Teen Titans and the Perfect Formula

Quite often in comics, we creators look for formulas or tropes to work from. A formula is essentially a recipe... While you can make slight alterations or changes to it, in the end, you still got to follow that recipe somewhat to get something that approximates what you're baking. If you deviate too far, you get into the realm trying something new. Now most people will say that trying something new is a good idea, and you're right... When it's actually a good idea. Taking my late mother's delicious taco salad and swapping out the ground beef for seasoned chicken? That's a good idea. Taking taco salad and swapping out the ground beef for oysters? That's disgusting and you deserve to get sick. It's like storytelling as well. Following a formula is not a bad thing, in fact it can be exactly what's needed, otherwise you end up with Oyster Taco Salad. (Bleh!) There's a set formula for what the character you're working on has. It's okay to have ghosts in Star Trek, but you better make sure you throw in some Treknobabble about displaced tachyon surges. It's okay to have magic in Transformers, but it needs to be a form of ancient primordial technology that defies explanation. Certain concepts can jump genres. Spider-Man doesn't have to just fight super-villains, but he's encountered the supernatural, such as Dracula and Werewolf by Night, and extraterrestrials like the Venom symbiote. Hell, I remember a Spider-Man issue where he has a near-death experience, and Death herself and Thanos. Spidey's versatile like that. So's Batman. And the Ninja Turtles. But not many are. Sure, something like the Tick can do it... But the Tick is awesomely absurd. He can run into a planet eater one week and then run into a guy with a chair for a head the next. It's a really hard act to balance. Yes, Captain America has fought aliens, but unless he's with the Avengers, it feels really stupid. Superman has fought organized crime, but you end up thinking how dumb this story it. As an aside, it's also a huge risk when you try to take superpowered characters and give them slice-of-life dangers. You run the risk of supremely pretentious storytelling. Nothing makes you roll your eyes more than the Silver Surfer telling some kids to say no to drugs. With exception of the rare few, solo titles are kind of stuck being whatever genre they start off as. There are some creators who think they can get around this by starting off as a comedy book, and then starts telling “dark stories” so they can be taken seriously. This VERY RARELY WORKS. Just because Cerberus pulled this off in the 1980s, doesn't everyone else can. It's like Homer Simpson... It's the exception, and not the rule. And sadly, those comics and shows that seem to think they can pull this off, ends up being colorful navel gazing at best.

That's why Teen Titans was the perfect formula.

Right now, you're wondering what the hell am I talking about. Teen Titans was awesome, but there's been better comics and cartoons, right? Yes, but none of them perfectly as versatile as the Titans were, and here's why.

Generally speaking, as far as us nerds go, there's five types of conflicts in stories.

1. Conflicts of the human nature

2. Conflicts of the alien nature

3. Conflicts of the supernatural nature

4. Conflicts of the technological nature

5. Conflicts of the comedic nature

Think about every story you read, watched, or even created. I'm willing to bet every one of them fell into one or more of these categories. Pulp Fiction? Number one and five. Transformers? Number two and four. Avatar? One, two, AND four. (With a touch of three.) Lord of the Rings? One and three. Even though there's Orcs, Dwarves and Elves... It's basically a epic political story of Middle Earth. It's 'human' in it's nature. Well, what about Godzilla? Number two. Alien doesn't mean 'extraterrestrial', it just means 'not human'. It's something we can't relate with. There's xenophobia involved. Well, what about Ghostbusters? Almost all of them. Supernatural doesn't equal magic, and the real Ghostbusters show established that some of the ghosts they busted were not supernatural in nature but alien. They even fought Cthulhu once, and he's an alien. Most fictional stories, and all non-fictional stories are basically the first category. It's all human stories. Most stories that involve aliens or anything non-human falls into the second. Stories about supernatural activity, ghosts, or even the afterlife falls into the third. (Stories about faith and higher power can blur some lines.) Stories about the power of technology and how it effects us is the fourth. And anything meant to make you laugh is in the fifth.

Once you've established what your concept is, it's hard to jump genres. Unless it's built in from the word go. And this is almost impossible with a solo book. You need a team book to do this. Because then you can bring in team members from each category to fill out the ranks. Not all team books have done this. Most team books have themes to them. Fantastic Four is about super-science. X-Men is about genetics and human relations. The Justice League and the Avengers (until the recent movie) was about super-heroics of the first category. Sometimes they can stretch, but for the most part they stay firmly in that first category of human nature. (ESPECIALLY with the stories as of late. God, I would have killed for some Fing Fang Foom or Impossible Man in AvX!) Some can pull off all five categories, but the Titans perfected this.

With Robin, you have the human, and thus you can tell stories of human nature. It's not out of place for him to be fighting villains like Two-Face or even common street thugs. With Starfire, you have the alien, and thus stories of the alien nature. It's not odd for her to be challenged by her sister Blackfire or even Thanagarians. With Raven, you have the magic user, and thus stories of the supernatural nature. It's acceptable for her to combat demons, wizards and even ghosts. With Cyborg, you have... Well, the cyborg, and thus technology. Killer robots, super-genetics, mutants, and in general 'science gone bad' is his forte. And lastly, you have Beast Boy, the joker. And with him, you can tell any wacky and insane story from rivalries with fishmen to killer tofu from outer space. You can swap out or add on other team members, like Wonder Girl or Kid Flash, but as long as you have those five role filled and you got them established all on the same team from the beginning... You can tell ANY story you want. Sci-fi, scary, urban, silly, insightful, action-packed, emotional... Whatever. All stories are open to you and it doesn't contradict anything you've established in the premise.

It's a silly and simple formula. But it always works.