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Mar 20, 2019

The Top 10 Teen Titans

Remember the Teen Titans of 1960s DC comics, pushing together various DC teen sidekicks, including Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, Robin and Superboy (he's actually the teenager version of today's Superman, who is much older then Robin, so...oh, just go with it).

Turns out they've been doing the comic book store circuit ever since, with many changed characters, changed premises, and changed titles: The New Teen Titans, Team TitansTitans, and finally The New 52, which appears in issues of Teen Titans, Titans Hunt, and Ravagers.

Yeah, that's why I don't read DC Comics.  Who wants to read a hundred issues of a dozen titles to get the story?

Forging a tv series out of such a complicated storyis risky business (really, who in the real world has ever heard of any teen sidekick except Robin?).  It was announced in 2014, went through the ranks of acceptance and rejection, and finally premiered on the DC Universe network in October 2018 with an 11-episode first season.  Most of the Titans are young adults, with some new teens added.

According to rumor, in Season 2 they are planning to introduce a gay Titan.  Bets were on Bunker, canonically gay in the 2012-2013 comic book series. But they have just cast Joe Wilson as Jericho, who has a long backstory of closeting: he was originally meant to be gay in the comics, but the authors changed him to straight, but in Rebirth he was bisexual, and...

I'm getting a headache.  Let's just go on to the beefcake:

1.Brenton Thwaites (top photo) as Dick Grayson, the Robin of the comics now retired and working as a detective in Detroit.  No superpowers, but very athletic.

2. Ryan Potter as Gar Logan, one of the early Titans, then a member of the Doom Patrol. He can turn into a tiger, which I imagine is very effective against bad guys with guns.I guess he's like Beastboy.

3. Joshua Orpin as Superboy.  One from an alternate universe.

No beefcake photos of Superboy?  Really?












4. Alan Ritchson as Hawk, a former prizefighter, now a vigilante with his partner Dove.

What's with all the Titans lacking in superpowers?











5. Curran Walters as Jason Todd, the new Robin.  You didn't know that Batman keeps changing them when they die or get too old, did you?












6. Elliott Knight as Don Hall, the deceased younger brother of Hawk, the original Dove.

That's it for the male Titans.  I'm disappointed.  Where's Cyborg?  Kid Flash? Aqualad?   Gnarkk the Caveman?







7. Lester Speight as Clayton Williams, a bouncer in a Detroit nightclub who is good friends with Dick Grayson.












8. Jeff Roop as Thomas Carson, a minor character.

Beefcake seems rather limited, for a series about superheroes.


9. Alain Moussi as Batman (uncredited).


Oh, right, I need 10.

Um...how about Brooker Muir as the Superboy body double?


2 comments:

  1. PostscriptL Joe Wilson is history. The new actor to play Jerocho is Chella Man, a trans deaf person of color. Talk about breaking down barriers!

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  2. It's more Wolfman and PĂ©rez wanted to avoid stereotypes. Art kid, sleeps around albeit ethically (doesn't lead people on, always has condoms), not of a mama's boy, refuses to join family business. Seems like a LOT of gay tropes to put on one character. Plus, Raven needed a love interest. (Even if she's about to destroy the world...) At the time, Kid Flash thought she shouldn't exist. (Which, considering her destiny...) Robin had Starfire, Beast Boy was still convinced Terra wasn't "really" a traitor (and basically waging a war on the entire Wilson family), and Wonder Girl (not gonna happen in the 80s, but, she's from a lesbian utopia, so...) was engaged.

    Speaking of Kid Flash, I think Kid Flash has a whole confusing story. And right now he's dead or non-existent in every DC universe currently running.

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