The Teen Titans are coming to Cartoon Network!

[Chun-tzu]

From Newsarama http://161.58.84.234/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000197

Cartoon Network’s Justice League series will get some younger company beginning in 2003, as the network today announced that it will debut an animated Teen Titans series. The team will be made of the Titans of the Wolfman-Perez era with a few modifications, and include Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy (using his original Doom Patrol-era name which was changed to Changling in the Wolfman-Perez run and later changed back), Starfire and Raven. Kid Flash and any young character related to the Wonder Woman mythos apparently will not be memebers of the team, at least at its beginning.

The half-hour animated action series is being produced by Warner Bros. Animation under the guidance of Glen Murakami. The series will be rebroadcast on Kids’WB! following its showing on Cartoon Network.

But don’t necessarily look for a team-up with the Justice League…these Titans share more with the Legion of Super-Heroes than any current DC incarnation.

According to Cartoon Network:

Teen Titans, set in a future of intergalactic strife and interplanetary battles, features five teen superheroes each with special powers, led by the Boy Wonder Robin. This group unites to form a defensive force to protect the Earth from a new generation of villains. An eclectic group, their powers complement each other so that when they band together, they become a superb fighting force. Their personalities, on the other hand, often clash. Discovering how to control their powers, these Teen Titans must learn to work and grow as a team while dealing with the trials and tribulations of being teenagers.

"Cartoon Network has experienced great success with Justice League, so we know we have a loyal audience ready to embrace this exciting new show," said Jim Samples, General Manager and Executive Vice President, Cartoon Network. "These DC Comics characters have incredible powers, but struggle with how to use them. Teen Titans will mesh perfectly with our other action-adventure programming and thrill our viewers."

Follow the link above for the rest of the article, including pictures of the team.

I'm excited about this new cartoon! I'd prefer if it was being done by the experienced Batman/Superman/Justice League team, but hopefully these new guys will do just as good a job. The art looks a little odd to me, but maybe it'll grow on me. It's a shame Wonder Girl and Kid Flash aren't on the team, though.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

"set in a future of intergalactic strife and interplanetary battles"

sounds more like Legion of Superheroes to me...

 

[Holy Bovine]

Alright! That means in 2 or 3 years i can expect to see it in Canada.


the CRTC* sucks





*=Canadian Radio and Television Commision - the agency that forces Canadians to watch 40% 'Canadian content' shows (and no, noone in the CRTC really knows what that means)

 

[Jamdin]

I read that article earlier this afternoon. The pics looks interesting & I'm glad that Raven will be part of this team. She's the only character that I really liked

So I'll be waiting with bells on

 

[Dinkeldog]

No Jericho?

 

[Chun-tzu]

No Jericho?

The thing I liked most about Jericho was the sign language aspect, which is pretty cool. I'm not sure how well he translates to a cartoon, though. For one thing, it probably takes a lot more effort portraying sign language in a cartoon than it does to animate someone talking. Especially if they're going to be at all accurate (how many animators know ASL?).

His power isn't particularly cinematic either, IMHO. All the others have powers or skills that are very visual, flashy, dynamic. I don't think they could really do Jericho justice. But it would be great to see him in an episode.

 

[Sulimo]

Well, well. I'm surprised they didnt add Supergirl to the team.

 

[Ashtal]

Supergirl? She was never in the Titans. Wonder Girl/Troia filled the super-strength/tough character type.

I have to say that the Wolfman-Perez era of Titains was AWESOME. One of my favorite collections. This is fantastic news!

 

[Chun-tzu]

Actually, long after the Wolfman-Perez era, although still while Wolfman was writing the book I believe, the current comics version of Supergirl (the Earth Angel, not the Kryptonian) joined the team. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner was also a part of the team at that time. The book was really floundering back then, and I dropped it. This was towards the end of the first volume, and the team had dropped the "Teen" part, calling themselves just "the Titans".

The book was cancelled and later rebooted, once again as the Teen Titans, with a totally new team (by Dan Jurgens). That version wasn't bad, but it only lasted a few years, and the book was cancelled and rebooted once again. This time, it reunited most of the classic members, as well as some of the more recent ones. That brings us up to the current series.

The Titans are one of those teams that's been around so long that most young super-heroes from DC have joined it at one time or another.

 

[Klaus]

A quick Titans re-cap (cronologically updated):

A looooong time ago, Robin Kid Flash and Aqualad joined forces to defeat a villain named Mr. Twister (later The Gargoyle). They fared so well they started meeting more regularly, being koined by Speedy (Green Arrow's sidekick) and Wonder Girl (a girl inspired by the WWII Wonder Woman, aka Hipollita).

They began calling themselves the Teen Titans. The team eventually spawned a West Coast version (Hawk & Dove, Bumblebee, Herald, Lilith...)

The Teen Titans disbanded when Robin left for college and so forth (the team had an average age of 17 by then).

Not too long later the team was brought back together by the misterious empath Raven. This team was comprised of Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Changeling (former Beast Boy), Cyborg and Starfire. They were called the New Teen Titans. A couple of years later they dropped the Teen and became the New Titans.

The New Titans saw several roster changes, and the last roster was Darkstar (ex-Troia, ex-Wonder Girl), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Damage, Arsenal (ex-Speedy), Supergirl, Mirage, Terra, Changeling and Cyberion (ex-Cyborg).

After this group disbanded, a millionaire assembled a new Teen Titans team, comprised of new characters, like Argent, Jotto and Risk. That didn't last.

When a misguided Cyberion tried to take over the world, a new team was formed to make sure that new heroes would have the same opportunities those founding members had (training under experienced heroes). So this team, called simply The Titans, was comprised of veterans Nightwing (ex-Robin), Troia, Tempest (ex-Aqualad), Flash (ex-Kid Flash) and Arsenal, plus newcomers Starfire, Cyborg, Argent, Jesse Quick and Damage. This was a decent period, scripted by Devin Grayson.

When such a big team proved too much to handle, the Titans downsized to a core team of Nightwing, Tempest, Troia, Jesse Quick, Arsenal and Argent. This was scripted by Jay Faerber, and was very bad, with plots too predictable and slow.

The Titans are now scripted by the team that revitalized the Legion of Super-Heroes, so we'll see what happens next.