Why Robin F-Bombs Batman Is Part of ‘Titans’ Story According to Geoff Johns

It was the F-bomb heard round the world at San Diego Comic-Con, when the Titans trailer revealed an edgier Boy Wonder than DC Comics fans are used to.

And while some fans were divided over Robin saying such a sacrilegious phrase, apparently there’s a good reason for declaring “Fuck Batman.” Series co-creator Geoff Johns spoke with IGN about this controversial moment, revealing that there’s a good reason Robin has turned on his mentor.

“That’s actually part of the story of Titans,” said Johns. “When we meet Dick Grayson in Titans, it’s very much the canon of what Marv [Wolfman] and George [Perez] did. This is after he’s obviously split from Batman, if that wasn’t clear enough, and why he did and what happened.”

In the comics, Dick Grayson links up with the Teen Titans after breaking from his partnership with Batman and deciding to strike out on his own. It looks like the inaugural series on the DC Comics’ streaming service will take a similar route as the fan-favorite comic run by George Perez and Marv Wolfman.

“There’s a story to be told in the series. Dick Grayson is really trying to find a new place in the world — a new spot, a new life, just like all the other Titans are. They’re all lost, and they find one another to form this surrogate family.”

Johns said the series is meant tops the boundaries of what fans expect, much like that original comic series did in the ’80s.

“That book was, for its time, very controversial. It pushed the envelope really, really hard. We wanted to do a show that did the same thing. But I will say, the trailer, I think some people think ‘Oh, it’s all this, or it’s all that.’ The show is a bunch of different tones. But that’s a part of the show, that’s definitely part of the show.”

Other than the cussing, the first trailer for Titans was shown to be very violent in its depictions of bones breaking and blood spraying.

The series won’t just stick to the earliest run of the Teen Titans comics, and will also tackle storylines from Geoff Johns and Mike McKone’s stint from the early 2000s.

“I pitched [Dan DiDio] the Superboy/Lex Luthor thing — which we’ll get to [on Titans] eventually,” Johns said during his Spotlight panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

Titans is set to debut on DC Universe later this year.