In 1980 George Perez rebooted an old DC title called New Teen Titans. This was one of my favorite comic books. Great story arcs, amazing artwork, and all kinds of cool stuff happening each and every issue.
These were often stories about the end of the world, major problems with parents and guardians, and occasional conflicts with each other. This was right before the birth of the all powerful Graphic Novel and looking back now the artwork looks more like a comic book and less groundbreaking than it did at the time.
So, flash forward about 35 years and the Teen Titans have been re-imagined as a kids show. But it still has all of the characters from the old comic books. I haven’t read Teen Titans in about 35 years, but I love all the familiar elements I find in this often very silly show.
Nitpicking is a major part of being a comic book fan, because, like Star Trek and Star Wars, we all learned things along the way that later writers seem to have missed. This is something Teen Titans GO! hits right on the head. Such as the time Robin calls his other team, three other Robins out of an ever growing cast of Robins who have been Batman’s sidekick over the years. Or when Robin whines about being the leader, even though he doesn’t have any super powers like everyone else on the team, so it’s harder on him.
I don’t recall Starfire being quite so Pollyanna, but all of the other people fit my memories well enough.
I don’t watch a lot of cartoons, with the exception of the occasional time travel story on Family Guy or the Halloween Special on The Simpsons. But I do find myself stopping once in a while to watch Teen Titans GO! now and then. Like Muppet Babies and Tiny Toons, this show is fun because it tweaks the familiar into something a little bit different and a little bit familiar. I like what they are doing here.
