Since launching in July, the new Teen Titans run by writer Adam Glass and artist Bernard Chang has offered a fresh mix of elements, combining the familiar (Damian Wayne and Wallace West) with the new (Crush, Roundhouse, and Djinn). Glass spoke with Newsarama about the team’s lineup and what readers might expect next.
On the parentage of Crush, whose father is Lobo but whose mother is as-yet unknown:
“Issue #25 is the origin of Crush, so we’re going to get to take a dive into her childhood, her stepparents, how she was raised, and how she came to this place. I keep describing it as if Superman’s origin was now, how would you turn that on its ear, and how would that be different through the lens of a modern-day audience and time? It’s not as innocent of a time; it’s not as apple pie of a time.”
On the magical Djinn:
“I’ve always been fascinated by magic and the idea of djinns. Outside of Johnny’s ‘Thunderbolt,’ I don’t know of any in the DC Universe that are prominent. As I did some research through the years, there were tiny little things here and there. But there’s such a rich history coming from that culture that you don’t see much in comic books… My kids go to school in Los Angeles, and just looking at their friends and their peer group, there’s such an awesome mix of kids from all different backgrounds and places, so I wanted that to be represented in Teen Titans.”
On the mysterious The Other:
“What if there was criminal mastermind behind everything we’ve seen in the DCU? What if it was this character The Other, and what if it is this ancient evil that’s been around for centuries?… He’s our Keyser Soze, you know, from The Usual Suspects. How much of that is real and how much is made up? We don’t know. He’s sort of bigger than life.”
On the individual members coming together as a team:
“Especially with kids, this idea that they would all come together and just snap into place and be this great team doesn’t make sense. You have to take a sport motif – it takes awhile to build a championship. It doesn’t happen overnight. Also, they’re all coming from different backgrounds. I want to show that struggle.”
On working with Bernard Chang:
“There would be no Teen Titans run without Bernard Chang. His art in this book has just been electric. He brings so much to the storytelling… He has a style that just makes stuff jump off the page and is so electric. Every time I see his art, it’s like Christmas morning. I’m always excited to see what he drew and it always goes beyond my expectations.”
You can read Glass’s entire interview HERE.
