When it comes to the DC Comics shared universe, the main name of heroism remains the Justice League. The first DC Universe team includes heroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and several others. While not as big, the Teen Titans are incredibly popular in their own right, even though they’ve been out of the limelight for too long.
Last seen before the latest relaunch of the DC brand, the Teen Titans have almost completely disappeared from the DC Universe.. This is despite the desire for an older version of the group to replace the Justice League, although the status quo returned after the Absolute power event. If DC aims to make the Teen Titans relevant again, it will involve moving the brand forward while giving importance to all generations of the group.
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The Teen Titans haven’t mattered since before the dawn of DC
The Teen Titans were once a rather modest group, nicknamed by some fans “Justice Little League”. This saw their Silver Age comic canceled and attempts to revive the brand in the Bronze Age were unsuccessful. Fortunately, the relaunched book The new Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez changed everything, putting the Titans on the map and cementing them as a major group within the DC Universe. Over the decades, their popularity has waxed and waned, and at the moment, the group is arguably at its lowest ebb.
The most recent volume of Teen Titans the monthly comic has been finished for a few years at this point, and while fans didn’t despise it, it made very little impression. It was followed by Teen Titans Academywhich featured the premise of older Titans forming the next generation of younger heroes, similar to Marvel’s. Avengers Academy series from the 2010s. Unfortunately, this book was not well received and lasted less than two years. A major problem was the handling of the character Red X, who debuted in the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon.
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Beyond other issues with the book, it had very little impact on the hero brand and the DC Universe. This series ended shortly before the release of the crossover storyline event Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, which resulted in the disbandment of the Justice League. In their place, the older Titans aimed to replace the Justice League as the premier heroes of the DC Universe, but even that ultimately didn’t work. The “Dawn of DC” relaunch has seen several new comics launched or relaunched, including the current new one Titans title. This series focused on adult Titans who debuted in the Silver Age or Bronze Age with the goal of replacing the JLA.
Unfortunately, the comic itself didn’t fit this new scope, with the Titans never doing anything on the same level as the League. Their new stories involved things like planting trees and other things that seemed downright mundane for a group that was supposed to be the premier superhero team at the time. The only standout stories with major scope were the well-received crossover event “Beast World” and a highly criticized story that retreaded the tired “Evil Raven” trope. Now, this series is set to take a new direction with a new writer, but there’s no news on a revamped iteration of the main Teen Titans.
The Teen Titans can’t escape nostalgia
Nostalgia can be a good thing for comic book franchises, but it can also cause them to become stagnant in some cases. This happened with the Teen Titans franchise, which hasn’t been at the top of its game in decades. The new Teen Titans is still the franchise’s pinnacle, with this series (which would later become renamed The new Titans) which lasted from 1980 until the mid-1990s. Even then, it didn’t reach its peak until midway through this series, with artist and co-creator George Pérez leaving in the late 1980s to reboot Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths .Wonder Woman comic strip.
Many considered the series not to be as good from that point on, and it even started a notable trend for the brand of simply regurgitating past stories involving villains such as DeathStroke/Slade, Brother Blood, and Trigon . Ironically, Deathstroke was the only one of these characters to experience any real development, going from a villain to an anti-hero who, like Vigilante before him, was DC’s equivalent to Marvel Comics’ The Punisher. Eventually, The new Titans was canceled and replaced with a brand new one Teen Titans book. This revived version of the team had a completely different roster, including an aged version of Ray Palmer, aka The Atom. Although well received, the lack of recognizable fan favorites meant it didn’t last long.
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The only race to come close to the same heights as the Wolfman/Pérez era was that of Geoff Johns. Teen Titans took place in the 2000s, and even that featured many of the same storylines. DeathStroke has even regressed to the status of a true villain, arguably having even less nuance than ever. Since then, none of the series has been particularly popular, with the New 52 Teen Titans the comics (which erased previous continuity) were incredibly controversial.
It’s clearer than ever that the brand is forced to try and relive its glory days, and the fact that no notable villains have been introduced to the team since the ’80s speaks volumes. The only way to make the Titans popular again was to bring the team back from New Teen Titans and the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon, leading to nostalgic retreads. We find ourselves in a particularly strange situation for an incredibly popular team when they haven’t had much long-term success in decades. The best bet might be an all-out push for these young characters in a way that should have been done back in the Dawn of DC era, which could finally help push all of DC’s young heroes in a popular new direction.
The Teen Titans can lead the charge for DC’s next generation
The best way to create the Teen Titans and their offshoots is to push them in a way that would have fit the Titans’ supposed new role in the Dawn of DC era. This was supposed to see the team become the premier group in the DC Universe, but their own book and other titles did not reflect this.
DC has pushed the idea of legacy more than ever, with a stronger focus on sidekicks and extended superhero “families.” At the same time, the new Absolute Universe launches new versions of classic heroes such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. With the DCs Absolute books keeping older heroes in the spotlight in one way or another, it might be worth focusing on the Teen Titans and similar groups in the mainstream DC Universe.
With the current Titans the book continues, it would be a good idea not only to relaunch Teen Titans but Also Young judge and even Young stars. While Titans And Teen Titans could be books in their own right, Young judge could be a spinoff similar to the rebooted one Justice League comic strip. More importantly, it could focus on the original model and develop it further. Young judge generation, one of the most overlooked groups of heroes in the DC Universe.
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This list and that of Titans book would be familiar to fans, allowing the relaunch Teen Titans focus on a new set of faces. Potentially led by Damian Wayne’s Robin, the rest of the team could include young, overlooked heroes such as Mas y Menos (who debuted in 2003 Teen Titans cartoon), 52 new heroes such as Bunker and Skitter, and entirely new teenagers. More importantly, this book and Titans must avoid telling the same stories and introduce entirely new villains for the next few years of publication.
A book like Young stars Or Young justice society could do the same for DC’s Golden Age heroesperhaps culminating in a crossover event between these books that deals with the idea of legacy. Meanwhile, new miniseries could be released (perhaps in the Tales of the Teen Titans format) which would spotlight individual members of the Titans throughout the group’s history. This would mimic the success of those books that were published during the “New Golden Age” banner that launched Geoff Johns’ final run at the Justice Society of America, and it would be a great way to cement the idea that Teen Titans are important to DC. Comics.
The timing is perfect for this push, especially with DC wanting to explore the legacy of the recently rebooted DC universe of films and TV shows. Preparing the Titans for stardom in this way would allow for great synergy and finally bring back the Teen Titans in a way that would move them forward and not rely solely on nostalgia.
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