Teen Titans (2003)

This was the first Teen Titans comic that I read. It came out when I was in high school, and it felt so NOW. The writing style, the fashion, the dialogue, the drama. I fell deeply in love with these characters and it was MY Teen Titans. This was a comic that was very much of its moment in time and feels so much like it perfectly encapsulates youth in the early 00s. I read it along side Winnick's Outsiders run, which felt like the perfect companion to this book, as they both spun out of the Graduation Day special.

The references in this comic got me to pick up back issues of the celebrated Wolfman/Perez run on New Teen Titans, and it was clear to me then that Johns and Winnick were big fans of that era. Reading it added more texture and history to this book.

At the time, I had not read Peter David's Young Justice. So, when I heard the complaints about this book, how much it disrespected what came before it, how much it reset all the character development which had preceded it, I didn't have context to appreciate those criticisms.

I do now. Rereading this series two decades later after having devoured all of David's spectacular Young Justice, and the 90s Titans books, and the Chuck Dixon Robin title, I can understand why people felt strongly about this book when it came out. Especially reading right from the end of Young Justice into the Graduation Day special and then this!? It absolutely feels like Geoff Johns did not even bother reading any of the recent material before taking on these characters.

It honestly comes off as disrespectful to both the other writers and to the readers who were following these characters at the time.

But even with all that said: This book holds up on its own merits. The writing is still very strong, and Mike McKone's art is absolutely gorgeous. I love how emotionally evocative his faces and poses can be. It is as much of its moment as David's Young Justice was for the 90s. The plotting and pacing are extremely propulsive, hitting that sweet spot between episodic and serialized storytelling that defined all of Johns' best books. It's decompressed, but not so much that you don't feel like a single issue has value.

The interaction between the older, mentoring Titans and the younger crew is excellent. I especially love how it depicts Garfield as barely older than his "mentees", sometimes regressing to a more adolescent posture while interacting with them. I remember at the time I was volunteering as a leader with a middle school group in my church, and despite being nearly an adult myself, there wasn't quite enough separation between me and them. I remember also seeing this dynamic in my own high school youth group with adult leaders who were in their early 20s and would regress in social situations with the kids they were supposed to be leading.

Tim, Cassie, Connor, and Bart have a great dynamic that feels very natural, and they each contrast against the others very well.

It's a strange feeling to recognize a real problem with something so close to my heart that is also still so good taken for what it is.