Teen Titans weren’t the first teen superteam, but they’ve proven to be the best. The group brought together the sidekicks of the DC Multiverse – Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Speedy, and Wonder Girl – giving them a place where they could be young heroes together. Their adventures would see the team recruit some of the greatest youthful heroes and sidekicks around, but the team wouldn’t find true success until New Teen Titans, when all-new teen heroes were introduced to the group. It was this run that made the Titans into the legends they are today, the premiere teen team. Often times, the Titans are looked at like a school for young heroes, a place to practice being a superteam while also saving the world.
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The Teen Titans are often looked at as the next generation of stars and some members of the team have made good on that. Robin became Nightwing and down the road Batman, reaching the top of the superhero community and staying there. Wally West became the Flash, taking Barry Allen’s place and making the mantle of his own. Donna Troy has been Wonder Woman and Speedy became Arsenal and Red Arrow, joining the Justice League. However, there are some Titans who deserve their big day in the spotlight as well. These five Titans need to play a bigger role in the DC Universe, finally reaching the potential that fans knew they had.
5) Cyborg
The New 52 changed the DC Multiverse and it gave Cyborg his biggest promotion. He was made into part of the origin of the Justice League, with Victor Stone injured in Darkseid’s attack and bonded with a Mother Box by his father. Despite the New 52 being taken out of canon, Vic’s origin has stuck around; the difference is that after the battle, his father worked to perfect the fusion of tech and flesh he became, allowing him to also be a part of New Teen Titans origin. An argument can be made that his time with the Justice League – which lasted from 2011 to 2021 – was his push and that it failed, but this wasn’t the case. While he had his highest stature, he was never really important to anything. It’s time for that to change. Cyborg is a well-known, beloved hero who should be up there with Nightwing and Wally when it comes to senior Titans trusted by the League. He’s a powerful, intriguing hero whose A-list destiny needs to come true.
4) Omen
The X-Men debuted in 1963, with the Teen Titans coming in 1964. The two teen teams were basically competitors at the time and the Titans took a page from the X-Men when they introduced Lilith Clay. She was a redhead with mental powers, which may remind you of Jean Grey; she even wore green skirts. She would become the team telepath during the ’70s incarnation and when the New Teen Titans came along, she was left out. She’d appear sometimes in Titans books but was mostly a forgotten character until she was brought back in Titans (Vol. 1). Since then, she hasn’t been anything approaching important, mostly staying in the Titans corner of DC and then disappearing for a while. She was recently a part of the cast of Power Girl, a book that showed just how much fun she could be in the modern day. It’s about time Omen got a chance to shine on one of the big teams. Making her a member of the Justice League would be a surprise, but it’s the kind of thing that she needs. She’s a great character and a bigger spotlight will do her well.
3) Tempest
Aquaman is DC’s most underrated hero. The character has a rich history and army of awesome related characters like Tempest. Tempest was once Aqualad, the sidekick with the worst name you could give him (his real name is Garth, making it that much worse), working alongside the Teen Titans and learning about the surface world. He was the only founder left out of the New Teen Titans; he’d show up sometimes, but mostly was just a guest star. The death of Aquagirl in Crisis on Infinite Earths devastated him and he basically retired for a while. However, he’d discover he had magical powers and start coming around again during the Peter David run on Aquaman (Vol. 5), becoming Tempest, the magic user of the court of Atlantis. He became a much more powerful hero and has since been a member of the Titans several times, while still working with his mentor and protecting Atlantis. Tempest has become a much better character over the years and it’s about time he got a chance to shine on a bigger stage, showing the world what he can do.
2) Raven
Raven is both of one of the most popular DC characters ever and also one of the most misused. The powerful magic-using teen was the catalyst for the New Teen Titans to come together, battling against Trigon as he tried to steal her powers. She’s become the most powerful member of the team, with her stories all sort of going in the same directions, which is the problem with Raven. Usually, her stories involve her losing control of the dark side of herself, forcing her friends to have defeat her without hurting her. It’s a story that Titans fans have gotten a million times and it’s about time that she got past this same plot line. Raven needs a push that doesn’t involve her powers or Trigon or becoming an all-powerful evil version of herself. Let her shine as a character, inject some new ideas into her, and put her upfront of a big team or story. She’s an icon and she needs to be treated like one.
1) Starfire
New Teen Titans saved DC Comics in the early ’80s, introducing a new generation of teen heroes in Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire. The Tamaranean princess escaped her captors in the Warlords of Okaara and fled to Earth, joining the Teen Titans. She was the team’s beautiful ingenue, a naive princess learning human culture while falling in love with Robin and battling evil. She was one of the team’s powerhouses, and has basically been the same character for decades, which is the problem. Think about everything you know about Starfire; how much of it is related to Dick Grayson or her sister Blackfire? Starfire is undeniably popular, but she’s also one of those characters that no one really does anything different with, always putting her back on a Titans team. It’s about time that changed. Give her a solo, make her a Justice Leaguer, do something new with her. Starfire is a star who should be a superstar, a character who deserves her chance to grow into a new role.
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Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
