The more things change, the more they stay the same. Such is the case with the updated 2019 “Teen Titans”, a DC title that has gone through many different manifestations throughout its long life, starting in 1964, with Robin, Kid Flash, Aqua-Lad, and Wonder Girl.
In the 1980s, Marv Wolfman and George Perez resurrected the title, suffering from low sales, and turned it into one of the more popular titles in the DC line-up. Wolfman/Perez’s team of teen superheroes kept the original team but added Cyborg, the Changeling, Starfire, and Raven. Bigger villains, bigger stories, and bigger stakes equalled bigger sales.
A lot of time has passed between the Wolfman/Perez era and today, and a lot of stuff has happened in the DC universe that I know nothing about. Keep that in mind when reading my review, because I fully admit that I am completely ignorant about what’s happened in comics in the past 30 years.
The newer new Teen Titans, in the first volume “Full Throttle” (as written by Adam Glass and drawn by Bernard Chang) still has Robin as the leader of the group, only Robin is now Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne. (I had no idea Batman had a son, and I have no idea who the mother is, so this was all quite a shock.)
Kid Flash is now a young black kid named Wallace West. He has a chubby little Asian friend that he recruits to the team to be a superhero named Roundhouse. Green Arrow’s daughter is Red Arrow, the more mature member of the group. There’s also a bad-ass punk chick named Crush (daughter of some superhero named Lobo that I know nothing about) and a 4,000-year-old genie, permanently stunted in the body of a teenage girl, named Djinn.
While somewhat darker in tone, with a bit more on-screen violence elevating it to a more PG-13 level, Glass/Chang’s “Titans” are, deep down, a familiar rehash of the Wolfman/Perez “Titans”, which is perfectly fine with me.
Robin is still a pretentious wanker constantly brooding about always being compared to Batman. Red Arrow is the new Wonder Girl. Crush has taken the place of Cyborg. Djinn (who holds a lot of dark secrets that may become a danger to the group) is the new Raven, and Roundhouse is just a fatter, nerdier version of the Changeling. Same ol’ same ol’.
Let me be clear: I’m not complaining. I like Glass/Chang’s re-vision. They’ve managed to keep the same Technicolor cheesy good fun that I loved about Wolfman/Perez’s “Titans”, just with more contemporary references and fewer limits on how naughty they can get.