It would be easy to dismiss the Teen Titans as little more than the junior Justice League, if they weren’t every bit as dynamic as their mentors in the JLA. Thanks to the redefining foundational work laid down by legendary creative team Marv Wolfman and George Perez, in classic storylines like “The Judas Contract,” the Teen Titans have matured into a formidable super-team in their own right. Boasting some bona fide heavyweights in their line-up, they’re also one of the most powerful and versatile crews in comics.
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Of course, true power comes in myriad different forms, not all of them obvious. What makes the Titans so special is that they rarely derive their power from brute force. It’s only by using their various talents in concert that they triumph and become truly titanic. Sound like hooey? Then prepare to be convinced. Here’s our list of the 15 most powerful Titans.
SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers ahead for numerous stories from DC Comics.
15 Beast Boy
It’s only fitting that a hero with the ability to change his physical form into any animal he can imagine has gone through so much transformation over the course of his history. Originally a member of the first Doom Patrol, Garfield Logan joined the Teen Titans after his adoptive family sacrificed their lives while fighting the Brotherhood of Evil. He’s remained with the Titans through virtually every incarnation of the team, except that time a teenaged Atom led a new group of super-teens... but who could blame him for sitting that one out?
Beast Boy’s ability to shape-shift into any animal he wants can sometimes come off as a little goofy, but really, how silly is a rampaging elephant or bloodthirsty tiger when it’s bearing down on you? Gar’s true power comes from his versatility, though. He’s filled a variety of roles using his abilities, from stealthy scout to intimidating muscle, making him one of the team’s most valuable members. And yet, Beast Boy remains one of the Titans’ most underestimated characters, written off as comedic relief by his foes... until they see him in action and realize the joke’s on them.
14 Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
One of the more recent additions to the Titans roll call, Jaime Reyes is also one of the team's most formidable members. Still, like our previous entry, the third Blue Beetle is often underestimated due to his lack of experience. The bearer of a mysterious scarab of mystic or alien origin (depending on what story you go by), Jaime is a reluctant hero, who only wants his life to go back to normal. Recently, he hooked up with his predecessor Ted Kord in an effort to find a way to remove the scarab from his spinal column, a goal which has so far eluded them.
In the meantime, Jaime uses the scarab to become the armored Blue Beetle, fighting crime alongside Kord and as a member of Damian Wayne’s new Teen Titans. Jaime’s suit possesses an impressive array of offensive and defensive capabilities, including enhanced strength and invulnerability, flight, force-field projection and enough firepower to make a first-person shooter addict’s thumbs twitch with envy. And those are just the ones we know about. As Jaime and his sentient suit become more acquainted, there’s no telling what new abilities he’ll pull out of his carapace next.
13 Jericho
The mute son of notorious super-assassin and perennial Titan foe Deathstroke the Terminator, Jericho has played the role of both villain and hero during his tragic life. Having a killing machine for a father might sound cool on paper but we’re betting Slade Wilson never won any father of the year awards. “Joey,” as he was known to his friends on the Titans, was born with the ability to possess other people through eye contact, instantly gaining control of their motor functions and any innate superpowers. His body also becomes insubstantial and enters his new host, presumably so that writers wouldn’t have to worry about Joey’s comatose carcass getting in the way.
Whatever the case, what makes Jericho so dangerous (not to mention kind of scary) is there seems to be no restrictions on who he can take over -- although it is possible to fight his presence if the host possesses sufficient psychic strength. Even still, imagine what he could do with Superman or Zatanna under his direct control? That’s the kind of power that turns tides and wins battles, people.
12 Terra (Tara Markov)
Arguably the most notorious member in Teen Titans history, Terra’s immense geokinetic power was only outstripped by the depths of her insanity. The illegitimate daughter of the King of Markovia, Tara Markov underwent a similar experimental process as her half-brother Brion that granted her total control over the earth. While Brion joined the Outsiders, using his own earth-based powers for good, Tara was shunned by her father and was sent to live abroad in America, where she promptly embarked upon a mercenary career at the tender age of 15.
Not without controversy, one of Terra’s regular clients was Deathstroke the Terminator, with whom she also had an intimate relationship. Deathstroke used her to infiltrate the Titans in an insidious plot to fulfill his son’s botched contract with H.I.V.E. during the aforementioned “Judas Contract” storyline. Although her geokinetic abilities flag her as one of the team’s most powerful members, allowing her to defy gravity, control lava flows and create earthen constructs, it was Terra’s betrayal of the Teen Titans that nearly shattered the team, haunting many longstanding members to this day.
11 Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)
There seems to be some unwritten rule of comics that stipulates any character taking the name Wonder Girl is cursed with as muddy a back story as humanly possible. Over the course of her convoluted history, Cassie has been connected to various Olympian gods, including Zeus and Ares; two Amazon warriors in Artemis and Wonder Woman; and most recently, Raven’s old man, the extradimensional demon Trigon. In all cases, Cassie stands as a dynamic powerhouse, who draws her power from her Olympian heritage as a demi-god.
Blessed with enhanced strength, speed and invulnerability, Cassie also uses a lasso like her mentor Wonder Woman to channel the power of Zeus for various effects, depending on what version of the character you're talking about. While she currently languishes in limbo in the wake of DC’s Rebirth, Cassie remains one of the Teen Titans' most powerful members, whose warrior spirit and Amazonian fighting skills have allowed her to go toe-to-toe with some of the DCU’s most powerful beings, including her teammate Superboy.
10 Kid Flash (Bart Allen)
A beloved member of both Young Justice and the Teen Titans, as Impulse and Kid Flash respectively, Bart Allen’s stock dropped through the floor during DC’s New 52 reboot. Once a character whose unfettered optimism and boundless enthusiasm made him a symbol of hope in the DC Universe, Bart was transformed into a bloodthirsty revolutionary killer from the far future, who committed countless atrocities in the name of rebellion. Needless to say, this new origin story didn’t sit well with fans and “Bar Torr” was written out of the fourth volume of “Teen Titans” relatively quickly.
In his original incarnation, Bart evolved into one of the most versatile speedsters to ever lace up a pair of kicks. His connection to the Speed Force allowed him to access all of the typical speedster abilities plus a few even the Flash couldn’t replicate, such as hyper-accelerated learning and the creation of speed avatars he used to scout the time stream. With much of Titans history up in the air due to Rebirth and the appearance of a new Kid Flash, it remains to be seen which version of Bart will one day return to the DCU -- or if he’ll return at all.
9 Tempest
A founding member of the original Teen Titans, the young Atlantean known as Garth has been a valuable asset to numerous incarnations of the team over its rich history. Initially a sidekick knock-off of his mentor Aquaman, Garth eventually evolved into his own man and received a massive power upgrade after learning of a magical heritage that stretched back to the origins of Atlantis itself. Originally enjoying the typical package of Atlantean abilities, including the much-maligned ability to telepathically communicate with sea life, Garth’s current skill set has transformed him into a mage of impressive stature.
Although he temporarily lost his ability to talk to the fishes, Garth’s talent for magic allows him to control water temperature, manipulate ocean currents, teleport through time and space, and discharge magical energy from his eyes. He is so powerful that he was able to teleport the entire city of Atlantis to the past to escape destruction during the Imperiex War, using the Poseidon’s trident. No amount of talking to sea life is going to accomplish that. In your face, Aquaman.
8 Starfire
Although her controversial hyper-sexualized depiction in recent years has overshadowed her appearances post-New 52, Starfire’s origin as an alien warrior princess stranded on Earth is what made her such a popular member of the Teen Titans. She came to Earth escaping her sister’s oppressive regime and became a founding member of Wolfman and Perez’s classic ‘80s reboot of the Titans franchise. Like everyone on her homeworld of Tamaran, Koriand’r possesses the innate ability to absorb and process huge amounts of ultra-violet energy.
Additional experimentation by an alien race of scientists called the Psions upgraded her abilities, allowing her to traverse deep space in seconds and project bursts of energy from her hands. Trained as a Tamaranean warrior, she is also one of the Titans' most accomplished fighters. Thanks to this training and her energy-infused super strength, she’s been shown to best no less a fighter than Donna Troy in unarmed combat on multiple occasions. Currently a mentor to a new generation of Teen Titans under the leadership of Damian Wayne, Starfire’s greatest challenge to date might just be in not using her powers to fry the smug little bastard.
7 Omen
Lilith Clay was the second member after Roy Harper to join the Teen Titans after the team was established by founding members Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Wonder Girl. She enjoyed several adventures with the team, even heading up a West Coast offshoot called, appropriately enough, Titans West. A powerful telepath with precognitive abilities and a rather ominous-sounding "death sense," Lilith infamously predicted the death of her BFF Donna Troy’s husband Terry and their infant child. During this era, Lilith’s connections to the powerful Titans of Myth were revealed and after a pitched battle with her mother Thia, she accepts demigod status on their behalf.
It wasn’t until the Atom’s incarnation of the Teen Titans that Lilith took on the name Omen. Although her origin as a Titan of Myth was rewritten, Lilith now boasted a host of arcane abilities including pyrokinesis, teleportation and illusion-casting. In the rebooted continuity of the New 52, she seems to have been returned to her original telepathic roots, the only member of the Titans to remember their true history. Once again taking the name Omen, Lilith was most recently seen in the company of her fellow adult Titans welcoming Wally West back to existence.
6 Raven
Raven’s powers stem from her demonic heritage as the half-human daughter of the extradimensional demon, Lord Trigon. Blessed or cursed (depending on your point of view) with vast empathic abilities, Raven’s powers are so off-the-charts, she’s spent most of her life struggling to keep them in check. Like her fellow Titans, Raven’s back story was drastically changed in the wake of the New 52 reboot of DC continuity. Although still a human-demon hybrid born of an unholy union between her mother and Trigon, Raven never served with the original Teen Titans, who at the time had been retconned out of continuity (until they were retconned back in, of course).
Thanks to her demon daddy, Raven possesses a score of mystical abilities, most of which are telepathic or empathic in nature, including empathic control and healing, telekinesis, astral projection and teleportation. At the height of her full powers, Raven was able to decimate an entire demon army numbering in the thousands. A younger, less-experienced version of Raven is set to join Damian Wayne’s new Teen Titans under the tutelage of her former contemporary, Starfire.
5 Cyborg
Long before he became attached to the Justice League, Victor Stone was a stalwart member of the Teen Titans, using his hyper-intelligence and cybernetically-enhanced physiology to become a cornerstone of the team. Although Cyborg has witnessed numerous dramatic changes to his status quo over the years, it wasn’t until his inclusion as a member of the JLA that he realized his true potential. Originally outfitted with a somewhat basic array of technologically-based abilities, such as enhanced strength and durability, advanced diagnostic functions and a powerful sound cannon, Cyborg’s current power set far outstrips that of his humble origins.
In current continuity, Victor seems to never have been a member of the Teen Titans, receiving his powers after his father’s ill-advised experiments with a Mother Box go terribly awry. Upon becoming fused with the New God sentient super-computer, Cyborg benefitted from several new abilities, such as technopathy, shapeshifting, personal flight and Boom Tube generation. Even if he no longer has a connection to the Teen Titans, his place amongst DC’s premiere pantheon of heroes is well-deserved, providing a resonant protagonist to modern readers who more than lives up to a heroic potential only hinted at previously.
4 Miss Martian
Like her Martian brethren J’onn J’onzz, Miss Martian is quite possibly one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Although she’s yet to make a significant appearance in current DC continuity, a live action version of the character currently appears on the CW’s “Supergirl,” portrayed by Sharon Leal. In the comics, the White Martian known as M’gann M’orrz was a powerful addition to the Teen Titans roster prior to Flashpoint and the emergence of the New 52.
As a member of the team, she proved instrumental on a number of missions, using her formidable telepathy and shapeshifting abilities to pull her fellow Titans’ collective fat from the fire several times. M’gann is blessed with the full complement of Martian powers, including telepathy, shapeshifting, super strength, speed and invulnerability, Martian vision and a bundle of nine senses that allow her to perceive reality in a much different, heightened fashion. An intriguing hero, who screams untapped potential, don’t be surprised if M’gann one day supplants her mentor as the one true Martian Manhunter.
3 Donna Troy
The problem with Donna Troy is that she started out as a lump of clay. With such an uninspiring origin story, it’s no wonder countless writers have taken a stab at injecting a new life into what was essentially a blank slate... or lump of clay, as is the case here. Unfortunately, Donna’s history became so overwritten and convoluted, it’s become virtually impossible to untangle the perpetual continuity tweaks without further reboots and retcons. In spite of this, Donna has remained a staunch Titan for most of her career, fighting through her own personal issues even as she fought alongside her friends.
It’s interesting to note that in most of their early adventures, the Teen Titans looked upon Donna as their resident powerhouse. Until later additions to the team, such as Superboy, Donna was relied upon for her immense strength and remarkable fighting skills, a roll traditionally held by stereotypical strong “guy” characters in other comics. Currently, Donna serves as the “Fate of the Gods” (whatever that really means), forcing us to predict that, despite all of her vaunted Amazonian strength, her enduring challenge will be the unravelling of her own over-complicated history.
2 Superboy (Conner Kent/Kon-El)
Let’s be honest. As one of the Teen Titans' most popular and beloved members, most of us would rather forget the New 52 version of Conner Kent, who turned out to be a clone of his murderous future self, who in turn, was an aberrant son of Clark and Lois Kent, from an alternate New 52 timeline. You know, because the New 52 wasn’t messed up enough. Thankfully, as part of DC Rebirth, both versions seem to have been replaced by Jon Kent, son of pre-Flashpoint Clark and Lois, who survived the DC’s universal reset. Yeah, we know. It’s still confusing as all hell.
Originally, Conner’s hybrid DNA didn’t give him full Kryptonian powers, but granted him a form of tactile telekinesis that stood in for Superman’s immense strength and ability to fly. While he could achieve many different effects using his tactile TK, Conner eventually manifested more traditional Kryptonian powers, such as true super strength, vision powers and the ever-handy freeze breath. Coupled with ever-increasing TK abilities, Conner’s Kryptonian heritage catapults him to the head of the class of our most powerful Titans – except for our final entry, who would argue speed trumps strength every time.
1 The Flash (Wally West)
It could be argued that Wally West is and always will be the fastest man alive. In fact, despite what the live action Barry Allen would have you believe on CW’s “The Flash,” that phrase was first applied to Wally, after he first took on the mantle of his beloved mentor. Although he followed in Barry’s footsteps for much of his career, Wally would end up surpassing his hero thanks to a “mainline” connection to the Speed Force.
Unlike other speedsters, Wally can never be cut off from the source of superhuman speed in the DC Universe. This allows him to access abilities other speedsters aren’t fast enough to use, such as giving and taking away speed from other people and objects, and absorbing massive amounts of kinetic energy indirectly. Recently resurrected during the events of DC Rebirth, Wally seems faster than ever, tapping into more of the Speed Force than ever before and saving all of his friends from the machinations of Abra Kadabra by running across the country several times in a matter of seconds.
Titans Together! Let us know which Teen Titan you think is the most powerful in the comments!