The Teen Titans Equation
Originally published at jaredaxelrod.com. You can comment here or there.
Why is DC still publishing TEEN TITANS? Besides the fact that it was popular in the Eighties, I mean.
If you look at the TEEN TITANS comics from the eighties, two things jump out: 1) George Perez is a really good artist and 2) The stories are batshit. Despite being 20 years too late, it’s a very Silver Age book, with a little X-Men style soap-opera thrown in. It’s about colorful characters fighting other colorful characters, and having relationship arguments on the side.
Which, at the time, served a portion of the market. People who craved Silver-Age silliness, but also wanted their “mature” relationships and issue-to-issue continuity. Also, sweet George Perez art. Add that to the fact that it was published in a time when teenagers where still a large part of the comic reading market, and a book about teen heroes makes even more sense.
The Teen Titans Equation may in fact be: Colorful characters + atypical art style + soap opera + continuity investment. This is part of the reason that the TEEN TITANS and YOUNG JUSTICE animated shows work so well. They don’t look like anything else on television-or like each other, for that matter-and they reward the repeat viewer with easter eggs and call backs.
Now, that sounds pretty obvious, but it amazing how few superhero books follow the formula.
Part of that may be that we have a market aimed at 30-40 year olds that plays directly on nostalgia and the knowledge of events that happened, 20, 30 years ago. A teen hero book can’t nessecarily tap into events that happened that long ago and still keep up the illusion of youth, so instead they are rehashing old stories with new versions of the old characters. How may variations of THE JUDAS CONTRACT have we seen, where a the Titans are betrayed by one of their own? With the frequent creative team shake-ups and everyone’s need to tell their version of THE JUDAS CONTRACT, the series has no visual distinction and no need to be invested in the continuity
So, clearly the formula worked once. The problem is, in order for said fomula to work, it needs a conitunity seperate from it’s larger universe. Which, as we’ve seen with other books who DO follow the Teen Titans formula-CAPTAIN BRITIAN & MI-13, THE ORDER, FREEDOM FIGHTER-get canceled due to low sales. Because the market is such that people don’t buy it unless they have to. “Have to” meaning, ties in to the next big, stupid event.
So, in conclusion, The reason a Teen Titans book will never be as successful as it was in the 80s is because the market can not or will not support a superhero comic that follows the very formula that made Teen Titans so successful. Which, considering how simple the Teen Titans formula is, is all the proof you need that the superhero market is broken
I mean, the best superhero book being published right now is ATOMIC ROBO, which doesn’t look like a superhero book at all.
On purpose, I imagine.
Edited to add: ATOMIC ROBO creator Brian Clevinger does not consider it to be a superhero book at all, but rather an extension of the pulp tradition. I can’t argue with the man about his own creation; if he says it’s pulp, it’s pulp. But I believe we can all agree that pulp or superhero, Atomic Robo is awesome.