Teen Titans: New Teen Titans / Characters

open/close all folders

Baby Wildebeest

^{Click to see him as an infant}

"Uhhh, when rocket come, where do we go? Maybe we build Leggo house?"

First Appearance: New Titans #85 (April, 1992)

Abilities: Super-strength

The Wildebeest Society experimented with genetically-created host bodies to house the tainted souls of Azarath. The Baby Wildebeest was their only successful experiment before the organization was destroyed by the New Titans. Taking care of the infant creature, the Titans soon realized that it could transform into a grown-up Wildebeest, and let him join the team.

Baby Talk: Often spoke in this, due to being a toddler. By the time of his cameos in Devin Grayson's Titans, he spoke a little more coherently and like a slightly older child.
Collateral Angst: Died alongside his adopted mother Pantha to serve as character development for his father figure Red Star. The character development never happened beyond a single issue of Teen Titans.
C-List Fodder: Notable for being a gratuitous death of a child character, even if he was in his hulked-out adult mode at the time. He basically was violently gored through by Superboy Prime's heat vision, after attempting to attack him for beheading his "mama".
Depending on the Artist: As to how monsterish he might have looked, vs. slightly more humanoid appearances.
Designer Babies: One of the Wildebeest Society's many unusual test subjects.
Hulk Out: Baby Wildebeest did in fact spend most of his time as a toddler, but when in battle would assume the much larger and bulkier form of the adult Wildebeest.
Killed Off for Real: Like Pantha, he was killed off during Infinite Crisis by Superboy Prime and aside from a brief revival during Blackest Night, he has never been revived and remained absent from the DC Universe ever since.
Redeeming Replacement: To the Wildebeest Society.

Beast Boy / Changeling

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beast_boy.jpg

AKA: Garfield Logan

Abilities: Animal shapeshifting

Beast Boy, also known as Changeling and Menagerie, is a DC Comics superhero created by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown, first appearing in the November 1965 issue of The Doom Patrol. As a child, Garfield Logan survived an infectious green monkey bite through the Super Science of his parents, who were in Africa studying the field of reverse evolution. Their treatment saved his life, but had two distinct effects—first, Garfield would spend the rest of his days as green as the monkey that bit him, and second, he had developed the ability to turn into any animal at will.

See his personal page for more info.

Cyborg / Cyberion

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyborg_4.png

"Mebbe I gotta look like a blasted robot, but do I gotta talk like one, too?"

AKA: Victor Stone

First appearance: DC Comics Presents #26 (October, 1980)

Abilities: Super-strength, invulnerability, technopathy, advanced weaponry, engineering skills

After being injured in a scientific accident that resulted in the death of his mother, high school athlete Victor Stone was outfitted with advanced Artificial Limbs by his father, Silas. Initially horrified by his new appearance, with his body parts having been replaced with a large arsenal of high-tech gadgets and weaponry, while constantly providing life support, Victor struggled with his humanity as a machine.

Victor would find a home and family with the newly-reformed Teen Titans, and remained with the team for a number of years as a charter member. As an adult, Cyborg eventually "graduated" from the team and briefly joined the Justice League of America alongside his former teammates Starfire and Donna Troy. As of the New 52 Continuity Reboot, Cyborg is now a founding member of the Justice League. After 35 years of being a character, Cyborg finally got his very first ongoing comic book, titled Cyborg, in July 2015.

Outside of comics, Cyborg has appeared in a number of adapted works, most notably as one of the last season's new characters on Superfriends and one of the main characters at the popular Teen Titans (2003) animated series. Ray Fisher plays him in the DC Extended Universe, he appears as a footage cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and is featured in Justice League and even more prominently in Zack Snyder's Justice League. A Cyborg-centric movie was in development at one point, but nothing has really come from it.

Adaptational Early Appearance: In order to add some diversity to the team, Cyborg is made into a founding member of the Justice League. In real life, Cyborg wasn't introduced until the early 1980s, long after the creation of the Justice League.
Adaptation Origin Connection: Pre-Flashpoint, the Justice League of America first formed fighting the Appellaxians and the accident that turned Vic Stone into Cyborg was an experiment of his dad's. In the New 52, the Origins Episode of Justice League (2011) had both be the same event — an invasion by Darkseid that caused Vic to end up as a cyborg and the forming of the League and is now Earth's first encounter with the denizens of Apokolips.
The Aesthetics of Technology: Vic is repeatedly saddled with thick, bulky robotics that tend to emphasize his monstrous self-image, even though a character who's nature is associated by default with cutting-edge technology would nowadays quite reasonably be expected to be slim, streamlined and emulating a natural appearance. Granted that he's outfitted with fictional superhuman bionics which are going to look like whatever the artists say such a thing needs to look like, but it's also true that the DCU has other bionic characters who look more human, so In-Universe, there's really no reason for him to constantly look so inhuman. There have been several instances where he gained a more streamlined or normal-looking appearance, only for Status Quo Is God to force him back to something closer to his classic look. In later versions where his cybernetics are connected with Black Box alien technology, this becomes less of an issue because no one really knows what he is.
Arch-Enemy: Cyborg has Grid, an Enemy Without formed from rogue data inside Cyborg who eventually joins the Crime Syndicate, in the New 52.
Ascended Extra: Thanks to his appearance on Smallville, and the writing of Geoff Johns, Cyborg went from being a brief member of the JLA to one of the team's founders in the New 52. And, thanks to this, his appearances outside the comics have become more and more frequent. In Flashpoint he was depicted as Earth's greatest superhero without Superman around (of course, Aquaman and Wonder Woman had done a Face–Heel Turn).
Arm Cannon: Cyborg's trademark weapon is a sonic cannon built into his right arm.
Artifact Title: He was still called Cyborg in Devin Grayon's Titans run, even though technically, he wasn't a cyborg at all, just a human mind inside of a shapeshifting alien robot.
Artificial Limbs: Much like a traditional cyborg, only a portion of Cyborg's body was composed of military cybernetic limbs given to him by his father.
Artificial Limbs Are Stronger: His cybernetic parts grant him some degree of enhanced-strength, but it's usually downplayed in favor of his other abilities.
Black and Nerdy: Cyborg is often the Titans' go-to tech guy, as while not quite as smart as Michael Holt/Mister Terrific, is still extremely intelligent and one of the premier scientific authorities in the DCU.
Blue Is Heroic: His metallic components often shine in a bluish hue, although they are silvery-white.
Body Horror: Initially he was a straightforward cyborg, hand crafted by his father and would replace parts as they are damaged or worn out the same way someone would fix a car. Later versions have him blended with alien nano-tech that is constantly evolving, threatening to absorb or even discard the remaining organic components.
Breakout Character: He started as part of the ensemble of the Teen Titans, but as time went on he steadily was pushed further and further into the spotlight until he became one of the founding members of the Justice League in the New 52 and DC Extended Universe.
Character Catchphrase: Due to Teen Titans (2003), and many subsequent works continuing to cast Khary Payton as him, he's starting to pick up a habit of saying "Booyah!". Even when he's not played by Payton.
Chrome Champion: During the period where his soul was inside the Omegadrome, Cyborg looked like a human with shiny gold skin and red eyes.
Converse with the Unconscious: During the One Year Later timeskip, Cyborg was deactivated while repairs were underway. During that time, the other Teen Titans used him as a sounding board, even ones who'd never met him in person.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Cyborg has feared this from time to time, especially in his early years with his prosthetics.
- This actually was his fate during the period from "Titans Hunt" through his "Cyberion" phase, until JLA/Titans actually DID return his soul to him literally. Why, yes, that period WAS during the 90s, how did you guess..?
Cyborg: His name says it all. He is an extremely amputated human rebuilt with cybernetics
Cyborg Wizard: In his DC Rebirth series (specifically issue #17), Cyborg has learned some rudimentary magic due to having gone on a date with fellow hero Zatanna, despite being, as his moniker implies, a cyborg. It is not much, mostly just him unlocking a door by shouting "Alakazam," but it does help.
Death by Origin Story: Cyborg's mother was killed in the same accident that injured him to the point that his father had to fit him with bionics to save his life. In addition, Beast Boy's biological parents were killed shortly after he gained his green skin and hair and power to transform into animals.
Electronic Eyes: Victor's left eye is a high-tech prosthetic to replace his original damaged one.
Evil Counterpart: The end of Trinity War introduces Grid; a supercomputer virus in control of a robot body. Grid took over Cyborg's cybernetic body and tore it from Cyborg's human remains to make its body.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's a Cyborg... named Cyborg.
Face–Heel Turn: Cyborg nearly lost all his humanity when he became Cyberion and almost destroyed the moon.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Plain Cyborg, with a metal plate on one side of his head.
Flying Brick: His cybernetics can generate repulsors, allowing him to fly.
Flying Firepower: Cyborg comes equipped with rockets and plasma cannons.
Gadgeteer Genius: This even evolves to the ability to take himself apart and put himself back together by the time of volume 3.
Genius Bruiser: Cyborg started out a downplayed version in his backstory, having an I.Q. of 196 but focusing on his athletic prospects rather than following in the footsteps of his top-tier scientist parents. After his father put him back together following the lab accident that ate his mother and much of him, he came to make a virtue of of necessity and expand his expertise in cybernetics to well-reputed authority levels by studying his own Artificial Limbs.
Genius Loci: There was a time when Cyborg was assimilated into a Hive Mind of alien AIs and then connected to the aliens' planet. While Vic (known as Cyberion during this phase) was cybernetic by this point, there was still a little human left inside that longed for companionship, causing him to go to Earth and kidnap his fellow Titans.
Glowing Mechanical Eyes: One replaces his left eye.
Half the Man He Used to Be: The accident that disfigured Victor destroyed his limbs and left half of his face and all of his vital organs in critical condition.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Beast Boy. Later gets this with Shazam in the New 52.
Hollywood Hacking: He's able to hack into anything from bank accounts all the way to, potentially, nuclear weapon launching systems.
Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The "Singularity Aftermath" arc in Cyborg (Rebirth) showed Victor's face - both human and robotic portions - slowly being built up from a quasi-mechanical skull.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Half-human half-machine Vic Stone has struggled with I Just Want to Be Normal for decades.
Impersonating the Evil Twin: In one storyline, the villain (mentally disturbed former Titan Jericho) can jump into people's bodies, and was last seen occupying Cyborg, so to draw out another hero (the Vigilante) who is also looking for him, Cyborg pretends to still be possessed and fights his teammates... only to get the robot half of his head shot out for his trouble when the Vigilante shows up. Sometimes this works too well...
Instant Armor: For a time, Victor possessed the ability to instantly transform from a normal human appearance to his trademark Cyborg look. He lost this power shortly before to the 2003 Teen Titans relaunch. At the end of the first story arc from his New 52 solo series, he gets this ability again.
In the Hood: He wears a hoodie to conceal his cybernetics as much as possible. After going through character development, he stops wearing clothes altogether.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When he was first introduced, Cyborg was the typical Angry Black Man. He was a complete jerk, always shouting, always angry, always mad at everyone, with or without reason... and, as time goes by, his true personality begins to shine through. He was Not Evil, Just Misunderstood after all, it was a slow subversion.
Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Cyborg is an inversion. Even though Victor is brainy, he resents his scientist parents pushing him into academics and chooses to pursue athletics...until, of course, the accident that nearly killed him, at which point his dad made him a cyborg to save his life. Later versions of his origin have Victor's father brushing off his son almost entirely because of his athletic focus, even when it's made clear Vic's academically excelling as well.
Make Some Noise: His signature weapon in his sonic cannon (That he appropriately calls "Boom Box"), which fires a beam of concussive sound waves.
Meaningful Name: "Victor Stone" is a Shout-Out to Victor Frankenstein (in German, "Frankenstein" means "Stone of the Franks").
- "Victor" can also mean "one who is victorious".
Monster Modesty: Cyborg doesn't wear anything. He used to wear a jump suit hoodie with the hood up, but Beast Boy convinced him that he looks better wearing nothing. In Cyborg's case, though, half his body is robotic and he has nothing left to show.
The Nicknamer: Has a nickname for just about everyone (such as "Goldie" for Starfire and "Witch" for Raven).
No Eye in Magic: Cyborg is immune to Jericho's possession powers because his eyes are mechanical, and Jericho's powers only work through eye contact.
Omniscient Database: His powers potentially allow him to access every source of digital knowledge, thus enabling him to pick up any kind of information.
Plug 'n' Play Technology: He can gain access to virtually every electronic system.
Primary-Color Champion: Several of his components have a "red light" diode on them, being his left eye, something akin to a "third eye" at his forehead's middle and an at times beltbuckle / at times Chest Insignia the most notorious. Also as mentioned above, his metallic parts shine in a bluish hue.
Promoted to Love Interest: In Teen Titans: Earth One, he and Tara Markov (a.k.a Terra) are portrayed as a high-school couple, despite never having been shown to have any interest in each other in other continuities.
Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: It was often lampshaded in the Titans run how Cyborg merged with the alien knowledge-cataloging organism known as Technis to become Cyberion during the JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative arc which ended in him becoming Planet Cyberion, assimilating and collect everything in his way until he became as large as the Earth's Moon, consumed the Earth's moon which nearly destroyed the Earth by causing massive natural disasters and planet-wide technological shutdowns, and had to be stopped by a joint effort consisting of the Justice League, Young Justice, JLA Reserves, Titans and Teen Titans.
Sinister Surveillance: He can access virtually every computerized system on Earth and eaves-drop and see the people around them.
The Smart Guy: Though often in the role of The Big Guy while working with the Titans, he's also generally the most technologically savvy of the team- meanwhile, his strength and durability pale in comparison to several Flying Brick members of the Justice League, so his role as tech-savvy engineer has increased a good deal as well.
Status Quo Is God: Poor Vic has managed to regain his human form (or at least a less-monstrous appearance) several times, but events always conspire to turn him right back into a bulky, armored freak.
Super-Strength: Thanks to his cybernetic parts, he is very strong being able stop a speeding subway train◊, slam The Brute Mammoth into the ground◊ and even draw blood from Shazam/Captain Marvel◊ in the New 52, who has Superman-level of durability.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He served as one for the John Stewart Green Lantern to some extent. In the Justice League cartoons John Stewart was used as the main Green Lantern to diversify what would have been a very white League, and the success and popularity of the cartoons obscured Hal Jordan who Geoff Johns had been reviving, and who he wanted to restore as the Green Lantern, and to still maintain diversity, Cyborg was brought in to the League, while having him serve alongside the Hal Jordan Green Lantern.
Token Minority: Cyborg was the only African-American in the New Teen Titans and the first few arcs of the New 52 Justice League.
Token Robot: He's the only member of the Titans to have tech-based powers.
Tragic Robot: Victor lost his mother on the night of his accident and his injuries were so severe he had to be converted into a cyborg to survive, which haunts him given his athletic history.
Twofer Token Minority: He's African-American and a multiple amputee
Unfortunate Implications: Robert Jones, Jr. argued in an editorial that the New 52 reboot of Cyborg's origin suffered from some dodgy implications, particularly the way the story made it clear that the character lost his genitalia in the accident that disfigured him, something which was not the case in Cyborg's initial '80s origin^note. The problem here is that black men are often treated as inherently sexually threatening, and the event that turned Victor Stone into a superhero also happened to desexualize him. The fact that it occurred at the same time DC was attempting to elevate the character to A-list status as a member of the Justice League and DC's premier black superhero made it seem even iffier, as if they wanted to make him neutered and inoffensive for mainstream consumption. DC writer David Walker publicly agreed with this sentiment, which is why one of the first things he did when he started writing Cyborg's short-lived solo title was to have the character begin to regenerate his organic tissue, including his genitals.
Unobtainium: The metal that was used to create Cyborg's body was Promethium, the DCU's equivalent of adamantium, and a super hard metal that superstrong superheroes have a tough time damaging.
Unwilling Roboticisation: He didn't ask to be turned into a cyborg.
Unwitting Test Subject: Victor was comatose when Silas converted him into a cyborg, with an inability to give consent during what were his few remaining moments of life.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: At the end of the first story arc from his New 52 solo series, he gets the ability to freely shift from his armored form to his "normal" looking human form.
We Can Rebuild Him: In both the original and New 52 continuities, the major impetus behind giving Victor robotic body parts was to save his life. And he hated his dad because of this.
- He was further rebuilt by Russian scientists when he wound up comatose from an accident in New Titans, but this attempt went horribly wrong. He became a silent automaton and Living Prop for the majority of the run until the Technis restored his mind—at the cost of him being turned into an emotionless techno-organic alien being, and then evolving into a robotic planetoid before the Titans restored him to a more humanoid form.
Why Couldn't You Be Different?: This is part of Cyborg's backstory, going back to his time with the New Teen Titans; he was an extremely gifted athlete with genius scientist parents who saw no value in his athletic accomplishments and successes. They refused to attend his meets and games, and often simply ignored him at home.
The Worf Effect: Since he's quite hard to kill (as he can just be rebuilt), Cyborg is usually the first one to be taken out in order to demonstrate how powerful a new foe is.
Writers Cannot Do Math: Cyborg has used a "million decibels" of white noise as a weapon multiple times. This is more than 900 times the decibels the entire universe produces (1,100 decibels, and keep in mind decibels run on a logarithmic scale, which means it would be even higher) and is estimated to be very high in power. So you'd think it would be extremely dangerous, right? Well, not exactly. The most it does half the time is blow up walls or make certain characters' ears hurt.
Yo Yo Plot Point: Essentially every arc that Cyborg has ever had can be summed up as "Something-something-something, and now Cyborg must face the question: is he man...or machine?" (Answer: Man. Can we move on now?)

Jericho

AKA: Joseph Wilson

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2678858a69cb72f375e340dbfe2961db.png

Abilities: Possession

Slade and Adeline's youngest son, Joseph Wilson is able to control people's bodies through eye contact. He was a longtime member of the Teen Titans, although he occasionally found himself fighting against them.

See Deathstroke characters page for more info.

Kole

AKA: Kole Weathers

First Appearance: New Teen Titans Vol 2 #9 (June, 1985)

Abilities: Flight, can "spin" crystals

Professor Abel Weathers, paranoid of an impending nuclear holocaust, was attempting to find a way for humanity to survive the fallout through forced evolution. One of the test subjects in his experiments was his 16-year-old daughter, Kole, whom he grafted with crystal and Promethium (a fictionalized version of the real-world element Promethium). Instead of evolving to survive a nuclear fallout as her father intended, Kole found herself with the ability to create and control pure silicon crystal at will.

Back from the Dead: Played with and then subverted in Team Titans, due to the different writers' conflicting ideas. Marv Wolfman reintroduced her as a mysterious helper to the team and implied that she had lingered on in the form of a spirit, while Phil Jimenez was told by the editors to explain her away as a false doppelganger. Her limp body is shown hanging behind Monarch, with the implication that she was one of his "puppets".
Flight: Kole has the ability to fly, but it is unclear whether this also comes from the experiments which gave her her powers, or granted to her during her tenure as Thia's slave.
The Power of Glass: Kole has the ability to create and control pure silicon crystal at will.
Sacrificial Lamb: Created to die in Crisis on Infinite Earths where she attempts to save the Earth-2 Robin and Earth-2 Huntress from the Anti-Monitor's shadow demons. She failed, and all three were apparently killed, their bodies never found.
Ship Tease: With Jericho. She even asked Jericho if they could have sex.

Lightning

Pantha

" Hey bratwurst, drop the bags or I'll rip your lungs out."

AKA: Rosabelle Mendez

First Appearance: New Titans #73 (February, 1991)

Abilities: Super-strength, agility, and senses; claws

Pantha is a cat-like superhero and a member of the Teen Titans. Originally a normal woman named Rosabelle Mendez, the Wildebeest Society mutated her into a were-beast. With no knowledge of her origins, she used the name X-24 given to her as a test subject. Much of her career was spent looking for information about her past. When she left the Titans, she formed a family with Red Star as her partner and Baby Wildebeest as her adopted child. During Infinite Crisis, she was murdered by Superboy-Prime.

C-List Fodder: Had her head punched off by Superboy-Prime in Infinite Crisis.
Cat Girl: She was a catgirl created by genetic alteration. She doesn't know if she was a human woman or a female panther prior to the alteration. She was a human woman as explained when her past was finally revealed. Though it was an alternate timeline so that may not be the case in the real timeline.
Collateral Angst: She wasn't just C-List Fodder, but she and her adopted son Baby Wildebeest were killed off to serve as development for her boyfriend Red Star. Development which consisted of a single issue of Teen Titans and two issues of Red Robin.
Dark and Troubled Past: She was kidnapped and experimented on by the Wildebeest Society, eventually being turned into a human-cat-hybrid. Though since she also had her memories erased, she doesn't know whether she used to be a human or a panther. All her attempts to find out more about her past resulted in dead ends.
Deadpan Snarker: Always with a quip or general snark on hand.
Depending on the Artist: Just how cat-like she looked when unmasked. Sometimes she'd appear with a snout-like nose and a slight point to her earlobes, and sometimes she'd have actual cat ears sprouting from her head or even whiskers. Other times, she'd have a relatively average human face, with the only "cat" feature being her slit-shaped pupils. Her eye color itself varied between being red or yellow.
Expy: She was the Titans' Wolverine.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Due to her Jerkass and sometimes even hostile attitude constantly ridiculing and berating her teammates, she is moreso tolerated than an actual friend to her teammates.
- Subverted with Red Star and Beast Boy, however. While she starts out a jerk to them, too, she ends up genuinely worried about Red Star and joins him when he leaves the Titans. Further, she comforts Beast Boy on two seperate occasions, first after illusions of his dead parents created by Prester Jon disappeared telling him she envied him for having memories of a past life at all and telling him to cherish said memories and a second time when he revealed that having to wear Mento's helmet a while back caused his beast side to become more savage and that it's frightening him telling him she relates to him and understands his feelings.
Killed Off for Real: During Infinite Crisis she was killed by Superboy Prime and has not been revived since.^note
Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: She usually acts like a jerk to everyone around her, ridiculing and otherwise trying to get a rise out of her teammates. However, she refrains from mocking her teammates when they are emotionally down even comforting Beast Boy on two seperate occasions. When called out for her behaviour by Red Star she reveals that she is only acting this way because she is scared not knowing who, or what, she really is.
- After initial complications, she does end up considering Baby Wildebeest her son showing actual motherly affection and care for him.

Phantasm

AKA: Danny Chase

First Appearance: New Teen Titans Annual Vol 2 #3 (November, 1987)

Abilities: Telekinesis, photographic memory

Danny Chase was once the youngest of all the members of the New Teen Titans. When Jason Todd died he was expelled by Nightwing of the Titans. He later returned as the Phantasm.

Bedsheet Ghost: The original Phantasm was Danny using telekinesis to manipulate a tattered brown cloth, mask, and gloves. Slade even calls him "The Sheet" once.
Bratty Half-Pint: The main reason of his unpopularity; he was snide, egotistical, bratty and arrogant.
Character Shilling: For a group as rife with personal conflict as the Titans, Danny got quite a bit of unquestioned approval in the early stages, especially from Nightwing. For one example, when Danny goes missing — during super-powered combat, in the middle of a top secret Escort Mission — Nightwing brushes off Cyborg belatedly noticing his disappearance with a confident statement that Danny can take care of himself. (This same episode saw Danny and his grandfather single-handedly rescue the Titans after they were swiftly captured by a villain using tech invented by Danny's grandfather).
Heroic Sacrifice: Eventually gave up his life to save the disembodied souls of Azarath. This caused him, Arella and the souls to merge into a new Phantasm.
Incoming Ham: "No more. Phantasm says no more!"
Insufferable Genius: Danny Chase was exceptionally bright for a boy his age (his lack of interest in schoolwork notwithstanding), and had no reservation when it came to showing off in front of the other Titans. Though the Titans respected Danny's intelligence, his arrogance and condescending behavior also caused them great frustration.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold
Kid-Appeal Character: Danny was dreamed up to put the Teen back in Teen Titans.
The Millstone: After being dismissed from the Titans, Danny winds up on the streets, but still keeps abreast of details enough to learn of the activities of the Royal Flush Gang, which he plans to capture by himself to humiliate the team. After accidentally infiltrating the gang — yes, accidentally — the Titans arrive in the middle of a heist, causing Danny to hesitate and then ultimately decide to sabotage the team so his original plan is still available to him. This backfires appropriately once the RFG recognize him from older Titans photos.
Mind over Matter: Through an act of will, he can manipulate material of varying mass and volume from a remote distance.
People Puppets: When he appears during Titans Hunt Danny amuses himself and a mall crowd by putting on a little Punch and Judy show with some criminals he's apprehended mid-robbery.
Riches to Rags: According to Nightwing, the Titans were semi-babysitting Danny for his parents the whole time, and when Danny, who apparently either didn't want to go home or had no home to go to, was expelled from the Titans, he wound up on the streets.
Sitcom Archnemesis: Was created to serve as one to Beast Boy.
Teen Superspy: His parents were international spies; as such, he was trained in espionage, infiltration, and intelligence acquisition in addition to his powers.
Took a Level in Badass: Danny Chase in Titans Hunt shows substantially more confidence and assertiveness with his powers; back in the 80s he was constantly fighting with insecurity. He even gets ahold of the two Wildebeest Society members who try to capture them the instant they show up... only to let them go so he can play with them some more.

Raven

Raven as of DC Rebirth

^{Click here to see Pre-New 52 Raven}

AKA: Raven, Rachel Roth (later alias)

First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26 (October, 1980)

Abilities: Empathy, healing, flight, telepathy, sorcery, amongst others

"My mind is a battleground, whipped and ripped asunder, torn from the very fabric of reality."

Raven was born when a human woman named Angela (or Arella) became involved with a cult and was raped by Trigon. To protect the world from her and her father, Raven was raised in the distant land of Azarath, where the Goddess Azar taught her to control her emotions to suppress her demonic powers. After Azar's death, Raven tried and failed to mobilize the pacifistic people of Azarath against Trigon. Still swearing to stop him, Raven traveled to Earth for help. She first went to the Justice League, but due to Zatanna sensing the evil power within her, she was rejected. Still desperate, Raven instead sent telepathic messages to previous Teen Titans members Dick Grayson/Robin, Wally West/Kid Flash, and Donna Troy/Wonder Girl, and new heroes Koriand'r/Starfire, Victor Stone/Cyborg, and Garfield Logan/Beast Boy, uniting them as the new Teen Titans. While at first distant, Raven eventually began to accept them as her new adoptive family and began opening up to them.

See her personal page for more info.

Red Star

"You have taught me something...that all men, regardless of their belief, must learn to live together! For when your ideologies and mine have long since turned to dust, man must still survive!"

AKA: Leonid Kovar

First Appearance: Teen Titans #18 (December, 1968)

Abilities: Super-strength, speed, and stamina; pyrokinesis

Leonid Kovar was exposed to a space ship which gave him his powers, and would later join the Teen Titan and take the name "Red Star".

Ascended Extra: Leonid actually appeared in the original run but he's most well-known for joining the "New Titans" around the time of Titans Hunt
Husky Russkie: He's Russian and very well-built.

Robin II / Red Hood

AKA: Jason Todd

Abilities: Martial arts master, detective skills, acrobatics

Originally Jason Todd was the second Robin, after Dick Grayson grew too old. During "A Death in the Family" he was murdered by the Joker. Many years later, he was resurrected and become the anti-hero Red Hood. Before his death, he took part in Titans activity for a brief time.

See his personal page for more info.

Starfire

AKA: Koriand'r / Kory Anders

Abilities: Flight, super-strength, invulnerability, energy projection

Starfire is an alien super-hero with powers of flight and energy projection. Born a princess on the planet Tamaran, she escaped execution at the hands of her older sister Blackfire and traveled to Earth. Meeting the Teen Titans, she became a charter member and stayed with the team for most of her career. Her culture's different standards of intimacy cause her to be extremely open and sexually liberated by human standards.

See her personal page for more info.

Terra

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tara_markov_0001.jpg

" Yeah, mebbe the Titans are strong — but Terra's even stronger!"

AKA: Tara Markov

First Appearance: New Teen Titans #26 (December, 1982)

Abilities: Manipulates earth and stone

Terra is a super-hero with the power of geo-kinesis. Born the illegitimate daughter to King Viktor of Markovia, her half-brother is Geo-Force. Unable to stay at home, she became a mercenary and began working with Deathstroke. He used her to infiltrate the Teen Titans, where she developed a relationship with Beast Boy, and ultimately died betraying them.

Adaptational Heroism:
- The Judas Contract ends with a narrative summary that oversimplifies Terra's character to "pure evil", which means adaptations can produce this by simply giving more room to the original story's numerous gray areas.
  - Teen Titans (2003) removes her Smug Super Social Darwinism and gives more room to her insecurity and Commitment Issues.
  - Young Justice (2010) is Truer to the Text than the Teen Titans cartoon, but here Terra's Commitment Issues are less crippling and the heroes ultimately do break through to her.
- In The Ravagers, Terra escapes the Culling of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. with other Phlebotinum Rebels, fighting criminals along the way.
Age-Inappropriate Dress: Whenever she was alone with Slade, Terra would be found wearing heavy make-up, high-heeled slippers, and short-hemmed bathrobes. Combined with her Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, the effect was quite startling.
Ambiguous Situation:
- While Tara claims it was an all an act, her obviously troubled psyche and her abusive relationship with Slade casts a shadow of doubt over her actions and attitudes. She presents no less than four different fronts—publicly to the Titans, privately to Garfield, privately to Slade, and finally the proud traitor to everyone—but her inner thoughts are perpetually in turmoil and even in the initial stages it becomes clear that her behavior in the team has a lot of her real personality invested in it.
- Tara's relationship with Garfield—did she ever really fall, even in part, In Love with the Mark? She notably shares a kiss with Garfield just before the Judas Contract itself when she could have safely strung him along in other ways.
- The matter of the second Tara Markov—including her true identity, origin, and her relationship to the original—were never properly settled.
Bastard Bastard: Tara's the illegitimate daughter of a king and not a nice person.
Becoming the Mask: Defied. The original Terra, who presented herself as being Troubled, but Cute, suffered increasing stress and anxiety as the Titans began to show her acceptance despite how troubled she was. She eventually started taking more drastic measures to offset any attachment, like braining Gar and knocking him unconscious when deciding to face Deathstroke by herself.
Beneath the Mask:
- Zigzagged when she was with the Titans. While Tara was obviously hiding things from the Titans, her tough-but-troubled act was a lot more real than she probably would've cared to admit.
- When she was with Slade, Tara would adopt an especially cold-hearted tone and attitude, but she'd show signs of stress underneath the facade.
- While Terra would publicly rebuff and insult Beast Boy, when she and Garfield were alone, Tara behaved more confidingly and affectionately. How much of an act either front was is an Ambiguous Situation.
Clone Angst: Terra II suffered an ongoing and severe identity crisis regarding whether or not she was the original Terra or not. This was never answered decisively.
Commitment Issues: When the Titans throw Tara a Surprise Party, the prospect of real friendship and kindness from the team provokes her to have a small Freak Out and start a fight with everyone, demanding to know their secrets.
Cute and Psycho: She seems like a sweet young girl; is actually a vicious and ruthless mercenary with distinct yandere traits — she's not only sleeping with the much older mercenary/assassin who hired her, she ends up killing herself (while trying to kill him) when Jericho possessed the assassin and freed the Teen Titans, making Terra believe that her lover betrayed her.
Dishing Out Dirt: She can control and manipulate all forms of rock and earthly substances and materials. There is no set limit to how far or how close she needs to be to the earth for this power and ability to work. She has been able to be completely off the ground and still control the earth. She has created tremors, earthquakes, sharpen rocks to a needle point, and has control over these elements for as long as she can physically maintain them.
Domino Mask: Though averted with her Post-Crisis counterpart, Atlee.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For as irredeemably horrible a person as she was in the end, she was shown to care about her older brother Brion when he made a visit, being secretly worried that he'd join the Titans or still be around the Titans when the time came for her to betray the team and she didn't want him caught up in all that and possibly killed. She later admits she hated Brion's own goody-goody attitude just as she did the Titans', but the fact remains that unlike with her teammates she didn't want him dead.
Evil All Along: Terra infiltrated the Titans on Slade's orders and never reformed. Her goal the entire time was to take down the Titans because she hated how goody-goody they were.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In The Judas Contract, Terra mistakes restraint and humility for weakness. "You, my damned brothers. All of you possessing power while refusing to use it."
Evil Counterpart:
- Downplayed. Terra and Deathstroke's relationship is a deliberately more explicit take on the shadier aspects of Batman and Robin; it's even more explicit in Tales from the Dark Multiverse, where Dick Grayson has a spontaneous moment of empathy of her and gives her a speech about no longer being stuck in their shadow, which she adamantly denies being relevant to her... right before she kills Deathstroke and then uses his Super Serum for herself.
- As phenomenally strong Unstable Powered Women with malevolent father figures in their lives who intended to use them for evil, Terra and Raven are Mirror Characters. Terra, however, reveled in the use of her power, especially for violence, while Raven feared the danger she could present and strove to suppress it through strict self-control.
For Want Of A Nail: In Tales from the Dark Multiverse, Dick Grayson notices a similarity between himself and Terra and offers her empathy and some advice... advice that ultimately inspires her to rid herself of Deathstroke and go into business for herself.
Freak Out:
- Tara gets upset when the Titans throw her a Surprise Party and starts a fight.
- Right before the Judas Contract itself, Gar manages to get a little too far under Tara's skin during a training session, and she lashes out so hard she nearly kills him and ruins the charade ahead of schedule.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: Besides her affair with Deathstroke, she constantly flirts with Nightwing, even cheering for him to take off all his clothes in one issue.
I Am What I Am: According to the narrative — "plainly, Terra Markov is what she is."
Informed Flaw: In the opinion of the narrator of the Judas Contract, reinforced by Word of God over the years since, Terra was an inherently, irredeemably evil character. This is despite a host of suspicious and mitigating circumstances both at the time and accumulating in later stories, such as the fact that she was an abused teen, a middle-aged hitman and father figure may have been having sex with her, she may have been crazy for any of those reasons or because she was an Earth elemental, or she may have been drugged.
Irony:
- Tara may have been The Mole and trying to string Gar along, but by the same token he alone was able to get under her skin.
- Tara is a spy, but knew almost nothing about the two men she was closest to—Garfield and Slade Wilson.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Invoked. Terra, who has deep insecurities, plays a jerk in front of the Titans and plays even more of a jerk in front of Slade. Once she reveals her actions in The Judas Contract, she boasts to the Titans that she was pretending to be nice.
Kick the Dog: When she reveals herself as a Mole to the Titans, everyone but Cyborg refuses to believe she was deceiving them all along, but Terra takes sadistic joy in pointing out how she hated them from the start.
Terra: It made me wanna gag kissin' you, Logan. Y'like knowin' that, Logan?
Late-Arrival Spoiler: When it happened, the reveal that Terra was a traitor was a complete surprise. Nowadays, with decades of Teen Titans comics having the betrayal of Terra as a recurring past plot element, and an animated series and movie where she did precisely the same thing, it shouldn't be a surprise for anyone — although the fact that she's a completely unrepentant Psycho for Hire and not an emotionally abused girl taken advantage of may surprise newcomers.
Leotard of Power: Alongside her Post-Crisis counterpart, Atlee. In the New 52 she wears a black jumpsuit with yellow lines all over it.
Little Miss Snarker: Was frequently the team member with the most cynical attitude and cattiest remarks to say. Even when doing villainous work she seldom let up on the snark.
Long-Range Fighter: The original Terra was good at long range attacks but had trouble if anyone got close to her (in more ways than one); a sparring match with Beast Boy turns deadly when Gar gets in one too many jabs (also in more ways than one), which prompts her to have a Freak Out and nearly kill him with the backlash.
Lovable Rogue: She's lied, cheated, stolen, vandalized, damaged public property, taken advantage of others, and even used lethal force against her enemies but you can't help but like the girl - provided she doesn't want you dead.
Love-Interest Traitor: For Beast Boy, who tried the hardest to integrate and reform her with the group. Whether the original Terra was In Love with the Mark or not was an Ambiguous Situation, but the second Terra was very obviously interested in pursuing a relationship with him from the start.
The Mole: She joined the Teen Titans, fooling them by staging a battle against Deathstroke. She then operated as a spy for Deathstroke, eventually giving him the information he needed to kidnap the Titans.
Noodle Incident: During a Crossover between the Teen Titans and Batman and the Outsiders, Terra briefly thinks of an incident in her past in which she let her brother Brion down, which is never explained or revisited.
Not Quite Dead: Her famed death by her own powers was retconned out in the Rebirth comics thanks to Deathstroke's time altering actions from "The Lazarus Contract" creating a timeline where Slade gave her a Cooldown Kiss to snap her out of her breakdown and save her from dying, her death being faked afterwards.
Person of Mass Destruction: By the time of The Judas Contract Terra was able to rip skyscraper-sized columns of twisted earth and stone up from the ground and hurl them about freely. In the Tales from the Dark Multiverse adaptation, she takes this further after taking a hearty dose of Deathstroke's Super Serum, which resulted in her upgraded abilities allowing her to cause volcanic eruptions and ultimately to destabilize the whole planet through its core.
Pet the Dog:
- Most of her good qualities and actions get subverted in the end with two exceptions - her caring about her brother (see Even Evil Has Loved Ones) and how she got along with Wally West. Wally was a part of the team when Terra "joined" them secretly under the contract to betray them all to Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E, but he retired from it before Terra was ready to make her betrayal, and she never suggested to Slade that they find out where he is now and capture him in order to kill all the Titans that were present when Grant died and Slade took up the contract, so her fondness for him might have been at least somewhat sincere.
- The Rebirth version of her is just as much of a manipulator and a Jerkass... but somewhat tries to help Rose Wilson come to terms with her own issues, in a roundabout, asshole way, admittedly. Also when Rose goes missing, Terra seemed to be the Defiance member who showed the most open concern and suggesting that they find out where she was.
Power Incontinence: As the Judas Contract finale approached, Terra began to waver between exceptionally powerful displays to being exhausted by tunneling efforts. Whether this was because of her emotional instability or potential drugs like Slade's Super Serum (which made him suffer similar wavering effects) was not definitively explained. Terra's uncontrollable power took on more symbolic significance during the Judas Contract itself, when Slade—who has control issues—began to realize he was relying on somebody who couldn't be controlled.
Progressively Prettier: Was originally meant to be a "cute" but unconventional-looking type of girl with large front teeth, short cropped hair, and being shorter than the others. Later artists' flashbacks and her zombie form in Blackest Night instead show her to have long hair, no buck teeth, and a shapely body.
Rage Breaking Point: At the finale of the Judas Contract, something small hits her in the spy-camera contact lens she was wearing—she believes it to be Garfield—and pushes her over the edge into the final display of her power, which ultimately kills her.
Riddle for the Ages: Why was the original Tara Markov's grave empty when the second unearthed it?
The Rival: To Rose Wilson on Defiance. The two seem to loathe each other, and make no secret about it. Whenever they're together, they're fighting, and it goes into physical conflict if there's nothing more important for them to do.
- This almost reaches Vitriolic Best Buds in later issues where Rose shows that she actually does trust Terra when they're tackling missions together, is comfortable sitting next to her on a bus and talking (even if the two of them still have nothing nice to say to each other), and even refers to Terra as her "friend" when she demands an enemy let her go (though she was in her Willow guise at that point and said this in Mandarin, making Terra not likely to understand what she'd just said).
Self-Disposing Villain: During the climax of the Judas Contract, in her rage to kill both the Titans and Slade (due to a misunderstanding when Jericho took over Slade's body and attacked her), she ends up burying herself under mounds of rubble.
Ship Tease: With Beast Boy until she was revealed as The Mole.
Sky Surfing: Terra's most common mode of high-speed transport is to perch herself on a levitating boulder.
Small Role, Big Impact: Zigzagged. While Tara was a major character of the New Teen Titans at one point, she only played that part for a comparatively miniscule portion of franchise history. That said, she was the cornerstone of The Judas Contract, a storyline that cast a shadow over the franchise and its characters for decades.
The Sociopath: She believed wholeheartedly that people with their powers should use them to make people fear them. Which is why she happily turned against the Titans as she only saw them as "goody-goodies".
Stalker with a Crush: The Rebirth version is this to Slade. She lies in his bed naked, and constantly tells him she wants to sleep with him. She also had a mental breakdown when she found out he never loved her, only calmed when he kissed her. When he himself admits he never loved her to her face years later, Terra's response...is quite different.
Teens Are Monsters:
- Was never a nice person to start with and was never ever truly on the side of good. Her last appearance right before her death took this trope to ridiculous extremes.
- When Tara and Gar relate to Cyborg their plans to attend a movie, Friday the 13th (Part 13!), Tara gleefully notes that it's the one where everyone dies.
Troubled, but Cute: Tara is unconventionally cute, but she does nothing to disguise how troubled she is while trying to infiltrate the Titans, who warm up to her despite her obvious problems.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
- The Reveal featured Tara, a minor, drinking and smoking and having a sexual relationship with Slade. In her conversations with him, Tara would adopt an extra-nasty vocabulary that may or may not have been her trying to be tough in front of Slade.
- During a training session with Slade, he realizes Tara is having a small Power High and is actually trying to kill him.
Tyke Bomb: Terra and her brother Brion Markov received their powers from Dr. Jace's experiments, as their father wanted metahuman Living Weapons to protect Markovia.
Walking Spoiler: Most of her character is from the reveal that she was a mole.
Woman Scorned: The impetus to her mental breakdown. During the final battle of the Judas Contract, Slade was possessed by his son Joey and began to help the Titans; to be apparently betrayed by the man she loved was The Last Straw for Terra and she began to rampage out of control until she ultimately died in her own frenzy.
Writer on Board: The Judas Contract as presented by Wolfman and Perez insists after Terra's accidental suicide that she was both pure evil and completely insane. This was in order to dump the full moral responsibility of the betrayal on her, and not on, say, Deathstroke, the Silver Fox assassin and established enemy of the Titans who was employing her, training her, and sleeping with her.

Thunder

Characters / Teen Titans: New Teen Titans
aka: Comic Book Teen Titans New Teen Titans

Alternative Title(s): Cyborg, Comic Book Teen Titans New Teen Titans, New Teen Titans

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Teen Titans: New Teen Titans aka: Comic Book Teen Titans New Teen Titans

Edit Locked

Alternative Title(s): Cyborg, Comic Book Teen Titans New Teen Titans, New Teen Titans

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Teen Titans: New Teen Titans
aka: Comic Book Teen Titans New Teen Titans