Titans II

TITANS

Membership: Beast Boy, Cyborg, Flash III, Nightwing, Raven, Red Arrow, Starfire, Troia

Base of Operations: Titans Compound, NYC

First Appearance: Titans II #1 (June, 2008)

History: (Titans II #1-4) - Cyborg recruited a new roster of young heroes and contacted his old friends to reform the Titans and train them. Everyone turned him down, but Nightwing told him he appreciated what he was trying to do. They bout had a moment of nostalgia for the Titans, and how they were always equally family and a team. Trigon decimated Cyborg’s team, he was out to destroy every Titan, past and present. After Trigon’s demons attacked Nightwing he reunited with Starfire, Troia, Flash, Red Arrow, Beast Boy and Raven to investigate. The Titans saved Argent and a number of other former Titans from Trigon’’s horde, although they were adamant that they were not a team again. Cyborg was rebuilt, and wanted in on the case, to avenge the death of Power Boy. Raven contacted Trigon, and learned that although he had been decimated by demonic warfare he was still bent on destroying Earth, and he shared a secret with her, her brother would help him in his invasion. In an attempt to find Raven’s half-brother, Raven and the Titans tracked down Trigon’s other brides, only to find that they’d died years ago. Trigon’s three sons kept the Titans off balance by exposing them to the seven deadly sins, and then confronted them. They attacked the Titans and used Raven to open up a portal to Trigon’s dimension. The battle went for Trigon’s children and they used Beast Boy’s Trigon seed, the smallest spark of which was still in him, to finish the portal. Raven used her own ability to tap into the seven deadly sins, which greatly sickened her, to overcome her brothers with greed. They stole Trigon’s last vestiges of power, and then retreated to learn how to manipulate their newfound magic. Raven was pleased at having tricked them. In his dilapidated state Trigon could not have given them much of a magical boost. The Titans agreed that they still saw each other as family, and decided to remain a loose group in order to spend more time with each other.

(Titans II #5, 6) - At Titan’s Tower Nightwing and Starfire met in the hot tub, discussing how the Titans was their only outlet to be themselves. They also discussed the Sons of Trigon nudging them to sleep together, and Nightwing had a hope they’d resume being lovers. Starfire told him she was tired of them cycling back and forth between lovers and friends, and asked if he unconditionally loved her, and wanted to be with her. Nightwing honestly answered no, and after she kissed him, she told him they had to stay just friends. Beast Boy stopped by Raven’s school under the pretense of a bear-o-gram to talk to her. He knew she was upset after her encounter with her half-brothers, and indeed she’d spent the last night brooding about the evil side of her nature. They went for a bite to eat, and she confessed the encounter she had brought out her dark side. She started wanting the Titans dead, and wondered if Raven was a mask, and her demonic side was her true self. Despite Beast Boy’s encouragement, her demonic side manifested and summoned her half-brothers, who led her by the hand to Trigon’s dimension. Beast Boy told the Titans that the Sons of Trigon had taken Raven, and that she’d been recruited to her father’s cause. Troia told the Titans that Raven had always planned for the worst, and given her a Ramat Stone that could locate magic-users. Beast Boy wanted to know why Troia was chosen to keep Raven’s secrets, and she replied that in addition to being the most magically adept Titan, she’d also proved that she’d never judge Raven. The Titans concentrated on the stone and Raven, and were transported to Trigon’s dimension. They met the rest of the Sons of Trigon, Greed, Gluttony, and Sloth, and were defeated. Raven turned against her brothers, proclaiming herself Pride, the sin from which all others sprung. She wanted to rule the Earth, but with the Titans at her side, and began imbuing them with the powers of the Seven Deadly Sins. This activated the Ramat Stone, Raven had given it a sliver of her pure essence, and the Raven that was loyal to the Titans emerged and merged herself with her demonic counterpart and returned the team to Titan’s Tower. Raven was starting to feel more like herself, but told the Titans that the Ramat Stone wouldn’t work twice, and that she might me evil to the core. She presented her teammates with a set of magic talismans capable of ending her life if she wet to the dark side, and demanded that they learn to master them if she was to be comfortable on the team. Titan’s Tower security was breached, and the team responded, only to find that Superboy’s clone Match had broken in. The villain revealed that he was Jericho, trapped inside Match’s body.

(Titans II #7-9) - The Titans examined Match in hopes of freeing their friend. Cyborg isolated Jericho’s neuron patterns from Match, and prepared a radio-ectoplasmic pulse to free his astral form. Flash confided in Red Arrow that although he considered Jericho family and friend, he still didn’t trust him, remembering his past etrayal of the Titans. Jericho then had Match run berserk and attack the Titans, claiming he couldn‘t control him. After battering the team, Cyborg used the ecltoplasmic pulse to separate them. Raven probed Jericho’s mind and realized he was up to no good, burt before the team could respond Jericho vanished, possessing one of the Titans. The Titans went into lockdown to keep Jericho from escaping, and Cyborg went with protocol for just such a situation, each Titan would take a security clearance interview with the Titans computer. The Titans kept an updated log of secrets only they and the computer would know. The Titans shared their secrets with the computer, and everyone passed. Cyborg decided to use the ectoplasmic pulse on the Titans, one at a time. Jericho revealed himself to Nightwing, and forced him to inject himself with an LSD compound that made his mind a battleground, enabling Jericho to overcome his will. He promised to reveal what he was planning to do, and why. The Titans used the ectoplasmic pulse on Cyborg and Red Arrow, and waited for them to recover before testing the rest of the team. Jericho made Nightwing feel his thoughts, and revealed that everyone he’d ever possessed had left their memories and a part of their mind in him. It was the vicious villains he’d had contact with, like Deathstroke, that were now making his decisions for him, and he begged for Nightwing to help him. The Titans contacted S.T.A.R. Labs and learned that before Jericho had come to them for help he’d possessed Green Lantern Hal Jordan and tried to kill the candidates for president. The Justice League were right outside of Titans’ headquarters, demanding that Jericho be released to them.

(Titans II #10) - Jericho panicked and jumped into Flash’s body and vibrated out of Titan headquarters, but he couldn’t evade the Justice League. The Titans joined the League in battling Jericho as he lept from body to body, until he ended up in Superman. Previously he would never have been able to enter Superman’s mind, but his power had grown immensely. He still wasn’t strong enough to take control of Superman, who expelled his astral form from his mind. Jericho’s astral form dissipated into the wind. The whole experience left Nightwing shaken, and he desperately wanted to find a way to help Jericho.

(Titans II #10) - Nightwing called a meeting with the Titans to announce his resignation from the team, saying he needed to spend more time with his family in Gotham.

(Titans II #11) - The Titans decided to take some time off from each other at Beast Boy’s suggestion. Starfire greeted the rising sun, a favorite activity of hers, and visited Cyborg, who refused to leave Titans Compound until he’d finished reviewing security files to figure out where Jericho had disappeared to. Flash spent quality time with his family getting pancakes. Troia met with Roy with a diner, and suggested he spend more time with Liam, and less time having one night stands with strangers. He stormed off, despite her protests of trying to be a good friend. Roy picked up a bartender that night, and brought her home after putting Liam to bed. Troia went to upstate New York and talked to Starfire while indulging her love of photography, taking pictures of fireflies at sunset. Starfire admitted that she was glad Nightwing was gone after he made it clear he wasn’t in love with her. She couldn’t fault him for his feelings, but still felt betrayed. Beast Boy pestered Raven until she was willing to talk to him. He said they should start dating, and she replied that there was nothing between them, and that she’d only kissed him to give him confidence. Beast Boy was convinced she was either trying to protect him or hurt him, but he was upset, and left her. Back at Titans Compound, Jericho, now in Cyborg’s body, monitored the Teen Titans.

(Titans II #12) - Cyborg recovered from the injuries Jericho caused him, and revealed to the Titans that Jericho had uploaded himself into his OS, and then proceeded to use him to rig Titans Tower and try and kill the Teen Titans before fleeing his body. Troia took charge, and told the Titans they had to find a way to help Jericho. They contacted the Teen Titans, but they had no leads on either Jericho or his sister Ravager. The Titans decided to ask for Vigilante for help, because he was after Jericho as well, even though Changeling balked at the idea of working with a killer. Cyborg knew Vigilante had surveillance equipment monitoring Titans Compound, so if he thought Jericho was inside Cyborg that could work as bait to lure him in. Cyborg staged a fight against the Titans right outside the Compound, and Vigilante soon arrived. Before Cyborg could explain the situation Vigilante blasted him in the head with one of his firearms.

(Vigilante III #5) - The Titans restrained Vigilante, and he assured them Cyborg was alive, he’d used an EMP gun to force out Jericho. The Titans rushed Cyborg to his repair chamber, and revealed that Jericho was gone, and they’d used Cyborg as bait to bring Vigilante to them. They unmasked him, and fingerprinted him, telling him his short career was over. Vigilante set off concussive bombs attached to his security cameras in Titans Compound to create a diversion and free himself. Before the Titans could find him, Jericho, possessing a police officer, contacted them and asked for help with a hostage crisis at Union Federal. They headed to the bank, and Vigilante contacted his techie J.J. to wipe the memory banks of the Titans computer system containing his fingerprints. He knew the Titans would still eventually realize he was Adrian Chase’s brother since they’d seen him unmasked. The Titans disarmed mobsters armed with experimental government weaponry at Federal, and realized they’d been baited in. Vigilante was close behind them, and spied Jericho, who set off explosives inside the bank, killing his hired thugs and a number of police officers. Vigilante attacked Jericho, but Jericho kept jumping bodies, and then threw a grenade, damaging Vigilante’s suit, and made his escape. Vigilante reflected that it was no skin off his teeth if Jericho succeeded or failed in his maniacal plans, he wasn’t trying to save the world, only himself. Jericho called up the Teen Titans aboard their wing plane to tell them he was going to kill the Titans and use them to do it. They kept him on the phone to trace his call, and this allowed him to infect the wing ‘s computer system with a worm that gave him control over it. Jericho flew the wing to NYC and used it to attack the Titans.

(Teen Titans III #70) - Cyborg’s system crashed, and Beas Boy brought him o S.T.A.R. Labs, where a staff scienist old him that Vigilane’s E.M.P. caused sector damage hat disabled his self-repair algorithm, and hat he’d have o be manually repaired. Beast Boy waited through the repair, and alked to Cyborg, telling him how Raven shooting him down devastated him. He said the last thing he could stand was loseing his best friend. The Titans and Teen Titans managed to disable the -Wing and crash it into the Eas River without anyone getting injured. Ravager was sowed away on the -Wing, and old he Titans she waned o help them stop her brother without him getting killed. Jericho possessed Raven and spirited away his sister. He told her he was trying to kill he Titans, but only because of the voices in his head. He asked for her help, and she turned him down. Jericho was disappointed in her, he thought she would always be on his side, and pointed out that she was working with heroes associated with Vigilante, who was trying to kill him. He returned her to the Titans and fled to Time Square. The Titans spotted Vigilante, who was following hem, and subdued him, though Ravager waned o keep beating him for trying to kill Jericho. Vigilante promised to not kill Jericho if they promised that Jericho’s killing days were over.

(Titans II #13) - Jericho entered the Hamilton Grande, prepared for a slaughter. He announced that he had rigged explosives throughout the restaurant, and every wealthy patron was his hostage. Using a cellphone video, he recorded himself shooting the hotel manager in the head, and promised to kill a patron every two minutes, unless the Titans arrived to stop him. Beast Boy was watching the footage, and reluctantly left Cyborg’s side to rejoin his team, and stop he madman. The Titans confronted Jericho, and tried to reason with him, but he as having none of it, telling them he’d succeed in killing them here his father failed, finally allowing him to overshadow his dad. He’d strapped explosives to his hostages, and held the trigger, guaranteeing that the Titans would die trying to save them. He offered Ravager a chance to escape, but she wasn’t abandoning her teammates. They tussled, and Jericho set off the detonator, and escaped. Newscrews filmed what appeared to be the dead Titans. Cyborg heard the broadcasts, and ripped off his life-support system, vowing to make Jericho pay.

(Vigilante III #6) - Cyborg arrived in Central Park to find that Raven had actually created the illusion of the Titans’ death, and Miss Martian disguised herself as Deathstroke to confront and confuse Jericho. Cyborg was overjoyed that his friends were alive, but asked for a heads up the next time they faked their deaths. The Titans reached out to Jericho, and Raven tried to enter his mind to heal him, but all she found was darkness. They defeated him, but Vigilante made his presence known, and drew his guns, saying Jericho would kill again if not stopped. Ravager reminded him of his promise, and he slipped away. He later ambushed Jericho’s police convoy, and cut out his eyes so he could never use his power again. The Titans realized too late what Vigilante was up to, and they found Jericho in the back of his transport, bleeding and babbling that he was cured.

(Titans II #14) - The Titans decided to take some more time off from each other. Cyborg plugged himself into the Titans Compound computer network to give it an upgrade. Beast Boy joined him in the network to tell him to stop working because he was wound too tight. Beast Boy noticed that Cyborg’s network avatar was a normal person, and Cyborg told him that was how he saw himself. At lunch Beast Boy told him about Metamatch Dating Services, that matched superhumans with normal people. Cyborg tried to blow him off, but Beast Boy insisted it would be good for him. Cyborg visited the West Side School for the Handicapped to talk to Sarah, who was also worried that his work and his life as a Titan left him no time to be a normal person. Sarah understood his devotion, like her devotion to her kids, but told him he deserved a break. Cyborg continued to try to find himself, visiting Harlem’s First Church of Anti-Technology, run by Ron Evers, now Reverend Evers. When Cyborg removed his implants he became a luddite, and was now trying to win the minds of his church-goers to his P.O.V. Before he could debate Evers, he got an emergency call from Dr. Caldwell at S.T.A.R. Labs. Dr. Virgil Adams had dedicated 15 years of his life to S.T.A.R.’s Nano Project, advanced body armor resilient to any damage, but Caldwell kicked him off the project and he snapped. Adams, now calling himself Nano, was holding the project team hostage. Cyborg defeated him, and realized that he could easily have been someone like Nano; lost without his work because he had no family or friends. Cyborg used Metamatch’s services, and had a date with Dr. Tamara Belson, a scientist with a cybernetic wheelchair.

(Titans II #16 (fb)) - Intergang got their hands on a number of Justifier helmets, so Mon-El called in the Titans to deal with them. The heroes prevailed, but Starfire lost control and went berserk, still upset that she had once again been made a slave thanks to the Justifiers.

(Titans II #17) - The Titans had breakfast together, and Red Arrow asked Beast Boy why he changed his codename back from Changeling, which he deemed “less dumb.” Beast Boy rold him that when he forgot to re-register Changeling.com another guy got the domain, which he used to sell old Changeling merchandise, and Gar wasn’t about to give him free publicity. Flash and Red Arrow decided to razz him by buying Changeling shirts from this entrepreneur. Troia went apartment hunting, another way of distancing herself from the Titans, with Starfire and Raven. Beast Boy tried to convince Raven to blow them off and spend some time with him, but she coldly told him to stop pretending she was his girlfriend. Troia then yelled at Beast Boy, telling him not everything was about him. Cyborg told Beast Boy he was worried about him. He seemed to want to maintain status quo by continuing to act like a teenage clown and pursuing a teammate as a girlfriend. Beast Boy ducked talking to Cyborg, and eagerly accepted when his agent called offering him a gig on a panel at the Warlock World science fiction and fantasy con in San Francisco. Beast Boy soon got sick of answering questions from fan boys, half of them didn’t know who he was, and the other half were only interested in him because he’d met Batman. He freaked out when fellow panel member Dr. Double X posed with Deathstroke’s mask to get money from the fans. He ripped up the mask and stormed out of the convention, coming upon the Teen Titans, who were battling the super villain Cinderblock. Wonder Girl wasn’t taking charge, having lost her confidence after the death of Red Devil, so Beast Boy stepped in and helped them defeat the villain. Beast Boy realized they were ignoring their problems just like he was. He returned to Titans Compound and told his agent he’d no longer need his services.

(Titans II #18) - Raven tried to track down her brothers, only to come upon what seemed like a cult sacrifice to Trigon in a cemetery outside of a Gotham. The intended sacrifice turned out to be her brother Envy in disguise. The Sons of Trigon were hoping to reconnect with her, so they lured her in with the fake sacrifice, and Envy took on the image of Raven’s mother, because he sensed she desperately sought a mother’s guidance and love. Raven defeated Envy in battle, even though he assured her that even if they occasionally fought they were still blood. He also pointed out that the Titans weren’t there for her while she was tracking her brothers. The next day the Titans had a barbecue, and although Raven was happy to be surrounded by her friends, she realized they were all battling their own demons, and she still felt disconnected from them. Beast Boy left the team to mentor the Teen Titans, and Raven was sad to see him go, but didn’t try to stop him. He assured her they were still friends, and invited her to come over for movie night some time. She worried that everyone would leave the team, and she’d be all alone. Beast Boy told her she was only as alone as she chose to be, and she remarked that that was actually a wise statement coming from the class clown.

(Titans II #20) - Members of the Titans called Troia in an attempt to reconnect with her after she distanced herself from the Titans. An unrevealed enemy hired the Fearsome Five to take out the Titans one at a time, but Troia defeated them.

Titans II (Titans II #21) - The Titans stopped Dark Nemesis from breaking into S.T.A.R. Labs. Troia took her frustration at Roy Harper being mutilated by Prometheus out on the villains, and had to be restrained. The Titans were all reeling from what happened to Roy, and Flash told Cyborg he was quitting active membership to spend more time with his family and the reborn Barry Allen. Troia visited Roy in the hospital with Black Canary, and realized Roy would never be the care-free boy who showed her that feeling was okay after he recovered. Cyborg scouted new Titans to replace the members that had left, and Starfire told him she'd been offered a spot in the Justice League. He told her she'd be foolish not to break into the big leagues, but she wanted to talk to Dick Grayson first. She didn't like the front Dick was putting on as the new Batman, and he admitted he was playing a role and couldn't hide his true self from her. She didn't make up her mind after talking to Dick, and returning to Titans Compound, she and Cyborg were attacked by Phobia. They joined the Teen Titans at Titans Tower for Hero's Day, a remembrance of their brothers and sisters in arms that died in combat.

(Blackest Night: Titans #1-3) - Heroe's Day was interrupted by resurrected Titans Terra and Omen, who had been resurrected as zombies by the Black Lantern Corps. Troia was sleeping when she was woken by the resurrected Robert Long, who appeared to her in his crib and cried out for her. He bit her, infecting her with the Black. Titans Tower was leveled by Terra, and several more ex-Titan Black Lanterns joined the assault on the heroes. The Black Lanterns attacked Dove, but her lifeforce connection permanently destroyed them. The surviving Lanterns fled, and the Titans realized the war was far from over. Troia said they needed to get Dove on the front lines.

(Titans II #23) - The Titans watched the Teen Titans unveil memorial statues for Hawk and Tempest following their deaths during Blackest Night. Flash said that he didn’t know if he was more disturbed by the fact that the hall of the dead was so full of statues, or the fact that there were empty spaces anticipating the future deaths of Titans. Cyborg called the Titans, and told them that as Arrow’s oldest friends it would be nice if they visited him in case he didn’t make it. They flew to see Arrow at S.T.A.R. Labs and reflected on their early days as Teen Titans. Flash had an idealized memory of their time together, but Troia and Batman reminded him of the tension Speedy and his on-again off-again relationship with Wonder Girl caused. At the hospital Red Arrow’s dire condition hit them, and Batman said he realized why Bruce Wayne never allowed himself to be close to people when he was Batman. Troia said that they’d all experienced tragedy, but the fact that they were there for each other as a family made all the difference. Flash told Dick not to get too wrapped up in the Batman persona.

Comments: Created by Judd Winick.

The Titans had a cameo in Titans II #15, 38.