Despite being a superhero team of young adults, the Teen Titans have had some of the most complex and grim story lines in the history of their run. First appearing as a team in 1964 in The Brave and the Bold issue 54, it wasn’t until Marv Wolfman and George Perez took over the title that the storylines began to explore more mature and more human narratives; along with their roster of teen titans, that’s one of the reasons why their run is often considered the most iconic and groundbreaking for the title. So in this teen titans review review, we’re taking a closer look at some of these more grim happenings in the series over the years with our list of the top 10 dark moments in Teen Titans.
10. DONNA TROY'S MARRIAGE
Donna Troy was the fourth member to join the Teen Titans back in the day. But it wasn’t until Marv Wolfman came around that she had a lot of detail added to her character, including an origin story and a name of her own. But while Donna Troy was a special character to Wolfman, he also did some pretty weird stuff with the character; specifically the marriage between her and a much older dude by the name of Terry Long; she was 19 and he was 29, which isn’t as bad as another weird older dude younger lady relationship we’ll be touching on this list a bit later on. In the New Teen titans in 1980, Donna got romantically involved with Terry, who was a professor that often just lurked around the Titans Tower. They got married in Tales of the Teen Titans issue 50 in 1985, but the marriage really didn’t work out all that well. It was later revealed that some fans theories were correct; that initially Wolfman had wanted Donna and Dick Grayson to be a couple, hence why he had spent so much time developing their friendship during his run. That being said, Wolfman also said this at one point, “Frankly, I would have left her married to her hubby because I still think Terry was the best match for her, but since he was killed off without my input, I did plan to later get the D-Twins together.” D-twins. Yup, no thanks.
9. KILLING DONNA TROY'S BABY
After that whole getting hitched to Terry Long debacle, Donna ended up getting pregnant and had a baby with him named Robert. But while she was preggers, a group of titans from the future would show up and try to kill her, all in a scheme to prevent her unborn child from becoming a character known as Lord chaos who tormented civilization in their time. Also worth noting that one of these future titans, Mirage, sexually assaulted Dick Grayson; she made him believe with her powers that he was having sex with Starfire, his girlfriend at the time, except really it was her, and everyone would later laugh about it. Anywho, luckily Donna and her unborn baby didn’t get dead because of these future Titans; they all worked together to defeat Lord chaos, and Donna would have her son’s powers removed by the Titans of Myth to ensure that Robert wouldn’t grow up to become evil. Terry eventually ended their marriage with a divorce and a restraining order against her. Worst part of this all is that the three year old Robert would inevitably die anyways, getting into a car crash with Terry which would take both of their lives. The two would later reappear to haunt Donna during the Blackest Night story line basically as zombies, and Robert would try to take a big ol bite out of his mother in the process.
8. KOLE'S MOTHER
Speaking of mothers, let’s talk about Kole Weathers mother at this number. Kole, who was first introduced in June of 1985, in the New Teen Titans vol 2 issue 9, had the ability to morph her entire physical body into solid silicon, and deflect energy based attacks. Her father Abel was paranoid about an impending nuclear holocaust, and worked at finding a way to let humanity survive a fallout if it occurred. So how did he test out his experiments? He used Kole as a test subject, and his wife, her mother, too. While these experiments gave Kole her powers, it really messed up her mother a whole lot more. He turned her into an insect, with his logic being that insects were better equipped at surviving a nuclear holocaust. Looking a little bit like a grasshopper, she approaches Kole in one of the most horrific encounters ever.
7. DTK
Down to kill, that is. Sorry, that was cringe. But down to kill is something that the latest iteration of the Teen Titans were very much on board to do. So warning, this point has got some spoilers on some of the more recent issues of Titans, specifically issue 23. This new Teen Titans iteration has Dick Grayson leading the team once more, except his no killing policy seems to have been tossed out the window. So after Dark Nights Metal and No Justice, meta-energy has been leaking onto Earth and changing humans into metahumans, and the Justice League sanctioned this new Titans team to help deal with this occurrence, titled the Emergent Event. We see Donna slaughter a bunch of mutated rats. Raven’s all like ‘whatever it takes to get the job done’, and Miss Martian, the liaison of the team linking everyone together telepathically back at their HQ, considers murder something that sometimes happens when you need to get the right outcome. Nightwing was all like, whaaaat you guys! And argues about how they shouldn’t be killing anyone else, because that’s what separates them from the bad guys.
6. JERICHO'S DEATH
Jericho aka Joseph Wilson is one of Deathstroke’s children, and to say that his history is a little rough is perhaps an understatement. While he’s constantly fluctuated between being sane and insane over the years, early on, during his first run with the Titans, he was killed by his own father in a really gruesome way. So for context, Jericho had joined the Teen Titans after The Judas Contract storyline. He was possessed later on by the souls of Azarath, which was tainted by the essence of the demon Trigon, who is Raven’s father. More on him in a minute. The souls slowly began to corrupt Jericho, and in the Titans Hunt storyline, Jericho managed to resurface through his possessed self and begged his father Deathstroke to kill him. Which Deathstroke did, his logic being that he wanted to spare his son from any more suffering. Deathstroke stabbed him through the chest in a rather unsettling full page panel. It would later be revealed that his soul managed to live on by entering his father, with Jericho eventually returning with a brand new look.
5. THE TERROR OF TRIGON
Trigon is an evil, sadistic, cruel and powerful inter-dimensional demon. And he’s also Raven’s dad. He decided to come to earth to pop by and say hello to his daughter, and also wreak havoc, of course. A five issue story arc that was originally published in the 1984 the New Teen Titans vol 2, it’s revealed that Raven is destined to destroy the earth by summoning her father, ultimately ruling at his side. The overall story arc was a really dark one for Raven. She returns to Earth in a transformed state, with red skin and four eyes just like daddy dearest, and she turns New York into a hellish version of itself. Raven also gets killed by the Titans, with her soul self surviving and later destroying Trigon, then disappearing altogether.
4. SLADE GETS INAPPROPRIATE
Speaking of Trigon, one of the Teen Titan’s most sinister antagonists briefly worked for the demon. In the Teen Titans animated series, in a season 4 episode titled Birthmark, we see Slade get a little too up close and personal for Raven; a moment that many viewers, who had seen it when they were young, have now recollected online these days about how disturbing they thought it was at the time. Because to be perfectly honest, it looks like he’s about to sexually assault her. In the episode, Deathstroke comes back from the dead on Raven’s birthday, and it’s revealed that he’s working for Trigon. He finds teen titans raven and in one scene he rips off her clothes, revealing glowing symbols on her body that are ‘birthmarks’. While he doesn’t go further than that, it’s a really uncomfortable moment. Slade has a bit of a history of getting a bit inappropriate with female members of the Titans and how can we forget about teen titans porn comic
3. TERRA AND THE JUDAS CONTRACT
That’s not the only time that Deathstroke has pulled some inappropriate stuff as far as the Titans are concerned. One of the most scandalous parts of the Teen Titans’ history is Slades’ very odd relationship with Terra. Overall, the Judas Contract is one of the most important stories in Teen Titans’ history. But it’s also got a lot of really disturbing plot points. Long story short thought; a new member named Terra joins the Teen Titans. Everyone adores her, minus Raven, who gets some bad vibes about the girl. Everyone ignores Raven, which turns out to be real dumb, cause she betrays them, which particularly sucks for Beast boy because he’s hard core falling for her at that point. Anyway, we find out that Terra has been working with Deathstroke this whole time. She also smokes cigarettes and says that her and Slade, who is significantly older than she is, by A LOT, are lovers. She’s like, 15. She’s also really messed up, and notes that she just wants all of the Titans dead because the thought of their existence makes her sick. She’s got a whole lot of anger problems and because of that, when everything fails and the Titans become victorious, she ends up dying as a product of her own insanity. It’s dark as hell.
2. STARFIRE'S PAST
Starfire has a really grim past. From the planet of Tamaran, Starfire was once the next in line to become Queen. Her older sister, Blackfire, whom had developed many a bitter feeling towards her, was denied that opportunity since on the day of her birth, thousands of Tamaraneans were murdered by the Citadel Empire, and the people saw her as a sign of bad luck. Blackfire would betray her people though, and formulated a scheme in which she went to the Citadel and Starfire was enslaved and abused for years, with Blackfire calling the shots. One day, the Psions showed up though, captured the two sisters and performed horrible experiments on them, which would result in their abilities with ultraviolet energy manipulation. Starfire managed to escape to Earth, though. Years later Blackfire tracked Starfire down to Earth, kidnapped her and tried to re-sell her to the Citadel, and of course, tortured her some more. This would result in an epic and quite brutal battle between the two, with Blackfire not afraid to resort to some pretty gruesome tactics in order to hurt her sister.
1. RAVEN THE WEDDING CRASHER
In the New Titans issue 100, readers witnessed a very special event go sour; the issue featured the wedding of Nightwing and Starfire. Although Dick and Kory’s big day didn’t go as planned. Raven, at the time, had been going through quite the internal struggle to remain good, having the blood of her demon father Trigon running through her veins. At the wedding, Raven showed up possessed by Trigon, right before the couple are pronounced man and wife. Raven immediately murders the priest upon arrival, disintegrating him. It’s all very dramatic. Then, she grabs Starfire herself, makes out with her a little, letting her go to say “of all I have taken so far, you are the one who pleasured me the most. Now we are truly sisters.” But don’t feel all that bad for Dick and Kory. Their decision to get hitched was a pretty spontaneous one, and it was pretty obvious that leading up to it Dick had gotten cold feet. The two broke up later on down the line anyway, and many a fan prefers to ship Grayson with Batgirl Barbara Gordon anyway.
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