Titans Triumphant

What I am about to say might sound obvious, it might sound exaggerated, and it might lay on a little too thick how I feel. Ahem. I F%&KING LOVE THE TEEN TITANS. And by extension: Young Justice, Titans East, and The Titans. The latter of which was one of the returning titles for DC Comic's wonderful event "DC Rebirth". So today on Current Issues we talk about "The Titans".

Writer: Dan Abnett

Artists: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund

Most people know the Teen Titans from their 2003 animated series and-to a much more depressing extent-their inferior, offensive, waste-of-time successor "Teen Titans Go". But The Teen Titans you're familiar with were founded in 1980. With Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg. But let's put some breaks on THAT team of Titans. I promise I'll talk about the current "Teen Titans" comic from DC Rebirth soon, I just want to give that book a few more issues before I talk about it. THIS team of Titans actually stems from the very first incarnation of the team in 1964. This team was where The Justice League's sidekicks formed their own little club and-to their mentor's surprise-rose in popularity. Now, as for this title, DC's New 52 mucked up a lot of things. The history of The Teen Titans being one of them. It was established the 2011 version of The Teen Titans was the first team, even though the Teen Titans were built on a legacy of characters who grew up and would replace one another. In his mini-series "Titans Hunt", writer Dan Abnett fixed DC's mistake by establishing the first Teen Titans to be founded maybe eight years ago and included classic Titans like Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and Dick Grayson/Robin. We learn in that story that some "mysterious force" made the entire world forget the original Teen Titans existed-including the members of the team. This same force sent the original Kid Flash-Wally West-into The Speed Force Dimension where he too was forgotten by the world. In "DC Universe Rebirth" Wally West returned to the DCU remembering his life before the company reboot. Wally warned Batman and The Flash of this "mysterious force" and went about gathering his old friends-The Titans. Now with their memories of Wally returned and a universal threat on the horizon, The Titans must team up again to protect everything they love.

What's really neat is that this team is almost exactly the original 1960's version, but with all the characters matured. The POV character for the first arc is Wally West, the first Kid Flash. Now he calls himself The Flash. Barry doesn't mind. Wally has two sets of memories, the dominant memory is of his life before the New 52 (the 1960's-2010) and memories of a new history (2011-2017). Wally remembers his old life, including his wife Linda Park. While he and Linda had a long-standing relationship before, the world is different now. She doesn't know Wally or love him. While he can't restore her memories, Wally can "respark" the memories of his former friends. Though Wally is the POV, it's Nightwing (the former Robin) who leads this team. There's not too much to say here. Dick Grayson is my favorite comic book character and Dan Abnett is pretty good about writing for him. Then there is Roy Harper (former Speedy, now Arsenal) seems to be the jokester of the team and have a bit of a romance with Donna Troy. While his problems with addiction are brought up to give the character depth, I cannot get over his stupid cap and snow goggles. As if his trucker hat wasn't bad enough. Donna Troy (former Wonder Girl) has a backstory as confusing as her predecessor Wonder Woman. Despite that, Donna is a proud Amazonian warrior and isn't bogged down by a disconnection from the modern world. She understands what Twitter is. The real disconnect is Garth (former Aqualad, currently Tempest) is an Atlantean adept in combat, technology, and mysticism and his mannerisms and behavior has signs of inhumanity, but not in a violent or uncomfortable way. Now, Lilith (Omen) isn't a founding member of The Teen Titans like these guys, but she's an early recruit from the 1970's. Omen is a telepath, which is always helpful on a superhero team. Just ask The X-Men. Omen was also essential in reuniting The Titans during "Titans Hunt". It's also hinted that Bumblebee will return to being a superhero to join the team in the near future.

The first arc revolves around Wally West trying to figure out how to reconnect with reporter Linda Park, but he is quickly preoccupied by another person who's memories of the past have returned; Abra Kadabra. Abra was a man from the far future who came back in time and used future technology to appear as a powerful magician and remake the world in his image. He used to be a primary villain for Wally when he was The Flash. When Wally returned to the DCU, we discovered Abra was only a sad, party magician. But Wally's return restored Abra's memories and he too returned to the DCU as a powerful foe. Abra also has complete knowledge of who Wally is and who he cares about. With the assistance of magical copies of the OG Titans (Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Speedy, Wonder Girl, and Lilith) Abra kidnaps Linda Park and puts Wally in an impossible scenario where he has to run fast enough to save Linda and his friends in a matter of seconds before their demise. But if Wally runs too fast he might fall into The Speed Force once again. Well, he saves them all AND falls into The Speed Force. But-this is where it gets cheesy-inside The Speed Force he comes to the realization that while Linda may not love him like before, his friends-The Titans-do. His uncle-Barry Allen-still does. And that there will always be hope Linda will love him again. So Wally returns and tosses Abra into the Speed Force. Oh, and he gets a date with Linda. Hooray. But Omen read Abra's mind before he was tossed away and sensed this word scared Abra. The world was "Manhattan". Oh, and Deathstroke is spying on The Titans which is awesome because he IS NOT a Batman villain, he IS NOT a Green Arrow villain, he IS a Teen Titans villain.

Dan Abnett knows how to write dialog that goes from funny to heartwarming to chilling and back to funny. He's a great writer, I've actually enjoyed most of his work. His Marvel book "Hercules" was awesome too. Brett and Norm did the art for 2011's "Teen Titans" and I found their act to be "too loud" for my taste. But I think I'm starting to get used to it now. It helps that this book has competent writing unlike 2011's "Teen Titans". The story thus far (seven issues in) is very engaging. "The Titans" is pretty essential to anyone following the overall "mysterious force" story that's been effecting the DCU. But it's also just a fun book to pick up and read, which is funny because Wally West is going to directly effect the DC Universe when this "myster-okay, you know what? It's Doctor Manhattan from "Watchmen". There. But this team is going to save the universe and the book still feels fun and family-oriented which don't often gel with a book of cosmic importance. If you want a fun read, but you also want to see what threats will come to the DC Universe, "The Titans" is a read for you. And if you miss The Teen Titans even more, don't worry. I'll talk about that book soon!

Thanks for reading!