Teen Titans

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Teen Titans are a team of teenage superheroes published by DC Comics, and many of them began as sidekicks to the stars of the Justice League. In February 1978, the final panel of Teen Titans issue 53 showed the heroes, now in their early 20s, going their separate ways without speaking a word. They had outgrown the name on the cover. Yet the team has been cancelled and relaunched many times since, and each new generation of young heroes has picked up the title. How does a team of sidekicks keep coming back? Which run turned a struggling comic into a hit? And what happens to a super-team when its members keep growing up?

  34245126

• 2. The Cool Quartet

  ›

  In The Brave and the Bold issue 54, dated July 1964, Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad joined forces against a weather-controlling villain called Mister Twister. Writer Bob Haney and artist Bruno Premiani created the trio. Robin was Dick Grayson, Kid Flash was Wally West, and Aqualad was named Garth.

  The group took the name Teen Titans in issue 60, dated July 1965. That issue added Wonder Woman's younger sister, Wonder Girl, whose real name was Donna Troy. After a tryout in Showcase issue 59 in December 1965, the team won its own series. Teen Titans issue 1 was written by Haney and drawn by Nick Cardy.

  The first premise was simple. The Titans would help teenagers and answer their calls. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that Haney "took some ribbing for the writing style that described the Teen Titans as 'the Cool Quartet' or 'the Fab Foursome'. The attempt to reach the youth culture then embracing performers like The Beatles and Bob Dylan impressed some observers."

  The roster soon grew. Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy, whose name was Roy Harper, made guest appearances before officially joining in issue 19. Aqualad took a leave of absence in that same issue. Later arrivals included the psychic Lilith Clay, the boxer Mal Duncan, and Hawk and Dove, a pair of teenage brothers with powers. A time-displaced caveman named Gnarrk helped the team in two issues.

  One visitor was turned away. Beast Boy of the Doom Patrol appeared seeking membership, but the Titans rejected him as too young at the time.

  765188

• 3. Real World Stories

  ›

  Neal Adams was called in to rewrite and redraw a Teen Titans story that Len Wein and Marv Wolfman had written, titled "Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho!" It would have introduced DC's first African American superhero. Publisher Carmine Infantino rejected it. The revised version appeared in Teen Titans issue 20, dated March-April 1969.

  In the following issues, Wolfman and artist Gil Kane gave Wonder Girl an origin story in issue 22, along with a new costume. The series also took on inner-city racial tension and protests against the Vietnam War.

  A storyline beginning in issue 25, dated February 1970, followed the accidental death of a peace activist. The Titans reconsidered their methods and briefly gave up their identities to live as ordinary civilians. The experiment was quickly abandoned. Along the way Aqualad left the series, and Mr. Jupiter arrived. He was Lilith's mentor and employer, and he backed the team financially for a short time.

  The series was cancelled with issue 43, dated January-February 1973. It resumed with issue 44 in November 1976. Issue 48 introduced the African American heroine Bumblebee and the former villain Harlequin. Issues 50 to 52 brought in Teen Titans West, a second squad that included Bat-Girl, whose name was Betty Kane, and Golden Eagle.

  1015172022

• 4. Wolfman and Pérez

  ›

  In October 1980, DC Comics Presents issue 26 introduced a fresh Titans lineup, anchored by Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash. The New Teen Titans issue 1 followed in November 1980. Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez brought back Beast Boy under the new alias Changeling. They added the machine man Cyborg, the alien Starfire and the dark empath Raven. Raven, an expert manipulator, gathered the group to fight her demonic father, Trigon. Because DC's sales were poor overall, both creators believed the series would last only six issues.

  The partnership turned into joint plotting. Wolfman recalled that "once George moved to the same town I lived in, only five blocks or so away, we usually got together for lunch and would work out a story over the next few hours."

  The first twenty issues leaned on short, one-shot stories. Then the pair chose to attempt "more complex tales" with villains whose "origins and motivations were very different from the norm of the day." Brother Blood, a religious cult leader with supernatural powers, drew on Wolfman's interest in occult manipulation from his earlier work on Tomb of Dracula at Marvel. His "very dark" storyline won praise from older readers but alienated younger ones. Deathstroke the Terminator was a mercenary who took a contract to kill the Titans, finishing a job his son Grant Wilson could not complete.

  Deathstroke's popularity led to the era's most famous story. "The Judas Contract" ran in 1984 through Tales of the Teen Titans issues 42 to 44 and Annual 3. A psychopathic girl named Terra, who could control the earth and anything made from it, infiltrated the team in order to destroy it. The story won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for "Favorite Comic Book Story" of 1984 and appeared as a standalone paperback in 1988. Robin took the name Nightwing, Wally West gave up Kid Flash and quit, and Deathstroke's other son arrived as the new member Jericho.

  The book was also compared to Marvel's Uncanny X-Men, since both featured all-new casts of young heroes whose personal conflicts mattered as much as their fights. The two teams met in a 1982 one-shot, "Apokolips... Now." Chris Claremont wrote it, and Walt Simonson and Terry Austin drew it. Darkseid, Deathstroke and Dark Phoenix faced both teams at once.

  Quieter stories filled the gaps. "A Day in the Lives..." showed the members off duty, "Who is Donna Troy?" had Robin investigate Wonder Girl's origins, and "We Are Gathered Here Today..." told of her wedding. A four-part series in 1982, Tales of the New Teen Titans, covered the back-stories of Cyborg, Raven, Changeling and Starfire.

  In 1983-1984, Wolfman wrote drug awareness comics with The President's Drug Awareness Campaign. The Keebler Company sponsored the first, which Pérez penciled. The American Soft Drink Industry underwrote the second, drawn by Ross Andru. IBM financed the third, drawn by Adrian Gonzales.

  2829313233

• 5. Hardcover, Softcover, Cancelled

  ›

  The New Teen Titans relaunched with a new issue 1 in August 1984 under an experiment inside DC informally called hardcover/softcover. Only three titles joined it: The New Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Batman and the Outsiders. Each story was printed twice. A pricier edition on better paper went exclusively to comic book specialty stores, and a year later the original format reached newsstands.

  The first title was renamed Tales of the Teen Titans with issue 41, while a second series, The New Teen Titans volume 2, began once "The Judas Contract" ended. Its issue 1 stirred controversy by showing Grayson and Starfire in bed together, even though they had long been a couple. Its opening storyline, "The Terror of Trigon," followed Raven's struggle to stay good with Trigon's demonic blood inside her. Pérez left after issue 5.

  Fan backlash over the move away from newsstands led to Teen Titans Spotlight in August 1986. This anthology gave individual members solo stories and tied into the Millennium crossover in two issues. It failed to catch on and was cancelled in 1988, alongside Tales of the Teen Titans.

  Issue 50 renamed the main series The New Titans, dropping "Teen" because the characters were no longer teenagers. Issues 60 and 61, part of the Batman crossover "A Lonely Place of Dying," and issue 65 debuted Tim Drake as the third Robin. Sales kept sliding. Fans reacted badly to Danny Chase, a teenage psychic with an abusive attitude toward his teammates.

  Believing Wolfman had grown stagnant, DC assigned a new editor, Jonathan Peterson, with authority to override him. The book changed fast. The villain Wildebeest grew into the Wildebeest Society, a front for the remains of the group H.I.V.E. During the "Titans Hunt" storyline in issues 71 to 84, Cyborg was destroyed, rebuilt and lobotomized. Raven, Jericho and Golden Eagle were killed. Pantha joined, along with Deathstroke and Red Star.

  Peterson also launched Team Titans, whose members came from a future. They were one of 100 groups sent back in time to prevent the birth of Lord Chaos, the son of Donna Troy and Terry Long, by killing Troy while she was pregnant. After Zero Hour, Batman's editors removed Nightwing from the book and new heroes such as Damage and Impulse joined, along with Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. Sales collapsed, and the series ended with issue 130 in February 1996.

  One project outlived all of this. Wolfman and Pérez began planning a special called Games in 1989 and finished more than half of it. Peterson's rise and Pérez's move to Marvel's The Infinity Gauntlet shelved it. The book was completed in 2010 and published in 2011. Wolfman had rewritten the plot, and the new details made it impossible to fit into canon, so it was set in an alternate universe. Sarah Simms still dies in the story, and Danny Chase still loses his hands.

  4243444549

• 6. Roster Roulette

  ›

  A new Teen Titans series began in October 1996, written and penciled by Dan Jurgens, with Pérez inking the first 15 issues. Atom, who had become a teenager after Zero Hour, led an all-new team of Prysm, Joto, Risk and Argent. A letters-page contest let readers pick a member. Tim Drake won the vote, but editors of the Batman titles banned his appearance, so Jurgens used Captain Marvel Jr. instead. The series ended in September 1998.

  The older Titans returned in the miniseries JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative, which brought back Cyborg. A series simply called Titans, written by Devin K. Grayson, started with a Secret Files special in March 1999 and ran to issue 50 in 2002. Meanwhile a younger team, Young Justice, formed from Superboy, Robin, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Secret and Arrowette. A miniseries, Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, closed both books. It saw Lilith die and sent Donna Troy to another world.

  Writer Geoff Johns launched a new Teen Titans in 2003, just after the Teen Titans animated series debuted on Cartoon Network. DC Comics chief executive Dan DiDio wanted to rehabilitate the Titans as a top franchise. Changeling was rebranded Beast Boy to match the cartoon. Johns also retold Superboy's origin, making him a hybrid human-Kryptonian clone built from the DNA of Superman and Lex Luthor. Fans complained loudly when Bart Allen became Kid Flash and lost his happy-go-lucky personality.

  During Infinite Crisis, Superboy-Prime killed Superboy. Cyborg was badly damaged, Starfire was lost in space, and Kid Flash emerged from the Speed Force as an adult. The team then held a massive open call for members, bringing in Miss Martian, Kid Devil, Ravager and others. A bloody battle with Black Adam ended with the deaths of Terra and Young Frankenstein. Johns's last arc introduced a villainous Titans East led by Deathstroke and Cassandra Cain.

  J. T. Krul took over the writing with issue 88, with Nicola Scott as artist. The run ended with issues 98 to 100, in which Superboy-Prime returned to destroy the team and a crowd of former Titans arrived. The last pages were pieces of artwork from many DC artists, each showing a Titan from that era.

  A second book, Titans, launched in 2008 with Judd Winick writing. It reunited Nightwing, Wally West as the Flash, Donna Troy, Beast Boy, Raven, Cyborg, Red Arrow and Starfire. They faced Trigon's three other children, Raven's half-brothers Jacob, Jared and Jesse. A later spin-off, Titans: Villains for Hire, killed Ryan Choi, the Atom, and drew allegations of racial insensitivity toward DC for ending a high-profile Asian character.

  5051525960

• 7. Reboots and Rebirth

  ›

  Teen Titans issue 1, dated November 2011, arrived as part of DC's New 52 relaunch, written by Scott Lobdell with artist Brett Booth. The launch was controversial. It began as a direct continuation until Dan DiDio declared that the earlier Titans never existed, even though early issues still referred to them. Tim Drake, now called Red Robin, formed the team to protect teenage heroes from a villain named Harvest and his organization, N.O.W.H.E.R.E.

  Reviews of the 2011-2014 series were negative. Critics disliked the meandering Harvest storyline, a character called Bar Torr who was based on Bart Allen, and the loss of the franchise's lore. Fans did welcome Bunker, a hero Lobdell created. A spin-off, The Ravagers, lasted only 10 issues. Will Pfeifer took over in a July relaunch.

  DC then reversed course with a miniseries, "Titans Hunt," which restored the original 1960s team to canon. It explained that Lilith had erased all memory of the original Titans to shield them from Mister Twister. A week later DC Rebirth began, bringing Wally West back to continuity.

  The June 2016 Rebirth relaunch created two teams. The Titans included Nightwing, Wally West, Lilith, Arsenal, Donna Troy, Bumblebee and Tempest. The Teen Titans were led by Damian Wayne as Robin, with Ace West as Kid Flash, Jackson Hyde as Aqualad, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven. After "The Lazarus Contract," Ace was fired and joined Defiance, Deathstroke's version of the Titans, before returning in issue 14. Titans ended with issue 36 in April 2019, and Teen Titans ended in November 2020 at issue 47.

  In Teen Titans Academy, the adult Titans became faculty at a new school for young heroes, with students including the Bat Pack and Billy Batson. Someone kept appearing in the costume of Red X, once worn by Dick Grayson. One student, Dane, turned out to be a half-demon antichrist under the alias Nevermore. The academy's fallout led into "Dark Crisis," where Nightwing and the younger heroes stepped up while the Justice League was gone.

  In 2023, Superman asked Nightwing to lead a team to succeed the Justice League. Writer Tom Taylor and artist Nicola Scott launched a new Titans series. In Titans: Beast World, Amanda Waller and Doctor Hate, a demonic half of Raven that escaped her gem, turned heroes and villains into mind-controlled animals. Afterward Hate imprisoned Raven inside her own gem and posed as her to infiltrate the Titans.

  6869737475

• 8. Tower and Screen

  ›

  Silas Stone built the first Titans Tower in New York's East River. Every tower has been shaped like the letter T. The Wildebeest Society destroyed it in New Titans issue 76, dated June 1991, and because the Titans had fallen out of favor with authorities, it was not rebuilt. Cyborg designed the second tower, in San Francisco, and the city council built it. It holds a memorial to dead Titans. The newest stands in Blüdhaven, built over a destroyed prison, as headquarters for the team protecting the world during the Justice League's hiatus.

  The Titans' enemies have grown just as large. Deathstroke, the demon Trigon and the organization H.I.V.E. all rose to bigger roles across DC's universe. The team has also taken a prominent part in the publisher's major crossover stories.

  On screen, the first appearance was a Teen Titans segment of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, with Speedy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Aqualad. Hanna-Barbera planned a series set in the Super Friends universe, but nothing came of it. A 1984 public service announcement, "New Teen Titans Say No to Drugs," featured a cast that included a character named Protector.

  The self-titled animated Teen Titans series centered on Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy. It was followed by the film Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo in 2006 and by the comedy Teen Titans Go! in 2013. Animated films in DC's movie universe included Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. The crossover Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans followed in 2019. A live-action series called Titans follows two generations, beginning with Dick Grayson, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and Hawk and Dove. In March 2024, DC Studios reported a live-action Teen Titans feature film in development, to be written by Ana Nogueira.

  8182798389