult heroes had their kid sidekicks period squeezed into that silly "five year window" and then figuring out what to also do with the Young Justice/Geoff Johns era of the team (which had its share of fans as well).
It was pretty much a lose/lose scenario no matter what DC decided to do with all of them.

[exile001]

The sad fact is that Titans, as we think of it (Dick, Donna, Garth, etc), doesn't have a real hook other than our attachment to a book that ended 25 odd years ago and characters whose relevance is equally faded. It sucks, I know, but every attempt to try to recapture that magic has failed. Dick struggles to maintain a decent book despite being the first Robin, and easily the most marketable.

It's the new audience, who can't get Teen Titans Go! as an ongoing comics (or even the previous Teen Titans show), as "adult" comics need to be too serious and melodramatic. Cyborg and Starfire are with Justice League and Robin (no, they don't care it's not Dick Grayson or that he is now Nightwing) is with the Teen Titans. They can't get a more grown up book based on the show they like. The Titans book, that featured those characters was unrecognisable to a new audience and was trying to deliver exactly what we wanted to the small audience of us. We know these characters are fantastic, but it's not us that DC needs to attract, as we'll buy it regardless. We are the unfaltering 15k or whatever who buy every book these characters are in (don't bother to correct me, I'm using this as a turn of phrase, rather than actual figures).

This is further compounded by there being two generations of side-kicks/young heroes after them. The Young Justice generation has now taken their place, and newer readers want Damian Wayne, New 52 Wally, etc.

Don't get me wrong, no book branded Titans since New 52 has been great. I've often questioned the choice of creative team, but even before the reboot, when we get pretty hot teams on the book sales have never set the world on fire, and faltered pretty quickly.

I've often said the best thing that ever happened to the original Titans was The Outsiders book. Re-vamp these characters as 20-somethings with a specific mission (be pro-active), a great set of big name villains, and a chip on their shoulder. Even struck with bizarre editorial edicts and changes, it managed to be an incredibly fun read under Winnick. That is until DC, in all its wisdom, decided to try to recapture the magic of Batman and the Outsiders from the 80's. The BatO relaunch failed, the Titans relaunch failed, so nobody won.

No editor wants a book to fail. It looks bad on them, and (should theoretically) harm their career. No publisher wants a book to fail. No one at DC is trying to punish you for liking these characters. But we, as an older audience, have to understand that what we feel is one of the greatest line of characters in the history of comic books, is not necessarily a viable ongoing comic book.

Maybe the New 52 should have just retconned them all back to (late) teenagers, perhaps that would have solved this problem.

[king81992]

Just another Titans book is easy, that’s what the last series basically was. Crap like Abnett’s Titans is whats killing the franchise. We don’t need another Titans book like that. The challenge is getting a truly good Titans book that can revitalize the Titans as a prominent team again, or at the very least a Titans book that wants to at least try to do that. And to do that they need to put real creator support behind it. Which is what is happening with X-Men.

The only way at this point to revitalize the Titans is to revamp most of the characters from the franchise and stop rehashing old storylines.