How the Mighty TITANS Have Fallen! Dan Abnett tears the team apart!

by JC Alvarez
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DC Comics writer Dan Abnett heralds dark days ahead for the Titans as the group goes its separate ways (again) only this time there may be no coming back!

Among the pantheon of heroes in the DC Comics universe, the Teen Titans have established themselves as some of the most popular and long lasting, and at times have even outshined their mentors in the Justice League. During the height of their popularity The New Teen Titans re-introduced by the creative team of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez were literally outselling the big guns including Superman and Batman. When the recent publishing rebrand “Rebirth” launched at the center of it all was a founding member of the one-time sidekicks.

The core original Teen Titans have reunited in the pages of Titans one of the premiere books propelling the “Rebirth” story arc forward. Since reestablishing their proper base of operations in Manhattan, Nightwing and the core members including Donna Troy, Arsenal (Roy Harper), Aqualad and Wally West who has returned and assumed his role as The Flash. Recently the Titans have faced threats from within going head-to-head with an old foe (Deathstroke) and come face-to-face with Troia, a Donna Troy from a possible future.

The arrival of Troia forced the hand of the Justice League to intercede and disband the Titans. Suspicious that contemporary Donna Troy is still much of an enigma among the superhero community may be a threat, the league has moved Donna into the Watchtower and asked the remaining members of the Titans to hang up their tights. Is perhaps the league concerned that they are once again overshadowed by their younger alter-ego?

Dan Abnett has been the writer at the heart of the Titans reintegrating the heroes back to their proper place in DC’s longstanding legacy. The scribe has suggested that although the team will be going their own separate ways, at least for now, it’s for the best. Beginning with Issue #20, the book will follow the lives of peripheral Titans, including Arsenal, who has been relegated to much of the background since leaving Red Hood’s Outlaws to rejoin his childhood friends. Roy is hunting down drug traffickers in New York City and he won’t be doing it alone!

Meanwhile, Wally West is pulling his life together and just moved into his own place in Keystone City, adjacent to Central City, but even with the help of Dick Grayson, is Wally ready for “The Flash Wars” that are just over the horizon. Donna on the other hand is being monitored by the league, and is especially being coddled by Wonder Woman who feels responsible for not properly mentoring the young woman. Diana is now determined to help Donna discover some truths about who — or what — she is!

Abnett is promising that this time apart will force the group to examine themselves, and most importantly their place in the superhero hierarchy. “It was really a case of taking the core concept of what the Titans — and I suppose the Teen Titans — is and putting it under a microscope,” the writer told newsrama.com. “They’ve saved the world, but they’ve saved world in a very individual way that is about their own relationships. From the point of the view of the Justice League, that’s not a very safe thing to do.”

The ongoing story arc will also have Abnett taking a closer look at exactly who is Donna Troy, a theory that has often been examined during the course of the character’s long history. There certainly have even been multiple storylines dedicated to this them. In the most recent incarnations of Donna Troy, she has been portrayed to posses a very dark and unpredictable side. “Quite often in the past,” Abnett said, “characters turned to the dark side or became unbelievably powerful and therefore dangerous, but when the storyline ended, it is like: ‘Oh, they are fine again.’ And you go, really? Would you really think they are fine again?”

The league is concerned that Donna Troy is dangerous. Whether or not the rest of her teammates will work to extract her from the league’s captivity remains to be seen. “These are not sidekicks. These are not understudies,” added Abnett, “even though the world seems to regard them as such. The idea that the Titans have always got parents or big brothers to answer to means they have this sense of oversight that they’ve got to get it right. And that, I think, is the fun thing about this story.”

The “Titans Apart” storyline is starting to unravel in the pages of Titans #20 by Dan Abnett and Paul Pelletier.

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