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JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative
JLA / The Technis Imperative (DC Comics Graphic Novel) [Paperback] Phil Jimenez (Author), Devin Grayson (Author)
144 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1999
2 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Devin Grayson
508 books117 followersDevin Grayson is an avid gamer, former acting student, and enthusiastic reader fortunate enough to have turned a lifelong obsession with fictional characters into a dynamic writing career. She has a B.A. from Bard College, where she studied creative writing with novelist Mona Simpson. Best known for her work on the Batman titles for DC Comics, Devin has been a regular writer on Catwoman, Nightwing, and The Titans, and contributed to the award-winning No Man’s Land story arc. With the publication of Batman: Gotham Knights in March of 2000, she became the first (and, sadly, only as of 2020) female to create, launch and write an ongoing Batman title.
Additional career highlights include the launch of the critically acclaimed series Omni for Humanoids, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, an original novel featuring Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, and USER—a highly personal three-part, creator-owned miniseries about gender identity and online role-playing, originally published by Vertigo and newly available as a collected edition hardcover through Image. Devin is also the creator of Yelena Belova, a Marvel character staring in the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie (played by Florence Pugh), Damien Darhk, a DC character now appearing regularly in CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (played by Neal McDonough), and Catalina Flores, a DC character recently featured as the super-villain Tarantula in The Lego Batman Movie.
Frequently cited for compelling character development and nuanced exploration of complex themes, Devin’s work has been showcased in mainstream media such as USA Today and Working Woman as well as in alternative press such as The Village Voice, The Advocate, and Curve magazine. Over the years, she has written in several different media and genres, from comic books and novels to video game scripts and short essays. She is currently working on an original graphic novel for Berger Books.
Devin lives in Northern California with her husband, step-son, devoted Early Alert Canines Diabetic Alert Dog, and somewhat less devoted cat. Openly bisexual, she is a passionate advocate for the GLBTQ community, as well as being a committed environmentalist, and a public speaker for T1 Diabetes awareness and Diabetic Alert Dogs. She is always happy to take on a new challenge, especially if it involves making some new fictional friends.
Additional career highlights include the launch of the critically acclaimed series Omni for Humanoids, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, an original novel featuring Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, and USER—a highly personal three-part, creator-owned miniseries about gender identity and online role-playing, originally published by Vertigo and newly available as a collected edition hardcover through Image. Devin is also the creator of Yelena Belova, a Marvel character staring in the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie (played by Florence Pugh), Damien Darhk, a DC character now appearing regularly in CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (played by Neal McDonough), and Catalina Flores, a DC character recently featured as the super-villain Tarantula in The Lego Batman Movie.
Frequently cited for compelling character development and nuanced exploration of complex themes, Devin’s work has been showcased in mainstream media such as USA Today and Working Woman as well as in alternative press such as The Village Voice, The Advocate, and Curve magazine. Over the years, she has written in several different media and genres, from comic books and novels to video game scripts and short essays. She is currently working on an original graphic novel for Berger Books.
Devin lives in Northern California with her husband, step-son, devoted Early Alert Canines Diabetic Alert Dog, and somewhat less devoted cat. Openly bisexual, she is a passionate advocate for the GLBTQ community, as well as being a committed environmentalist, and a public speaker for T1 Diabetes awareness and Diabetic Alert Dogs. She is always happy to take on a new challenge, especially if it involves making some new fictional friends.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 3, 2020
Nice art and writing. A good team up story. Recommended
December 5, 2025
I really enjoyed this. It was a detailed crossover, fitting a lot into few pages, and still managed to work with that and the large cast of characters. I found it easy enough to understand and read through, which is often a challenge with such events.
There's almost every single Titan who'd been created by that point included or mentioned (even the dead ones) but it doesn't get overwhelming, and although the threat is partially the generic chaotic world ending one it's nice to see everyone get shown as helping, with introductory boxes.
The story works well with the JLA and generations of Titans coming together, although there probably should have been more of an emphasis on the NTT team in regards to Cyborg but it came out well despite the constraints.
There's almost every single Titan who'd been created by that point included or mentioned (even the dead ones) but it doesn't get overwhelming, and although the threat is partially the generic chaotic world ending one it's nice to see everyone get shown as helping, with introductory boxes.
The story works well with the JLA and generations of Titans coming together, although there probably should have been more of an emphasis on the NTT team in regards to Cyborg but it came out well despite the constraints.
April 21, 2015
I came to this book because of Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug). A smart internet reviewer that I respect a great deal. So being that he said this was his favourite comic of all time I committed myself to getting it.
I eventually found a copy so it is now read.
This is short in terms of any kind of event book, even though it doesn't exactly qualify. But the story and scale is massive. The page layout shift from numerous tiny panels to huge double page spreads. Phil Jimenez and the artist and co-plotter deserves so much of the credit. Devin Grayson does a great job in giving nearly every character (of which there are MANY) a voice and purpose.
Each issue is bigger than a regular issue (around 30 pages, I never counted) which including the dense storytelling can lead to information overload. So its a good things its short.
But what this book does so well is it takes the characters that have come so far and have so much back-story and channels all of it and gives them a challenge to face and leads them onto the next part of their journey.
I eventually found a copy so it is now read.
This is short in terms of any kind of event book, even though it doesn't exactly qualify. But the story and scale is massive. The page layout shift from numerous tiny panels to huge double page spreads. Phil Jimenez and the artist and co-plotter deserves so much of the credit. Devin Grayson does a great job in giving nearly every character (of which there are MANY) a voice and purpose.
Each issue is bigger than a regular issue (around 30 pages, I never counted) which including the dense storytelling can lead to information overload. So its a good things its short.
But what this book does so well is it takes the characters that have come so far and have so much back-story and channels all of it and gives them a challenge to face and leads them onto the next part of their journey.
March 30, 2009
The JLA and the (former) Titans have to team up when there's a major threat to the earth. Plotwise, this one's a bit uneaven, and it gets a little confusing at times because there really are more than 60 characters in it (although at this point I knew about half of them, at least!) and I wouldn't have given it four stars if it weren't for some excellent character interaction (most notably Batman and Nightwing), which made this one well worth the read. Actually, Nightwing is fabulous all the time in here, really. I have to admit I'm a fangirl *g*
June 28, 2016
This mini-series sees the Justice League and The Titans facing off when a number of Teen Titians go missing and the culprit turns out to be a founding member of the group that has been basically brainwashed. The JLA simply wants to take the guy out, but the other founding Titans feel there is a better way of handling this situation. This has a massive crossover of DC superheroes and it sees them all (eventually) put their heads together for the best outcome. This comic is very entertaining and very well illustrated in my opinion.
October 25, 2008
One of my favorite, all-time, guilty pleasure miniseries favorites. I can't believe that this Devin Grayson also wrote and totally tanked the Teen Titans relaunch and ran Nightwing straight into the ground.
September 14, 2015
A gorgeous book, thanks to the pencils of Phil Jimenez, and I love the way Devin Grayson writes the Titans.
October 15, 2023
ok so on the genuine positive note: this little three-shot was trying to do SO MUCH and honestly accomplished all of it. Now were all of those things served to the same degree, well no, but there weren't any massive failures either, which is honestly incredible!
My only real complaint is that the book is in a weird place with trying to re-center the Fab Five as the heart of the Titans through a story that clearly should have been an NTT vehicle and really wanted to honor the Legacy of the Titans concept as a whole. When Dick assembles his team* to go and save Vic's soul and we have to pretend that Garth or even Roy really would have anything particularly meaningful to say to Vic in that moment... it's a little on the laughable side! And honestly massively disrespectful to the relationship between Kory and Vic!!!! And like Dick didn't even choose to take Gar, he had to sneak his way onto the mission (though one has to assume Raven knowingly allowed him to come since he was literally the person closest to Vic out of EVERYONE THERE), and if he hadn't it probably would have failed tbh! Not to mention this story basically serves as the last gasp of the weird Titans line-ups from the 90s (think Team Titans, Titans LA, Atom's Titans) so making the FF the emotional core of the story (both with each other and with their mentors) works on the level of the book's thesis statement--Titans as THE found family team and the generational crux of the DCU--but falls apart if you mistakenly thought a story theoretically about Vic should be... well about Vic.
My smaller complaint is actually that I do wish the book went a little deeper because I do think there are a lot of really interesting emotional angles to play with, but we all know Devin Grayson has her preoccupations and no one is getting in her way. (Actually wait, Jimenez, whom I love and admire deeply, also does and ok ok this is the last time I'll mention it, but seriously Dick chose GARTH to talk to Vic's very soul????) But I'm going to allow it because I think in retrospect most comic book readers are feeling PRETTY nostalgic for the bonkers compressed storytelling of older comics compared to the social media bait empty "storytelling" where plot advances every five issues and every character has an interchangeable personality.
*listen I know how Devin Grayson works, I get that we are meant to understand that Dick chose the Fab Five line up because that's who HE trusted the most and wanted at his side for this potential suicide mission. But that actually does not make me feel better because not bringing Kory and Gar FOR VIC'S SAKE is such a major tactical error it genuinely makes me take Dick less seriously as a leader. Raven's non-involvement at that stage was given an explanation on page, and I guess the idea is no one takes Gar seriously enough (fair enough in isolation) to realize he was literally the only absolutely vital person on this mission, but Kory, a person with a real and meaningful history with Vic, gets left behind???? Because of what??? Ex-relationship awkwardness??? Which again, makes Dick look less like the strong leader we're supposed to perceive him as and also draws WAY too much attention to the forced plot machinations required to get to the admittedly very sweet declarations of love between the Fab Five when they think they are going to die and the nostalgic splash page at the very end.
My only real complaint is that the book is in a weird place with trying to re-center the Fab Five as the heart of the Titans through a story that clearly should have been an NTT vehicle and really wanted to honor the Legacy of the Titans concept as a whole. When Dick assembles his team* to go and save Vic's soul and we have to pretend that Garth or even Roy really would have anything particularly meaningful to say to Vic in that moment... it's a little on the laughable side! And honestly massively disrespectful to the relationship between Kory and Vic!!!! And like Dick didn't even choose to take Gar, he had to sneak his way onto the mission (though one has to assume Raven knowingly allowed him to come since he was literally the person closest to Vic out of EVERYONE THERE), and if he hadn't it probably would have failed tbh! Not to mention this story basically serves as the last gasp of the weird Titans line-ups from the 90s (think Team Titans, Titans LA, Atom's Titans) so making the FF the emotional core of the story (both with each other and with their mentors) works on the level of the book's thesis statement--Titans as THE found family team and the generational crux of the DCU--but falls apart if you mistakenly thought a story theoretically about Vic should be... well about Vic.
My smaller complaint is actually that I do wish the book went a little deeper because I do think there are a lot of really interesting emotional angles to play with, but we all know Devin Grayson has her preoccupations and no one is getting in her way. (Actually wait, Jimenez, whom I love and admire deeply, also does and ok ok this is the last time I'll mention it, but seriously Dick chose GARTH to talk to Vic's very soul????) But I'm going to allow it because I think in retrospect most comic book readers are feeling PRETTY nostalgic for the bonkers compressed storytelling of older comics compared to the social media bait empty "storytelling" where plot advances every five issues and every character has an interchangeable personality.
*listen I know how Devin Grayson works, I get that we are meant to understand that Dick chose the Fab Five line up because that's who HE trusted the most and wanted at his side for this potential suicide mission. But that actually does not make me feel better because not bringing Kory and Gar FOR VIC'S SAKE is such a major tactical error it genuinely makes me take Dick less seriously as a leader. Raven's non-involvement at that stage was given an explanation on page, and I guess the idea is no one takes Gar seriously enough (fair enough in isolation) to realize he was literally the only absolutely vital person on this mission, but Kory, a person with a real and meaningful history with Vic, gets left behind???? Because of what??? Ex-relationship awkwardness??? Which again, makes Dick look less like the strong leader we're supposed to perceive him as and also draws WAY too much attention to the forced plot machinations required to get to the admittedly very sweet declarations of love between the Fab Five when they think they are going to die and the nostalgic splash page at the very end.
December 1, 2019
A finales de los 90, un concepto tan importante para DC como los Titanes, había quedado un poco a la deriva. Los Titanes habían empezado como la reunión de los compañeros adolescentes de los héroes principales de la casa, Robin (Batman), Wonder Girl (Wonder Woman), Kid Flash (Flash), Speedy (Green Arrow) y Aqualad (Aquaman). El concepto en sí era un poco rancio, pero con el tiempo y la participación de grandes guionistas, especialmente Marv Wolfman y sus Nuevos Titanes, terminaron convertidos en mucho más, una pieza fundamental para el Universo DC, especialmente en esa mítica formación que incluía a Robin/Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Changeling, Ciborg, Starfire y Raven.
Con El Imperativo Tecnis, una saga en tres números que cruzaba la JLA con los Titanes, se repitió el escenario que había funcionado con gran éxito en la JLA de Morrison, apartar las "actualizaciones" del equipo y devolver a la primera plana al equipo estrella. Para ello se recurrió a dos grandes del cómic DC, la guionista Devin Grayson y el guionista/dibujante Phil Jiménez, que organizaron un evento gigantesco con docenas y docenas de personajes (Jiménez demostraría ser un digno heredero de George Pérez a la hora de plasmar viñetas con muchísimos personajes). Todo comienza cuando los miembros de todas las encarnaciones de los Titanes comienzan desaparecer, secuestrados por unas extrañas criaturas tecnológicas, mientras la Atalaya de la JLA es asaltada por una inteligencia artificial que se extiende rápidamente, ocupando toda la Luna y creando grandes problemas geológicos y tecnológicos en la Tierra. A partir de esta premisa, Grayson y Jiménez crearon una historia llena de personajes y más personajes... Y la verdad es que no tiene mucho más. Se nota que la trama sirve para hacer "limpieza" de Titanes y para recordar a todos los miembros que han formado parte de todas las encarnaciones del equipo... pero también de la JLA.
Ahora bien, si el argumento es un poco simplón, el arte de Phil Jiménez es espectacular, lo que sube un poquito la nota, al menos una estrellita es para el dibujo.
Con El Imperativo Tecnis, una saga en tres números que cruzaba la JLA con los Titanes, se repitió el escenario que había funcionado con gran éxito en la JLA de Morrison, apartar las "actualizaciones" del equipo y devolver a la primera plana al equipo estrella. Para ello se recurrió a dos grandes del cómic DC, la guionista Devin Grayson y el guionista/dibujante Phil Jiménez, que organizaron un evento gigantesco con docenas y docenas de personajes (Jiménez demostraría ser un digno heredero de George Pérez a la hora de plasmar viñetas con muchísimos personajes). Todo comienza cuando los miembros de todas las encarnaciones de los Titanes comienzan desaparecer, secuestrados por unas extrañas criaturas tecnológicas, mientras la Atalaya de la JLA es asaltada por una inteligencia artificial que se extiende rápidamente, ocupando toda la Luna y creando grandes problemas geológicos y tecnológicos en la Tierra. A partir de esta premisa, Grayson y Jiménez crearon una historia llena de personajes y más personajes... Y la verdad es que no tiene mucho más. Se nota que la trama sirve para hacer "limpieza" de Titanes y para recordar a todos los miembros que han formado parte de todas las encarnaciones del equipo... pero también de la JLA.
Ahora bien, si el argumento es un poco simplón, el arte de Phil Jiménez es espectacular, lo que sube un poquito la nota, al menos una estrellita es para el dibujo.
April 26, 2022
"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. MEMO TO ALL EMPLOYEES OF LEXCORP:
ONCE AGAIN WE FIND THAT EARTH'S SUPERHERO COMMUNITY -- TEEMING, AS ALWAYS, WITH HUBRIS AND GOD COMPLEXES -- HAS ENGAGED A FOE CAPABLE OF DESTROYING ALL THAT WE HOLD DEAR. IN PREPARATION FOR THE WORST, I URGE YOU ALL TO RETURN HOME TO YOUR LOVED ONES. REFLECT ON WHAT YOUR 'SAVIORS' HAVE WROUGHT UPON YOU TODAY, AND PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER'S SAFETY. I DEARLY HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW."
- Lex Luthor, CEO of Lexcorp.
The full-auto pace starts on page one and just barely slows down as the story progresses.
This story takes place just after Grant Morrison started writing JLA. So, it has all the imagination and excitement that Morrison brought to JLA, minus his customary batshit crazy.
At some point, Cyborg left earth and went full machine. Discovered a techno-alien collective, embraced their culture of science and exploration, and is trying to resurrect their former homeworld.
Who can stop him? Only the JLA and Teen Titans combined.
Sooo many characters. Hell, they even dug into the reserve roster for this one. Plastic Man and Elongated Man in the same story. What's not to like.
Four stars.
ONCE AGAIN WE FIND THAT EARTH'S SUPERHERO COMMUNITY -- TEEMING, AS ALWAYS, WITH HUBRIS AND GOD COMPLEXES -- HAS ENGAGED A FOE CAPABLE OF DESTROYING ALL THAT WE HOLD DEAR. IN PREPARATION FOR THE WORST, I URGE YOU ALL TO RETURN HOME TO YOUR LOVED ONES. REFLECT ON WHAT YOUR 'SAVIORS' HAVE WROUGHT UPON YOU TODAY, AND PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER'S SAFETY. I DEARLY HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW."
- Lex Luthor, CEO of Lexcorp.
The full-auto pace starts on page one and just barely slows down as the story progresses.
This story takes place just after Grant Morrison started writing JLA. So, it has all the imagination and excitement that Morrison brought to JLA, minus his customary batshit crazy.
At some point, Cyborg left earth and went full machine. Discovered a techno-alien collective, embraced their culture of science and exploration, and is trying to resurrect their former homeworld.
Who can stop him? Only the JLA and Teen Titans combined.
Sooo many characters. Hell, they even dug into the reserve roster for this one. Plastic Man and Elongated Man in the same story. What's not to like.
Four stars.
July 18, 2018
I enjoyed this late nineties look at the Titans. Cyborg was the focus- his recent mechanical travails overshadowed his humanity and turned him into a global threat. It took the whole JLA plus a few friends (the Marvel Family, Catwoman, Huntress and a cast of thousands) to help the Titans rein their friend in. Cyborg was alone, and in his loneliness, captured those Titans past and present with whom he was familiar and imprisoned them in the depths of his new moon sized form. When the JLA came to rescue them, he called in the reserves. He missed no one in his search, even those who were dead.
I enjoyed seeing the Titans back together after growing up and going their separate ways. The original Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Speedy and Wonder Girl are now seasoned veterans with different identities, mentoring the next wave of Titans. Starfire, Raven and the Changeling are also there to help the youth, as is Cyborg when he's in his right mind. This to me was right up there with the JLA/Avengers teamup for pure reading satisfaction.
I enjoyed seeing the Titans back together after growing up and going their separate ways. The original Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Speedy and Wonder Girl are now seasoned veterans with different identities, mentoring the next wave of Titans. Starfire, Raven and the Changeling are also there to help the youth, as is Cyborg when he's in his right mind. This to me was right up there with the JLA/Avengers teamup for pure reading satisfaction.
April 18, 2024
A really solid crossover for DC's two premiere teams that does seem to favor one more then the other, though only in ways the story they're tell requires. It's very wide sweeping in scope to an almost event comic level though it never gets too confusing because it usually takes a second to explain who someone is or what they're talking about. There's some very good character work for people like Nightwing, Changling, Cyborg and Batman as well as plenty of little bits of fan service for them any everyone else. Art is solid though pretty of it's time and just slightly off from the kinda style I prefer. It feels like something I would really enjoy if I was more of a Titans fan, though I know this was some people's first comic and drew them more into that world, but as I am I just kinda liked it as a large scale DC story.
October 30, 2020
A personal conflict and interesting reason for the involvement of the entire roster of titans and JLA, this story is fun. Really a Titans story much more than a JLA story, The Technis Imperative is really a celebration of the history of Titans, with plenty of in-jokes and dialogue easter eggs to make fans smile.
September 20, 2019
Love the artwork and the bringing together of all the Titans. A classic.
August 17, 2025
An okay idea bogged down by excessive exposition and dialogue. You’re better off just reading a summary of the event.
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August 23, 2022Just an absolute blast! Issue two gets a little silly when Batman does a classic fight with the other main characters but actually it was a plan and they end up working together thing, but the focus remains on some of the richest characters in DC’s stable while also having the high stakes chaos and great character work of late 90s JLA. And as far as I’m concerned everyone except for Cyborg is in the greatest iteration of their costumes here and Jimenez draws those designs, as well as character expressions and body language, so well.
July 25, 2011
Eh, not so great. It was fun to see the original Titans together again and I enjoyed seeing some of my favorite fringe heroes like Supergirl and Aquaman. Overall though I found it a little dull. Story didn't make a whole lot of sense and I don't really buy that the JLA and the Titans would actually fight each other. Oh well.
December 13, 2012
The title alone should give away that this is a pretty goofy book. The plotline is beyond contrived. The actions of the JLAers is ridiculously overzealous. The Titans are whiney. The villain and reveal are unexpected but pretty lame. These are great characters being written by talented people. This could have been so much better. The art by Phil Jimenez is very good though.
November 23, 2015
La storia è per lo più una scusa per riunire tutti quelli che sono stati Teen Titans contro tutti quelli che sono stati nella JLA, con alcuni che hanno fatto parte di entrambi i gruppi e devono scegliere da che parte stare. Al di là di questo, è una storia tutta giocata sul senso di amicizia e di famiglia, ottimamente disegnata da Jimenez.
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August 10, 2011Phil Jimenez's art is amazing in this one, he get to draw the JLA and all the Heroes that have been part of the Titans over the years.
April 21, 2015
I want to read online for free!
August 2, 2019
Edición española que recopila el crossover entre la JLA y los Titanes a cargo de Grayson y Jiménez.
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January 13, 2016Número especial Crossover JLA / Titanes.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews