New Teen Titans: History and Character Analysis
The Origins of the Original Teen Titans
The Teen Titans first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #54 in July 1964, and was created by writer, Bob Haney, and artist, Bruno Premiani.
The original team consisted of Robin (Dick Grayson), Aqualad (Garth), and Kid Flash (Wally West); the sidekicks of Justice Leaguers Batman, Aquaman, and the Flash.
The team began to expand, eventually leading to the Teen Titans featuring in their own self titled book.
Some of the new team members included Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Speedy (Roy Harper), Bumblebee, Lilith, Hawk (Hank Hall) and Dove (Don Hall), and Guardian (Mal Duncan).
Almost a decade later, the series was canceled after #43 in early 1973, but came back three years later only to get canceled again in 1978.
Enter The New Teen Titans
Two years later, the team was revamped under a new title, The New Teen Titans, with a new team behind it; writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez.
This version of the team made its debut appearance in DC Comics Presents #26 in October 1980.
The team consisted of older members like Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Beast Boy (who went by Changeling at the time). However, there were three new members: Starfire, Cyborg and Raven.
Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven were new characters created by Wolfman and Pérez, specifically for the book.
The Success of The New Teen Titans
During the four years of its original publication, New Teen Titans, later renamed to Tales of the New Teen Titans, reached over 50 issues before it was renumbered in order to increase sales (Tales of the New Teen Titans still kept the same issue numbers).
The series was the best selling comic series in DC and Marvel; beating out Batman, Justice League, the Avengers, as well as Spider-Man.
In 1982, the Teen Titan and the Uncanny X-Men teamed up in their own issue written by Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men) and drawn by Walt Simonson, making it one of the first Marvel and DC comic book crossovers.
Products of Success
Marv Wolfman and George Pérez went on to write the DC Universe’s first crisis called Crisis on Infinite Earths.
This interpretation of the team heavily influenced the hit 2003 show, Teen Titans. Wolfman helped write many episodes from the series including “Deep Six” (S1 E8), and “Titans East” (S3 E12)
Writer, Geoff Johns took heavy inspiration from the two as expanded on the original stories from the 80s during his run from the early 2000s.
The New Teen Titans: Origin
The first issue begins from the perspective of Dick Grayson, alias: Robin, as he is having a presumed nightmare about a new team of Titans.
When he wakes up, he believes that his nightmare was nothing but a dream, but is greeted by a mysterious woman named Raven who tells him otherwise.
Raven reveals that she placed a vision in Dick’s mind in order to motivate him to form a new team of Teen Titans.
Their goal: to defeat a threat unknown.
One by one, directly and indirectly, the new team is motivated by Raven to work together once again.
Background: Dick Grayson became the ward of Bruce Wayne (the Batman) after his parents were killed in front of him. From there he became Batman’s sidekick, Robin, and the two became known as the Dynamic Duo.
Powers/Abilities: Dick doesn’t have any powers, but he is a skilled acrobat (as he was a part of the Flying Graysons) fighter, and detective, due to being trained by the world’s greatest detective himself.
Analysis: Dick was one of the most skeptical of this new team because of Raven, who requested the assembly of the team, but he was even more skeptical as to why he was chosen to be the leader of the team as he was the only one without powers.
Robin/Nightwing (Dick Grayson): Character Analysis
Analysis: Dick emphasizes having a team that trusts one another, which is due to his relationship with Batman. Batman refused to treat Dick as an equal, and because of it, he justified not being truly honest with him.
Dick repeatedly encourages Raven, the most mysterious of the Titans, to be open and honest because they are not only teammates but friends as well.
However, Dick is completely hypocritical as he keeps many secrets from the team when it revolves around his feelings. This is something he also picked up during his time under Batman’s wing, and is evident with his relationship with Starfire (Kory).
But Dick begins to soften up when he breaks away from Batman and becomes Nightwing during the Judas Contract, which strengthens him as a leader.
Here, he truly becomes a man as his character arc mimics a son going away to college.
Wonder Girl (Donna Troy): Character Analysis
Background: In truth, Donna Troy’s background is complicated because her origin changes frequently. The only important thing to retain is that she was the sidekick of Wonder Woman and acknowledge as her sister.
Powers/Abilities: Donna shares the same abilities as Wonder Woman such as flight, super strength, and super durability, just not on the same scale as her mentor.
Analysis: Donna is the combination of Raven and Starfire. She is fierce, but knows when to hold back. She is emotional, but knows how to manage them internally.
In a way, she is the most successful out of all the Titans because she is an excellent photographer who is the only Titan to get married.
Wonder Girl (Donna Troy): Character Analysis
Analysis: She also leads the team from time to time when Dick is absent from his leadership role.
Donna is the big sister of the group, even though Raven is (presumably) the oldest on the team. She is there for her friends, and doesn’t shy away from putting everyone in check when they fall out of order, specifically Dick and Kory.
She sometimes is the one out of order, but is quick to reflect on her actions, making her undoubtedly the most mature.
Donna is the rock of the team, and without her, it would be a dysfunctional mess. She is the perfect blend of an Amazon and a human, even more so than her sister.
Starfire (Koriand’r/Kory/Kory Anders): Character Analysis
Background: Koriand’r was the second born to the King and Queen of Tamera, however, she was granted to the birthright of queen due to her sister’s inability to fly (which is a natural ability to those of Tameran).Throughout her childhood even to adult her, Kory’s sister, Komand’r, hated her, so much so that she manipulated circumstances in order for Kory to become a slave. If it weren’t for Raven, Kory wouldn’t have been able to be free from the cruel captivity she was a product of.
Powers/Abilities: Kory has many abilities, ranging from flight, super strength, super vision, and can shoot starbolts from her hands. She can also learn languages through skin to skin contact, not kissing.
Analysis: Like Donna, Kory is a warrior as she was trained in combat. However, since she was young, but more specifically after becoming a slave, she grew ruthless and vengeful
Starfire (Koriand’r/Kory/Kory Anders): Character Analysis
Analysis: Here ruthlessness startled her teammates at times, mainly Dick, as she desired the blood of those who wronged her, including her own sister’s.
Kory is very open to experiencing emotions which shown through her clothing, or lack thereof. On Tameran, this is how the people would express and embrace their ability to feel, along with many other ways.
Kory embraces her sexuality, and is established with her relationship with Dick. The first time they met, she kissed him, not only to learn his language, but also because he was cute.
Kory loves the Earth as her powers are fueled by its sun, very much like Superman. However, she deeply misses her home, as well as her brother, mother, and father.
Raven: Character Analysis
Background: Raven was born in the dimension of Azarath and was taught since birth to suppress her emotions in order to prevent the power of Trigon the Terrible from taking control of her, thus destroying the universe.
Powers/Abilities: Trained in Azarath by the ruler, Azar, Raven developed and master the ability to heal others through her empathic power as well as travel through dimension, mimicking teleportation. She also has her soul-self, a physical manifestation of the power granted by her father’s heritage, and can see forward into the future (however, it is not that reliable).
Analysis: Raven’s mother, Arella, was groomed into joining a cult that worshipped “Satan”. Out of the cult members, she was chosen to be the bride of Satan, who surprisingly was an attractive man. Trigon, the creature that the cult had worshipped, revealed his true form and quickly took advantage of Arella, thus impregnated her.
Raven: Character Analysis
Analysis: The people of Azarath found her, protected her, and prepared her for the birth of her child.
Once Raven was born, she was quickly removed from her mother, only seeing her in passing until roughly around the age of twelve. At that age, it is also when Raven met her father, Trigon, thus allowing her to truly understand what she was.
When she became an adult, Raven left Azarath in order to prepare the world to stop her father. She went to the Justice League first, but they turned her away, knowing she inherited a presence of evil. She turns to the Teen Titans and forms a team capable of preventing the destruction of the universe.
Raven: Character Analysis
Analysis: In a way, Raven’s reasons for assembling the team were good, but they were also selfish, and she acted on that selfishness. She manipulated Kid Flash into joining her as she used her empathic abilities to make him fall in love with her, something he was not aware of for several issues.
With the Titans help, Trigon was successfully kept away from the dimension that Earth resided in, but only for a temporary amount of time.
Trigon’s power was now directly related to Raven’s emotions, meaning if she felt an overwhelming amount of emotions that she was not meant to harbor, her personality would fade into her body, causing Trigon to take control.
Raven: Character Analysis
Analysis: Raven had many moments where her control slipped, ushering the brief presence of her father. This made her more of a liability rather than an asset, and because of it, she left the team.
She didn’t return to the team until the series was renumbered, and when she did, she made it clear that she would be leaving permanently.
Her departure was interrupted by her fully succomming to her father’s power, and together, they took over the world in mere minutes.
However, with the help of her friends, she was able to banish her father permanently (not really), but at the cost of yet another departure.
Kid Flash (Wally West) : Character Analysis
Background: Similarly to Wonder Girl and Robin, Wally West was the sidekick and nephew of a member of the Justice League, the Flash. He was one of the first members of the original Teen Titans, and was reluctant to join the New Teen Titans. Because of his conflict over being a superhero, he was on and off the team. More so a reserve rather than a full time member.
Powers/Abilities: Wally has the same power as the Flash, he is just not as fast, at least not at this time.
Analysis: Initially when the team was being formed, Wally didn’t want any part of it as he was focused on being a student. However, out of fear, Raven manipulated him, forcing him to be in love with her through her empathic powers. When he discovered what she had done, he wanted to leave the team, but he couldn’t because of his love for her.
Kid Flash (Wally West) : Character Analysis
Analysis: Throughout his entire time on the team, Wally is extremely judgmental of Raven, rightfully so, but his judgement doesn’t stop at Raven alone. He judged former member of the Teen Titans, Red Star, mainly because he was Russian.
This side of Wally is still present throughout the series, even when Dick and Donna asked him to help save Raven in order to save the world.
He does move on. He invests into school fully and falls in love with a girl from his school, Francis Kane, who so happened to have powers as well.
Cyborg (Victor ‘Vic’ Stone): Character Analysis
Background: Victor Stone was the son of two doctors who worked for S.T.A.R. Labs. During an experiment, Vic’s mother was killed while Vic was left with only an inch of his life. Due to his father’s brilliance, Vic was saved, but left to live a life as a cyborg.
Powers/Abilities: Vic has many abilities, but at the time, they were less focused on technology and more on surpassing his limits. At the time, Vic mostly had abnormal strength as well as endurance. He also had built in technology like a laser that he could use to break through metal and concrete.
Analysis: Before the freak accident that injured him and cost the life of his mother, Vic was a football star as well as an excellent student. He was destined to go pro, but after the accident, he had a grim future.
Cyborg (Victor ‘Vic’ Stone): Character Analysis
Analysis: Vic blamed his father, until he learned that his father was also affected by the accident and would die because of it.
Vic was one the most vocal about his disapproval of Raven when the team was formed, even though she welcomed him no one else would. Initially, Vic despised being a hero, but he came around to it as he found a new place that he fit in.
He became a hero that children with lost limbs had looked up to, resulting in him accepting himself for the person he had become.
Oddly enough, Vic empathized for Raven as he understood the turmoil that she had as it mimicked the one he once had within himself.
Changeling/Beast Boy (Gar Logan): Character Analysis
Background: As a child, Gar was exposed to a disease, but was saved by a special treatment. This treatment granted him his green skin as well as his ability to transform into different animals.
Powers/Abilities: Gar can transform any to any animal, at times even mythical ones. However, the larger the creature he becomes, the more tired he grows.
Analysis: Gar probably has the most tragic story out of all the original members, as his is filled with the death of his loved ones. Gar’s birthparents died when he was a child, making him an orphan until he was adopted by Rita Farr, the Doom Patrol’s Elasti-Girl, and her husband Steve Dayton, Mento, who was also a member of the same team.
Changeling/Beast Boy (Gar Logan): Character Analysis
Analysis: Gar joined the Doom Patrol and grew close to its members, however, tragedy stuck again as they all died on a mission, except Mento who went missing after the death of his wife.
Gar was completely alone once again, but something came out of his lonesome. Gar became a television star, using his green skin and shape shifting abilities to his advantage. Fame instantly came with his success, making him possibly the most well-known Titan.
Gar joins the team at the request of Raven, making him the youngest member (at the time), as well as the team’s comedic relief.
Important Storylines
The Arrival of Trigon the Terrible (Issues #1-6): The new Teen Titans must prevent Trigon from corrupting the Earth with his monstrous power.
Enter Tamaran(Issues #23-Annual 1): The Teen Titans are taken into space to rescue Starfire from the evil wrath from her sister, Blackfire.
The Return of Brother Blood (Issues #40-41): Titan’s villain, Brother Blood, but with a new member of his cult, Dick Grayson.
Judas Contract (Issues #42-Annual 3): After Terra joined the team, she and Deathstroke worked together to destroy them from the inside out.
The Return and Conquest of Trigon the Terrible(Vol 2 Issues #1-5): Trigon and Raven work side by side in ruling over all life on Earth, so the Titans must work together to free their friend as well as defeat her father once more.