The Teen Titans are one of the most popular superhero teams around, and it’s no trouble to find out why. First off, they were the original teenage hero team, which allowed DC to inject plenty of drama and perspective into it that appealed to a younger audience, as opposed to the typical adult drama with other heroes. The Teen Titans set the standard for every teen team to follow. Even beyond that, the Teen Titans are special because they are a family as much as they are superheroes. Every member feels important and loved by all the others, and their dynamic is centered around trust and friendship first, and their jobs second.
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While most other superhero teams can work with about any roster, the Teen Titans are truly made by their members. Each one contributed something important to creating the Teen Titans’ identity that persists even today. So we’re going to take a look at the ten Titans who contributed the most to defining what the team is all about, and rank them based on how instrumental they were in forming the Teen Titans we know and love.
10) Robin (Tim Drake)
Tim Drake became the leader of the second generation of Teen Titans, mostly gathering his friends from the then-disbanded Young Justice. Tim is a majorly important character in the mythos of the Titans because he was the face of his generation, bringing all of them together to embody a new take on an old team, and ensuring the mantle of Robin’s position in the Titans. Tim being the leader transformed the Teen Titans into a legacy team, which also solidified the Robin mantle as the de facto leader of each Titans incarnation. He set the standard for all other Teen Titans variants and showed us what his generation of heroes could do.
9) Jericho
Jericho, better known as Deathstroke’s son, wasn’t a Titan for very long, but his impact cannot be understated. He first joined the team in their most legendary story, “The Judas Contract,” and stuck around afterwards. Jericho’s presence added a depth to the team that was especially important at the time. Terra had just betrayed everyone, and here Jericho was, the son of one of the Titans’ biggest enemies, being one of their gentlest and most heroic members. Jericho’s eventual death and betrayal left a scar on the Titans, being a family member whom they always blame themselves for being unable to save.
8) Arsenal
Roy Harper is the black sheep of the original Teen Titans. He started as a part-time member, then joined officially and was considered one of the greats, but his on-and-off again relationship with the team keeps him from being any higher on this list. Roy is like that one family member who you don’t see for months, then they appear out of nowhere and are your best friend until they disappear again. His troubled past with addiction and pushing people away, only for the Titans to continuously drag him back, speaks volumes to the theme of the Titans being a family as much as they are a team. Their relationship is nowhere near perfect, but that’s what makes it so great.
7) Flash (Wally West)
Wally has been a Teen Titan since the team’s founding, and he was the first one to move on to join the Justice League. Wally is one of the Teen Titans’ most classic members, but at the same time, he often leaves the Titans to focus on the League, so he is around far less than the other core members. Still, Wally’s obviously shaped how the Titans should look since the very beginning.
Alongside that, his becoming such an important member of the Justice League shows that the Teen Titans aren’t looked down on as a side team to keep the kids occupied, but a pathway to join DC’s number one team. Wally choosing to split between the two shows how important the Titans are, as well. He’s one of the first people you call to join the Titans, but he’s also one of the first to leave, so he only sits at seventh on our list.
6) Beast Boy
Beast Boy isn’t one of the original Teen Titans, but he is a core member of their most popular incarnation and has practically remained a member ever since. He’s often looked at as the comic relief of the squad, and while he certainly does contribute that, raising everyone up in their worst moments, he’s far more emotionally deep than he wants people to know. This hidden depth is from a place of deep insecurity and love for his teammates, which is the perfect example of the friendship-based drama that the Teen Titans are known for. His jovial attitude helps balance out his serious companions, and his character journey shows us exactly what a Teen Titans subplot about emotions should look like.
5) Cyborg
Cyborg is another classic member of the second Teen Titans incarnation, and much like Beast Boy, he brought something the team lacked up until that point. Cyborg had a serious image problem, looking at himself as less than human because of his implants, but that changed when he joined the Teen Titans. His commitment to the team and their commitment to him helped him come to terms with himself. There’s nobody else who better exemplifies the idea that the Teen Titans are a family than Cyborg, because he sees each and every member as a loved one.
It is also because of Cyborg that the fully grown Titans version of the team exists at all. When Cyborg merged with the universe-spanning machine hivemind Technis, he lost his humanity and attempted to capture all past and current Teen Titans to help him feel at home. This triggered the formation of the Titans, showing that no matter what, they will never abandon one of their own. The Titans are a family, and Cyborg is right at the center of that.
4) Starfire
Starfire’s arrival on Earth was the inciting incident that created the second incarnation of the Teen Titans. Her ignorance of Earth culture and first taste of freedom in years were the perfect setup for a character arc that mirrored the Teen Titans team itself. Starfire matured alongside the team and became the beating heart of it. She’s their raw emotions on display, loving and hating in pure passion that guides the entire team. The Teen Titans are almost impossible to imagine without Starfire, having been everything from a regular member to a mentor to the younger generations.
She is the most connected to their love for each other, calling the others out when needed and bringing them back together. Starfire keeps them all on the path they want to walk, and they do the same for her.
3) Raven
The Teen Titans, as we know them, would not exist without Raven. She’s the one who gathered the team of the New Teen Titans run together, bringing together some of the most iconic Titans of all and starting some of the best friendships in comics. Trigon is one of the Titans’ best-known foes, and he’s only brought into the picture because of Raven. She’s their link to magic, the one who can do whatever she has to if it means saving the day. But she’s not just the facilitator for some of their best stories; Raven is a necessary Titan in every sense of the word.
Raven’s measured personality balances out the eccentricities of her teammates and allows her to offer a perspective they can’t have. She learned how to have friends with them and has been on more rosters of the Titans than just about anyone else. Raven is the perfect mix of plot and character in the Teen Titans.
2) Donna Troy
If Starfire is the beating heart of the Teen Titans, then Donna is their soul. She’s been around since the very beginning and has always been like a sister to most of them. When things get tough and they start to question what’s going on, Donna is the rock they can all lean on. She was the one who grew up first in the Titans, winding up getting married and divorced, but always coming back to the team. Her death was the thing that broke the team apart, because they couldn’t imagine the Titans without Donna.
She might not be at the forefront most of the time, but she is easily one of the most essential members of the Titans, because without her, the team would have cracked under its own pressure way before they solidified into what they are today.
1) Nightwing
Dick Grayson was the leader of the original Teen Titans and is still the leader of the Titans to this day. He is the one that everyone looks up to and looks to when things go bad and they need a plan. Every member trusts him with their lives, and are more than willing to follow him to the edge of known reality and back if he says the word. The Titans have always formed around Nightwing, and he’s been their backbone for every major incarnation of the team. From leading them at the start to becoming Nightwing and breaking the team apart, only to reform again, Dick has been through everything with the Titans.
Nobody has had greater influence over who is on the team, what they do, and what they represent than Nightwing. Without Nightwing, the Titans simply don’t feel complete. He’s their face as well a their brain, and when you think of the Teen Titans, odds are that Dick is one of the first people to pop to mind.
So there we have the ten characters who have defined the Teen Titans more so than anyone else. This list could easily include plenty of other characters, like Omen, Garth, Blue Beetle, and Superboy. Do you agree with the rankings? What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
