Is DC Taking The Right Direction With Titans?

Written by Cristian J. Stanic

A trailer that caught a lot of people off guard over the weekend was that of the DC Universe’s new Teen Titans adaptation, simply named Titans. Clearly, the new show is going for a much darker tone, and as huge fans of the old Teen Titans show and even Teen Titans GO!, it’s hard not to look at this trailer with some scepticism. Here are a few things we took away from the new Titans trailer.

The most obvious thing has to be the tone. After years of flip-flopping on this whole “dark and edgy” thing that was meant to be their trump card in the competition against Marvel, Titans is making a definitive statement on it. Dark and edgy is here to stay.

Whether or not Teen Titans was the right property to make this statement with remains to be seen. Fans didn’t like the original Teen Titans show because it was dark and edgy, they liked it because it balanced its darker aspects with light-hearted humour and goofy action.

Teen Titans was somehow darker than its contemporary Justice League show, but also way goofier, and it pulled that off effortlessly. More importantly, it had its own niche in that superhero cartoon landscape, with younger heroes struggling with forming their identities as burgeoning adults, and complicated teen relationships. It worked because, despite the superpowers, fans could see themselves in all of the Titans. It’s way too early to tell if we’ll be able to form the same connections with the new Titans, but it looks like the majority of that weight to be a relatable character is being pushed onto Raven, who’s obviously having trouble keeping the darker side of her powers in check.

Robin seems to be occupying a similar role to the old show, as the leader, but now he seems older than the rest of the team, making him a de-facto voice of wisdom as well. Part of Robin’s charm was that he tried to uphold his position as leader and voice of wisdom, but he was just as young and just as fallible as all the other characters. They all learned from each other.

The trailer only really focused on Raven and Robin, so we don’t know a lot about the other characters yet, and with no sign of Cyborg, it might end up being a smaller crew. Is Cyborg too fanciful to work in this show’s universe?

This new show looks like it’s going pretty liberal with the violence too. There are a lot of narrative directions to go with Robin being so cavalier about killing now. Perhaps this could be contrasted with Raven fighting her own urges to harm people and hold back her dark power. Either way, it makes for some cool fight choreography, so that’s a plus.

One line in particular in the trailer needs to be addressed, and we think everyone knows which one – “F*@k Batman.”

It’s no coincidence that this trailer came out on the same day as the 10th anniversary of The Dark Knight’s release in America. They want to show that their new Titans are cool, they’re not the kids’ show versions you grew up with, and they’re going to be dark with a level of maturity, like The Dark Knight trilogy. But that trilogy never felt the need to swear unceremoniously. It does feel a little tone-deaf to drop this trailer, with this line, 10 years to the day since one of the best Batman movies ever was released, but no one can deny that it has piqued people’s interest in the new show.

Of course, this show isn’t going to be the one we grew up with, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s a different beast, and we should all be ready to judge it on its own merits when the time comes. The word from Geoff Johns is that this show is going to follow the old comic Teen Titans run much more closely than any series prior, and that’s enough of an endorsement to get us excited.

We’ve linked the trailer below to check out, but viewer discretion is advised.