Kori: "They created the Teen Titans to have a place where they could gather without judgement. A place to grow up together."
Cassie: "So why are you and Mr. Stone interested in hanging out with a bunch of teenagers?"
Kori: "We've been through it. And in our opinion, we can help you. Victor wants a place where younger heroes can feel accepted. We'll offer training facilities, a place to get away from the rest of the world on the weekends and, most important—
—Freedom"
Teen Titans (2003) was a comic book series that ran from 2003 up until the end of the Post-Crisis continuity in 2011. The series spun off from the cancellation of Young Justice in Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day. The series was mostly written in its first fifty issues by Geoff Johns, followed on by Sean Mc Keever, Brian Miller and JT Krul.
This series was reasonably popular, but involved several changes in characterization which annoyed long-time fans. Generally, the ex-Young Justice characters were on the receiving end of this, being made Darker and Edgier as an attempt to invoke the New Teen Titans days and the more modern DC sensibility of dark storytelling. On a side note, the aforementioned animesque cartoon got its own comic book adaptation, Teen Titans Go!.
The series was revamped again multiple times during that third volume, introducing new Legacy Characters (such as Sailor Moon-esque Miss Martian and the cynical Bombshell), and attempting to be both Lighter and Softer and Darker and Edgier, killing off even more characters. Such gore-filled editorial mandates led to writer Sean McKeever to quit the book in protest, and things spiralled further down the drain, to the extent that DC reunited the 80s New Teen Titans into their own book Titans (again) and the Teen Titans went through even more change. After two years, the various team members were "graduated" to the Justice League (Red Arrow and Troia), "demoted" back to the Teen Titans book (Beast Boy and Raven) or killed off (Tempest). Titans became a book about a Deathstroke-lead team of villains, while the simultaneous run on "Teen Titans", by comic newcomer Felicia Henderson, had few champions, even amongst the most rabid fans.
Around the start of 2011, J.T. Krul took over writing volume 3, with fan-favorite Nicola Scott on art, and their run was fairly well-received compared to the previous writers. Yet this too would not last. Both Titans books were cancelled in August as part of DC's reboot;
Teen Titans (2003) sees examples of:
- Aborted Arc
- There had been some broad hints in Geoff Johns' run prior to Infinite Crisis that the new Aquagirl would be joining the team, with her expressing an interest in the Titans and showing up as Aquawoman in Titans of Tomorrow. Plans changed at some point, so she ended up joining and quitting offscreen during the "One Year Later" Time Skip. She finally joined the Titans for real during Sean McKeever's run, long after Johns had left the book.
- Likewise, the Son of Vulcan mini-series ended with the title character going to San Francisco and introducing himself to Beast Boy. This was obviously supposed to set up a plot about Vulcan becoming a member of the Teen Titans, but this never happened.
- The "Origins & Omens" back-up story foreshadowed a number of events which were supposed to affect the team, such as Static joining, Kid Flash returning to life and rejoining the team, Kid Devil dying (in a completely different manner than the way he actually ended up dying), Blue Beetle hooking up with Wonder Girl, and Sun Girl becoming pregnant with Inertia's baby. Aside from Static becoming a Titan, all of these were ignored when writer Sean McKeever was fired.
- McKeever had notably planned to resurrect Kid Devil and restore his powers. After Blackest Night temporarily established that "dead means dead" in The DCU, this plot was dropped as well.
- The same thing happened to J.T. Krul during his run. His first issue showed glimpses into the future which revealed that Aqualad from Young Justice (2010) would be joining, and that the Teen Titans would end up involved in a crossover with Deathstroke's team of Anti-Hero Titans. Flashpoint rendered all of this moot.
- Felicia D. Henderson's final two arcs were basically an extended Backdoor Pilot for a new Static Shock ongoing. The new series was supposed to have been based around the hook of Virgil trying to get his powers back, but the book ended up being delayed and eventually canceled entirely due to the New 52 Continuity Reboot. A new Static Shock book did launch with the New 52, but it had a different creative team and was completely unrelated to Henderson's proposed series.
- At one point, Deathstroke was shown taking in Poprocket, a homeless teen metahuman. It was stated that he had plans for the girl, but she soon disappeared without explanation. Presumably, they were setting up Poprocket to be part of Deathstroke's Anti-Hero team of Titans, but for whatever reason she ended up not appearing in that book.
- Accuser of the Brethren: Cassandra has a very antagonistic relationship with Rose Wilson/Ravager. Cassandra was also the one to think the worst of Rose Wilson, believe that she does not belong on the team and at times fight with her. Even when it looks like she is making peace with Rose, she reveals that she still dislikes her and considers her a one-eyed sociopath, stating that she is a murderer who is homicidal and warped beyond words and that she both cannot be helped and does not want to be helped.
- Advertised Extra: At the height of the popularity of Batman (Grant Morrison), DC Comics announced that Damian Wayne would be joining the cast of Teen Titans. His arrival was heavily promoted and multiple variant covers were created for the issue where he joins, but he was only with the team for a grand total of four issues before being Put on a Bus.
- Afraid of Doctors: Beast Boy has a phobia of doctors, due to being experimented on as a kid, and in particular he has a special hatred for needles. Raven speculates that Superboy has a fear of doctors for the same reason when he balks at his DNA being tested, as she doesn't know about his anxieties regarding the genetics he inherited from Lex Luthor.
- Afraid of Needles: Beast Boy has this problem. Thankfully, his powers give him universal immunity, but that doesn't stop the writers from forcing him to take shots anyway.
- All Men Are Perverts: Kid Flash (Bart Allen) put some serious effort into seeing his teammates Starfire and Raven naked. Starfire just let him see, and commented that it was the longest she'd ever seen him stand still. Raven managed to retain her dignity.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: The comic has gold/orange Starfire, red Kid Devil, and green Beast Boy and Miss Martian. Of course, both Starfire and Miss Martian are aliens, Beast Boy is a mutant, and Kid Devil was turned into a demon.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Kid Devil, aka Eddie Bloomberg.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Beast Boy, Robin, Hawk II, Dove II, Flamebird, Talon
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: After Mia Dearden reveals to the team her Dark and Troubled Past, where she contracted HIV from her days as a teenage prostitute, the others start telling of their own secret worries; Beast Boy is worried his "condition" could infect others and eventually turn him into a monster. Raven can't help but feed on emotions whilst everyone else sleeps. And Cassie is scared that Ares may be turning her into a weapon of war... then Bart comes in with his own secret:Kid Flash: I gotta secret, too. I ran out of clean underwear yesterday, so I stole some of Beast Boy's.Beast Boy: You what?!
- Ascended Fanboy:
- Kid Devil once he became a Titan.
- Static was also a comic book fanboy prior to becoming a superhero. When Miss Martian first met Static and invited him to Titans Tower, he was awestruck and claimed to be a "big fan" of the team.
- Author on Board: "When Amazons Attack" features the American government dragging women — and only women — into internment camps for the "crime" of associating with Amazons... and military higher-ups at the camp decide this includes Wonder Girl (Cassie) and Supergirl, which leads both girls to launch an attack on the camp. The other Titans pick a fight with the girls to draw their attention away from the soldiers, which leads to an escalating fight that doesn't end until Cassie throws Tim through a fence and goes to talk to her mom, who tells her that fighting will only make things worse. The Titans offer to help Cassie, only for her to turn her back on them, unimpressed with how they've been "helping" her, and destroy the team's jet on her way out with Supergirl, leaving them to be arrested by the military for the crime of associating with known criminals. Ravager directly compares the internment to the Japanese-American internment in WWII.
- Back for the Finale: The final issue (fittingly enough, issue #100) has a large number of former Titans showing up for the Grand Finale battle against Superboy-Prime. A number of characters who'd been written out of the book such as Blue Beetle, Miss Martian, Aquagirl, Bombshell and Damian Wayne were among those who showed up for the battle.
- Bad Future: This run had the "Titans Tomorrow" arc, in which the future Titans themselves are split into totalitarian rulers and freedom fighters. This same Bad Future is revisited after the events of Infinite Crisis, when it turns out the timeline lacks Ontological Inertia, so all the future Titans (and then some) arrive in the past in order to secure their timeline from wanting any further nails.
- Badass Normal: (Red) Robin, Speedy, Flamebird.
- Bald of Evil: Superboy during the "Insiders" arc (a crossover with The Outsiders), in which a Trigger Phrase activates his Deep Cover Agent programming. The first thing he does is to shave his head completely bald. The second, hammering his new resemblance to Lex Luthor home, is to carve a giant L in his shirt.
- Bait the Dog: Cassie Sandsmark often antagonized her teammate Rose Wilson/Ravager because of her past working with her father as a supervillain despite being brainwashed and drugged. Cassie would always say Rose does not belong on the team and doesn't trust her, and Rose would antagonize her for judging her for her past. There was a moment where the two of them appeared to make peace with each other when Rose was accused of betraying the team to work with her father. Cassie defended her, believing that after everything her father had done to her, Rose did not appreciate this gesture because of their previous interactions. Rose even considered leaving the team before the betrayer was revealed. But later, when Rose is battling her father's supervillain team, Cassie saves her. Rose is surprised, but Cassie smiles and says that they are family. Unlike before, Rose did appreciate what Cassie did for her. In a later issue, Rose remarked that she was happy that Cassie was treating her nicely. It was implied that the two young women were burying the hatchet and becoming friends. But then, when one of their teammates goes missing, and Robin tells Cassie this, and that he believes that Rose is concerned, Cassie tells Robin that she does not believe that, saying that Rose does not care about anyone but herself, calls her a one-eyed sociopath, stating that Rosa cannot be help nor does not want to be help, which means that her previous kindness towards Rose was likely fake. The two of them continue to antagonize the relationship throughout the series, with Rosa quitting the team twice because of Cassie, and Cassie ironically puts her back on the team, not because she believes in Rose, she let her back on the team because she needs a more able-bodied teammate. It appears that even when Cassie genuinely tries to be nice to Rose, her hatred of Rose is too strong for her kindness to last.
- Dark Action Girl: Rose Wilson became this when she took on the Ravager name. Later, former traitor Bombshell would fill this spot on the team.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Geoff Johns' run did not react well to Infinite Crisis — the team collapses and goes through over twenty members, and by the time Cyborg comes out of his coma, the "Titans" amount to a darker Tim, Rose Wilson, and Kid Devil.
- This happened to Kid Devil when he joined the series. He was originally a much goofier sidekick that used high tech devil pajamas and originated from the Blue Devil series, known for its very fun tone. Between then and his time as a Titan, he made a deal with Neron to become a real devil, and a lot of angst came with it when things didn't turn out they way he liked. It is slightly averted in his case, as Eddie's personality didn't change much, just his appearance and situation.
- Demoted to Extra:
- Characters like the second Wonder Girl suffered this in the change from Young Justice to the third volume of Teen Titans, as Geoff Johns decided to pay more attention to Robin and Superboy, effectively making the rest of the cast into wallpaper. After OYL, the focus then became Robin and Wonder Girl, which continued somewhat into Sean McKeever's run.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite her dislike of Rose Wilson, when Bombshell accuses Rose of being a traitor, working for Deathstroke, Cassandra defends her, believing after everything her father did to her, Rose would never work for him again.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Young Frankenstein, one of the recruits the team had gone through post-Infinite Crisis, was essentially a teenage Frankenstein monster.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: During Rose Wilson's time with the Teen Titans, her relationship with her team mates is strained. Rose has the most antagonistic relationship with Wonder Girl (Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark). Sadly, even when it appears that Rose is making peace with Wonder Girl, Cassandra revealed she still dislikes her and does not trust her. Another example is when Rose befriends another team mate like Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), only for Jaime to revealed (thankfully not to her) that he is afraid of her. The only friend she has on the team is Kid Devil / Red Devil (Eddie Bloomberg). It gets so bad she quits the team. When Rose considers coming back on the team, they vote on whether to let her back in, while letting Bombshell (Amy Sue Allen), who betrayed and tried to kill them, back on the team. Ironically, Bombshell framed Rose as the one who betrayed the Teen Titans. As Rose points out, it's telling that they let a former traitor back on the team, something even Bombshell acknowledges, pointing out that if they give her a chance, Rose deserves the same chance. After an altercation with Bombshell, staged to ensure her loyalty to the team, Rose leaves to find her own way in life.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Miss Martian in her Green Martian form, though perhaps a much cuter take.
- Heinousness Retcon: Geoff Johns' run revealed that not only was Deathstroke behind Cassandra Cain's Face–Heel Turn by brainwashing her with a special drug but he had also done this to Tara Markov in order to use her against the Titans. Keep in mind that in the original story, Slade was in a sexual relationship with the teenage Tara yet the story treated him as the more sympathetic of the two.
- Human Head on the Wall: Deathstroke is possessed by his son Jericho, who murders Slade's loyal butler Wintergreen and mounts his head on a wall.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Kid/Red Devil, to such an extreme that he made a deal with Neron to have powers. It is one of his defining character traits and is the motivation for almost every decision he makes.
- Leader Wannabe: Damian Wayne declared himself leader when he briefly joined, but no one recognized him.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Static is the Patron Saint of this Trope.
- Mythical Motifs: Explored in an arc, which introduces the Indian hero Solstice.
- Not What It Looks Like: At the beginning of the new series after the "OYL" gap, Robin (Tim Drake) returns to his room at night and sits on his bed, only to have a naked and extremely drunk Ravager (Rose Wilson) wrap her arms around him and try to seduce him. Robin's completely not interested but, knowing Ravager can be a bit hard to dissuade, pins her down on the bed and starts to handcuff her hands behind her. Then Kid Devil walks in.Kid Devil: Hot damn!
Robin: This isn't what it looks like.
Ravager: Yes it is. - Please Put Some Clothes On:
- In one issue, Ravager (Rose Wilson) drunkenly comes on to Robin (Tim Drake) by hiding in his bed completely naked. When he refuses her offer to "be friends", he handcuffs her with her hands behind her back... immediately after, an intruder alarm goes off, causing Kid Devil to rush to Robin's room and find a naked handcuffed Ravager with Robin on top of her. After Robin tries to explain that it is Not What It Looks Like, they rush off to confront the intruder whilst Robin tells Ravager to put some clothes on.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot:
- The third volume had a filler arc written by Gail Simone and illustrated by Rob Liefeld involving the Titans helping Hawk and Dove fight their enemy Kestrel that was intended to serve as the start of a Titans East spinoff.
- Geoff Johns' run had a two-part crossover with Legion of Super-Heroes titled "Superboy and the Legion", which had the two teams battle the Fatal Five Hundred (an Alliance of Alternates consisting of the Legion's enemies the Fatal Five and 99 alternate counterparts thereof) and was the starting point for the Legion's Threeboot era written by Mark Waid, the Threeboot continuity being created by a Cosmic Retcon resulting from the energies released by destroying every Persuader's Atomic Axe.
- Put on a Bus: The final issue before J.T. Krul's run ended with half of the then-current Teen Titans being written out of the book.
- Ret-Canon: The cartoon proved to have a pretty big impact on the comics:
- Following the One Year Later Time Skip from Infinite Crisis, Beast Boy donned his costume from the cartoon and Raven donned a similar costume to the one from the cartoon (modified to include a bird symbol and leggings).
- Beast Boy was given pointy ears and fanged teeth to match his animated counterpart.
- The future incarnation of Cyborg from the "Titans of Tomorrow" storyline has blue plating similar to his cartoon self.
- A series of Titans East teams also appeared, but only the third bore any resemblance to the cartoon's version, the first (whose ranks include the aforementioned future Cyborg) being from the future and freedom fighters against their old teammates and the second being Psycho Rangers set up by Deathstroke. Although ironically enough, this "Titans East" concept originated from the Titans West from the Silver Age title.
- The concept of a romantic relationship between Beast Boy and Raven originated in the TV show before being ported back to the comics.
- Joto was renamed Hotspot like his TV incarnation (though that was partly because the reason his codename was changed for the cartoon in the first place was due to the discovery that "Joto" was a homophobic slur in Latin American Spanish).
- Roll in the Hay: During Infinite Crisis, Wonder Girl and Superboy consumate their love in the hay loft of the Kents barn before Superboy flies off to confront Superboy-Prime.
- Tomboy: Wonder Girl II (Cassie) originally started as this in her Young Justice days, then went through a Girliness Update, before being riddled with
Wangst. Bombshell now seems to serve this role. - Toilet Humour: During Bart Allen's eulogy at the end of Geoff Johns' run, several shortsighted screw-ups of his are brought up. One of them was that he created an international incident by misunderstanding why the pneumatic tubes used to transport to Gorilla City were called "p-tubes".
- Tsundere: Bombshell qualifies as a Type A when her father negotiates her return to the Titans for safekeeping. It's just very hard to tell, considering her vulnerable moments are very few and far between.
- Wolverine Publicity: Damian Wayne was put into the team for an issue, which was around the time Batman (Grant Morrison) was really popular due to Dick Grayson taking up the Batman mantle.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The gruesome fate of Marvin and Wendy in Teen Titans Volume 3. Wendy urges Marvin that they should quit, feeling useless and underappreciated, but Cyborg and Red Devil encourage them and let them know how important to the team they are. And then Wonder Dog, recently adopted by the Titans, turns out to be a Hellhound owned by Ares' son Lycus, who mauls both Marvin and Wendy to death.
