So, Can the Titans Finally be Saved Now?

[Lee Stone]

Regardless of what anyone may think, DC has already laid the seeds for the Titans to eventually return and have another moment of greatness.
Three seeds, actually.

Teen Titans, the cartoon.
Teen Titans, Go!
Titans, the tv show

The younger fans of the cartoons will eventually hit the nostalgia point and there will be a push, either initiated by them or DC's marketing, to bring the characters back in either another animated series or a comic.

The tv show, Titans, apparently has some fans. And their interest could drive marketing to appeal to them in some fashion.

Not to mention, the Wolfman/Perez run is such a high water mark that collectibles and trade paperbacks will likely never stop being produced, which will only generate more interest from newer generations of readers.

So, yes, the Titans will see a return.
The question isn't really 'will they?' but rather 'when will they and how?'

[deadman322]

whats the point? they'll just get told off and grounded by the justice league for being naughty little children even though they're in their 20s and then a good chunk of them will get killed off unceremoniously.

[The no face guy]

The Titans were doing quite well a couple of years ago, for a non big name title (34,000 plus). When they had Dick, Donna, Wally, Roy, Garth ect, but then...

DC decided to change the line up to the 80's Marv Wolfman Characters, and sales began to plummet. Probably to try to cash into the Netflix series, but they just didn't have the tools or know how to get those watching the show, to start reading the comic, I guess.

[Korath]

I doubt it, because, like it or not, in a universe where some characters ages and others don't, Titans (especially the Fab 5) will always be the Beta Justice League, the Super-team for the Also-ran, those who didn't make the cut to the big one.

I also think that if the team exist just because they are friends... well, it makes for very poor stories.

But never say never. Who knows what could happen ?

[Sutekh]

I also think that if the team exist just because they are friends... well, it makes for very poor stories.

I'm just old enough to find that I'm starting to have a hankering for teams that are friends, as opposed to teams that spend all their time fighting and mistrusting and keeping secrets from each other.

[Korath]

I'm just old enough to find that I'm starting to have a hankering for teams that are friends, as opposed to teams that spend all their time fighting and mistrusting and keeping secrets from each other.

Beings friends and friendly is great. But if the sole reason the team exist is because they are friends, the story risk devolving rather quickly in sitcoms territory which isn't a genre I find appealing at all. Rebirth Titans was awful mostly because of it : it had 20/30 something supposedly veteran heroes acting like sitcom characters, which didn't help me appreciate them, when only one of them was on my radar before (Dick).

[Digifiend]

I think it may clear the way somewhat but you're right it would still need a really talented creative team with a strong vision for the franchise's future.

As for Hickman, with him just starting his current huge run on X-Men , he isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But his dream DC job has always been the Legion. I'm not sure he could be lured over to DC without getting the keys to that franchise and I'm not sure he'd want to work with Bendis' version of the LoSH.

Yeah, Hickman is less than a year into his X-Men and Bendis is less than a year into Legion, so neither will be changing writer any time soon. I can see Hickman eventually replacing Bendis on Legion when he's done with X-Men, but it'd probably be another reboot. Legion does reboot more often than the main DCU (they did so after Zero Hour, and again when Bendis took over).

[Godlike13]

Doubtful. With the likes of guys like Lee and Harras still at the helm, don’t expect much to change.

[Dr. Poison]

Well, we know Didio didn't really see a place for the original Titans and he let Garth and Roy get killed off once, Donna Twice, Wally was invalidated for several years after Flashpoint, and Dick was almost killed in Infinite Crisis and has been put through several odd scenarios under Didio's watch. I do think that some new leadership and ideas could help restore the Titans to an A-list team within the DCUniverse. They just need a good direction and an A-list talent team on the book for a good chunk of time. I don't think the best direction would be to go in a "bold new direction" but instead, respect the best aspects of their past and build upon them. Leave out the convoluting/controversial stuff like Donna's multiple Post-Crisis origins, Roy Harper's metal arm, Wally not existing Post-Flashpoint, and the New 52 version of the team.

[manwhohaseverything]

Beings friends and friendly is great. But if the sole reason the team exist is because they are friends, the story risk devolving rather quickly in sitcoms territory which isn't a genre I find appealing at all. Rebirth Titans was awful mostly because of it : it had 20/30 something supposedly veteran heroes acting like sitcom characters, which didn't help me appreciate them, when only one of them was on my radar before (Dick).

Rebirth is no measuring stick for the titan. It was a mediocre series , because of the editorial edicts and certain "don't" propagated . The titans are bunch of kids that are friends, that help each other and the public with intention to do so. They came together cause they disagreed with their mentors or wanted to fill their shoes. Titans provides the illusion of progression to dc. They actually feel human. They do good, they change and they out grow. Not like the so called league, who sit on mount olympus and decides the affairs of the mere mortals. Many of them even intentionally do that(looking at you superman with your perpetuation of sainthood). These guys have minimum to no relationship with each other. League dynamics sucks. They aren't relatable too. Even superman/batman thing with the light-dark nonsense is a stale gimmick . They just come together because they are good at what they do. Not because they have any affinity for eachother and even if they betray each other, it wouldn't be personal. Being a titan isn't about power. Titans should have been relaunched as an a-team in rebirth and pushed as such. That would have been the next step. If not all of them, many of them should had been given more importance.They should continued the manhattan thread. But, nope! Can't have that. Titans was basically left directionless. And they basically had nothing to do.

[kcekada]

No. They are in the same spot as other faddish youth appeal teams that were strong in the 80s like LoSH. The demographics that drove their appeal is just no longer there. The only one left standing is X-Men. And only because X-Men has blown up as a franchise. Legion and Titans are on life support.

I disagree. It wasn't the demographics that made those books extremely popular. It was the level of storytelling.

[jamgut]

I disagree. It wasn't the demographics that made those books extremely popular. It was the level of storytelling.

Yes and at times in the 60s, the Legion in Adventure was DC's top selling team title. They had experienced popularity prior to the 80s.

[Stryfe8]

They still have a steep hill to climb to get back to their former glory. Even back in the glory days, the run started to gradually decline as soon as Perez left. It once rivaled the X-Men in terms of popularity, but I don't think the stories have aged quite as well as the best of X-Men from the same era (though I still love them). They burned almost as bright, but not as long. The X-Men have plenty of ruts, but it seems easier to get out of them occasionally: Jim Lee, Morrison, now Hickman.

The other media adaptations have the benefit of adapting stories for a wider audience that are old hat for the comics reading audience. A comic fan could get enjoyment out of a new take of Terra betraying the team, Raven's conflict with Trigon or Dick becoming Nightwing again, but actual main canon rehashing that stuff over and over again is dull. we already have those comics to re-read.

But never say never. The franchise was considered a lost cause before NTT came around. And while its problems existed before DiDio's time and will likely persist to an extent even with him gone, it should be a bit easier to get around the stumbling blocks now. I would LOVE for Hickman to do for the Titans what he's doing for the X-Men. We would have to wait for him to be done there (and for the X-Men's sake, I hope he's there for a while) but it would be worth the wait if/when he comes over. There are many DC characters I'd love to see him take a crack at, Superman and the Legion being the other big ones behind the Titans.

For the love of everything i don't believe in, please keep hickman away from titans.He's already turned the x-men into an unrecognizable mess, let's just keep it at that.

[Ascended]

They probably can, but it's also probably not a priority.

I'd bet on DC stopping screwing with them for the moment, and doing a meaningful overhaul some time in the future.

I'd be satisfied with that. Seriously, just put the book on the shelves until you find the right pitch.

I'm with Korath in that while I value the relationships and want those to continue, I don't find "friendship" to be a valid excuse for the team. Each of these guys are among the most experienced heroes around, in their primes, and more than capable of operating on a top-end level by themselves (maybe not Garfield). If they're gonna be a team just so they can fight HIVE and Slade again, hard pass. That should be a solo thing for them now. I'll happily watch Nightwing take down a HIVE base. But he can do that himself, he doesn't need help, and neither do Donna, Wally, Vic, or the others (except maybe Garfield).

The Titans as a team have become less than the sum of its parts. Until DC finds a way to stop that (and it's not hard) I'd rather the book stay off the shelves. I'd rather have nothing than have a bad product I won't enjoy anyway.

If 5G gives us books from across the history like some rumors claim, I'd be down with a Titans book set in the past. But "today's" Titans have grown beyond that time and if DC can't acknowledge that and make the necessary adjustments then I'm out.

As for AT&T.....the larger media stuff has never helped the book's sales before. That stuff rarely trickles down to floppies, and AT&T must know that. I could see them wanting to push more of the YA OGN stuff, or pursuing a movie or new shows, but not really caring about the direct market. But if they attribute the rise in trade sales to the larger media stuff, then they might want to more effort put into the comics for that, maybe, though the best Titans material (from years ago) can be re-released in new trades at a cheaper cost.

[Buried Alien]

I think DC needs to figure out whom the Titans are before it can save them.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)