courtesy of the DC Comics message boards at www.dccomics.com
Tom Peyer came aboard as writer with issue #42, joining Barry Kitson on the title. Barry Kitson and Tom Peyer were soon faced with DC's decision to cancel the current version of TITANS and start anew, fusing the Young Justice characters with old Titans members to create another New Teen Titans. TITANS ended its run with issue #50. What did the new creative team have planned? Read on...
Kitson and Peyer Titanic Plans
Barry Kitson shares: "I don't want to reveal specific plots (they might come in handy another time ) but the general plan was to have a sequence of BIG storylines through which we could reveal why some of the Titans had been acting 'out of character' lately and follow their 'return to normal'."
"We wanted to establish the Titans as an extended family more with characters from the past interacting more frequently with the core group and generally 'being around' more. We had started to do this the return of Lilith and the cameo of Bumblebee."
"We also wanted to establish some greater genuine character development - this is of course very difficult to do with the characters who have their own books, so they would probably have been the 'anchors' for the others going through changes. The adventures were to be grand scale to re-establish just how powerful the Titans were. I'd also like to have tied up some 'loose ends' .... you can probably guess a good few of those I know that's all a bit vague - but hopefully it'll convey some idea of what I hoped we would have tried to do. It'll be very interesting to see how the new books turn out...should be fun!"
Cheers
Barry
Kitson Talks About Plans for Team Members
On Jesse Quick: "Basically with the major story line involving Jesse put on hold, it didn't seem appropriate to give her the make over we had intended without the significant events to deal with her 'odd' behaviour of late and put her on a new path." Jesse Quick was also going to get a new costume, but there wasn't time to fit that in the book before its cancellation.
On Bumblebee: Barry hinted that Bumblebee was slated to make an appearance in the book's not-too-far future.
"As for Bumblebee, there's a really nice inventory story about her written by Tom and drawn by Paul Neary that I hope will see print one day [also featuring Titans LA and Mal Duncan]... she may even turn up in the new books for all I know!"
On Lilith: "Thanks for your enthusiasm. I'm hard at work on my second TITANS script as we speak. Or, at least, that's what I tell the editors... Don't look for a big shake-up. I think there still are many good stories to be told with the team of Nightwing, Tempest, Troia, Arsenal, Jesse and Argent. We do plan on getting Lilith in there, and eventually Starfire as well."
"I don't like to give too much away as you know - Lilith will be featuring in the book a lot next year - that's really as much as I want to let on!"
"I don't think I'm giving too much away to say that I don't think we have any plans to use the Omen codename at this point [Lilith] will feature regularly from #39 onwards."
On Starfire: "Kory appears from #45 onward I promise!"
On Risk: "Tom and I do have a story line involving Risk that we've discussed, but as we're already planned past #53 I'm afraid it might be a while in the making :-) I've not really been comfortable with the way most of the 'Jurgens' team have been left - nobody seems really sure where many of them are anymore - and Risk's becoming a petty criminal doesn't really seem to me to be a place to leave him indefinitely... but that's just my 2 cents."
On Terra: Kitson says "Terra's story is on the cards for the next year or so! All will be revealed...eventually...I hope"
On Old Titans Appearing: "... there is a VERY VERY good chance that characters from the past will feature in upcoming issues... if I get my way! "
"A lot of the characters that have been associated with Titans West will be playing an active role in the book in the near future, but not necessarily as a separate group. As for Joey - there are no plans for his return at the moment...much as I liked him, I'm not sure we want to bring yet another character back from the dead, unless we can come up with an earth-shattering story that will justify it course... ."
"There will be lots of 'old friends' to play roles in the upcoming stories,as you you know I don't like to give too much away... but I think most readers will enjoy how the Titans starts functioning as a large extended family focused around our core characters... Did I mention Wally's role in #42-44? ( can't resist a tease every now and then)"
"We do want to include Raven in Titans to come, but it will take a BIG storyline...so patience will be required I'm afraid! "
Any chance of Risk or Joto making an appearance or becoming part of the team? Kitson says: " those characters will almost certainly be seen in the coming year..as to what becomes of them... "
On DEO Kids: "I don't know how to make this any clearer... the kids DO NOT APPEAR AFTER #41! I guess they may show up after I leave the book... or if I'm still here for issue #250's big reunion bash, but Tom and I have no plans to use them before then Also please try not to assume that because other creators have not used characters as you would like that we are going to follow their example...that's certainly not our intention We want to explore the potential of all our Titans' characters and make the book as good as we can... to that end we'll be aiming to do most of the things you hope for!"
