Young Justice vs.Teen Titans (the new 52)

My daughter and I have loved the Young Justice TV series ever since it hit Netflix and helped us transition from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, even though they don't share the same universe (Young Justice appears to be about one alternative dimension over, what with Wally West being the Flash in the older series, and Kid Flash in Young Justice).  Now we are working our way through Season 2 of Young Justice just as my son has finally gotten on the Season 1 bandwagon.

While all this is going on, the Teen Titans comic book is poised to join Justice League in my "how to save six dollars a month not buying bad comic books" list.

What makes one teen DC product so good (possibly superior even to JLU, and maybe one of the best animated superhero series ever) and the other similar title called by some the worst of the New 52 (and that's saying a lot)?  And more importantly, what can superhero RPG campaign makers glean from both of those things?  Let's take a look.

Recognizable properties.  In the first season of Young Justice, you had three first-generation Teen Titans: the aforementioned Wally West, Speedy, and the Dick Grayson Robin.  To that you had two slightly-modified characters from the comic books (Miss Martian and Superboy) and two brand new characters (Artemis and Aqualad).  There had been previous characters named both Artemis and Aqualad in DC comics, the latter part of the original Teen Titans, but now both changed to fill in some roles on the team, not to mention add a little racial diversity.  That's a wide spectrum of source material.

The New 52 Teen Titans had the Tim Drake Robin (now called Red Robin, an harkening to Kingdom Come), a gritty Superboy, Impulse, and Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl.  Solstice was around beforehand, to my surprise when I researched this.  To those characters who had some pre-retcon history you add Skitter and Bunker.  Raven and Beast Boy join the group later.

So right off the bat you are working with newer, less familiar characters for people who might have some idea of whom the Titans are, and no one from either the original Titans or for that matter the second 80's era team until you get Beast Boy and Raven.  There are also difficult continuity issues between the New 52 Batman universe (which seems to not have been all that reset) and the Justice League universe (which had an almost complete overhaul).  In fact there is much confusion over whether this Teen Titans group is the first or not.  A lot of that goes to the unmitigated hash that the New 52 was for DC Comics, but Teen Titans seems to have it in spades.

Story continuity.  In Season One, Young Justice is slowly discovering an elaborate conspiracy by a group calling itself "the Light."  Almost every episode references this conspiracy, even as the individual plots seem unconnected.  In Season Two the story transitions fairly smoothly (even with a five year gap) to uncovered an alien invasion of Earth.  There are some sub-plots, mostly involving individual character development.  Orbiting in the background is the Justice League, a constant presence and occasional plot element, but they are mostly off fighting other, bigger, more public battles.

By contrast, the Teen Titans has had about five major story arcs: the Culling, Death in the Family, Trigon, the Trial of Kid Flash, and the latest Manchester Black/S.T.A.R. Labs story. The fact that DC Comics still hasn't figured out that Manchester Black was a satirical, throwaway character is beyond me.  But in any case, Teen Titans suffered from having major issues involving cross-overs with most of these story arcs, leaving people who just read this title often missing major plot points, if not resolutions.  Again Teen Titans wasn't the only title to suffer this way; I'm still not sure exactly how "Forever Evil" actually ended, mostly because I stopped caring.

Characterization, especially regarding youth.  In Young Justice, the team is composed entirely of young proteges of established Justice Leaguers, and each wishes to impress their mentor in their own way.  The relationships vary with their mentors from highly-supportive to downright dysfunctional.  There are romantic intrigues and coming-of-age elements to the plot.  Most importantly, the different team members seem to like each other and are easy to relate to.

Which again lends itself to a negative critique of the Teen Titans.  Honestly, I'm not sure which of the Teen Titans I'm supposed to like.  Bunker seems like the most heroic one.  Red Robin is the stressful leader, Wonder Girl a semi-reformed criminal, Superboy is a violent jerk, Impulse is lying to everyone.  Skitter and Solstice hardly got any story time before being shunted out.  Raven is inconsistent and Beast Boy is a PTSD case.  There is no in-comic interactions with other heroes (possibly because of continuity issues).  But mostly, there's no sense of why these people are even together as a team.  It feels like the writers are sort of going for that reluctant teammate vibe but instead you end up with people for whom if they went their separate ways tomorrow you wouldn't blame them.

Two more complaints about Teen Titans, and then I will lay off.  Time and again the covers of the Teen Titans did not match the story inside.  I'm not sure if this was because the covers were done separately and perhaps there were timing issues involved, but repeatedly the cover would state one thing in terms of story and the comic book provide something else.

Then there's the "Trigon possesses Red Robin" thing.  During the Trigon plot line Red Robin is possessed and is used to sow discord among the group.  In the middle of this Red Robin has sex with Wonder Girl and kisses Solstice, a seduction that puts him at odds with Kid Flash/Impulse.  That plot seems to get very close to rape, both by having Red Robin have sex against his will, and Wonder Girl have sex under false pretenses.  I'm not sure why DC Comics would even want to get even close to a story with rape in it (again), especially involving "teens," and really especially as a passing plot point.  All that is doing is opening the comic book up to criticism from people who are (rightfully) sensitive to those kinds of stories, and that is exactly what happened.

So, what from all this can superhero RPG GM's learn?

It's okay to connect dots.  In my own Marvel Heroic campaign, all of the supervillains were brought together at the end into one mega-group, the Zodiac.  I watched the players' eyes light up when they started seeing the pieces fall into place.  But continuity also matters when it comes to keeping the same roster of PC's.  Switching out one PC for another might be great for the player who is constantly tinkering with the rules, but it doesn't allow PC's to breathe and grow.

Connection the dots in terms of persons also is a real plus.  That's both PC-to-PC, and PC-to-NPC.  Wildly disconnected PC's and a lack of NPC interaction I feel detracts from the players' emotional investment, the figurative and literal "why are we here."

And finally, don't do rape storylines.  Ever.  Just don't.