Of all of the victims of DC Comics’ New 52 reboot, the Teen Titans had been among the many hardest hit: The collection was largely a steady disappointment with occasional bursts of decency. Perplexingly, it caught round, maybe solely to ensure individuals had been conscious that Tim Drake hadn’t quietly been killed off. It was the form of e-book the place nonsense comparable to Superboy getting a Tron costume and Raven being changed into what’s scientifically referred to as a “intercourse rooster” had been deemed acceptable. (Sure, each of those occurred, and sure, they had been as dumb as they sound.) Even when author Scott Lobdell left the e-book, the writers, artists, and colorists after him couldn’t completely undo the harm that he created, and the collection by no means fairly totally lived as much as its potential.

However Teen Titans is again as one of many new books in the DC Rebirth initiative, and kicked off with a one-shot this week to ascertain the e-book’s model, which might be adopted by a month-to-month collection arriving in October. The brand new e-book — written by Inexperienced Arrow scribe Benjamin Percy, drawn by Jonboy Meyers and coloured by Jim Charalampidis — sees Damian Wayne (son of Bruce) recruit (learn: power) Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire and Child Flash to assist him take down a teenage murderer academy headed up by his grandfather, Ra’s al Ghul.

There’s just about nowhere to go however up for the Titans, and I am truthfully excited to see how issues progress with this new arc. I like Percy, I like Meyers’ artwork, and it’ll be good to have an excellent Teen Titans e-book after half a decade of disappointment. It’s simply future tales that fear me. In interviews earlier this month, Percy said that every arc may have a specific character that’ll be the “focusing agent.” After Damian’s arc wraps, the second might be concerning the nonetheless unannounced sixth member of the group (it’s rumored to be the newest Aqualad, Jackson Hyde), and the third and fourth arcs might be about Raven and Starfire, respectively. Already, I am feeling a way of familiarity with the information, and are available solicit time, it is doubtless that Raven’s arc might be about her father Trigon (hell, the preview just about says so) and Star’s might be about both her time in captivity or the reappearance of her sister Blackfire, who confirmed up in Red Hood and the Outlaws and suffered crucial accidents (it’s assumed she’s healed by now).

It’s lots like how every bit of Batman media has to point out the Waynes dying

It isn’t a lot that these are unhealthy concepts for a narrative, it’s simply that it appears like these are the one tales we’ve gotten for these two specific Titans. A part of it’s because it’s Rebirth, which is taking out the stuff concerning the New 52 that individuals didn’t like and enhancing upon it in order that it’s higher. With Starfire particularly, Rebirth — and DC You earlier than it — is doing its damndest to make her into the character from the cartoon that individuals know and cherished, due to how poorly her character was interpreted within the New 52’s Red Hood and the Outlaws title. Making her into her personal particular person is a good thought, I simply want that there have been different tales to inform about her when she’s with the Titans.

I perceive that the outdated cartoon collection could be very a lot nonetheless common with 90s children, and animation and comedian followers normally, however this does finally run the danger of the comedian e-book Teen Titans getting caught in an infinite loop the place they by no means actually change and are caught consistently reestablishing issues that, by this level, are greater than doubtless well-known. It’s lots like how just about every bit of Batman media has to point out the Waynes dying, despite the fact that everybody has already seen that and there’s no approach to make it totally different. Because of the cartoon, April’s Justice League v. Teen Titans animated movie, and Teen Titans Go, one can safely assume that the world is aware of that Raven is Trigon’s child.

It’s not simply plotlines that sound extremely related. At first look, you would understandably suppose that Rebirth was successfully bringing again the Teen Titans cartoon in comedian kind. The lineup is the cartoon’s group all the way down to a T (save for swapping Cyborg out for Child Flash, for the reason that former has boosted to Justice League standing). We’re as soon as once more on the T-shaped Titans Tower, and that’s greater than doubtless going to be on island in a physique of water that’s additionally in the midst of the town. In case you haven’t been studying comics for the previous decade or so, you would fairly suppose that Percy and crew had been simply inserting the cartoon Titans into the canon prefer it was no person’s enterprise. Granted, a part of Rebirth’s mission assertion is to have fun the previous and current, and if there’s one factor that may be largely agreed on, it’s that the Titans had been at their finest within the cartoon.

A part of Percy’s analysis for the collection earlier than he started writing was the short-lived Young Justice cartoon, and right here’s hoping that he takes that collection’ globalism to coronary heart for future adventures. The present obtained a variety of issues proper, and one was that the teenage heroes weren’t restricted to simply Mount Justice for his or her adventures. Every time they weren’t working collectively, they had been off residing their solo lives and had their very own crimefighting adventures, solely coming collectively once they had been known as collectively for missions. Given how common the present was, it is smart to comply with swimsuit, together with rising the Titans’ roster from the core 5.

The digital age and rise of social media platforms have made it so that everybody can join with anybody from everywhere in the world. It’s one thing that Young Justice and the ultimate season of the unique Titans cartoon each performed round with, and it’d profit the Teen Titans e-book right here. It offers the collection the power to maneuver out of the largely America-focused tales which have dominated it for the final half decade. Having a recent and rotating forged of teenage heroes from all over the world — like Bunker (the only real homosexual member of the New 52 incarnation of the Titans), or Kong Kenan, the New Tremendous-Man who lives in China— presents up character and character combos as a pleasant change of tempo from the 5 teenagers that we’ve largely been used to. Bringing all of them collectively could be extremely straightforward, simply have one in every of DC’s many teen heroes be a pc genius who develops an app to “join” heroes from all over the world — hell, this might even be one thing that Damian “asks” Cyborg to take action he can discover heroes worthy of serving to him combat his grandfather.

it’s not gonna lower it to simply replicate the components of the outdated cartoon

Such a plot gadget might play into how teenagers kind relationships on-line, and would give the collection room for small scale occasions like final 12 months’s Robin Battle, working throughout the DC titles starring teen heroes like New Tremendous-Man, Detective Comics, Teen Titans, and the upcoming Tremendous Sons. There have already been hints of a unbroken story being informed throughout varied Rebirth books, however this one wouldn’t need to have the identical cosmic scale these books are organising.

One of the best Rebirth books have gone with the historical past of DC books pre-Flashpoint, whereas additionally taking them in new and fascinating instructions. We’ve seen that with Superman, Batman, Inexperienced Arrow, Wonder Woman, and the like. If the Teen Titans are going to be amongst that steady — and given the expertise concerned, there’s no cause they shouldn’t be — it’s not gonna lower it to simply replicate the components of the outdated cartoon. The Titans are gonna need to develop up, even when, like with Beast Boy, that’s in small doses.