Lewis Lovhaug: Linkara

Quotes 

• Linkara : This should have been reviewed a long time ago. Three years and 170 episodes ago, I did a four-part retrospective on the Teen Titans, up to my favorite series of the book: the late '90s/early 2000s version that began with my favorite comic of all time, "JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative". This was a glorious time to be a DC fan, aside from the fact that DC creatively had gotten their acts together and put out some fantastic revivals of books that have been having so many problems, but also DC, for actually two years, had a larger market share than Marvel. If you want more details there, look at SF Debris' "Rise and Fall of the Comics Empire" videos. However, the sad truth about comics, especially in the last twenty years, is that books will start strong, but will lose interest over time as the readership stabilizes. It almost always a downward spiral, like water slowly leaking out of a glass with a teeny tiny hole in it. It'll take a while, but it'll empty eventually. The Titans ended in 2003 with about 22,000 readers, still within the top 100 books - that numbered 98 - but also pretty low when it comes to justifying keeping books around. Remember that "Threshold" book from the Blue Beetle retrospective? Yeah, that dropped *below* that point after its *first* issue. The fact that they let it limp along for another few issues is amazing to me. Doing slightly better, by only about a thousand readers, was a little book called "Young Justice". The Titans at this point were mostly adults. Although, in retrospect, "The New Teen Titans" of the '80s were mostly made up of people who were 18 or 19 years old, but I suppose "The New Young Adult Titans" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

• Linkara : While "Young Justice" filled in the next generation of teen superheroes, including the Tim Drake Robin, Superboy, the Cassandra Sandsmark Wonder Girl, Impulse, and more. With both series having fairly low sales, it was time for a shakeup, and much I prefer the Adult Titans book, I do see the need to revitalize the franchise, especially since the book itself wasn't doing as great as it used to be creatively. Titans Tower was in shambles, the team at each other's throats at some points, and a mediocre alien invasion story was concluding things. To make matters worse, the Titans book always felt disconnected from the rest of the DC Universe. They would acknowledge events going on in other books, but I'd be damned if I could name five titles that ever referenced them during their run. I have not read "Young Justice", but those who have have told me that things over there were going just fine. The problem was just that nobody was reading it. The consistent quality was helped by the fact that Peter David of "Bill Jemas made a bet with me that 'Marville' would do better than my book" fame was the longtime writer of it, aside from a couple of issue. Having a single writer for the entire book's run means that you can actually develop the characters and plan things for the long term. So, yeah, while the books were not horrible, it was probably time for a new status quo to attract readers; a big relaunch, especially since the "Teen Titans" animated series was coming that year. Unfortunately, in order to get there, we got this craptastic miniseries!