Where did it go wrong? The last year or two. The reason? See my note in paragraph one above. Also, along the way I lost interest in the series and thought of quitting, but then Jon Peterson became editor and reminded me what I loved about the book. We did “Titans Hunt” together which was as close to the ‘classic’ Titans as I had done in a long time. It would have been a lot better if it hadn’t had to be broken up by two maxi-series, turning what should have been a four-five part story where Vic Stone would have been rebuilt to a year and a half storyline where he got lost in the mix.
I finally had it during that final year and decided to quit the book. I hated every story. Every issue. I wasn’t even the plotter. So, at a DC Christmas out here in LA, I went up to DCU Editor-in-Chief Mike Carlin and said I wanted to quit and asked if DC would bring back Night Force and let me write that instead, but with a different editor. I thought there might have been a problem, but Mike said yes but asked me to stay on the Titans a few issues longer. He said he thought it would be best to cancel the Titans with my run rather than just hand it over to someone else. They would then restart it with new characters, concepts and a new number one, which I thought was a great idea. After sixteen years, a new voice and approach was needed. Mike assigned a new editor to my last four issues, and, with the exception of not being able to use Nightwing – who had been returned to Batman continuity – let me end the series pretty much the way I wanted. I still thank Mike for rescuing me from what had turned into a hellish nightmare.