Plotwise they couldn't use Dick because Damian was Nightwing. I guess they could have made Dick an alternate skin for Damian instead of that just being his Nightwing look.
I could see his gameplay, character design, and status as a prominent character of color playing a part. Netherealm loves their cyborgs.
I thought her role in Rebirth was improving when they were starting to build up to her becoming the leader of the team instead of Damian like she is in the animated movies. It at least continued the building back up of her character after how much fans disliked the New 52 take and the characterization was pretty much on-point.I personally think Starfire was atrocious through the New 52 and a good bit of Rebirth, save for her solo, which was just fine. She was great in the early bits of JLO as well, but that didn't have much to do with the Titans. Her presence on Red Hood was almost universally reviled by fans and only marginally improved, while her role in Damian's Titans has also not been highly regarded (on top of the run itself being mediocre at best).
I've always felt like JLO was a stealth Titans book with the Justice League branding, to be honest. It always felt more Titans then JL.
Rebirth got Raven out of her New 52 costume. That is a huge victory in-and-of-itself.Raven also struggled in the New 52 and Rebirth Teen Titans from a quality perspective, though she did have somewhat decent appearances in the DCAMU (as part of a team, obviously). Though as I demonstrated, animated movies are a drop in the bucket and not very relevant to the status of a character in the public consciousness at large. I think Cyborg has fared better than both of them despite the issues he's faced. I'd argue he's been given better moments in the comics and has had much higher profile portrayals in other media. Most importantly, it seems that things are lining up for his continued role in the live-action movie/HBO Max properties.
I don't think what Cyborg's accomplished in the comics had enough of an impact when the majority still seem to be under the impression he's done nothing in the League other than whine about "am I a man, or a machine." I have had to bring up the things he did get to do in the run in 2-3 different threads. He's definitely been used more than they have in other media although I'd say only 2-3 of those appearances were anything major.
I wouldn't even say it tricked back into the comics much. He still feels pretty much the same character he's been in the comics for a while. Walker was the only one who seemed to try and bring more of a cartoon vibe to the character. I think that was the first time Booyah was used in the comics?You're entitled to your opinion on that as far as Wolfman's version of Cy is concerned. I'm not convinced the cartoons didn't rewrite his character into a more positive and joyous one that trickled its way back into the comics.
I agree that DC should do as good a job as Marvel of at least having more series starring their black heroes instead of just throwing them into team books, even if they don't sell. Then they wouldn't have to deal with the fallout of all the issues they've come across with Cyborg's push.You're arguing semantics though lol. Your opinion on whether he deserves the moniker isn't the point. Cyborg is getting the biggest push of any black character at DC. Demoting him to a secondary team that has been of low quality for years is worse than Marvel doing the same to Falcon, who isn't even the 2nd most popular black character at the company. It doesn't sound like you disagree.
Aquaman was too far in production to really be impacted by the fallout of JL, as far as I am aware, so I think that puts him in a different position than Cyborg especially when Fisher seems more disillusioned and we haven't heard anything about the Cyborg solo film in years.The chances may be reduced but they are still there, while the same can't be said for the Titans. Every character was hurt by JL but as we've seen Aquaman could rebound and if DC puts the right foot forward and the SynderCut is a success, that could result in more opportunities for Vic. Opportunities that Titans membership currently don't offer.
I just don't think it's likely with how DC currently views/handles the Doom Patrol as a property. I also wouldn't say it has a higher likelihood because making it more mainstream wouldn't guarantee the same kind of writing quality.It doesn't always have to be that way though. DC could easily decide to bring more mainstream characters to the Doom Patrol and play with the direction. It's only not that kind of comic until DC decides it is. Which is the whole idea behind it depends on the writing and editorial will. A run like that has a higher probability of being good than a Titans book if we're taking recent publishing into account.