Outside the original lineup of the Teen Titans team, DC has housed nearly twenty different Titans teams since the original’s debut in 1964. As new teams form and dozens of new heroes, and villains, join the ranks, the overall Titans brand has expanded well past its original nine members. However, not every Titan maintains the same plucky attitude that the first iteration originally had.
From infiltrations to uneasy alliances to outright villains, the various Titans teams carry many members who defy traditional senses of morality or the general heroic aesthetic. Considering every Titan team as fair game for this list, Titans members who wear their darkness, whether it be from tragedy or villainy, on their sleeves will be the greater focus. While most members of the greater Titans family each have their own horrific and tragic backstories, these ten Titans are as darkly twisted as they come.
10 Cheshire
Debuted in New Teens Titans Annual #2 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Jade Nguyen, also known as the Cheshire, is a master assassin and a consistently reliable mercenary. For the entirety of her career, Cheshire has been one of the Teen Titans’ most notable villains. While she is a loving and caring mother, her reputation as a ruthless assassin significantly pushes her away from heroism.
Having been sold into slavery as a child, her traumatic upbringing forged her into the weapon she is now. While she never joined one of the “official” Titans teams, she was a member of Deathstroke’s Titans East. Unsurpisingly paid to participate, she put up a good show in the group designed to fulfill Deathstroke’s one instance of trying to be a “good father.”
9 The Jokers’ Daughter
First Debuted in Batman Family #6 by Bob Rozakis
The Joker’s Daughter is a complicated character with an even more complicated backstory. Duela Dent, her true identity, actually comes from Earth-3 where her father was that universe’s “Joker,” albeit a heroic variant. Duela is a complete wildcard, possessing her mother, Three Face’s, mental instabilities.
That said, the Joker’s Daughter has tried her hand at both heroism and villainy. Despite her obvious instabilities, Duela has been both a previous member of the traditional Teen Titans and Deathstroke’s Titans East. Ultimately, Dent relies on her comedic arsenal and unpredictable nature to carry her in battle.
Joker has done unimaginable damage to Batman over the years, but in one comic series, Batman almost got his ultimate revenge on the Clown.
8 Phantasm
First Debuted in New Teen Titans Annual #3 by Marv Wolfman and Mike Collins
The first to carry the Phantasm moniker, Daniel Chase is the son of two international spies who trained Daniel in their practices. His father, Franklin, endured a near-fatal accident while gathering intelligence on the Manhattan Project. His father was subject to overwhelming amounts of radiation that were later imbued into Danny, unlocking metahuman powers.
Like his parents, Danny has a genius-level intellect and possesses advanced espionage skills. Most impressively, Phantasm is a telekinetic, allowing him to bend matter to his will. However, his metahuman abilities pale in comparison to the likes of Psimon or Gorilla Grodd.
7 Terra
First Debuted in New Teen Titans #26 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Tara Markov is one of the Teen Titans' most notable members, especially thanks to the original Teen Titans television series. However, Terra was inevitably revealed to be a mole on behalf of Deathstroke. Despite her treacherous infiltration, Terra and Beast Boy did develop a genuine relationship until her true nature was revealed.
Terra possesses power geokinetic abilities with almost no conceivable ceiling. However, the false Titan suffers from horrific surges of misplaced unbridled rage. Her violent mental instabilities and obvious sociopathy oftentimes make it difficult to control her powers and her environment when in the heat of battle.
6 Red X IV
First Debuted in Infinite Frontier #0 by Tim Sheridan and Rafa Sandoval
The fourth person to take the mantle of Red Hood, Brick Pettirosso was saved from an abusive home as a child by the villainous second Red X. Red X II trained Brick to become an adept infiltrator and a masterful weapon. Brick was originally tasked with infiltrating the Teen Titans Academy.
Despite his wrongdoings, Nightwing always saw goodness in Brick, most likely seeing himself in the young Red X. Underneath his training, Red X IV is a genuinely good person, which is great considering he is the only Red X with metahuman powers. Outside of his intense training, Brick possesses a slew of electromagnetic powers similar to that of Marvel’s Magneto.
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5 Ravager
First Debuted in Deathstroke #15 by Marv Wolfman and Art Nichols
The youngest child of Deathstroke, Rose Wilson is an illegitimate child who had gone unnoticed by Slade for years. Around her tenth birthday, Deathstroke returned to take Rose back and train her in his ways, killing her mother Lillian in the process. Rose, going by the name Ravager, rebelled against her father and turned to the Titans as her new home.
Bouncing between multiple Titan teams, Rose has become one of the most dependable members of the overall Titans umbrella. Like her father, Ravager possesses a metagene, granting her the full spectrum of superhuman enhancements and an eidetic memory. Ravager has been noted to possess a level of tactical genius practically on par with her father’s sans his experience.
4 Damian Wayne
First Debuted in Batman #655 by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert
The son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, Damian Wayne is both a master assassin and a master detective. His training from both sides of his family has gifted him with near-mastery of practically every form of combat and a genius-level intellect. He is arrogant, a factor of his young age, but he’s in control.
More so than any of Batman or Talia’s apprentices, Damian is the perfect heir to both Batman and the League of Shadows. While he is still young, Damian possesses incredible potential, making him a frequently underestimated force to be reckoned with. Thankfully, his time with the Titans seems to have softened his ego, at least to a small degree.
3 Deathstroke
First Debuted in The New Teen Titans #2 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Arguably the Teen Titans' greatest enemy, Deathstroke created his own Titans team for one very specific purpose. Despite his obvious and terrifying villainy, Slade Wilson, to some degree, is a father who loves his children. Realizing that he didn’t have what it took to give Rose and Jericho the lives they deserved, he created the Titans East II.
The villainous variant of the Titans was designed to drive a further wedge between him and his kids, pushing them to accept the Teen Titans as their true family. Deathstroke is a metahuman with an eidetic memory and the power to process information nearly ten times more efficiently than normal humans. While Ravager has the potential to grow to be a greater Deathstroke, Slade has the experience to orchestrate his plans on a much larger scale.
Deathstroke and Batman are joining forces for a high-stakes mission that will completely redefine how fans see their dynamic, and it's for the better.
2 Osiris
First Fully Debuted in 52 #23 by Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Drew Johnson, and Jerry Ordway
When Amon Tomaz was a child, he experienced severe fatal injuries that would have taken his life if it had not been for Black Adam. In his on-again off-again bouts of heroism, Black Adam rushed to Amon, granting the boy access to his powers. Amon was officially brought into the Black Marvel Family and served as Black Adam’s protégé for years.
Going by the Osiris, Amon has balanced toward neutral morality but frequently tries to lead his life as a hero. As a member of the Teen Titans, Osiris fully explored his Black Marvel powers, making him one of the team’s most powerful metahumans. Other than his age, Osiris’s greatest drawback is his having to share his powers with the rest of the Black Marvel Family. If Black Adam or Isis pulled more from the pool of powers, Osiris is left with a fraction of his abilities.
1 Raven
First Debuted in DC Comics Presents #26 byMarv Wolfman and George Pérez
One of the Teen Titans’ founding members, Raven is an insanely powerful sorcerer and a master of the mystic arts. The daughter of the eldritch demon Trigon, Raven possesses her father’s empathic relationship with magic, thus her need to control her emotions at all times. Raven is capable of using precognitive sight, dimensional travel, and astral projection, among many other abilities.
Additionally, because of her need to maintain emotional stability, Raven maintains a stronger control of her mind and whits in battle than her fellow members. Otherwise, if she were to fail, Trigon could feed on her dark emotions, transforming her into a portal to enter Earth’s dimension. Undoubtedly, Raven is both the darkest and the most powerful of any Titan to date.
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