Titans TV show and how it relates to the comics

Since we don’t have DC’s streaming service in Europe, I was glad that Netflix picked up the Titans show over here. And while I was stuck at home for two days with stomach flu, I got to binge-watch all eleven episodes. There’s going to be a lot of spoilers here, so if you haven’t seen the show yet, it might be a good idea to come back later, after you’ve seen it.

I was really looking forward to this show, because Marv Wolfman and George Perez’ New Teen Titans was one of my favorite comics, growing up in the 80’s. But I was also a little cautious. I used to watch the DC/CW shows like Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, but eventually got bored with all of them. The Titans trailer promised a more dark and adult approach, so I had high hopes that it would turn out good.

And I was pleasantly surprised! The show was even better than I expected. Of course there were also things I didn’t like, which I’ll talk about in a moment, but overall I had a great time watching this. It didn’t feel like a high school soap opera, like a lot of the CW shows do. It was dark and gritty and that took a bit of getting used to, because the New Teen Titans comic was always pretty bright and colorful, even though they touched upon some pretty dark subjects. It was Raven, Dick, Kory and Gar and even though some of them looked a bit different and had different origins, they were all very recognisable.

Next to the four main characters, we also got to see Donna Troy (formerly known as Wonder Girl), Jason Todd (the second Robin), Hawk and Dove and even the Doom Patrol. I thought it was a shame that Donna wasn’t part of the main “team”, but I was very happy to see her turn up in episode 8 and she kicked ass! Hawk and Dove actually had two entire episodes focussed on them and I loved how they were portrayed. And Minka Kelly looked gorgeous as Dawn. The Doom Patrol episode wasn’t only a great way to introduce Beast Boy, but was also one of the most fun episodes of the season and a great introduction to the characters, because they’re going to get their own series soon.

The two main stories were pretty much Rachel (Raven)’s struggle with the evil inside her and the coming of her father, Trigon, and Dick’s decision to stop being Robin and be his own man. Those were also two of the main subjects in the comics, back in the day, so I liked how they adapted that in the series. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t finish the Trigon story line at the end of this season, but I guess we’ll just have to wait until the next one.

So for the most part I really liked this season. It felt more like Netflix’s Marvel shows and surprisingly enough it fit the characters pretty well. But that doesn’t mean that it was all good. I didn’t like how they set up the Kory Anders character. Her story, with the memory loss and coming to earth to kill Raven, didn’t really make sense. And Dick escaping from his “dark side” felt kind of weird too. You’d expect that from Jason, who later becomes Red Hood, but Dick was never that dark and violent in the comics. And of course I missed Cyborg and Kid Flash. I know Cyborg will be in the upcoming Doom Patrol spin-off and Wally West is already in The Flash, but they were founding members in the comic and it felt weird not having them around. But the thing that bothered me most, is how they ended the season. They had this big build-up with Trigon arriving on earth in episode 10 and then the last episode is all about Dick and Batman. That really was a bummer.

But like I said, I really enjoyed this show a lot more than the CW shows. And I’m really looking forward to the second season. Especially since we got a little teaser featuring Superboy and Krypto in the post credits scene. With Netflix cancelling all their Marvel shows, I hope we’ll get more of these quality DC shows in the future.