The TEEN TITANS are DC's teenage superhero group formed from sidekicks and other adolescents. There have been a few different groups bearing the name or something similar, as DC has canceled and relaunched the series (as well as their entire Universe) several times. A team book at its heart, the Teen Titans are an ever-evolving team with a rotating roster where the interactions among the members are just as intriguing as the villains they go up against. The first Teen Titans group from the Silver Age consisted initially of Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), Aqualad (Garth) with Wonder Girl (Donna Troi) and Speedy (Roy Harper) added fairly soon. While initially popular, the series was canceled at issue #43 in 1973 which turned into a nearly 4-year long hiatus with a short-lived Bronze Age revival attempt from 1976-78 (issues #44-53).

The Teen Titans became a bigger hit, however, during their 1980s high-quality relaunch as the NEW TEEN TITANS from Marv Wolfman and George Perez. DC borrowed talent from Marvel which perhaps brought with it some aspects of the then growing success, the Uncanny X-Men. The Teen Titans team appeared in DC COMICS PRESENTS [1978] #26 the month before their self-titled series, NEW TEEN TITANS [1980] launched. The team was slightly older and added the now-enduring fan favorite members of Cyborg, Raven, Changeling (formerly Beast Boy) and Starfire. The peak of this new era was arguably the JUDAS CONTRACT storyline, in which their first recruit, the psychopath known as Terra, betrays the team to its biggest archenemy...Deathstroke. The team becomes the NEW TITANS as the members apparently age out of their 'teens.' Dick Grayson would assume his Nightwing identity during this time period, and he would eventually depart the team. After the ZERO HOUR event in 1994, the roster would be nearly unrecognizable from its 1980's beginnings, and the title would be canceled in early 1996.

Later in 1996, the Teen Titans would relaunch from writer/artist Dan Jurgens with a radically new roster of a teenage Atom (Ray Palmer), Argent, Risk, Joto, and Prysm. This second group (Teen Titans II) were genetic experiments created by the evil alien H'San Natall Empire. These half-human/half-alien Titans faced villains like Dark Nemesis and Haze before sales inevitably slumped, and the series was canceled. As the TEEN TITANS [1996] series was collapsing, some other young heroes in the DC Universe, such as Robin (Tim Drake), Superbory (Kon-El) and Impulse, had formed under the name and title YOUNG JUSTICE. The Titans themselves would relaunch in 1999 with the series TITANS [1999] and a more classic line-up of: Nightwing, Donna Troy, Arsenal, Flash (Wally West), Tempest, Cyborg, Starfire, Argent, Damage, and Jesse Quick. This series would run 50 issues and--along with YOUNG JUSTICE--end, leading into the TITANS/YOUNG JUSTICE: GRADUATION DAY [2003] mini-series, which would serve as the relaunching point for two new series: TEEN TITANS [2003] and OUTSIDERS [2003].

Geoff Johns oversaw the 2003 relaunch of the Teen Titans and spawned renewed interest in the franchise, as the series was also relaunched alongside the new, highly successful Cartoon Network animated, anime-inspired television series, TEEN TITANS. The comic book Changeling would resume using his old name of Beast Boy to match the show. A second ongoing comic book title, TITANS [2008] ran from 2008-2011 alongside TEEN TITANS [2003]. The Titans went through roster and storyline chaos as DC experienced multiple 'Crisis' events and other seemingly, rapid-fire event storylines until DC's NEW 52 publishing-wide relaunch reset the entire DC Universe. A new TEEN TITANS series came out of that relaunch, but it was not able to reclaim its Bronze Age glory. The TEEN TITANS series wase subsequently relaunched alongside a new TITANS series during DC's REBIRTH relaunch. The TITANS HUNT [2015] series and REBIRTH re-established the Teen Titans history and returned the team to a classic--and more popular--line-up.

Cartoon Network's TEEN TITANS show and its successor TEEN TITANS GO! are a couple of that network's most successful shows ever--with nearly universal exposure to the entire Millennial generation. The cartoons owe much to the NEW TEEN TITANS [1980] series from Wolfman and Perez, and--as a franchise as a whole--the Teen Titans show no signs of ever completely disappearing from the DC Universe as long as there are young heroes in it.