Most people know who the Teen Titans are, from either the comic books or the varied TV shows, so fans proceeded to go grape-nuts upon hearing that a live-action version of the beloved gang was going to spear-head the launch of DC’s own pay-channel. Ditching any need for previous back-story, off we dive into DC’s Titans!
So here we have Rachel Roth (Teagan Croft), pretty little lonely goth chick who’s now beginning to manifest strange powers, and realizing her missing father is likely the source of most of her new woes. Detective Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) of the Detroit police assigns himself to the Roth case, especially when some psycho hired bad guys proceed to chase after Rachel like their lives depended on it. Meanwhile elsewhere, a presence has been downloaded into the body of what looked like a lady rent-a-companion who was involved with some very shady men, but now suddenly Kory (Anna Diop) has a mission to find Rachel Roth and get some answers, before its too late. And of course somewhere along the way, our reluctant heroes meet up with a young man with green hair, calls himself Gar (Ryan Potter), who has quite a few secrets of his own to share.
Dick Grayson, as we’re all quite aware, was Robin to Bruce Wayne’s Batman for some time, after his circus-performing parents were killed. Young Dick wants nothing to do with his absentee caretaker Wayne, and older Dick is absolutely certain his parents were actually executed by the Maroni crime family, so when Bruce takes his young charge and trains him in the ways of combat and investigation, Dick Grayson inevitably begins to chafe even more under the pressure. His stint as Robin, while it may have afforded him training and combat reflexes unlike many others, also unleashed a highly destructive uncaring side of Grayson, and after lashing out violently one too many times, Dick finally leaves Wayne Enterprises, to try and make something out of his own life. But he just can’t seem to let go of that bulletproof case that has all his Robin gear in it, either.
Poor Rachel has no idea what’s going on, why all sorts of insane people are trying to hunt her down, or why her dark-mirror-twin is now talking back at her. The psycho family folk after her are actually known as the Nuclear family, and while each of them can (and is once in the course of the show) be easily replaced, all four of them give Dick and Rachel and even Kory when she catches up to them all, a run for their money. Those of you familiar with the Titans’ origin stories know quite well why we shudder to hear that the Nuclear family and those who sent them after Rachel are in fact supposedly working to bring her father into power in this reality. Despite her powers of darkness and disturbing lineage, Rachel is a kind girl, always willing to try and help keep others with powers calm and safe, even at her own risk.
Kory is very different from the rest of the gang, and she’s far too aware of it for her own good. Her newfound presence downloaded into the body of a black lady escort with some serious fashion offenses notwithstanding, we’re all well aware that she’ll eventually become the beloved oddity known as Starfire, so that’s good.
Our green-haired boy Garfield, or Gar as he prefers to be called, he lives in this supposedly closed-down old mansion that actually has people of a sorts living in it. Fans of the comics will be delighted to be introduced to the various characters that comprise the Doom Patrol as they introduce Gar to the rest of the group. Also, ‘Doom Patrol’ is slated to be the next live-action DC show to be launched on this platform.
And what else? Hawk and Dove (Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly) were introduced early on in the show, and the attention paid to their relationship was quite lovely. Fans of the Robin legacy should be pretty pleased with the portrayal of Jason Todd (Curran Walters), who shows up to warn an already-beleaguered Grayson of impending trouble. The infamous Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) shows up in another episode as well.
DC’s Titans is a callback to all that is glorious and fan-atical about the DC-verse, and is worth a watch or five, on HBOMax now!