Teen Titans history just got less, and a lot more, complicated

[icon_uk]

From the NYCC "Young Justice" panel (as in the branch of the DCNu with teen characters, rather than the animated series)

SPOILERS under the cut... be warned!


This is the cover to issue five, showing what appears to be Bart, dressed as Tim, making fun of Kon (and apparently using a new power on him too)



Okay, calm down icon_uk, just remember that Bart is WAAAAY to young for you,

From the Newsarama coverage, which also added a rather annoying tweak to the ne w Blue Beetle set up, but that's for someone else to post about.

Teen Titans editor Bobbie Chase then came onto the stage to talk about her book, which had a cover for Issue #5 with Kid Flash running circles around Superboy and seemingly striking him with lightning.

"I hope everyone who's picking up Teen Titans is also picking up Superboy, which are very tied together," Chase said. "It's going to take until Issue #7 to firmly establish what his place is in the Teen Titans group."

Not only are these character meeting each other for the first time, Chase said, in the New 52, this is the first incarnation of Teen Titans, ever.

I think that warrants a small "ARGH!" on my part, even without knowing what that really means in terms of teases.

When a fan asked what that meant for Starfire's previous relationships, mentioned in Red Hood and the Outlaws, Chase said that those relationships did happen, but they didn't necessarily happen as Titans.

And this is where my headache gets worse. If there wasn't a Titans team, what did the team that Dick, Kory and the as yet unknown Dustin call itself? And does this mean Dick isn't the group strategist we've seen him be for decades now?.

The family aspect of the book will have to evolve over time, because the Titans are still learning to trust one another.

One fan asked if Tim Drake was still an orphan, Chase said she wouldn't answer, but said he was still part of the Bat-family, something that would be reflected upon soon.

It would never have occured to me to ask that, as I'd have assumed it was a given.

When asked about Wally West, Chase responded, "who?"

Ouch!

A fan asked who the smoky girl on the cover of the first issue was, and Chase said it was Solstice. Chase also confirmed that there were plans for both Beast Boy and Raven.

THAT was Solstice? Was it really THAT much to have a positive, glowing light based character on this eam? I mean, really? Okay.. okay... maybe it's just a different manifestation of ehr powers that she was always meant to have and which we'd have seen even if the relaunch had never happened.

 

Comments

I really like this

[blue_bolt]

I know everyone seems worried but here's the thing: you'd actually have to try to make the Titans worse than they were by the 2000's. Seriously, between the tentacle squid scene (that was not subtext, it was tentacle porn) and Titans dying every other Tuesday (actually a read a Titan died once every nine months so that's still extreme) it would be hard to equal that level of grimdark wannabe.

Remember how Donna Troy had a more confusing history than PG? Heck, she died three times and was a composite version of herself from every reality and then she was brought back but only as Wally West remembered her! And Beast Boy-Raven, one my favourite ships but the writers keep bloody trying to sink it. So I actually look forward to this, because it's going to take them a decade to get into the kind of editorially driven down spiral that the previous TT did.

Re: I really like this

[icon_uk]

Fair point, though given the Marvel levels of public hostility towards heroes, and general alien-xenophobia too, that the DCNu is shoving down our throats at every turn, I wouldn't be sure that this will be any less grimdark than the previous version.

Re: I really like this

[blue_bolt]

Spoilsport :(

Re: I really like this

[icon_uk]

Sorry about that

Re: I really like this

[jlbarnett]

I dunno, I'm not following the Bat titles extensively, but Batman Inc is in canon, so apparently public opinion has shifted enough in FIVE YEARS that people have gone from being okay with the government shooting at superheroes to be being okay with a private citizen financing a multinational mercenary operation(if Batman's incorporated surely his employees must be paid and people who fight for money and aren't affiliated with gov'ts are mercs) so there's been some adaption.

Maybe the original Titans called themselves Young Justice this time around

Re: I really like this

[icon_uk]

As the Titans started with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. actively hunting young heroes and setting up Suprboy as their attack dog, it doesn't seem to have improved much.

Re: I really like this

[jlbarnett]

despite the fact N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s second plot involved a prison, I'm not sure there's anything legitimate about them

Re: I really like this

[shadowpsykie]

am i the only one who liked Geoff's titans?

[thefiretonight]

You might be. ;)

[The one thing I really disliked from his run was the change of Kon's personality.]

Re: I really like this

[darkknightjrk]

There were some interesting stuff during the time, and I think he had the voices down for all the main characters and gave them all good times in the spotlight, but it also seemed to have a lot to do with building up to Infinite Crisis, which I don't really care about one way or another.

Re: I really like this

[icon_uk]

I think he gave them time in the spotlight if their names were Tim, Kon or Cassie, but Rachel and Bart were royally shafted by it.

Re: I really like this

[fifthie]

In Kon's case it was less a spotlight than a laser sight.

Re: I really like this

[mrstatham]

I liked parts of it. Parts of it played way too heavily into Johns' bullshit idea of making a big noise about something that isn't entirely good - like his killing off of Wintergreen and entirely off-panel, which is pretty insulting, and stuff like pushing Deathstroke as an unbeatable mercenary and not even giving him an excuse for losing that frequently in the past.

I also disliked the very 2000's notion of having to trash the old version of a team to put together a new one, and both the old Titans and Young Justice were pretty much fucked over to put together Teen Titans and the Outsiders. So I disliked that. I did like what he eventually did with Rose, but disliked the method he chose to get her to the badass eyepatched version of OYL - And the later bullshit dumped on her by Johns, Beechen and even McKeever really didn't help things.

So, perhaps like many a superhero book, lots of ups and downs. I liked the Brother Blood story, for instance, even if it did come with a needlessly complicated revival of Raven. The Titans of Tomorrow story was great, except for the fact it tied in to Johns' clusterfuck of an event. So.. Yeah. Ups and downs.

Re: I really like this

[jlbarnett]

it was okay. If you mean the runs that extended past his changes, but started there, I felt they relied far to heavily on Anti-Titans teams for enemies and also they always had to dramatically write people out. There could have just been some times where people were to busy to hang out IMO

Re: I really like this

[icon_uk]

Oh, and I'd also add in that it's not the loss of the 1990/2000's Titans that's bothering me (I skipped over most of those) but also the lost of the 1960's goofiness and the 1980's awesomeness.

Re: I really like this

[darkknightjrk]

My read right now is that while they were not a formal team like in the past, the NTT members were close and fought crime together.

Re: I really like this

[philippos42]

Donna's confusing backstory was largely due to repeated Wonder Woman retcons and Crisis Crossovers. A new retcon makes everyone's status confusing.

I remember when DC did the haphazard line-wide retcon before, in the late 1980's. They managed to do some good work in the post-Crisis period, despite Marv Wolfman wanting to blow everything up.

a) They brought people like Mike Gold, John Ostrander, and Mike Baron over from First Comics, which helped the quality of the work I think.
b) In the end, the successful series mostly decided to use the appearance of history rather than starting over. The superheroes were older and more grown-up. (Ostrander's Hawkworld and Pérez's Wonder Woman went the de-age and reboot route and were not as commercially successful.)

This time around, we're getting retreads of 1990's Marvel. It would be as if DC's big plans in 1986 involved lots of Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, and a new "DC Explosion" salted heavily with EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. Which, when it came to the Superman books, was in fact the case back then, but this time...

Well, the stuff that DC thinks will succeed and what actually succeeds may be different things.