Spinning out of Dark Crisis and Nightwing's string of successes, Dick Grayson has taken back his mantle as the heart of the DC Universe. The hero is getting a serious promotion as the disbanded Justice League has left their trust and resources in his hands. To that end, Nightwing is reforming the Titans and bringing them to Bludhaven and their own ongoing series, which reunites one of the team's most important and iconic rosters.
Writer Tom Taylor (Superman: Son of Kal-El) and artist Nicola Scott (Wonder Woman: Historia) will follow the heroes as they adjust to their new responsibilities as Earth's protectors. It's a big moment for the Titans, who've increasingly affirmed their place at the heart of the DC Universe on and off the page. CBR spoke with Taylor and Scott about taking on a classic Titans roster, how Nightwing's recent evolution has set the stage for a long-awaited spotlight for these characters, and how much the series will relate to other titles.
CBR: Thanks to both of you for taking the time to speak with me. I'm already very excited about this series, especially given this cast. It's really been a while since these characters have been in this title all together like this. What got you most excited about this project?
Tom Taylor: I think it's what you just said. We haven't seen this in a very long time. We haven't seen those sorts of OG Titans all together in a leading role. The Justice League is disbanded, just organically through everything that Joshua Williamson has been doing on Dark Crisis. Nightwing is at a point where he's ready to lead the DC Universe. And of course, he brings all his friends and family to join him.
There's something really beautiful about it. I think it's just an exciting time, and there are so many Titans fans at the moment. There are TV shows like Teen Titans Go! and Titans that everybody has been watching, [and] there are the incredibly successful Raven and Beast Boy books Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo have been doing. It's an exciting time to be a Titans fan, and as Titans fans ourselves, we're like, "Let's jump on that."
Nicola Scott: Yeah, seeing them step up and become the premier team, it's sort of their graduation, really. I'm currently drawing a scene where Donna is saying to the character, "We've been preparing for this since we were children." That's what it feels like. It's this really significant moment.
It's notable because it's this classic, iconic roster that's gone through so many changes over the years. But here we are, with that Wolfman/Pérez roster ready to, like you said, really graduate into these roles they've been building toward. We really haven't seen them together like this in a long time. What's it like bringing this team together again?
Taylor: It's like you said. We just haven't seen it. I think everyone feels like this roster has happened many, many times over the last decade, [but] it just hasn't. This team has not happened in decades. And yet every time you think of Teen Titans, it's Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg. This is the group that your brain goes to. It's like there's been this promise for decades that the Titans would grow up and lead.
This is the first time we're properly doing that, and that's what makes it incredibly exciting. Working with Nicola Scott, who has drawn a ton, who draws the Titans so well -- she's one of my best friends, so I get to go, "Oh my god! I'm working with Nicola on Titans!" She's sending in sketches and new costume designs, and the first time she sent in the costume for Donna Troy, I was like, "Oh, that's it."
Scott: These characters are the ones we've all grown up with. I have had my own personal emotional connection to all of them individually [and] in a group. I have had moments to play with all of them individually and only once as a team during Convergence, which was one of those little side things that happened for a little bit. I got to work on the OG team in their OG period with Marv Wolfman. So that was a nice little taste of being able to play with these characters, but it was, by design, so retro.
Dick Grayson has been building up to this for a really long time. Tom and I have had this kind of conversation for over a decade about how Dick Grayson's position within the DCU is central because he knows everybody. I think he has everybody's goodwill and trust in a way that I don't know is that universal. I'm sure everybody has goodwill toward Superman and goodwill toward Wonder Woman, but that's because they're kind of like the parents.
Everyone's a little bit terrified of Batman because he's the scary uncle. But you know, Dick is like everybody's big brother. Everybody trusts him. Everybody comes to him. For him to be in this position of going, "Right, okay, if I'm going to be in charge, I'm going to pull in the people that I trust the most, that I'm the most familiar with, that I feel like will instinctively know how to act and how to follow my lead at any given stage." It's so exciting playing [with] those characters together in this grown-up, modern era.
Tom, this series seems to build off of Nightwing and the changes Dick has brought to Bludhaven. How much crossover will exist between the two books? How important was it for both to stand alone?
Taylor: We have been building up to this for a very long time. When I first got Nightwing, part of my pitch was "Dick is A-list. Let's show it. Let's bring him up there again. Let's push him in further than he's ever been. Let's not just transform the character, but let's transform the city around him." We've been building the city and making it a better place. I was fortunate enough to have academics helping me -- like a whole lot of experts on how you would transform the city as far as housing, as far as transport, as far as homelessness -- so I was able to use all of that. But then I feel like the final piece of that was on the last page of Nightwing #100, where we see Titan Tower being built.
Suddenly, this city that's been this place of crime and corruption glistens. It's sitting there under the sun, and bam, it's this beacon of what the Titans bring. There will definitely be a differentiation between the two books. So we have the Titans for our next four issues -- so [in] Nightwing #101, #102, #103, and #104, the Titans are there, but Titans Tower hasn't been finished. It isn't finished until Titans #1, and that's basically moving day. This is the first time that all of these kids who grew up together are going to be housemates and have roommates again. Bruno and I have big plans for [Nightwing] #105, and then we've got a very Nightwing-centric story planned after that.
Nicola, you're coming off of something as mythic and grandiose as Wonder Woman: Historia back to this familiar setting of superheroes being superheroes. What has it been like to transition back into this artistic style after something as epic as Historia?
Scott: Well, they are very tonally different books trying to do very different things. How I see it visually is -- I'm stepping back into proper superhero land. I haven't done a lot of that in a while, you know? I think, apart from Future State: Nightwing and an issue of Detective Comics, I haven't really done anything superheroes since Wonder Woman. Even that was a little bit more intimate and gentle. So I'm trying to find the balance between that emotional closeness these characters have and the kind of soap opera that exists within the Titans as a group of people -- but bring it up to Justice League levels of artistic approach. It's a very different approach [for] me. I'm used to doing really natural body language because I feel like that conveys quite a bit of information.
But when you're dealing with top-tier superheroes, I call it legs-spread acting. It's where everyone's standing very straight. You know, they've really planted their legs far apart. They've got to look iconic pretty much at all times. I haven't really done anything like that since Earth-2, and we don't want to go into a dark and gritty space like that. But approaching that space artistically is quite fun. I was saying to my husband, while I was wrapping up Wonder Woman: Historia, "I feel like I really want to do something superhero-y to follow this up. I want something that feels like big action, superhero costumes, doing the stuff." Then this job comes knocking on my door almost immediately afterward, and I was like, "Oh, shit! I manifested."
It's been so nice seeing Babs and Dick back together in Nightwing. Tom, I've got to ask -- is there any chance wedding bells could be on the horizon for the pair?
Taylor: I'm sorry, there are no wedding bells in the future, no matter how much we'd love to see it happen. I'm sorry. But look, they will have a wonderful, beautiful family relationship with Haley as their surrogate child. They'll just keep progressing as crime-fighter lovers.
Which Titan has surprised you the most so far?
Taylor: Honestly, I was surprised Beast Boy and Raven are together, which kind of happened at the Titans Academy... I really explored that relationship. I instantly gravitated toward that. [I] was talking to [DC Editor Brittany Holzherr] about it, Nightwing is the heart of the DCU, but Beast Boy is the soul of the Titans because he's come through so much trauma and stuff with Dark Crisis. He's in a really interesting place. Then having Raven, who's typically this very dark character, not someone you think of as being in love -- the two of them are amazing together. I started writing a scene with the two of them, and instantly, I was like, "Oh, here it is. Here is a whole lot of the heart of this team, right here with these two characters."
Scott: Yeah, I agree with Tom, actually. When I worked on Teen Titans over a decade ago with the second-generation team, both Beast Boy and Raven were like the grown-ups on the team. So they were there too. I was really surprised by how constantly endearing I found Garfield, but he's just so lovely and delightful and a charming character to spend time with. All of the other characters feel comfortable with him, even though I don't see him as a comforting type. There is something ironically human about him. And yes, that's what makes things just so lovely.
Titans #1 is due out Tuesday, May 16.