Teen Titans

Another popular team that people don’t seem to know the history of is the Teen Titans. This is one of my favorite teams mostly because Raven exists but also because this is another team that got really good animated treatment about 20 years ago and their live action treatment has been questionable at best. Their comic book appearances have definitely been more frequent then their on screen ones. But here we go we are talking about the history of the Teen Titans.

The team first appeared in 1964 in the Brave and the Bold #54 with Kid Flash who at the time was Wally West, Dick Grayson’s Robin, and Aqualad. By issue #60 they adopted the name Teen Titans and added Wondergirl to the roster. The team has undergone some serious changes in roster since its beginning, the first additions being; Speedy, Aquagirl, Bumblebee, Hawk and Dove. The original team sold fine but was not considered a hit until the 80s when they were rebranded as the New Teen Titans and were taken over by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. This is the makeup of the team that we know and love with Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy.

The 1990s team was changed yet again before the core group returned to their own title in Titans. This title ran for another 10 years before there were any major changes made. But come the 2000s the team underwent some drastic changes. Among them being the roster of the team now being; Tim Drake’s Robin, Bart Allen, the second Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, and Superboy. If this team lineup sounds familiar that would be because this was pretty much the Young Justice lineup. This era also expanded the team to include Miss Martian, Ravager, Supergirl, Kid Devil and the third Blue Beetle. This title was running at the same time at Titans which featured the 1980s makeup of the team but as adults, led by Dick Grayson.

The New 52 reboot of the team also brought new characters and changes, but we don’t talk about New 52 because it's not good. There is no aspect of New 52 that I would opt to keep so we are just going to skip over that little blimp in DC history because it was terrible. The rebirth storyline reestablished the original members of the team while also keeping Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy.

The Titans have a home base in Titans Tower which is essentially their version of Avengers tower complete with a giant T on the outside of the building.

The Teen Titans have come up against many different villains, hardly ever encountering the same one twice.

One of the most notable storylines for the New Teen Titans is the Judas Contract. Released in 1984 The Judas Contract centered a young team member named Terra who had the ability to control the earth and earth based things. She infiltrated the team in order to bring them down. This story was so popular it was reprinted just four years later in 1988. The four part limited series, Tales of The New Teen Titans gave us background into Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Changeling.

I am a huge fan of the New Teen Titans, that will always be my favorite makeup of the team, the original animated series did a great job with the characters. The animated film was not bad either, not a fan of the live action attempts or Teen Titans Go! But some great material has been made using this team.