A Beacon of Light? Not Likely

Teen Titans has, in all honesty, been a complete disappointment since One Year Later began. Like many books - Wonder Woman and Catwoman among them - what should have been a break that allowed for a fresh start was marred by creative teams who didn't understand the characters they were writing for, didn't care about past characterization, or simply lacked the ability to write a decent Superhero story.

Yet, in Teen Titans 60, Robin still has the audacity to have the following exchange:




Tim thinks, after all this time, that his Titan Team should be a beacon of light? Oh, Tim. That's cute, sweetie.

I could list many reasons why that can simply not be: sheer incompetence, an unwillingness to work together, inability to compromise, or the simple fact that the Teen Titans at present resemble the popular little clique at high school that always made fun of anyone who wasn't part of their group. The Teen Titans aren't really heroes anymore, they're bratty teenagers who clearly should have been spanked more as children. The only exception, the only character that actually should call himself a Titan at this point, is Blue Beetle.

However, for me, and for this blog, the main problem with this whole "beacon of light" nonsense is that the Titans could never be a symbol of what a teenager girl should be.

First, we have Cassie. Cassie has two personalities: condescending and needy. This is a girl who, in order to mourn her dead boyfriend, started a cult! She may have moved on from that, but what hasn't changed is that Cassie's entire personality continues to be - as it has from the start of her association with the team - wrapped up in the boy she is going to date. If she's not mourning over Kon, she's worrying about whether to date Tim, and trying to make him feel better about the team.

There's no sign of the fun tomboy she once was, or the competent leader she nearly was - it's all been reduced to a shallow girl with no positive contributions to the team and whose world revolves around which boy will love her.
Cassie isn't Wonder Girl. She isn't Buffy. Somehow, she became Kelly Taylor (which is, oh, the last thing I ever want to read in a superhero comic) and she can't ever be a "beacon of light" until she finally figures out how to "choose me."

Then we have Miss Martian. In theory, she should have worked fine. She's the female equivalent of Eddie, someone who is terrified of her "future" self, and trying to stop it from happening.

But yet, how does Eddie choose to deal with his problems? He stays on the team and fights! Because the best way to deal with a potential evil future is to stay fighting the good fight!

But Miss Martian can't do that. She has to run away and deal with her problems in isolation! Because clearly, Miss Martian is weaker than Eddie.

Add to the fact that Miss Martian's other role on the team was to be the lovestruck ditz who mooned over Eddie while he wanted Ravager, and I can't begin to see how this weak creature would ever be a "beacon of light" for any one.

Finally, we have Ravager. Rose Wilson's entire reason for being on the team was problematic to begin with. She was there because Nightwing - still harboring guilt for letting Deathstroke blow up his city and not doing a thing about it, no doubt - forced the team to have her. We see very little about what Rose actually thinks of this. Oh, sure, we know what she thinks of her teammates (and who can blame her - they are pretty crappy) but how does she feel about being a Titan?

The only thing we get in that arena is when she is talking to Joey (who was resurrected pointlessly) and she whines about how the Titans don't trust her.

So, on one hand, we have a Rose who isn't allowed any agency of her own when it comes to determining where and how to spend her life. On the other, we have her pleading for acceptance from people who don't like her. In the big story that should have been Rose's breakout point, when her father came back, Rose simply went from depending on Daddy to depending on her brother.

Essentially, Deathstroke, Nightwing, and Joey dictated Rose's life. And when they stopped doing that, the minute Rose showed any real backbone - she had to leave the team.

Yeah, that's real "beacon of light" worthy.

It's not actually hard to write teenager supergirls who are fun and awesome. Take Cassie Lang or Kate Bishop in the Young Avengers. Or Mayday Parker in Amazing Spider-Girl. Even at DC, take Brenda over in Blue Beetle, at least as she was for the first 25 issues. All tough, all very feminine, and all embracing the kind of legacy heroes that the Titans should be. Those are the kinds of women that I would want to show as a "beacon of light" to young female readers, not these horrible creatures in this book.

In the end, I am reminded about something that Wendy(who is just a few years older than the teenagers in this book) said in Middleman:

"I get to hope because I fight for it."

These characters, particularly the female ones, aren't fighting for any kind of hope, especially not as female role models. Instead, they're doing the very opposite.

And they're a boring team while they're at it.