How DC Comics Can Save The Teen Titans Franchise

As an Old School DC Comics fanboy, I will admit that the whole “New 52” reboot was a hard sell for me. However, this isn’t going to be one of those articles where I slam DC’s New 52 initiative wholesale; obviously the initiative has worked, at least in terms of sales. And some of the books are downright great; the Batman family of titles are strong and cohesive, and Scott Snyder’s Batman is already one of the best runs on that book ever. Geoff Johns continues to kick ass on Green Lantern and his Aquaman is one of the best comics they have. Then there is Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, the list goes on. Having said that, I think almost a year into this New 52 though, we can now officially count the reboot version of the Teen Titans at the very least as a disappointment. The title is selling decently enough, certainly well enough to get a spin-off in the form of Ravagers, but the book gets tons of online hate from fans and the Ravagers spin off is already tanking two issues in. Scott Lobdell’s writing and (especially) Brett Booth’s art makes the whole thing look like it was an Image or Wildstorm title circa 1996. Teen Titans is a cornerstone DC title that deserves better than it is getting.

According to DC Comics Editor In Chief Dan Didio, one of the main goals of the New 52 was to return the more classic incarnations of these characters to the forefront. In other words, they want whoever is wearing the costumes in the comics to be the characters most widely recognized by the mainstream non comic book reading audience. This is why Barbara Gordon is Batgirl instead of Stephanie Brown, why Barry Allen is the Flash in place of Wally West, and for similar reasons why Clark Kent and Lois Lane aren’t married, as to most average Joe Six Packs, Clark, Lois, and Superman are still in a love triangle.

Based on this logic, it is strange that the Teen Titans books are such a hot mess right now. For a company that is all about “corporate synergy” between itself and parent company Warner Brothers, there hasn’t been much in regards to this book.  If you were to ask a kid on the street, or even a casual comic book fan, who made up the membership of the Teen Titans, chances are they would tell you the characters who made up the highly successful animated version: Robin (the Dick Grayson version) Cyborg, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy. Those of course, are the same characters who made up the bulk of the team in the 1980’s New Teen Titans series, which for most of that decade was DC’s #1 selling title and helped keep the company afloat. If there is an “iconic” Teen Titans team, then those characters are it.

Meanwhile, Young Justice on Cartoon Network currently features Robin (Tim Drake) Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, Kid Flash Bart Allen and Superboy as the core group. But these are the characters who in the current comics go by the name Teen Titans, not Young Justice. Someone dropped the ball. It also doesn’t help that Teen Titans Go premieres next year on Cartoon Network, once again with the classic line-up. It all feels like DC’s right hand doesn’t know what their left hand is doing.

So here is how you fix this DC; cancel both the current Teen Titans and Ravagers comics, Ravagers being that cheesy 90’s style spin off series that no one seems to like. It has been established that in the New 52 DC Universe, this current team is the first group of teenagers to go by the name Teen Titans in the five year old new DC universe. So reconfigure the current version of the group currently going by the name Teen Titans into a new version of Young Justice instead. There has not been an in continuity Young Justice team in almost a decade at DC, and with an animated series on the air, now would be the time to do it. Have the current members of the Titans now training under the auspices of the Justice League, and doing secret missions for them much like in the animated series.

Meanwhile, re-launch Teen Titans with the characters most people associate with that team. DC has stated that being Batman’s sidekick is more like an internship now, as a way to explain away how there have been four different Robins in a five year old DCU. Which means that Dick Grayson as Nightwing could still be as young as 19 for all we know. Get that weird blow up sex doll version of Starfire out of Red Hood and the Outlaws and put her back on the Titans, and correct any weird personality changes done to her along the way. Bring in Beast Boy, Raven, and have Cyborg as their “older” mentor figure (I say older as he is only 21 at best in the Justice League title) This line up of characters is what both younger and older fans recognize as the Teen Titans most, so DC should capitalize on this fact. I’d also throw in Donna Troy, as she’s a beloved Titans character and missing from the reboot, to much fanboy unhappiness. While I hate that the new DCU has erased the now classic New Teen Titans series from continuity, at least it has freed them up to all meet again for the first time, and introduce a new generation of readers to that iconic team.

As for who is going to be the creative teams, well…there are a ton of talented people to choose from, it isn’t a short list. But I don’t think writer Scott Lobdell’s sensibities have really worked for most of his Titans run so far, and certainly not for Starfire over in Red Hood and the Outlaws. I’d get someone like James Robinson, who is doing a great job on Earth-2 right now. Robinson wrote the previous versions of Dick Grayson and Donna Troy in the last incarnation of JLA before the New 52 reboot, and has stated that he’d love to work on Donna again in some capacity. Well, this would be the perfect chance. There are lots of great artists working at DC right now who would be perfect, but of course my #1 vote would go to Phil Jimenez who is currently working on Fables spin off Fairest for Vertigo. Whoever they get, it’ll be better than what they’ve got going on right now.

So there you have it DC, my free advice on how to fix on of your most valuable properties before it eventually gets cancelled due to fan apathy. Teen Titans was once one of your cornerstone books DC, you can make it great again.