The Teen Titans have undergone a proper renaissance this year. Not only does the Teen Titans animated series celebrate its 20th anniversary, but DC has launched a trio of Titans-focused tales — including the new ongoing Titans series by Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott.
This series sees the Titans stepping in as the DC Universe’s premiere superhero team…and finding out that their work is more than cut out for them. Earlier this month, Mark Waid, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Jordie Bellaire focused on an even younger team with World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1. From there, issue #3 of the Titans series launches post-Knight Terrors (on September 19), and delves further into the case surrounding Brother Eternity and the “newly-reformed’ Church of Blood. Finally, in November, the third of those Titans-centric projects debuts with Titans: Beast World, in which “friends will fall [and] superheroes will rise.”
I spoke with Taylor and Scott at San Diego Comic-Con to talk about what drew them to Titans and why the team has such a foothold in popular culture, among other news and happenings.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Cover to issue #3 from Nicola Scott and Annette Kwok. Courtesy of DC Comics.
AIPT: What is the best part about doing a Titans book?
Nicola Scott: Good Lord…well it’s able to be playing with these characters in their adult phase of their life as they come back together. We’re so familiar with them as teenagers and finding their way as heroes, but now they’re fully fledged adults that’ve been heroing for a really long time. Now they get to come back to be a team together as adults, sort of fulfilling the promise of their childhood training. They’ve been working their whole lives for this.
Tom Taylor: What she said! (laughs) It is all that. It’s taking everything people loved and getting this whole team together for the first time in decades and having them step up to be the premier team in the DC Universe. There’s joy in it and in their relationships. How much they like each other and respect each other.
AIPT: Tom you are also currently writing an amazing run on Nightwing. Do you find it trickier or easier to write one book over the other?
TT: It’s always a little bit tricker to write a team book because basically you just want everyone to have their time to shine. It would be easier for me to just fall back and write everything from Nightwing’s perspective as soon as we started…but we started doing Beast Boy and Raven together and I was like “Oh no! I like them! I want to write more of them!” I want time for Donna Troy to shine, and Starfire and Cyborg… and that’s the trickiest part.
Art from issue #2. Courtesy of DC Comics.
AIPT: Nicola, you previously said you’re drawing these characters as adults. Were there any characters you particularly loved to draw or update?
NS: I love all of these characters so picking one is not fair. I got to update like half the cast and it was a real treat in particular to update Donna and update Kori. I felt like where they were looking wasn’t where I wanted them to be.
TT: No shields and swords for Donna.
NS: She’s a superhero! Unless she’s slaying a dragon she doesn’t need a sword.
AIPT: The Titans are having a moment with the Teen Titans animated series celebrating its 20th anniversary, World’s Finest: Teen Titans, Tales of the Titans, and the upcoming Beast World event. What’s made the Titans so relevant after all these years?
TT: I think you hitting on the fact that the TV show is so beloved…every kid has grown up watching a version of the Titans whether it’s the first show or Teen Titans Go…Teen Titans Go To The Movies, which is hilarious. I’ve seen my kids watching some form of the Titans over the past decade, growing up and loving these characters. Putting them back into DC with this massive fanbase who love them is huge. And of course there’s the Titans show.
Art from issue #1. Courtesy of DC Comics.
NS: The thing is no matter what age group you are, at some point you grew up with the Titans. And they’ve grown up together. So there’s that familiarity we have with them and their dynamics that nestles in your heart because they’re always been sort of emotionally involved, complex characters that have come of age together. We’ve all had those moments. It’s the reason everyone loves Dick Grayson.
TT: We’ve all grown up with these characters from Teen Titans, to where we all now. We’ve all been these ages. Seeing them step into those roles of the best heroes on Earth. And we’re along for the ride.
AIPT: Your run pulls a lot from the Wolfman/Perez run, including Tempest and a new Brother Blood. Will any more elements return? Like Deathstroke?
TT: Uh, Deathstroke…because he was just a huge part of Dark Crisis and we just came off of that we’d thought we’d leave Deathstroke alone. And Beast World is so much bigger than a superpowered mercenary. It’s a massive event and the first led Titans event in a while. This is their moment to shine and take on something that could consume the universe.
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