The 1960s Teen Titans were an attempt by DC Comics to create a teen-oriented narrative that included superheroes that had appeared in other stories, but in a supporting capacity. Although it ran for 43 issues, it was canceled, then revived and canceled again before its revival in the form of The New Teen Titans in 1980. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, who would later helm the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, created the new group, which not only introduced new characters, but also reshaped the group entirely and made it much more popular. That is why I am going to talk about it in today’s article.
Practically all the New Teen Titans got a standalone series at one point, although it happened much later, decades after the group’s debut. Donna Troy, (a.k.a. Wonder Girl) is the only one not to receive a solo title.
In today’s article, I am going to talk about the legacy of The New Teen Titans comic book. You are going to find out who the members of the group were, what powers they possessed and who among them got their own solo series down the lane. Enjoy!
Who were the members of the New Teen Titans, and what were their powers?
When Wolfman and Pérez reinvented the group and introduced the New Teen Titans, they restructured it, bringing in some new members, reintroducing old ones and keeping some old ones. In this section of the article, I am going to introduce all the core members of the group, so here we go:
- Robin, also known as Dick Grayson, was Batman’s first sidekick before he was also introduced as the leader of the New Teen Titans. Dick Grayson is a prodigious athlete, a professional acrobat, possessing great agility.
He was trained at a very young age in trapeze to participate in the show alongside his parents. Grayson has mastered several martial arts and has been rigorously trained by his mentor, Batman, in various fields, such as escapology, criminology, fencing, stealth, the art of disguise, and many other disciplines ( combat or others). He is also a master of espionage.
- Wonder Girl, also known as Donna Troy, is one of the original Teen Titans and a character closely associated with Wonder Woman and her early adventures, although her origins have changed several times over the years.
Donna Troy possesses powers similar to Wonder Woman, such as superhuman strength and stamina, the ability to fly, super speed, and reflexes. She can move quickly enough to deflect projectiles using her pair of metallic bracelets that reflect various types of attacks; in addition, she is an exceptional hand-to-hand fighter, having been trained as an Amazon warrior, excelling in many fighting techniques, unarmed and with weapons.
She also used an extremely durable golden lasso, to attack at long range and lasso her enemies.
- Wally West, also known as Kid Flash and later as the third Flash, also one of the original Teen Titans and one of the most famous Speedsters in DC’s fictional universe.
Having been subjected to the same accident as his uncle, Wally has acquired a connection to the Speed Force, which gives him the ability to run both at supersonic speed and at a speed that exceeds nine times that of the speed of light, superb reflexes, and an aura that protects him and his clothes from the friction of the air.
His ability also allows him to speed up his body’s healing processes and even his mental processes. He is also able to vibrate at a frequency that allows him to pass through objects. Wally is also able to control the Speed Force itself by using it to produce constructs such as armor. He can accelerate his own healing factor or that of others without aging.
- Cyborg, also known as Victor Stone, a new character that debuted in 1980 and whose popularity has slowly increased as the years passed. Later on, he even became a member of the Justice League. Cyborg is partially robotic, which gives him superhuman strength and endurance, and makes him the physically strongest member of the group.
He also has a whole arsenal of built-in gadgets, including a sonic cannon, a scanner, a saw, and many others. He is even able to self-repair or operate his limbs even if they are detached from the rest of his body.
Through various devices built into his body, he possesses enhanced senses as he can detect enemies from afar or see them in the dark. He can likewise connect to any machine to control it or take information from computers. Finally, he has great intellectual skills, which makes him a mechanical genius.
- Starfire, also known as Princess Koriand’r, a fictional alien princess who fled to Earth and then joined the New Teen Titans as a new character, debuting in 1980. Like all inhabitants of Tamaran, Starfire possesses the ability to absorb any language by physical contact, be it a kiss or a handshake.
She also possesses the power to fly, a high degree of super-strength (even more than Cyborg), more than superhuman endurance, agility, and is extremely fast (although not like Speedster characters). She can also fire strong energy beams from her hands and eyes known as “starbolts”, being able to alter their emission and shape for various defensive and offensive purposes.
Starfire is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter and a ferocious warrior who does not hesitate to take the life of her opponents, although she normally refrains from doing so. On top of that, she also showed semi-total invulnerability and great longevity.
- Raven, also known by her alias Rachel Roth, is Trigon’s daughter and the character that actually unites the New Teen Titans, needing their help to defeat her demonic father. She also debuted in 1980 as a new character.
Raven is an empath: she absorbs the emotions of others to feel them for herself. She can also completely absorb the negative emotions of others to suppress them. There is some ambiguity as to what happens to the emotions so absorbed, and it is not known if they disappear or if Raven feels them herself for the rest of her life.
Before her second death, she also repeatedly showed the ability to give emotions, consciously or unconsciously, to others. Since her rebirth, Raven has possessed the power to fly. Raven can also manifest her soul in the form of an astral body, which usually takes on the appearance of a shadow in her form or that of a giant crow.
- Beast Boy or Changeling, also known as Garfield Logan, was a character from the original Teen Titans that was reintroduced to the group in 1980. Beast Boy can change into any animal he has seen in a picture or in real life.
He can even change into extinct animals, such as dinosaurs, or radically different from humans, such as snakes, insects, or even microbes. The transformations take seconds to complete, he can remain in them as long as he wants, and do no damage to his clothes, which reappear when he returns to his human form.
Once in the form of the animal, he acquires all the abilities of that animal. The only detail that makes it possible for someone to recognize him in such a form is his skin, which always remains green. Whatever form he takes, he retains its intellect.
Who Among The New Teen Titans Got Their Own Comics?
Now that you know about the members and their powers, we can answer the second question – who among these guys got their own, solo comics? In the beginning, no Teen Titan had a solo series, but as the characters developed and DC’s comic book roster expanded, the New Teen Titans became so popular that they received their own series, albeit most of them had them for a relatively short period of time.
Among the above-listed members, Donna Troy is the only one who never received a solo series (although other incarnations of Wonder Girl did get their solo series later on), while Wally West did receive one, but as Flash, not as Kid Flash, so it was in a different role than the one he had in the New Teen Titans. The same goes for Dick Grayson, who got his own series once he took on the mantle of Nightwing.
Starfire was the first among the New Teen Titans to receive a solo series – an eight-issue series titled Starfire was published between 1976 and 1977, so even before Starfire officially joined the Teen Titans. A second twelve-issue series ran from 2015 to 2016.
The second one to receive a solo series was Beast Boy, whose 2000 series had a total of four issues.
Cyborg received a total of two solo series, the first of which started in 2015 and ended in 2016 with a total of 12 main-series issues. The second series began later that year and ended in 2018. Cyborg was also the protagonist of an earlier six-issue series titled DC Special: Cyborg.
Raven also got her own short-lived solo series in 2016 that ran for six issues, as well as a second series, Raven: Daughter of Darkness, which ran for 12 issues and was collected in two separate volumes. There was even a five-issue special series titled DC Special: Raven focusing on the character.
