Oh yeah, the general public doesn't sweat the details like we do. Hell, they don't know the details to begin with.
So, I still think reunions are doomed to failure no matter how well you treat the roster. The ship has sailed, guys. But I did stumble on a idea for the Titans that takes the crappy, horrible history of the team for the last thirty years and goes meta with it. "Titans: the Greatest Team You Always Underappreciated."
Y'see, in the DCU the Titans have, for years, been the lesser team compared to the League. Their former mentors barely trust them, stick their noses into the Titans' business and order them around, and the team struggles against threats (like Abra Kadabra) the League wouldn't even bother showing up for. And the Titans are always bickering and arguing like a bunch of teen soap opera characters trapped in a reality tv show. And that's how the world sees the Titans; the first generation of sidekicks who haven't grown up yet and haven't really reached the point where they can be fully trusted by their mentors.
But! In reality, the Titans *are* hyper capable, ultra successful heroes equally as skilled as the League. But no one knows that. The Titans keep their true ability a secret, and thus are able to find and deal with problems the League never even hears of. A villain is going to monologue more in front of Starfire than he is Wonder Woman, exposing more of his master plan. A villain isn't going to worry or run away or plan heavy countermeasures if rumor says the Titans are hunting him the way he would if he heard the League was coming. And with the whole world thinking these guys never reached their potential, the Titans are sneaking in to save the day in ways that no one would expect of them.
Sort of like a team of covert agents using "being inept" as a cover to do their real jobs. It's thankless, it's humiliating, and it's allowed the Titans to secretly become the greatest team in the DCU, because no one ever sees them coming and are utterly unprepared for the level of skill and ability they find when the Titans show up. And what villain isn't going to lie and make their defeat sound more epic than it was? Who's going to believe the villain when they talk about how awe-inspiring the Titans were? Of course the villain is going to make the Titans sound better than they are, but no one is going to buy it, because everyone *knows* the Titans are still being babysat by the League and aren't a serious threat.
Yeah, its a terrible idea.
but it struck me as a funny way to handle them.