Hormones, drama, and poor choices. Those three things pretty much sum ups a lot of teenagers, but it also sums up the kinds of controversy that DC’s greatest young superhero team have endured over the years. Hey everyone, I’m your host Kelly Paoli, and welcome back to top 10 nerd; the channel that dives into all things comics and geek culture. Today we’re back at it again with our top 10 controversial moments in teen titans list, part 2! This time around, we’ll be looking at more than just the comics, and venturing out into the television adaptations of the young superhero team. So let's take a look at the Top 10 Controversial Moments In Teen Titans - Part 2
Teen Titans Go! To The Movies is a theatrical release following the latest incarnation of the Teen Titans animated adventures. The story follows the Titans going to Hollywood to get their own film after realizing all of the other major superheroes are getting their own movies. And of course, they run into a particularly super villain stirring up some trouble. It’s filled with laughs and jokes, as you’d expect for a Teen titans go film to have, but it has one joke in particular that isn’t resonating overly well with parents. At the end of the film, Robin gives an impassioned speech that ends with his teammates shutting him down, saying that the movie needs to end. As the screen starts to close though, Robin jumps back in and shouts the line “Kids, ask your parents where babies come from!” And then he gets out of the way, the screen closes and the credits roll. While it’s pretty darn funny, you can probably appreciate how that didn’t go over too well with some parents.
The Teen Titans animated show (the first one, not Go) has been known to push the boundaries with some of their jokes in very subtle ways; ways that kids definitely wouldn’t pick up on, but adults just might. In Season 4, there’s an episode called Employee of the Month in which Beast Boy, who is a vegetarian, gets a job at a fast food restaurant called Mega Meaty Meat. Why? Because they’re employee of the month prize is a moped. At one point, he flips through a magazine called Hot Rod, which appears to have the silhouette of a woman on the front cover standing next to the silhouette of a moped. Beast boy drools over the center fold, and we never actually get to see what’s inside the magazine. Clearly this is a reference to Playboy magazines and the likes, but Starfire does point out it’s just a “land vehicle”. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that Beast Boy has a weird attraction to mopeds.
That’s a profession that arguably isn’t overly appropriate to highlight in a comic book series whose primary demographic is younger readers, right? Well, guess what the Teen Titans did! Back in Teen Titans issue 25 in 1970, a character named Lilith Clay was introduced, being the second hero to join the titans after the team’s founders. She becomes Donna Troy’s best friend, and has psychic abilities. But her origin story is what lands her on this list; when her psychic powers manifest, she reads her parents minds to discover that she’s actually adopted, so she runs away from home, despite only being 16 years old. And what does she do to support herself? She becomes a ‘go-go dancer’ who dances at a nightclubs inside metal cages for a bunch of horny dudes who declare “I’d sure like to unravel that Enigma”. Sure, you can argue that she’s not TECHNICALLY a stripper, but dancing in cages at the age of 16? It’s pretty scandalous.
The first Speedy, aka Roy Harper, served as Green Arrow’s ward and one of the early members of the Teen Titans. He initially made a few guest appearances in the original incarnation of the teen titans team (in which the founding members were Dick Grayson, Wally West and Aqualad, soon joined by Donna Troy). He would then reappear on the team in The New Teen Titans vol 2, but this time a little older and operating under a new alias, Arsenal. But after the first incarnation of the Teen titans disbanded, poor Roy Harper faced a bit of turmoil. He joined a band called Great Frog and became a drug addict, which was something that had never happened before in a DC comic. His addiction was explored in the Green Lantern Green Arrow crossover in the famous two part anti-drug story arc Snowbirds Don’t Fly. Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen find Roy Harper amongst a group of junkies, who initially they think he’s working undercover with to apprehend drug dealers until Queen catches him shooting up heroin. As you’ll see in later entries, Harper hasn’t always been the best when it comes to making judgment calls about stuff. Either that or writers tend to use him as a scapegoat. Poor dude.
In our part one of this list, we talked a bit about how Deathstroke, aka Slade Wilson, gets a little weird with Terra, who is significantly younger than he is, in both the animated Teen titans show AND in the comics, where their relationship is seemingly even more scandalous. It’s implied that the two have a romantic relationship and that Slade has been taking advantage of Terra’s affections. But, in the animated show, it’s not just Terra that Slade gets inappropriate with. Raven gets some unnecessary and unwanted attention, too. In the season 4 episode titled Birthmark, Deathstroke comes back from the dead on Raven’s birthday, and rips off her clothes to reveal some glowing symbols on her body. Many people recall that scene specifically as ‘that episode where it looked like Slade was going to rape Raven’, so, you know, kids were pretty uncomfortable with it even back then.
This controversial moment is literally about hair. Yes, hair. And also racism. So, over the past several months, after some set photos of the upcoming live action Teen Titans show, Titans, was leaked, fans got a little triggered by Starfire’s hair. Well, that, and some of them got a little racist, too, which is not cool. Actress Anna Diop was cast as Starfire, and some people lost their s*** about the fact that she was black, to the point where they actually started harassing the actress on Instagram, causing her to disable her comments. The criticism about her hair went as far as people likening it to Cheetos. Others were really critical of her costume, and were outraged by the photo leaks, even calling her a ‘street walker’, although it was noted by Diop that this was not the look for the character, but rather specific to the scene they were shooting that day
Another one from the Teen Titans animated series at this number! In the episode Fear Itself in season 2, the Titans watch a terrifying movie together. And their worst nightmares come true when the monster from the film appears in real life. When it first makes an appearance in their world, the Titans end up dogpiling on top of one another out of fear and confusion in the dark. That’s when we hear Starfire say, “Someone’s claws are on my grebnacks!” Right before the light turns back on. We then hear a popping noise, and see that Beast Boy’s tentacle (since he was an octopus at the time) is hanging out pretty darn close to Starfire’s chest, with the tentacle wrapped around under her neck. A lot of fans are divided as to what grebnacks are referring to, but many think that’s the Tamaraian word for breasts. Also, many a fan also thinks this may be a tentacle porn reference, and that’s just fun ain’t it.
Back in Tales of the Titans issue 51 and 52 in 1985, Cheshire, a villain, reveals that one of the Titans had fathered her child. The truth behind who was the daddy wouldn’t come out until New Teen Titans vol 2 issue 20, in 1986, and guess who it was? Our pal Arsenal, back again with another bad judgment call and sleeping with the enemy. This occurred during his time as an undercover government agent, and his mission required him to get her to trust him. According to Cheshire, the two had slept together and she woke up the next morning to find him gone. She tracked him down and decided to kill him because of it. Clearly it was a shock to him that he had gotten her pregnant, but dude did walk out on her, and also clearly did not use protection. Anywho, later on Cheshire admits that she can’t go through with killing him because she loves him, and Harper is completely distraught about not knowing about his child; a daughter named Lian who would later become monumental in his life. There’s even a sweet moment where he holds her for the first time in in issue 21.
In New Titans Annual issue 7 back in 1991, a new character was introduced named Miriam Delgado, aka Mirage. Alongside Redwing and several other metahumans, she travelled back in time in order to defeat the villain Lord Chaos and kill his mother, who was Donna Troy. As if that wasn’t scandalous enough, when they arrived, Mirage used her powers to impersonate Starfire and sleep with Nightwing. Except, when you really look at that whole situation, it’s pretty rapey, considering Nightwing believed that he was with his girlfriend. When he finds out the truth, Nightwing appears to be traumatized and shocked, and Mirage just laughs it off, saying “Ha! Guess this means no midnight Olympics tonight!” To make it worse, everyone else on the team, minus Starfire, just laughs it off, too. Years later, Nightwing would become a victim yet again in Nightwing issue 93 when he is raped by Tarantula in several panels that are clearly non-consensual.
The most recent Teen Titans related bit of controversy doesn’t come from the comics. Rather, it comes from the upcoming Titans show once again. At this year’s San Diego Comic Con, audiences finally got a glimpse of the upcoming Titans television series that will be made available on DC’s subscription based streaming service, DC Universe. And, if you’ve seen the trailer, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that it’s reception was pretty mixed. For starters, the whole tone of the show feels as if it’s trying very hard to be dark and edgy. But, perhaps the most scandalous part of the trailer wasn’t the confirmation that Starfire’s hair is going to look the way it is; it’s the fact that Dick Grayson aka Robin dropped an F bomb, and about his mentor! During one sequence shown off in the trailer, Grayson beats down on some thugs in an alley way, finishing off by saying “ Batman”. And everyone was like WTF?? According to Geoff Johns, the Titans series follows all of these characters who are ‘lost’, and troubled, and Grayson in particularly is dealing with a lot of past trauma concerning his former mentor Bruce Wayne. Hence the F Bomb. Johns also promised it was “a little more adult” than Riverdale, which probably wasn’t the best thing to compare it to, since, you know, Riverdale is a cesspool of poorly written teen drama that completely basterdizes one of the longest running classic non-superhero comics in American history.
10. UPSET PARENTS
Teen Titans Go! To The Movies is a theatrical release following the latest incarnation of the Teen Titans animated adventures. The story follows the Titans going to Hollywood to get their own film after realizing all of the other major superheroes are getting their own movies. And of course, they run into a particularly super villain stirring up some trouble. It’s filled with laughs and jokes, as you’d expect for a Teen titans go film to have, but it has one joke in particular that isn’t resonating overly well with parents. At the end of the film, Robin gives an impassioned speech that ends with his teammates shutting him down, saying that the movie needs to end. As the screen starts to close though, Robin jumps back in and shouts the line “Kids, ask your parents where babies come from!” And then he gets out of the way, the screen closes and the credits roll. While it’s pretty darn funny, you can probably appreciate how that didn’t go over too well with some parents.
9. PLAYBOY REDERENCE
The Teen Titans animated show (the first one, not Go) has been known to push the boundaries with some of their jokes in very subtle ways; ways that kids definitely wouldn’t pick up on, but adults just might. In Season 4, there’s an episode called Employee of the Month in which Beast Boy, who is a vegetarian, gets a job at a fast food restaurant called Mega Meaty Meat. Why? Because they’re employee of the month prize is a moped. At one point, he flips through a magazine called Hot Rod, which appears to have the silhouette of a woman on the front cover standing next to the silhouette of a moped. Beast boy drools over the center fold, and we never actually get to see what’s inside the magazine. Clearly this is a reference to Playboy magazines and the likes, but Starfire does point out it’s just a “land vehicle”. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that Beast Boy has a weird attraction to mopeds.
8. 16 YEAR OLD STRIPPER
That’s a profession that arguably isn’t overly appropriate to highlight in a comic book series whose primary demographic is younger readers, right? Well, guess what the Teen Titans did! Back in Teen Titans issue 25 in 1970, a character named Lilith Clay was introduced, being the second hero to join the titans after the team’s founders. She becomes Donna Troy’s best friend, and has psychic abilities. But her origin story is what lands her on this list; when her psychic powers manifest, she reads her parents minds to discover that she’s actually adopted, so she runs away from home, despite only being 16 years old. And what does she do to support herself? She becomes a ‘go-go dancer’ who dances at a nightclubs inside metal cages for a bunch of horny dudes who declare “I’d sure like to unravel that Enigma”. Sure, you can argue that she’s not TECHNICALLY a stripper, but dancing in cages at the age of 16? It’s pretty scandalous.
7. SPEEDY SHOOTS UP
The first Speedy, aka Roy Harper, served as Green Arrow’s ward and one of the early members of the Teen Titans. He initially made a few guest appearances in the original incarnation of the teen titans team (in which the founding members were Dick Grayson, Wally West and Aqualad, soon joined by Donna Troy). He would then reappear on the team in The New Teen Titans vol 2, but this time a little older and operating under a new alias, Arsenal. But after the first incarnation of the Teen titans disbanded, poor Roy Harper faced a bit of turmoil. He joined a band called Great Frog and became a drug addict, which was something that had never happened before in a DC comic. His addiction was explored in the Green Lantern Green Arrow crossover in the famous two part anti-drug story arc Snowbirds Don’t Fly. Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen find Roy Harper amongst a group of junkies, who initially they think he’s working undercover with to apprehend drug dealers until Queen catches him shooting up heroin. As you’ll see in later entries, Harper hasn’t always been the best when it comes to making judgment calls about stuff. Either that or writers tend to use him as a scapegoat. Poor dude.
6. SLADE GETS CREEPY AGAIN
In our part one of this list, we talked a bit about how Deathstroke, aka Slade Wilson, gets a little weird with Terra, who is significantly younger than he is, in both the animated Teen titans show AND in the comics, where their relationship is seemingly even more scandalous. It’s implied that the two have a romantic relationship and that Slade has been taking advantage of Terra’s affections. But, in the animated show, it’s not just Terra that Slade gets inappropriate with. Raven gets some unnecessary and unwanted attention, too. In the season 4 episode titled Birthmark, Deathstroke comes back from the dead on Raven’s birthday, and rips off her clothes to reveal some glowing symbols on her body. Many people recall that scene specifically as ‘that episode where it looked like Slade was going to rape Raven’, so, you know, kids were pretty uncomfortable with it even back then.
5. STARFIRE-TITANS
This controversial moment is literally about hair. Yes, hair. And also racism. So, over the past several months, after some set photos of the upcoming live action Teen Titans show, Titans, was leaked, fans got a little triggered by Starfire’s hair. Well, that, and some of them got a little racist, too, which is not cool. Actress Anna Diop was cast as Starfire, and some people lost their s*** about the fact that she was black, to the point where they actually started harassing the actress on Instagram, causing her to disable her comments. The criticism about her hair went as far as people likening it to Cheetos. Others were really critical of her costume, and were outraged by the photo leaks, even calling her a ‘street walker’, although it was noted by Diop that this was not the look for the character, but rather specific to the scene they were shooting that day
4. GREBNACKS
Another one from the Teen Titans animated series at this number! In the episode Fear Itself in season 2, the Titans watch a terrifying movie together. And their worst nightmares come true when the monster from the film appears in real life. When it first makes an appearance in their world, the Titans end up dogpiling on top of one another out of fear and confusion in the dark. That’s when we hear Starfire say, “Someone’s claws are on my grebnacks!” Right before the light turns back on. We then hear a popping noise, and see that Beast Boy’s tentacle (since he was an octopus at the time) is hanging out pretty darn close to Starfire’s chest, with the tentacle wrapped around under her neck. A lot of fans are divided as to what grebnacks are referring to, but many think that’s the Tamaraian word for breasts. Also, many a fan also thinks this may be a tentacle porn reference, and that’s just fun ain’t it.
3. TEEN PREGNANCY
Back in Tales of the Titans issue 51 and 52 in 1985, Cheshire, a villain, reveals that one of the Titans had fathered her child. The truth behind who was the daddy wouldn’t come out until New Teen Titans vol 2 issue 20, in 1986, and guess who it was? Our pal Arsenal, back again with another bad judgment call and sleeping with the enemy. This occurred during his time as an undercover government agent, and his mission required him to get her to trust him. According to Cheshire, the two had slept together and she woke up the next morning to find him gone. She tracked him down and decided to kill him because of it. Clearly it was a shock to him that he had gotten her pregnant, but dude did walk out on her, and also clearly did not use protection. Anywho, later on Cheshire admits that she can’t go through with killing him because she loves him, and Harper is completely distraught about not knowing about his child; a daughter named Lian who would later become monumental in his life. There’s even a sweet moment where he holds her for the first time in in issue 21.
2. NIGHTWING'S SEXUAL ASSAULT
In New Titans Annual issue 7 back in 1991, a new character was introduced named Miriam Delgado, aka Mirage. Alongside Redwing and several other metahumans, she travelled back in time in order to defeat the villain Lord Chaos and kill his mother, who was Donna Troy. As if that wasn’t scandalous enough, when they arrived, Mirage used her powers to impersonate Starfire and sleep with Nightwing. Except, when you really look at that whole situation, it’s pretty rapey, considering Nightwing believed that he was with his girlfriend. When he finds out the truth, Nightwing appears to be traumatized and shocked, and Mirage just laughs it off, saying “Ha! Guess this means no midnight Olympics tonight!” To make it worse, everyone else on the team, minus Starfire, just laughs it off, too. Years later, Nightwing would become a victim yet again in Nightwing issue 93 when he is raped by Tarantula in several panels that are clearly non-consensual.
1. BATMAN
The most recent Teen Titans related bit of controversy doesn’t come from the comics. Rather, it comes from the upcoming Titans show once again. At this year’s San Diego Comic Con, audiences finally got a glimpse of the upcoming Titans television series that will be made available on DC’s subscription based streaming service, DC Universe. And, if you’ve seen the trailer, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that it’s reception was pretty mixed. For starters, the whole tone of the show feels as if it’s trying very hard to be dark and edgy. But, perhaps the most scandalous part of the trailer wasn’t the confirmation that Starfire’s hair is going to look the way it is; it’s the fact that Dick Grayson aka Robin dropped an F bomb, and about his mentor! During one sequence shown off in the trailer, Grayson beats down on some thugs in an alley way, finishing off by saying “ Batman”. And everyone was like WTF?? According to Geoff Johns, the Titans series follows all of these characters who are ‘lost’, and troubled, and Grayson in particularly is dealing with a lot of past trauma concerning his former mentor Bruce Wayne. Hence the F Bomb. Johns also promised it was “a little more adult” than Riverdale, which probably wasn’t the best thing to compare it to, since, you know, Riverdale is a cesspool of poorly written teen drama that completely basterdizes one of the longest running classic non-superhero comics in American history.
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