As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics - The New 52 event of September 2011, writer Scott Lobdell (X-Men (1991), Generation X, Age of Apocalypse) and artist Brett Booth (JLA (1997)) deliver a fresh new take on DC Comics' teen heroes, the Teen Titans.
Tim Drake, Batman's former sidekick, is back in action when an international organization called Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. seeks to capture, kill or co-opt super-powered teenagers. As Red Robin, he's going to have to team up with the mysterious and belligerent powerhouse thief known as Wonder Girl, the hyperactive speedster calling himself Kid Flash and few more all-new teen super-heroes to stand any chance at all against N.O.W.H.E.R.E. But as Superboy meets them for the first time, the Titans have to wonder, is he a friend - or foe?
Tropes:
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Done rather confusingly with Solstice. We initially are led to believe she is wearing clothes under her black exterior, although very form fitting ones, but later we see her wearing actual clothes over her exterior, implying that all that time she was naked, and her outside covers her privates. But LATER when her metagene is briefly deactivated, we see she seems to be wearing a skin-tight bodysuit, but the fact that she is covering her chest and crotch despite apparently wearing that bodysuit seems to suggest that she could be naked and the writer and artist didn't agree!
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Wonder Girl struggles with feelings of both attraction and hostility with both Superboy and Red Robin.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. Wonder Girl battles Superboy, but is outmatched, until the rest of the team shows up to assist her...only for Superboy to quickly defeat them as well.
- Brain Bleach: Red Robin's response to Wonder Girl comparing her previous relationship to Fifty Shades of Grey.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Joker did something to Tim...
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the New 52, the majority of the original Teen Titans. Aside from Dick Grayson, who is too essential to the Bat-mythos, and Roy Harper, the original Titans do not exist. There has never even been an Aqualad (the first Aquagirl, Tula, exists, but is not a superhero), Cassie Sandsmark is the first Wonder Girl and Bart Allen is the first Kid Flash. Eventually, wildly different versions of Donna and Wally were brought in, but they aren't superheroes. It was even retconned that the team in general never existed before Tim Drake formed the team — done in the collected editions of the story, as the first arc has Tim state that there were other incarnations of the team — which is essentially the Geoff Johns lineup with some new additions. Dick, Roy, Starfire, Cyborg, Lilith and Garth were on a team, but it's never called the Teen Titans.
- Continuity Snarl: Numerous, due to editorial decrees on the universe changing during the run:
- Initially, the original Titans team history was to be left intact. At some point, editorial deemed all the previous teams to be excised from continuity, which led to all references to previous teams across the New 52 being removed in the trade collections of those series. Tim's references to other incarnations was removed from Teen Titans, Bette Kane's reference to being on the team and fighting Deathstroke was removed from Batwoman, and the official statement that the team that Roy references being on with Starfire in Red Hood and the Outlaws was not called the Teen Titans.
- It was said that Tim still would have had his history as Robin... then it was said that Tim was never Robin, just Red Robin. This lead to said references to previous Titans and Tim's Robin history being edited out in the TPB printing of Lobdell's first arc... but not in Scott Snyder's Batman. Later, Robin War would make it clear that he was only ever Red Robin... even if Grayson, the series that Robin War was practically a companion to, directly quoted lines from his time as Robin.
- Meanwhile, a cameo of Beast Boy was edited out from the first arc due to the change in plans for him: he'd now be a newly-debuting hero, and red (to tie into "The Red" from Animal Man). A cameo of Miss Martian was also taken out, though the speech bubble next to her still mentions aliens. In Red Hood and the Outlaws, Roy mentions Beast Boy and Tempest having been part of his past team, but Garth (Tempest) was, at the time, a mere infant in the new continuity and Beast Boy was freshly introduced.
- Garth would later show up in Aquaman as an adult, but not a superhero.
- This would all be for naught, as Titans Hunt would restore some of the previous Titans history to continuity, including that there was indeed an original Teen Titans team, composed of Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, Roy Harper, Garth, Lilith, Don Hall, Hank Hall and Wally West. And, as of Detective Comics (Rebirth)'s "A Lonely Place of Living", Tim's time as Robin, including (as the title suggests) his pre-Flashpoint origin story.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Teen Titans fight with Superboy ends with the entire team incapacitated while Superboy leaves mostly unscathed.
- The Dreaded: This is a team of relatively inexperienced but very powerful heroes. Their first story arc involved defeating an army of powered evildoers and escaping an exploding Antarctic base. Despite this, they immediately get very scared when a Red Robin puppet is delivered to the base with pins stuck through it and a smiley face...
- Evil Plan: N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s goal is still somewhat mysterious beyond a combination of wanting an army of meta-human heroes and For the Lulz level of douchery.
- Fanservice:
Done rather disgustingly considering the protagonists are still teens. Tim, Miguel and Superboy all are seen on their underwear during their time on Mystery Island, and Kon was Naked on Arrival. On the other hand, Cassie in the reboot is much more buxom and wears a lot of cleavage, and Kiran is constantly naked (Fortunately sporting Barbie Doll Anatomy). - The First Superheroes: Tim Drake, a.k.a. Red Robin, assembles a group of teenager superheroes against mysterious organization K.N.O.W.H.E.R.E. In a case of Orwellian Retcon, the issues, at the time of their publication, did mention previous Titans groups, but trade paperbacks and reprints excised those references to the past in order to establish that Red Robin's group was the very first gathering of young heroes.
- The Glomp: Skitter seems fond of this where Bunker is involved.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Bunker, a teen metahuman from a small village in Mexico, who peppers his speech with random Spanish words. He's actually pretty restrained compared to most examples, using one or two Spanish words or phrases per issue (as opposed to "per word bubble"). At one point he even lampshaded it."Madre... you know the rest."
- In Name Only: Due to a combination of reboots,
Executive Meddling, and some Audience-Alienating Era traits rearing their head, this winds up being true for a good portion of the cast. "Tim Drake" is the alias of Red Robin's unnamed parent-endangering alter ego, Kid Flash isn't actually "Bart Allen" but instead Bar Torr the future terrorist/rebel, and due to time travel shenanigans, Superboy ends up being replaced by the evil Jon Kent, with none of his friends, including the Batman-trained detective, the wiser. Note: all three characters were the original founding members of the comic-Young Justice. Fans... were displeased. - Love at First Punch: Teased, but ultimately averted between Superboy and Wonder Girl. They meet when he starts his attack on the Titans by battling her.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: In the second issue, we get this exchange between Tim and Cassie.Cassie: (Pointing to eyes) Yo! Up here. And before you ask. Yes, they're real.
Tim: I wasn't looking at, um... them, Cassie. I was trying to figure out how those war bracelets you're wearing are invisible. - Pinned to the Ground: At the beginning of the first annual, Red Robin finds himself in N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s Colony, pinned down with a foot on his chest by Artemis, one of the metahuman captives there.
- Rape by Proxy: The demon Trigon takes control of Tim and uses the opportunity to seduce both Wonder Girl and Solstice into sex. All three parties are shocked when this is discovered, but all agreed that they enjoyed it. Tim is also perplexed when it's stated that he wasn't exactly Fighting from the Inside and was a participant. He and Wonder Girl later begin a relationship proper due to lingering passions from the night they shared together.
- Retcon: The New 52's Teen Titans history is... unstable, to say the least. The first year of its publishing had the Teen Titans existing, but dissolved. Teen Titans had Tim reference a previous incarnation of the Teen Titans, and Batwoman had Bette Kane reference being in the Teen Titans and fighting Deathstroke. Red Hood and the Outlaws had Roy mention a team consisting of him, Starfire, Dick, Cyborg and Garth, but it's never called the Teen Titans, though it is obvious it was meant to be them. Reprints and trade collections removed all references to the Teen Titans from these series, and it's retconned that Tim's team is the first. Cyborg doesn't even allude to ever being on any super team aside from the Justice League, where he's now a founding member.
- Ret-Canon: Tempest wears the suit he wore as Aqualad in the cartoon.
- Slasher Smile: Tim has one at the end of issue #17.
- Team Mom: Solstice is one of the more well-adjusted female members of the team, and takes this role for a while as a more down-to-earth perspective.
