When DC announced their new streaming service, DC Universe, it came with the confirmation that they would be greenlighting a live-action series based on the Teen Titans. It wasn’t a bad move, considering between the 2000s Teen Titans cartoon and the Teen Titans Go spin-off, the Titans are easily one of DC’s strongest, most well-known brands. But when fans got their first look at DC’s Titans series, it was hard not to be a little skeptical. The roster is largely the same, but there were concerns that DC lost something in the transition to live action. The costumes looked cheap and low budget, and the opening trailer was less than impressive, boasting a dark, brooding tone the Titans weren’t really known for.
But first appearances can often be deceiving. With the Titans series now premiering every week, fans are able to see for themselves what the show is about. For certain, the series isn’t perfect by any means, but it has a strong narrative and great characters, and it’s causing the series to form quite the audience. Now with so many episodes from the first season in the can, we thought it would be worth it to take a look at how the series stacks up to the typical Teen Titans we’ve loved from the comics. In typical fashion, we’ll look at what elements of the Teen Titans canons the series changes, as well as the ones it gets completely wrong. So what parts have they changed and it led to a stronger shower overall? Let's dive in.
20 IMPROVED: ROBIN'S COSTUME
As much as fans have complained about the outfits for the other Titans, the one character who's received the least amount of grief over their costume is Robin. Rightfully so - -it feels like the costume designers really nailed what makes the character's costume work in real life, making it feel like he jumped right off the page.
Well... the modern page, at least. In the original comics Dick Grayson really liked to bare it all when he went crimefighting, going out dressed in a pair of shorts and bright green booties. Maybe someone told him about the secret effectiveness of bikini armor.
19 GETS WRONG: BRUCE AND DICK'S RELATIONSHIP
It's safe to say the relationship between Bruce and Dick on Titans is a fair deal different from what fans have gotten used to reading comics. The base idea of Bruce taking Dick in after he loses his parents in a tragic crime made to look like an accident is still there. But instead of their relationship seeming close, it seems more like Bruce was never there.
It's only after Dick becomes Robin that he seems to experience any interaction with the reclusive billionaire. Granted, much of this is inferred from brief flashbacks in the first episode, but for now the father-son relationship these two are known for has been clearly sidelined.
18 IMPROVED: DOOM PATROL
In the fourth episode of the season, Raven's encounter with Gar Logan leads him to take her back to his place, where he lives with a group of characters known as the Doom Patrol. Consisting of Elasti-Girl, Robotman, Negative Man, and the "Chief" Niles Caulder, this version of the Doom Patrol is the classic, most recognizable version of the team, and in a single episode they nailed everything likable about each member.
Like Robin, Hawk, and Dove, their costumes are great versions -- but the show also understands their personalities. The group comes off like something of an ersatz X-Men, and the end of their backdoor pilot episode leaves you excited for their series coming in 2019.
17 GETS WRONG: JASON AND DICK'S FIRST MEETING
One of the benefits of loosely adapting comics is being able to alter things to get the most effective stories out of existing events. In the comics, Jason and Dick wouldn't actually get a chance to meet until after Jason was revealed to have survived the brutal encounter at the hands of the Joker.
Instead, Dick would quit being Robin and embrace the role of Nightwing while leading the Titans all while Bruce had begun training another Boy Wonder. In Titans though, they get to maximize the potential, letting Dick find out about the new Robin after being saved by Bruce.
16 IMPROVED: ALLOWING THEIR POWERS TO DEVELOP
So far, there's not a single member of the Titans team with superpowers... that actually knows how to properly USE their superpowers. Gar might as well be named Tiger Boy, since he's yet to transform into anything else. Raven's terrified to tap into her abilities because she doesn't know what's on the other side. Starfire? She might as well be the modern-day Birdman, given she loses her powers if she's out of the sun for too long.
But honestly, none of this is a bad thing. They're young, and they're still figuring out their abilities -- this gives viewers a chance to go along on the journey, and allows the writers to pair them up against less evil villains until they get it together.
15 GETS WRONG: RAVEN'S LACK OF TRAINING
One of the things the Titans show tries to focus on is displaying how most of its team are a bunch of inexperienced young adults who have no idea what they're doing. Nowhere is this more clear than with Raven, a young teenager who's completely out of her element, and has no idea who she is at the start of the series, only that she's "different".
In the comics, she was introduced after having mastered most of her abilities, having learned to control her emotions at all times to keep her soul-self under control and stop Trigon from taking control of her.
14 IMPROVED: DEALING WITH ROBIN'S TRAUMA
One of the things that's often glossed over when it comes to working with Batman is the mental toll it can take. Dick Grayson was a young boy who lost both of his parents, and a cynical view of Batman would be that he took advantage of that trauma to draft and indoctrinate a young soldier into his unending war on crime.
And while there's certainly more to Batman and Robin's relationship than that, that element is certainly still present -- and Titans is just dark enough to decide to explore it, showing how reluctant Dick is to form bonds and trust other people without being forced. It makes for great drama, and even better television.
13 GETS WRONG: THE NUCLEAR FAMILY TONED DOWN
If you aren't a serious comic book geek, there's a good chance you didn't recognize the characters being sent after the Titans during the earliest half of the season. First appearing in Outsiders #1 in 1985, the Nuclear Family were a group of androids created by scientist Dr. Eric Shanner, whose mistakes during his experiments led to his family being killed thanks to nuclear radiation.
Shanner's androids would resemble his idea of the perfect family, and each of them would have powers based on nuclear weapons. By comparison, the brainwashed group in the Titans show feels incredibly toned down, but that's to be expected given they're starter villains and working off a TV budget.
12 IMPROVED: SLOW TEAM FORMATION
One of the things that's worked in the series' benefit so far is its overall slow build-up. Though the first episode features all the members of the team in at least a scene or two, they don't bring them together immediately. Instead, there's four episodes of build up before the team is finally assembled properly, and five until they stand tall as a superhero team.
This gives the show time to believably assemble the group so that it makes sense for them to be working together. On the flipside, it took the comics all of 14 pages to assemble the seven members making up the core of Wolfman/Perez's team. Even allowing for the compressed time of comics, that's super fast.
11 GETS WRONG: STARFIRE'S ORIGINS
Everyone knew giving us a golden-skinned alien with a giant afro and bright green eyes was a bit much. Anna Diop is a fine actress who's doing her absolute best with the role she's been given, and the problem here isn't with her, but rather how the series has seemingly decided to ignore the idea of Starfire being an alien for now.
Instead, she's an amnesiac with no memory of who she is, human or not. She wakes up in a bullet-riddled car with strange powers she doesn't understand. Presumably eventually there'll be some story about how "Starfire" bonded with whoever Kori Anders is, but for now we're in the dark.
10 IMPROVED: INTEGRATION WITH THE DC UNIVERSE
One fun part about the Titans is how it feels like it takes place in a wider DC Universe. It lacks the backing of the CW, where we already know four of their five shows all take place within the same multiverse, but it still feels like a place where anything can happen. In the second episode we run into Hawk and Dove. The fourth episode sees Gar Logan introduce Raven to the Doom Patrol, while one episode ends with Dick getting his butt saved by Jason Todd, the second Robin.
Geoff Johns has claimed these guest stars are going to be more regular than we think, making things feel just as big or bigger than the CW, which tends to only have heroes from other shows appear.
9 GETS WRONG: EVERYONE'S A CRIMINAL
Probably the most unsettling thing about Titans is how nearly every character in the main cast has a body attached to them. Starfire incinerates a trio of criminal looking to end her for her subterfuge in dealing with the boss. Dick beats up a group of guys so badly they are likely crippled for life, and that's without mentioning the guy whose chest he caved in with his staff.
And after being captured, Raven's powers cause her to liquefy some poor schmuck's inner organs -- and that's all in the first episode. This is a much more brutal team than we're used to, and presumably this DC Universe doesn't care as much about heroes taking lives.
8 IMPROVED: RACHEL STRUGGLING WITH HER SOUL-SELF
In the comics, Rachel's already completely trained in the usage of her powers. While the other team members have been working together for years, Raven still manages to have about the same level of experience thanks to being trained from birth by the priests of Azarath.
She knows how to control her emotions, and her soul-self remains under control in all but the most extreme situations, usually brought on by outside forces. The series shows what the opposite would be like -- Raven's alternate self is completely out of control, even mocking her in an attempt to make her surrender to her dark side and allow Trigon to cross over.
7 GETS WRONG: THE TITANS' COSTUMES
Aside from the absolutely terrible first trailer, the thing that's been harming this series the most have been the actual costumes of the Titans themselves. Though The New Teen Titans started thing off with our characters already dressed in a way befitting a superhero universe, this more grounded world forced DC to have these characters dress more reasonably.
Aside from Robin, who's already a superhero, and Beast Boy wearing something of a shout-out to his Changeling outfit, Raven and Starfire are both looking more like civilians than anything else. Granted, it's only a matter of time before they find something more fitting... at least, that's the hope.
6 IMPROVED: HAWK AND DOVE
The second episode of Titans introduces Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, two superheroes who operate together as Hawk and Dove. Much like Robin, Hawk and Dove show up as fully-formed superheroes, complete with some of the best costumes live-action's ever seen. They're two of Dick's oldest friends, and some of the first people he turns to when he gets pulled into the case with Rachel Roth.
It's a little awkward at first, seeing two such diametrically-opposed characters dating -- Dove is completely relaxed while Hawk is impulsive and dangerous, but they make it work. Plus, it's one of the few times we've ever gotten a superhero couple where the power dynamic is so even. It's not like one's working the computer -- they're both crime-fighters, working together.
5 GETS WRONG: NO KID FLASH
The benefit of Wolfman/Perez's run on The New Teen Titans is they could rely on characters already introduced in the original Titans series. They had a built-in roster of Speedy, Wonder Girl, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash to rely on before they even started introducing their own characters. Kid Flash in the comics is actually crucial to Raven's introduction, even.
But Titans is actually starting from scratch, so they've already got their hands full with Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy. This means the cast has to be pruned down to a manageable number rather than going all out with the first season. Worse yet, since Kid Flash has been a part of CW's The Flash series, there's a strong chance we never see the character at all.
4 IMPROVED: JASON'S INTEGRATION WITH THE TITANS
In the comics, Jason actually never got to interact with Dick much, if at all before being brought back from the grave. And the character had almost no interaction with any super team until he’d already posed as the Red Hood. It’s still very early days, but the Titans series is already well on its way to changing that.
Though Jason’s only in a single episode so far, just having him there right after the dawn of the Titans is a good sign. Perhaps spending time with kids his own age will help him avoid the fate he suffered in the comics of getting beaten to close to the end of his life by the Joker.
3 GETS WRONG: TRIGON'S A GENERIC DEMON
Near as we can tell, Trigon seems to be more of an ordinary kind of demon in the Titans universe. In one episode, Robin and Starfire find some research Starfire had done before she got amnesia. In it, we're shown walls of references to "Raven" being a harbinger for the end of the world in multiple different religions.
That's an approximation of what we're dealing with, but it's not exactly right. Trigon is meant to be the offspring of a mystic woman and an ancient god, filled with the negative energies of Raven's homeworld Azarath. He's not merely a demon, he's an alien demon, which seems overkill but also makes him stand out from the other similar character in the DC Universe.
2 IMPROVED: STARFIRE'S ATTITUDE
There's a lot of things a longtime Titans fan can complain about with this show, but one change that's particularly enjoyable is what they've done with Starfire's character. The character's always been the emotional core of the team, and in the cartoon she even played the role of the "innocent" one.
The Titans TV show makes a stark change though, instead allowing Anna Diop's character to be more hard-nosed and dangerous, willing to take a life if someone gets in the way of the answers she's looking for. It's like nothing we've ever seen before, but given Starfire's history as a captive princess, it's not exactly unreasonable to see a more fiery side of her.
1 GETS WRONG: NO CYBORG
When Wolfman and Perez began their run on the Titans, they introduced two brand new characters to the team. Raven, who would become the reason for the team being formed, and Cyborg, a teenager who had his life stolen from him when he was turned half-man, half-machine by his scientist father.
Unfortunately, the current Titans season has no room to fit a character like this when it already took four episodes just to get together the four members they have now. Still, Victor Stone isn't going to be absent from the team forever -- the character is scheduled to be on the first season of Doom Patrol, and it wouldn't be suprising if he found his way to the Titans right afterwards.