A sprawling opening chapter.
What They Say:
When Dick Grayson / Robin and Rachel Roth / Raven require assistance to deal with a plot that threatens the entire planet, they join forces with Koriand’r / Starfire and Gar Logan / Beast Boy to form the Titans.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Like a lot of kids in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, I grew up reading Marvel Comics and especially the X-Men books. During the early ‘80s I had a friend who was far more into DC Comics from the newsstand, as we were young and had no direct market stores at that point, and through him I got to read a lot of fun books like Infinity Inc and Young All-Stars and the like. But it was the introduction to the New Teen Titans books at the time that really got me as it had an interesting concept in having some sidekicks and other characters “growing up” out of the shadow of their mentors. The book resonated and was a strong one for the publisher and helped to launch Dick Grayson into an area few comics characters get to really do in becoming something more than they started as with Nightwing.
When fans come into these characters they do so in very different ways. While that was my point of entry others got familiar with a lot of the characters through the first animated TV series. A lot more connected with the comedy Teen Titans Go series. And a good number became familiar with some of the cast through the Young Justice series. So, when we get this first live-action series the problem comes forward in the same way as with the Man of Steel film. They don’t feel “right” to a segment of the audience, large or small. But like Superman, there is no singular iteration of the character that everyone agrees on is the “right” one. And once you’re able to understand that and take in this one as it presents itself – which is a first experience for a lot of people with these characters that in turn defines them for them – it becomes easier to engage with.
That’s not a terribly long way to go to say you’ve got a lot of people that haven’t care for this show since the first trailer and talking about my own history with the property. The simplest thing I can say is that I enjoyed the hell out of this series for a lot of reasons as I did double-episode viewings with my youngest daughter that grew up on Teen Titans Go! and Young Justice as her gateway to them. My kids have been watching most of The CW shows and the recent films so they’re predisposed toward these characters and have seen – particularly through Flash – that there are so many ways to interpret all of them. Hell, just the differences between the TV shows and the films for some characters that exist in both made that clear. And that kind of openness helps because you do less direct comparison and more of just looking at what’s in front of you instead of what you think it should be.
The first season of Titans, which had its second season green-lit early on for obvious reasons, is essentially the prologue for the work. It’s the first six issues of any new team series these days that introduce a villain that will become powerful in the months to come, it introduces the cast of characters that we want to follow while giving us a taste of their backgrounds. We get more of an expansive view of the world they exist in – which seems to be fully separate from other productions in a way that’s both good and bad – and we see how it all comes together by the end to launch forward. Nobody here is wearing their costumes toward the end of it, nor are they truly a team even if that was the logline for the show. It’s not a big costumed adventure, though we do get a lot of that, and it is grim and serious in a way that will frustrate some because its overserious and with some scenery chewing. But all of these pieces came together exceedingly well for me.
The central focus is on Rachel Roth, a teenager that’s actually the daughter of a human/demon relationship that has been hidden for years from those searching for her. With her mother placing her with someone in order to hide them both, forces have searched for years without luck until now. And that discovery of her over the course of it is to help bring her father into this dimension, which will in turn cause chaos and destruction over many worlds in this universe. Which is why an alien from Tamaran has landed here named Koriand’r to hunt her down. Unfortunately for her, she ended up losing her memory along the way and is on a path to trying to figure out who she is while ending up in Rachel’s orbit, coming to love and protect her. Which makes her discovery of the truth all the more problematic as she doesn’t want to follow it but understands the fate of trillions of lives are at stake.
Initially, it’s a kind of low stakes runaway thing that gets underway with Rachel on the run and ending up in the presence of Dick Grayson as her powers directed her there. Dick has long left being Batman’s sidekick as things have gotten worse there. I understand the way many fans don’t want any Batman here but the shadow of the bat is what drives him, especially here where it’s treated more realistically in that as Batman became more violent in dealing with a host of grim criminals, so to did Robin. Dick has been working as a detective as an adult far away from Gotham but he still finds himself drawn to the costume at times in order to deal with really bad stuff going on. And, eventually, into some of the things Batman has set up around the world with safe houses. With Rachel, he finds himself an unexpected protector of her but in a position that he only wants temporarily until he can get her someplace safe and he can return to his simpler life. That doesn’t happen and the series keeps pulling him back in, especially as the group comes together more and more and he ends up knocking boots with Kory.
These characters are not the Titans of years past. They’re there in name and they retain a great number of the traits that have been instilled in them over the decades and mediums. But this is not the Marvel way and it’s not the way characters are done on The CW. It does lean more toward the film side but it also plays it more grounded. And yes, it has the grim and gritty side which will frustrate some. It’s the kind of show that makes Arrow look tame with how it handles its violence. For me, this was all very appealing because there are good areas to explore here and we’ve had almost twenty years worth of lighthearted adventures in animated form. I wanted something a bit more serious and this one takes its time to explore and showcase how the characters are constructed. It’s not a deconstruction, in my mind, but an exploration of the who and why and digging into the choices that they have to make to really move forward as most are spinning their wheels for a range of reasons.
This opening season did a whole lot I like and only a few things that really left me frustrated. Mostly the frustration comes in that Kory ended up with a terrible outfit that she wore way too long with the fur and that the pacing of the series was a bit awkward in what it was doing. I’ll even say that the way the finale worked frustrated a bit since you knew it was all dream manipulation and you wanted more of what was going on in reality. But even then I found the finale to be strong because it comes back to the central issue of Dick and how he views his role as being so tied to Batman at this point in terms of responsibility. Batman’s inclusion may feel forced but it’s such a heavy weight on his soul and his heart that I really enjoyed that exploration here, all while keeping him at arms length in order to explore the impact of what he does upon Dick.
Frankly, there was so much to enjoy with this show that it was an embarrassment of riches. A big piece early on was the meeting with the Doom Patrol, which brings Garfield/Beast Boy into the show. I liked the dynamic between him and Raven throughout the series from this point, a lightness that’s needed, but the Doom Patrol material was just fantastic. Getting to see them brought to life and well enough that it launched its own series to come with some minor recasting, well, that made Titans worthwhile just from there having been a huge fun of the Grant Morrison era of the books that will be coming. The show also really wowed me with how well it cast and used Hawk and Dove, enough so that I really wish that they’d get their own spinoff as well or find a way to cross into The CW as Minka Kelly and Alan Ritchson captured those characters incredibly well. Hell, we even got their origin story for an episode that delved into Hank’s brother Don that was given some really creative tweaks to enhance it and expand the tragedy of it all. The series also delved into the bigger picture at times in providing a nod or two toward Superman and Wonder Woman. While not as strong as it could have been, I really enjoyed the inclusion of Conor Leslie as Donna Troy. She doesn’t get suited up here, having simply stopped her time as Wonder Girl, but she gets to use her lasso toward the end and showcase her abilities in many ways during her appearances.
And, as much as I hate to say it, high kudos to Curran Walters for taking on the role of Jason Todd, the successor Robin after Dick left. Explaining the comic character and his overall arc to my kids made for a lot of fun and getting such an ass of a character in this form where he rubs everyone the wrong way was fantastic. You could see the angles to exploit here and Walters did a fantastic job of portraying someone who wasn’t a repeat of Dick as Robin but someone wholly different in most every way, which in turn changes how Batman handles things. I really liked the way he and Dick interacted in all of this and the kind of visceral reaction he caused in those that watched it, which is fully intended.
In Summary:
Watching the way opinions about this show online have diverged is interesting as you really do get the sense that a lot of the negativity comes from those that haven’t seen more than a trailer or are just taking secondhand word for things without actually seen it. Which is fine, everybody makes their opinions in their own way. But the divergent nature of attitudes about it is interesting as I don’t think the trailers represented the show well early on and there’s a lot more to it. It’s very layered with some engaging elements for the comics fans where there are some deep cuts indeed. It’s doing a long look at getting this team together as opposed to a quick costumed-up event. With so many different iterations of the group over the years in various forms there’s no “real” Titans when you get down to it, just like there is no true definitive Superman interpretation. For me, this was a welcome new interpretation to the rest and one that I enjoyed thoroughly every other Friday night for a few months with my kids who now know a lot more characters and lore than they did before.
Grade: A-
