Norithics said:
Whenever this conversation happens about Titans, there's usually two camps: People who watched and loved Teen Titans the show, and people who were into them before the show.
Now, I belong to the former camp, so I can't speak with an unbiased opinion. So I want somebody who genuinely enjoys the not-show versions of these characters to explain to me what's enjoyable about them this way. What's actually compelling about them? What do you like about them?
does starting with the show and moving on to reading all the backlog of Teen Titans v2 up to final crisis count? ._. including 'Titans' and some of the other shenanigans along with original 52...
a lot of it was silly, to be honest... comics are a bit 'weird'/insane and continuity is a nightmare... especially when you have about 4 different versions to shift through and other comic tie-ins...
while the silly cartoon show version of the Teen Titans isn't 'canon' per say, it did cover more of the general vibe of the OVERALL comics, and primarily the version 2 Teen Titans where Raven, Starfire and Cyborg originate... it is insane... let me tell you... going from the literal beginning of that all the way up to something that becomes marginally familiar... but i did enjoy it...
the show is the 'kid-friendly' version to be sure, in the comics things got pretty fucked pretty fast, to the point nearly ever comic someone was either reeling from some 'dark evil past' thingy or someone died, nearly-died, AND HOLY HELL!! the drama!! it was awesome!
sticking with Raven, as she is my fav-of-favs for pretty much any superhero, i like her backstory and her development... she starts off as a well-meaning person truly bent on saving the world from her father, she has next to no concept of 'people' and 'personal space' or what is socially 'acceptable', she WILL and OFTEN HAS manipulated peoples emotions to obtain the means and ends she wants, the woman's (as she starts off the 'eldest' of the Titans around 18~20ish) only saving grace, LITERALLY IN THE FIRST COMIC is that she IS doing all of this for the overall 'good' of the universe... she has a stringent 'good' morality... buried underneath all the wacky mysticism shenanigans comics are wont to get into when 'magic' is involved...
Raven, in the comics, is just as much of a 'grey' character as she is in the show, she comes off dark, creepy and aloof, but the reality is she, despite being half-human, is rather foreign to all context of 'human' things, despite oddly clinging closer to 'humanity' then most heroes i see, there's a justifiable battle of 'good and evil' in her constantly... AND HOLY FUCK DOES THE COMICS LIKE TO SCREW WITH THAT!! XD
in the show you don't get to see literal 'Dark Raven', she shows up a lot... Raven's demon nature is nasty... run for the hills if you can... though you likely won't get very far...
now to make this shorter i'll just go into my 'issue' as per the topic for this... i'm conflicted to be honest about what the hell's all going on... Pre52 Raven always struggled with the concepts and warring nature of Good and Evil that is literally in her blood, but she was always genuinely 'good' underneath it all, she may have been capable of manipulations that Batman would give a nod to, but underlying it all was this sense of she was doing it 'for the good of the world', a martyr-type to its most tangible degree... its all muddiled up all over the place because comics are weird, but its still basically there that Raven is a 'good' person... the thing with the new comics... right off the bat, she's basically 'evil' ._. no joke, looks, acts, and effectively is just evil and working for her father, or worse, manipulating him to some degree meaning she's no different/better then he is and he's basically the cosmic devil... i get there's a 'reason' for this with her new back story and all... but its just so... weird... like hard to shake, that deep down she could just be purely 'Dark Raven' instead of just 'Raven'... only marginally less insane meaning probably crueler and with more power...
as someone mentioned 'Lady Femto'... and uttering those words makes me shudder as i'm also a fan of Berserk... and Femto is a bad, bad, bad... demon?
that and i think the face-covering thing looks stupid... also i may be in somewhat nerd-rage as this totally retconed BBRae canon that had only taken FOR-FREAKIN'-EVER to come about... and considering the effort i put into this... yea... yea... wangst is just the tip of the ice burg -.-