Greetings nerdy list aficionados and that’s right Top 10 nerd Is back with lists about
how nobody understands anything of course disclaimer you may understand all of these
characters and powers if so go and up your nerd cred and enjoy a cool beverage of your
choosing.
Today we’re looking the titans and I’m going to look at all iterations of the team
and also examine origins on top of power sets cause sometimes that’s where a lack of understanding
can stem from.
Also lists like these are a fun way to bring attention to some characters we wouldn’t
otherwise talk about.
I’m Sasha and these are the Top 10 Teen Titans With Super Powers No One Understands
we’re going to be getting real obscure here depending on your breadth of comic knowledge
so get excited.
Number 10 – The Teen Tyrants we’re going to start off with a variant of the team from
another Earth they’re inspired by the crime syndicate who are the evil version of the
justice league.
So their team consists of Red Robin, Tempest, Aresenal, Red Raven and Blackfire what makes
this slightly perplexing especially to someone just jumping in is except for one these are
all names that have been used either by the hero in question or someone in their universe.
For example red robing is often the alias of Tim Drake but this red robin is an alternate
evil dick grayson.
Tempestis the name eventually taken on by aqualad just like Arsenal is for Roy Harper
and Blackfire in the mainverse is starfires sister.
They were clearer with their naming in the in the crime syndicate where it was ultraman
superwoman owlman etc.
However admittedly a lot of the potential confusion is cleared up by the visuals and
the fact that the titan team in question here is the one from the animated series and not
from the comics so that helps.
Number 9 – Jessie Quick now for those of you who are watching the cw flash show you’ll
know of the existence of Jessie Quick but what about her history with the Titans Jessie
Chambers first debuted in the Justice Society of America (vol. 2) #1 (August 1992) she’s
the daughter of two golden age heroes Johnny Quick and Liberty Bell through some waffling
about where to put her she ended up on the 90s run of the Teen Titans which was simply
entitled Titans where she was a member but also managed her fathers company Quick start.
Part of why she was recruited to the titans was that they felt their personal squabbles
had taken the team down before and they needed buffers.
A question people often have about Jessie and her speed is how fast is she in relation
to Wally cause It would vary.
Also she was involved with her mom’s boyfriend and that led to his death it was a thing.
She accessed her speed powers using what she called a mantra she can visualize the speed
formula so she has to do this in order to access the speed force because of her mom
she also has super strength so a good power combo.
Number 8 Osiris – There have been three Osiris’s and for our purposes we need the
third Amom Tomaz who was very briefly a member between infinite crisis and one year later
big dc reset events.
Cause nothing shakes up the roster of a team like a giant event.
So he is the brother of the hero Isis who during this period would marry Black Adam
who was on a heroic bend.briefly.
Osiris joined the titans cause he wanted friends you know save the world go out for burgers
it’s like a club really but sometimes members die.
And Amon was one of them.
He was granted his powers by Black Adam and so to become Osiris must say his name, which
must have a double effect of people panicking and thinking Black Adam is about to show up
to defend his brother in law.
One question people have about his powers is whether or not he has access to all of
Adam’s powers when he is not there or still just his portion which is the usual Shazam
fare.
But coming from Egyptian Gods Shur, Heru, Amon , Zehuti, Aten and Mehen.
Number 7 – Wonder Girl - Cassandra Sandsmark the second wonder girl even though she’s
the third to be called that name she first debuted in Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #105 (January
1996) unlike donna troy before her she has a definitive and clear origin she was wonder
woman’s sidekick and would go on to be a teen titan have a thing with superboy at the
time kon el or conner kent and then end up with Robin his best friend when they thought
he was dead.
So she gets her powers from mystic artifacts such as the gauntlet of artemins the sandals
of Hermes which give her strength and flight.
Also fun fact zeus blessed cassandra’s mother to be able to take away her powers temporarily
with a touch.
Zeus believes in time out.
This isn’t random she’s Zeus’s daughter he’s still taking up with the earth ladies
all these millennia later.
Cassandra also has a lasso but it’s not a lasso of truth she can also have her powers
impacted by members of the pantheon like ares who once took her powers cause he felt she
was being frivolous.
You have to be into wonder woman to get all the nuances of Cassandra and since rebirth
she really hasn’t been as prominent she is now on the Titans of Tomorrow cause there
were multiple titans books running simultaneously.
So now she’s not in the present timeline but it’s fine I mean Connor only kinda sorta
exists right now.
Number 6 – Wally West II – So Wally West 1 I guess is the second flash in the mainverse
timeline but the thirs if you include all continuity.
He took over the mantle of the flash after barry allen died in Crisis on infinite earths
in 1985 so then wally went from being kid flash to adult flash.
He was the flash all the way up until the new 52 which was used as an opportunity to
retcon him out of existence cause dc head dan didio doesn’t like him.
And yet there was still a wally west meet Wallace west he debuted in The Flash Annual
#3 (June 2014) he is introduced as the biracial even though they rarely draw him that way
son of iris’s brother.
Wally would end up joining the new 52 version of the titans as kid flash but fans never
really took to him as they were salty and bitter about how wally 1 was retconned so
they brought wally back in rebirth it was a big event very moving but now what about
Wally 2 it’s not his fault he was poorly introduced and handled also if he was retconned
out of existence that would be a thing on a whole other level so he has been kept around
as well and in rebirth has a new origin the brother of iris’s other brother Daniel West
now the reverse flash which is a cooler origin wally is cool he just needed to not be introduced
that way they were full on trying to replace wally why did anyone think people would go
for that who greenlit this.
He’s really cool in rebirth you go Wallace.
Number 5 – Ravager ok so there have been 5 dc characters named ravage but we’re talking
about Rose Wilson Deathstroke’s daughter she first appeared in Deathstroke #15 (October
1992) Ravager pre rebooted origins had a complicated relationship with her father to the point
where she both idolized and hated him and was modified with the same serum that enhanced
her father.
However the serum rendered her unstable and she was prone to fits of psychotic rage she
even gouged her own eye out to more resemble her father.
She ends up on the titans after befriending Nightwing who deathstroke had tasked with
training Rose after she had lost to batgirl this was after dick’s rape so he was in
a bad place and open to coming to the dark side for a bit.
Rose would mellow out considerably post crisis she would get her eye back and would sometimes
babysit Lian for Roy you know back when Roy Harper’s daughter was still alive.
She’s also been a member of terror titans and since rebirth she is around again but
not as prominent and nightwing trained her but not cause Slade asked him to.
Number 4 – Jericho now Jericho is set to appear in the at the time of this recording
upcoming season of Titans so the world won’t be sleeping on him for much longer.
Jericho is another of Deathstroke’s children he first appeared in Tales of the Teen Titans
#43 (June 1984) he was created so the team wouldn’t consist entirely of characters
with connections to pre-existing heroes.
He is slade’s youngest son rendered mute when Slade’s mercenary life caught up with
him and they came to try and kill his family he saved his son but not before his vocal
cords were cut.
So Jericho could possess someone by making eye contact his body turns insubstantial and
he then enters the host.
He can then tap into all that persons abilities however the victims can still speak just not
over their limbs he can’t take over that part unless they’re asleep.
Jericho was a pacifist and genuinely good person until he got corrupted.
Now Jericho isn’t hard to understand but he was largely forgotten for a time which
was a shame his storylines were really good yay for him being acknowledged again.
Number 3 – Power Boy Once again a hero that has shared their name we need the third power
boy and yes there is a power boy and yes he has a boob window.
The third power boy debuted in Teen Titans (vol. 3) #38 (September 2006) and was on the
team during the one year gap in infinite crisis.
He has vague supermanish powers.
So power boy was supposed to be a male parody of female superhero clichés down to his costume
that boob window had a lot of chest hair in it.
I dunno for me it never fully crystalized I mean a lot of heroes have ridiculous costumes
and as a fan of the boob window this never really connected with me.
He dated supergirl for a bit and then got creepy and possessive and she had to assault
him to get him to leave her alone.
Again parody if it is it’s just poorly executed.
Can somebody else have his costume I’m into it.
Number 2 – Kid Devil aka Red Devil – Meet eddie Bloomberg he first appeared in Fury
of Firestorm#24 (June 1984) since infinite crisis he was trying to join the teen titans
and would eventually get in after failing for psychological problems So Kid Devil he
used to get his powers from his devil costume and some of the things were fun like bursting
bubbles night vision etc but then infinite crisis happened and he was retconned now he
had a demonic appearance and abilities to match these given to him by the demon lord
Neron he can breath fire has super strength and stamina can heal almost any wound.
His blood is now gasoline his very breath can burn he can create portals of fire to
travel through.
He’s not around right now he died sacrificing himself to save the titans see he was a good
addition to the team, as canon fodder.
Kid Devil is a bit of a blink and you’ll miss him character for a lot of people he’s
not the blue devil that’s a different character.
Number 1 Donna Troy – she made her first appearance in The Brave and the Bold #60 (July
1965) but the character of Wonder Girl had been around since 1961 and had been created
as a direct result of Fredric Wertham’s novel seduction of the innocent which posited
all kinds of the time salacious things about these heroes that the comics code authority
wanted to combat aside from batman and robin being coded as a homosexual couple he was
really concerned about wonder woman being a lesbian.
So the solution to this was to give Wonder Woman a family including a wonder girl cause
lesbians don’t have families I guess and wonder girl was her little sister but it was
really just a younger version of herself who she partnered up with.
However this led to confusion as when the teen titans started she was mistaken for a
regular character and not another version of wonder woman so she became an independent
character but her origin would forever be a convoluted mess as a result of this.
There was even an entire plot around it Who Is Donna Troy on her origin Marv wolfman had
this to say I wrote the original Donna Troy origin story back in the first Titans run.
She had never had one and was, in fact, not a "real" character (if you can call any of
them real).
She was a computer simulation of Wonder Woman as a girl.
That story also named her Donna Troy and set up everything that followed.
Unfortunately, after Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Wonder Woman revamp, we had to go
back and redo it again as a brand new Wonder Woman being born on Earth could not have rescued
the girl from the burning building.
I wish we had been able to keep it as I think it's gone insane now.
I just wanted a simple origin story.
I came up with the original, and then [in "Who is Donna Troy?"]
George [Pérez] and I simply elaborated on what had been done, giving her real knowledge
of who she was.
I would love to say that everything after "Who is Donna Troy?" should be forgotten,
but that's not the way continuity works, sadly
She has also had multiple power sets and different origins for said power sets.
First she was given powers by the amazon’s purple ray.
Post crisis she had powers that were identical to diana’s but they were later enhanced
and she could command darkness and cold.
In Rebirth when dick became rick donna took over leading the titans.
That’s the cliffnotes Donna could have a whole video all her own I mean at one point
she was a magical duplicate made up of the memories of her from Wally West.
That’s Wally West 1.
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I’m Sasha and we’ll see you again soon.
Buh Bye.