Titans Appreciation 2021

[The Cool Thatguy]

Slade claimed she was a murderous sociopath when he found her, but frankly, he's an unreliable narrator. I know that Wolfman totally wanted readers to take Slade's words as the truth when he wrote it, but based on everything Slade pulled before that there is no reason to believe his side of the story.

Honestly, I am surprised we never got a comic from Terra's POV. From a meta perspective, we heard about Judas Contract and the events that led up to it from every perspective except hers. She's alive and well in current continuity, so it would not be impossible.

No reason to believe Slade...except all the times we saw Terra fly off the handle with murderous intent at the slightest provocation. During Judas Contract, she turned on Slade when he demonstrated actual human emotion, IE, concern for his son Joseph.

[Frontier]

[QUOTE=king81992;5459457]

I feel like in some regards Terra's perspective is supposed to come off ambiguous so you're never sure when she was completely genuine or faking it, even if she came off pretty messed up by the end of the story.[/QUOTE

I never got a sense of ambiguity from Terra. If there was a sense of that, it got undermined by Wolfman's bizarre insistence of trying to justify Slade in the aftermath.

I was thinking less that and more just how crazy and overtly evil she was as the story went along.

I guess when I think of ambiguity I think of the fact that we never really got a sense of what happened to her after she got separated from her family in Markovia.

[wonder39]

by Bruno Redondo, from Nightwing 79.

Donna's too tall, Kori is too short...but apart from that i love it!

[wonder39]

The Titans will always be lesser than the JL though. It shouldn't be an argument anymore. It is like saying that Nightwing should never be lesser than Batman, but he is. I think Titans fans need to just move on from that whole mindset.

The main problem happened when the Titans characters grew into adults. That is when DC basically had no real idea what to do with them anymore. They were no longer teens and DC was adding new younger generations of characters, but these older adult Titans were still below the JL. So they were caught between these two different groups of heroes that each had a unique identity except them. You had the new younger generation of heroes that represented what the Titans used to. A group of young heroes coming together to learn and grow. Then you had the Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman group that were in the JL and built as the world's greatest heroes and its main protectors. What are the adult Titans supposed to be then? A group of adult heroes that are a little younger than the JL ones and are also less important? Not a great thing to be labeled as. Then there is the problem that others have already said with most of the Titans being derivatives of the main JL heroes.

Something I've said for a long time and still believe is that the main adult Titans should be full fledged JL members. DC should just expand the JL team and have them and others be part of it. They don't have to be the focus of the JL book, but they just need to be JL members. Like you saw on the JLU animated show or on the YJ animated show. It doesn't mean that they have to abandon their Titans team or book, they can be on both at the same time, but they should have a seat at the JL table. Basically they should be like what Wolverine or Storm were on the Avengers. They were still X-Men and on X-Men teams, but they were deemed important enough to be part of the Avengers. Characters like Nightwing, Cyborg, Donna, and obviously Wally should be like that.

Well, in your opinion they will always be lesser. That's not the case with everyone. NTT proved they were a team equal value. It's poor editorial direction, constantly making them " mentors" and writing them as lesser that has flawed the concept. They wentbout on their oen to forge their own identity as a group, and so should the generations of heroes after them. Let YJ be that and not Titans light. Etc. There can be more than one hero group in the world, and just because they aren't JL associated doesn't mean they're lesser.

[Digifiend]

Terra on Outsiders makes so much sense, I'm surprised that no one has attempted it yet.

Maybe because her brother hasn't been on recent rosters either? It would make sense for her to be an Outsider if Geo-Force is also there. Unless... maybe someone could attempt a reunion of the original 1980s team, but Brion can't make it, so he asks the similarly powered Tara to take his place?

[king81992]

Maybe because her brother hasn't been on recent rosters either? It would make sense for her to be an Outsider if Geo-Force is also there. Unless... maybe someone could attempt a reunion of the original 1980s team, but Brion can't make it, so he asks the similarly powered Tara to take his place?

That could work.

[Badou]

Well, in your opinion they will always be lesser. That's not the case with everyone. NTT proved they were a team equal value. It's poor editorial direction, constantly making them " mentors" and writing them as lesser that has flawed the concept. They wentbout on their oen to forge their own identity as a group, and so should the generations of heroes after them. Let YJ be that and not Titans light. Etc. There can be more than one hero group in the world, and just because they aren't JL associated doesn't mean they're lesser.

The NTT era was around 40 years ago now, and back at their peak characters like Dick were still Robin. Plus back then DC didn't have all these other young heroes and new generations of characters below them. Dick's generation were the young heroes and because of that they owned that whole space. Now other characters own it from Tim or even Damian's generation of heroes. They used to be the young heroes setting out together and proving themselves which is the hallmark of the whole Titans franchise. Now those Titans are adults and have been adults for a long time. Several of them have gotten married, had kids, and have even been on the JL with the other adult JL heroes. Nowadays those Titans characters have more in common with the JL heroes than they do with their younger NTT era selves, which is why there is so much overlap and redundancy with the adult Titans and the JL heroes. Since they are doing the same things.

The best chance in my opinion the Titans have at reclaiming some of the heights they had in the NTT era is if DC rebooted the team back to that era, but in a modern setting. So DC decides to release a book about Dick as Robin who is a teen again and it is about forming the Titans from the ground up. Where Donna is Wondergirl, Wally is Kid Flash, and characters like Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy all eventually join. Given how massively popular young adult novels and manga are with teenage leads you then try and write the series in a way that might appeal to people that read those series and attempt to catch the attention of the more casual fans. That might work, and then if DC/WB made a new animated series based off that run it would probably explode in popularity too. This is all a pipedream though, but this is probably the cleanest path to major success again for the franchise, imo.

[Dred]

I'd rather not reboot them, thanks.

[Badou]

I'd rather not reboot them, thanks.

Then launch a Black Label series or something with them in their more iconic positions. I don't see how they regain any of their past success with how they are now.

[Factor]

I don't think the Titans need to be bigger than the JL or that the characters need to become Leaguers to truly be important. DC just need to find their niche, I think there are plenty of elements that could differentiate both teams while giving each of them an important role.
I've said this before, but at this point the JL members have reached a godlike status in the DCU. They each have such huge responsabilities in their solo careers, that they would only be able to get together do deal with world-ending catastrophes.
That's not necessarily the case with most of the Titans. Unlike the Leaguers, they are team heroes first, solo heroes later. They didn't have solo careers prior to joining the team, most of them became heroes by working alongside their teammates. So their biggest commitment (with the possible exception of Dick) is to the Titans.
They get to create an organization that's actually available 24/7 to handle global threats. They can prioritize patrolling the globe or responding to distress calls, whereas the JL can only handle the big emergencies.
Which is not to say the Titans would only handle small threats, they could be the first responders to many huge ones and they would have the League's trust to handle them, which touches on another important topic: the Titans are more approachable and down to Earth than the League.
The way I see it, when someone needed superhuman help, they should have the means to contact the Titans with ease. Getting the League's attention wouldn't be as possible.
I'd also explore how these characters can be more relatable to humans in the DCU than the League. Wonder Woman is this goddes among men, but Donna is the one that shows that anyone can become a true and powerful hero like her. Nightwing is way more relatable than Batman, and so on.

I liked TT Academy well enough, but it's still the Titans borrowing from another franchise rather than building from their own strengths.

So to sum it up, I'd have it that:
JUSTICE LEAGUE: 7 to 12 of DC's biggest solo heroes. They all have their own responsabilities and careers and they tend to unite in world-ending scenarios (think alien invasions, multiversal crisis, time distortions etc)
TITANS: A larger organization of heroes lead by the NTT that patrols and protects the world on a daily basis. Their members would work in shifts as in real jobs and their missions would be dictated by the needs of the people.

Young Justice: JL trainees that would use the team's history to prevent the reemergence of old enemies.
Teen Titans: heroes being mentored by the Titans and working as part of their global response team.

[Digifiend]

So basically you're suggesting they should take an idea from Power Rangers Dino Fury (the current season). They have a Ranger Hotline. If you see a monster, call the hotline, and the rangers will come running. You want something similar for Titans, am I understanding it right?

[chief12d]

I think Badou has the right idea. The Titans have not worked as adult heroes at the level of their counterparts over at Marvel and no one seems to have quality direction for them that doesn’t involve being mentors to another generation. The characters would be better served being exported to other team books in the DCU and exploring new dynamics and villains rather than being a B-level version of the League fighting by the same largely crappy villains they’ve been stuck with since the 80s.

Let Static and Blue Beetle lead a new generation of young heroes as the Teen Titans while the older members become full time members of the League and other teams. Cyborg heads up a new Justice League Odyssey with Starfire, Garth and Raven contribute their mystical talents to JLD, Changeling leads a new Doom Patrol, Dick’s got his own book, Donna on Sensation Comics, Roy on Outsiders, etc. There’s more than enough space for all these characters to flourish in other corners of the DCU. And if you want that old thang back with New Teen Titans put out a Black Label series that explores their past adventures or have the occasional reunion miniseries where they catch up and can be wholesome for a few issues. Anything else is just begging for a retread of tired old material unless a writer can actually forge a distinct team niche that’s more than “we grew up together in the 80s/90s and are only kept together because of some cartoons and DC’s fear of letting us be something more”.

[Factor]

So basically you're suggesting they should take an idea from Power Rangers Dino Fury (the current season). They have a Ranger Hotline. If you see a monster, call the hotline, and the rangers will come running. You want something similar for Titans, am I understanding it right?

I have no idea, I haven't watched Power Rangers in 15 years. But heroes being on call isn't a new idea, so I'm sure there would be similarities with other franchises.

[Blue22]

Honestly, I'm okay with the Titans not being as big as the league. Doesn't matter to me if they're the forever small timers, I enjoy their stories more than the JL stories regardless. The only downside is, yeah, whenever a particular Titans series ends, most of those characters wind up back in limbo.

[Incognito]

With Titans Academy being a new part of the Titan mythos, I wonder what subjects or areas should they specialize in?