Why Doesn't DC or Creators "Get' The Titans?

[Lemurion]

It's not that DC or creators don't "get" those characters. It's that there's no room for many of them in the current setting, so any attempt to bring them back is fraught with issues.

[Volkditty]

One of the things that made the old Titans series so popular was that the characters evolved organically; they started out as a group of (near) strangers, assembled to battle a common foe (Trigon), and grew into close friends and family. They grew up, which is rare in comics, and we got to watch that happen. The fact that Wolfman and Perez stayed with the title as long as they did and were such amazing talents to begin with certainly helped too.

Since then, DC has tried half a dozen "Titans reunion" series, and they never work. I believe one of the major reasons for this is that the creators, DC, and fans, are all too aware of that bond. It ends up going in reverse. The Titans started out a team and became a family, but the attempts in recent years (recent decades at this point) have them start out as a family who get back together as a team.

There is every reason for Wally West to show up in the pages of Nightwing for a visit. There is every reason for Roy to come knocking on Donna's door to see how things are going. But "we're family" is a very thin reason for them to work together on a regular basis again. Especially when you consider that many of their star members moved on years ago to other things (like the League, protecting their own cities, ect). The rare team-up? Sure. Full time membership in a team with a charter? Not so much.

It turns out that nostalgia is a poor reason for a team to get (back) together.

Add onto that very shallow reasoning for the team to be together, you then run into the problem of niche. What role do the Titans fill? The JSA have the whole "training the next generation" thing going on, the League is of course the big guns, and "young heroes coming of age" stops working when the members are all in their twenties, several of them married, a few with kids.

And the reunion attempts....the honest truth is, they will never be as good as the original run. The original run was magic, original and unique, and all the attempts to follow suit are merely that; attempts to copy something years (decades) old that was magic at the time. The reunions will never be as good because all they do is re-tread old ideas and stories we read about already.

I think that's why DC has cut ties with the old Titans history. They cant repeat themselves, gods know they tried. So rather than let the franchise hang under the shadow of old times, they're trying to break free of that and start fresh. Whether that works or not? Thats up for debate.

Its also true that as the middle children, they dont have much room to work with.

I think this is the most correct answer it is possible to give on the subject.

[Robotman4]

The current book hasn't been great since The Culling but I don't think they should be doing the exact same thing they did in the early 80s. Seems like fans just want the same stories told over and over. I don't think it's an issue of writers "not getting" The Titans. It just needs to be a better written book. As long as it is a comic about side kicks/young heroes coming together and working as a team, it's the Teen Titans. Friendships and romances form, deaths and heart breaks happen. Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and (Red) Robin are still the core characters. Its the Teen Titans. They just don't have to copy and paste the NTT run.