WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Young Justice #15, by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, John Timms and Scott Godlewski, on sale now
The Teen Titans and Young Justice have long been considered the best of the young heroes in the DC Universe. But given recent events in both Teen Titans and Young Justice, one team has shown how it's far more prepared to take on the threats and challenges of the world ahead of them.
It's become obvious Young Justice truly is the future of superheroes in the DC Universe, with the team getting officially sanctioned by the Justice League while the Teen Titans have essentially disbanded -- again.
Young Justice and the Teen Titans have been operating separately, but it's clear Young Justice is the more impressive team. Damian's Teen Titans, largely unconnected to previous iterations of the team, has been dedicated to bringing villains to justice in surprisingly brutal ways. This has included recruiting a team with members (like Red Arrow and Crush) who are more open to violent tactics and operating in secret.
They even captured and tried brainwashing some villains, attempting to correct their darker impulses. But all this did was make the villains more volatile in the long run and put the team at risk. Without oversight or even just allies to call on, the team was quickly overwhelmed: Deathstroke was killed by Red Arrow, Crush was taken over by her father and used to attack civilians and the team is constantly fighting itself. Even after saving Djinn and the rest of her kind from her brother, the most recent arc saw that mystical hero leaving the Teen Titans and putting the group's future (or lack thereof) in doubt.
Meanwhile, Young Justice has found itself in a far more dangerous situation, being flung across the multiverse to try and contend with other realities. After not only surviving but actually positively impacting many of the worlds the group visited, Young Justice returned to Earth and quickly isolated and targeted Doctor Glory, the true villain behind Superboy's repeated recent disappearances. Rallying other teen heroes like Dial H for Hero, Naomi, Sideways and the Wonder Twins, Young Justice quickly and effectively brought down Glory and her forces before turning her over to the proper authorities. It becomes clear that the team will soon take an official position as the junior squad of the Justice League, and team leader Tim Drake even suggests changing the team name to "Young Justice League" to reflect this.
All of this points towards Young Justice truly being the future of heroism in the DC Universe. Instead of having a set roster and a defined dynamic, the team is instead a looser alliance of young heroes who can call on each other and unite as they see fit and as needed. This is similar to the structure of the Justice League in Justice League Unlimited, which allowed for a number of heroes to take the spotlight and even introduce other allies to the fold. Young Justice's heroes work well with each other and just proved to a major authority in the world that they can be trusted to do good work.
Overall, Young Justice has proven itself the more effective heroic group, indicating it might just be time for the Titans to be retired, and the future of the DC Universe.