After an over-a-week-long break from this, as I got busy, I am finally following up with the rearranged roster of Titans East. Unlike Titans North and South, which had only 2 members added or switched, Titans East had 2 members removed, and 3 new members added, which makes half the time, all things considered. They were also technically the first team I rearranged (though not the first one introduced, as there are TONS of things to say about Titans East as a whole), with my goal being specifically giving honorary Titans their chance at spotlight, the Titans that essentially got shafted due to copyright issues.
The two members I removed happened to be Mas y Menos. Now, I adore these two. They're cute, funny, wholesome. I applaud the creativity the show makers had when coming up with them, and I am happy that their popularity in the show elevated them to be added to actual comics later down the line. This really makes you appreciate what you can do with a pinch and take it to the top. No real hate, but there is a problem with them: not only do they go a bit against my rule for "only teens as Teen Titans," while they're not even 13 (and barely look like they're past 10 years old), but their actual characters leave very little room to improve as they're effectively gag characters for comedic relief. Sure, it works with the idea of not seeing Titans East much on the screen, but when I'm assembling the team I don't operate with the notion of "those are guest characters" but rather "those are characters that could lead their own stories" y'know, and Mas y Menos are kind of hard to pull that off, that hasn't been already done by someone else. One unique thing was in Titans Together with their bond enabling the remaining Titans to locate the Brotherhood of Evil and free all the Titans, but that's really it. So rather than having 2 speedsters that effectively work as one character, making Titans East as a whole feel even smaller as a team, I instead traded them for a one speedster that can do what they can and even more, and as you guessed it, it's the Kid Flash.
It should be stated that Mas y Menos were created because they couldn't get Wally right away, and having their weakness be codependence also meant they're not as broken as she is, but I don't follow the restrictions of "too OP character" or "copyright said no, so I am including Kid Flash into the Titans East. Jinx shall tag along because I liked LightSpeed and their episode together, and it does create something fun to work with, whereas all Jinx had was one episode focus on her and not much else. Jinx, however, is the sixth ranger that joins in later, the other fifth member of the team that I decided to include, who also got issues with copyright, was no one other than Wonder Girl. (And Bumblebee cheered because she was no longer the only girl on the team).
Wonder Girl is effectively the very one that started this project, as I admit I was initially unfamiliar with her as a whole and didn't get the appeal, because you just know that the rules of not utilising any of Wonder Woman's sidekicks to the full extent are an utter bullshit, so I had to go the extra mile to see who she really is. Mostly, it came from how people always preached how they wished Wonder Girl were included in the show as part of the team, but I was curious about how exactly she would fit in. Like Teen Titans from 2003, all fit the Breakfast Club, with all the roles and archetypes aligned, and I thought that Wonder Girl would be either redundant or too much of an easy-fix for the team. Both Robin and Starfire effectively play the role of straight-man leader and the heart and soul of the team, respectively, so while I can imagine Wonder Girl being besties with both of them (obviously), I can just imagine that she'd be stealing their thunder and room for development, leaving Star as just a caricature of a foreigner and Robin as an edgelord, as what would distinguish them specifically, as all the other stuff they have, Wonder Girl just has too. However, whereas Wonder Girl wouldn't be much needed with our main team of Titans West, as they do come to see each other eye to eye on their own, I could see Titans East needing a proper glue and mediator for their team to work long-term.
We know how, in the beginning, it took Cyborg to get all of them straight on track, and after that, there really wasn't much going on, but I can only imagine that with how Bumblebee, Aqualad, Speedy, and even Kid Flash would ALL have conflicting priorities, Wonder Girl would help everyone get along, and be the very heart of the team they need. However, while Wonder Girl in media is portrayed as someone who has leadership capabilities, I ultimately chose to limit her to being a diplomat and the right-hand-woman of Bumblebee, as I do prefer her as a leader, and I did establish that Wonder Girl prefers Bumblebee as a leader too. In Wonder Girl's mind, Bumblebee has all the qualities a leader needs. She has a drive, she has an objective, she has a plan, she has the heart and the strength to lead everyone, and Wonder Girl absolutely admires her for it, so she actively wants Bumblebee to be the one in charge as Wonder Girl in comparison either has no real direction on what to do with the team (thus potentially ending up with all of them walking all over her), or can get carried away with leadership and turn it into a dictatorship. Not to say she's bossyboots as I did make her a diplomat of the team for a reason, but after research on her and trying to make her character work within the universe as I was fleshing her out I imagine Wonder Girl to be: perfectionistic overachiever that is a bit insecure and lost deep down, but has big drive and conviction to be a hero in the men's world. I also imagined her as a sporty tomboy utilising mostly brute strength, though I can imagine her occasionally switching it up, as she drives strength from the entire Greek pantheon, so she has access to other abilities that could be more mystical in nature, but isn't yet adept in them as much (though you would never know, she makes it look effortless). I did consider her to be raised in the men's world for the most part, so unlike Diana or Starfire, she isn't lost and confused by any means (and since she's not confused, she knows what she's doing when managing the team to get along with each other - she just "knows" how boys operate), but I can still imagine her having a strict mother (from the comics from this show) that specifically passed down those perfectionistic tendencies onto her, but whether it's Hippolyta, or Wonder Girl stole Cassie Sandsmark backstory much like Dick Grayson stole Tim Drake's bo staff and martial training arc is up in the air.
Before I will talk about other established members of the team, I will quickly backtrack to talk about Kid Flash and Jinx. First, we go with Wally. I do imagine that he joined the team out of his kindness (because Speedy asked him), and not out of necessity. We know that Kid Flash in Teen Titans is allowed to be a one-man army with his superspeed, and I don't intend to take that away just to make his character work. Instead, I'm working around it: Kid Flash is both funny and reliable, and no one has any real issues with him whatsoever, at least not the issues that would be brought up casually. He's Speedy's best friend on the team, gets along swimmingly with Wonder Girl and Aqualad when it's just the three of them, believes in Bumblebee's leadership, and he did invite Jinx to the team. Because Kid Flash is so "good", he pretty much gets a pass to be a bit of an "easy come, easy go". Because of his superspeed, the rest of the team knows that when he's needed, he will be there for them in a flash, so him potentially running off to solve some other crisis doesn't really bother anyone (except Speedy, but it comes down more to Speedy's own issues, which I will elaborate later on), though it did throw everyone off guard when during one of his escapades he casually invited Jinx to the team, which started to shake statu quo a bit. Up until the events of LightSpeed, Kid Flash would be chilling in the background for better and for worse. He hangs out with everyone on a friendly basis, but he also stays the f#ck away from any drama, unless it is to take jabs at someone light-heartedly, making him passive, and effectively leaving the team all on their own. So even though Kid Flash is willing to support them, his own trust in them essentially translates into him actually not helping solve any animosity between Bumblebee, Speedy, or Aqualad in this banter triangle they have going on, and he does leave Wonder Girl to be the sole mediator. It's not until Jinx joins the team that he decides to step up a bit because he promised Jinx he can find her a team that will act better than Hive, so you know that now he suddenly starts to overly intrude in other Titans East business whenever they have issues trying to solve them, but this is that one thing where he's a bit late. Now, nothing truly bad comes out of this essentially, but I imagine that Titans East as a whole is a twisted mirror to Titans West in how their development works in an opposite direction, with the team deteriorating and eventually disbanding, with Wally not being able to commit properly to being a team player being a part of it, something he would take responsibility for years later after shit hit the fan (Jinx had a point that he's a bit slow at least in THIS area).
Speaking of Jinx, in the comics after she switched sides, she and Kid Flash did establish their own team (though it was not part of any of four directions) with Lightning and Thunder, with her being the leader after Cyborg vouched for her, but as great as it sounds on paper, I ultimately decided to go with something else that may be better for her. Don't get me wrong, Jinx absolutely has good leadership skills, all things considered, but she was stuck leading a team of immature lazybones that did not share her vision or ambitions (so while their initial team up did well when they were part of Hive academy, they all essentially peaked in High School and refused to move forward) and I can imagine it doing a toll on her psyche as she tried to lead them with this conflict of interests (I've been there too) and I think that after leaving them, Jinx should just take a break from leadership role for her own benefit. Like the girl who just changed sides and is reevaluating her life, she doesn't need the stress of looking out over others, and should approach the leadership role on her own terms.
I could imagine that when she initially joined Titans East upon Kid Flash's request, she was not exactly too happy because she met Bumblebee there (yes I included Jinx in Titans East for extra HIVE academy angst, I may have given her a break from being a leader, but not from her past) and now Jinx has to confront her rage on both not measuring up to the top student of the academy (and conflicted feelings over it by both admiring those who are capable and feeling inadequate when compared to them) while also confronting Bumblebee also being a spy like Cyborg was and confronting on whether or not Bumblebee cares or is loyal and trustworthy, because she's a traitor too, like Cyborg. Bumblebee, however, would turn this back on Jinx by reminding her what choices SHE'S making at the moment (With how she's also a traitor to Hive Five) and how,w despite that, it doesn't mean that Jinx didn't care. So I could imagine that those initially are "can't stand her fake ass" only for 10 minutes later to be "me and my bestie" because Bumblebee does something no one else (except Kid Flash) did for her - listen to what she has to say and offer. Bumblebee is the team leader, but she did make an effort to listen to Jinx's advice and include her in forming battle strategies and reports on rogues and contingency plans for them, making Jinx go from reformed outsider to another right-hand-woman of the team (or I guess left-hand instead with the team being ambidextrous), so as you may have noticed, Titans East are led by women. I should note that Jinx is becoming best friends with Bumblebee (and with Wonder Girl, as all girls are this close 🤞), which was what Kid Flash had in mind as a way to help her.
Now I should talk about Bumblebee, our queen, though this will be more of a backstory drop. Rather than in the original comics, where Bumblebee had a superpowered suit, our Bumblebee was born a metahuman, and ever since she manifested and mastered her powers, she opted to become a great superheroine. However not only her powers seem a bit unappealing (flight and shrinking), but she's also a black woman meaning that she may have been already met with rejection because no one believed she could be a good superhero, as you just know that black women must be perfect and flawless 24/7 or no one will give a damn about them in this fucking society. So, Bumblebee, to remedy how no one would respect and acknowledge what she can do, decided to form her own resume first by taking down Brother Blood. Her plan was to take him down all on her own, no boss telling her what to do, she was infiltrating the academy and actively learning how to fight from there on her own accord, as after all, there is no man alive that can tell her what to do (because if she allowed herself to listen to what other people say she should do or be, she would just never be anything). Now, Titans West kind of stole her thunder, which is why I can't really stand with Bumblebee x Cyborg ship nowadays, because not only did Cyborg do in a shorter time what she intended to do, but also constantly kept undermining her the first time they met - their relationship improved, but I can see their first impressions being a dealbreaker, but anywho, Cyborg and Titans West stole her thunder by taking down the Hive Academy so she opted to take down just Blood instead, but ultimately didn't object when she caught Aqualad and they established alliance, thus helping other Titans help her take down Blood, and then morphing this goal to creating a new team as a whole to achieve her goal, as clearly it was effective wya of doing it as that's how Cyborg succeeded too.
Bumblebee is the founder of the team, along with Aqualad, and she took it upon herself to be a leader, but of course it is hard because she has to deal with Aqualad "I see a problem I report immediately so fix it now Bumblebee", Kid Flash "you can handle this problem you don't need my help Bumblebee", Speedy "I need this leader position more than you why are you stealing my thunder' (Bumblebee disagrees on so many fronts here) and Wonder Girl "I shall be a string master to enable your leadership", so you just know this girl is going through it. Aqualad and Kid Flash are no help, and she constantly clashes with Speedy because they both want the same thing for the same reasons, but whereas Speedy doesn't actively take charge, Bumblebee remains the leader because she does bother to do the job. Wonder Girl is a problem of its own because as much as Wonder Girl may admire Bumblebee, Bumblebee herself feels a bit inadequate when comparing herself to Wonder Girl (something both Jinx and Starfire can relate too, and something that helps Bumblebee bond over with Jinx specifically) because Wonder Girl manages to get aong with everyone off the bat and make them all listen to her, and effectively pulling Speedy back from bothering Bumblebee too much, but this makes Bumblebee feel like she effectively can't do it on her own, so I can imagine Bumblebee questioning if she shouldn't pass this position to Wonder Girl, only to see and understand Wonder Girl's struggle and thus coming into the acceptance of the role of Bumblebee being designated driver and Wonder Girl being the shotgun princess.
I shall briefly elaborate that when she's not the leader of Titans East, she actively takes breaks (about once a month) to hang out with her boyfriend, Herald. Now I imagine their romance to be this Will Smith meme of him admiring his wife basically, with Herald admiring Bumblebee to the ends of the earth and Bumblebee loving every second of it. Bumblebee has been undermined her entire life, but Herald, off the bat, noticed how great she is. The backbone of their relationship is built on him seeing her and believing in her. I imagine they met before Mal became a superhero, like during his garage concert when he was performing with his old band, that he noticed and flirted with her, they struck up a conversation, and sparks flew, but it was initially this one time situation for them, as after this, Herald got kidnapped to Limbo, and Bumblebee prepped herself to enter HIVE, so they didn't think they'd see each other again, until Herald joined the Titans, and it was back on and advanced super quickly. Like they have all the support and chemistry you could ask for. Funny thing was that the first few times Bumblebee left to go on a date with him, the tower and the team were always in shambles when she came back (Herald jokingly played "when mom is not home" one time when he gave her a lift back to the Steel City and heard yelling from the tower).
Additional fun fact: I imagine that during one of the biggest missions of Titans East, where everything is on the line (As no Titans West don't get to deal with all world-ending threats), I could see that Bumblebee, unfortunately, sacrifices and loses her powers, thus limiting her capabilities to be a superhero, so as not handicap herself, bumblebee made a decision to temporarily leave the team so she could find a way to bring back her powers, either reversing the effect that caused her to lose them or find roundabout way of getting them back. I imagine she'd leave to study under Atom and would eventually make her actual Bumblebee suit as her powers were gone-gone, but she did find a way to get back her wings and shrinking, and gain even new tools to work with. For the time being of her departure, she passed down the leadership position to Jinx (so she gets to be a leader after all, just not right away), as Wonder Girl is the eternal shotgun princess, and Speedy just doesn't have his head in the game to be in charge (about him later). By the time, however, she is ready to come back, the Titans East straight-up disbanded (so that's one way of Bumblebee getting to know how much the team needs her, because without her, Titans East may just as well not exist lol), so she instead opted for helping Justice League, before she and Herald temporarily retired to have a family (retired as in maternal leave for her kids to grow up before putting on the suit again).
Now let's talk about Aqualad - he's another founder of the team who kind of lived to regret it. As we know, he and Bumblebee establish an alliance and friendship, and then they came up with an idea of Titans East, so Aqualad invited other heroes he met from the tournament of heroes (Hot Spot and Wildebeest declined), with Speedy accepting it and inviting Wonder Girl and Kid Flash along. Sounded nice at first, especially since Aqualad used to be childhood sweethearts with Wonder Girl back there (nothing serious, just puppy love neither of them intends to return to - just another layer to Aqualad and Speedy butting heads since Aqualad can't believe his ex settled for him), and Aqualad heard how great Speedy and Kid Flash are, only for all the 3 newcomers to essentially not vibe well with him. Like, Wonder Girl is dating Speedy, Speedy is instigating by being arrogant and treating Aqualad as if he's preachy, when Aqualad is trying his best, and Kid Flash either hangs out with Speedy more, or just doesn't bother solving any conflict, so he wouldn't be hard carrying the entire team when they're supposed to be a team. Aqualad, however, feels like an outsider and would rather just go back to the sea. He does stick around for longer, but whenever the team is breaking apart, you just know he's already prepping himself to leave. Even if he came to like and care for all his friends there, it's just that they're all very exhausting to be with for different reasons.
Ok, now, after a quick intermission of Aqualad now I shall talk about the main instigator and the problem child of Titans East: Speedy. It should be noted that all Titans East contributed in one way or another to the team falling apart, but Speedy pretty much started the whole domino chain and was a ticking time bomb ever since the beginning. When Aqualad contacted him about forming Titans East, Speedy was going through it with Green Arrow, much like Robin was going through it with Batman, so he accepted the offer to join the team in hopes that much like Robin, he will also get to be the great leader that is capable and independent and Green Arrow should've appreciated him and all that jazz. He even invited his crush, Wonder Girl, and he proceeded to ask her out before joining the team (thus, by the time the team is established, he and Wonder Girl are dating and kind of work as opposite Robstar), and of course, he asked his good friend Kid Flash to join as well to boost the numbers and team's efficiency. Since he pretty much formed most of the team in his mind, he should be in charge, right? Except he isn't, because as Bumblebee pointed out, he's not actually paying attention to the team, but himself.
This is ultimately the consequence of Green Arrow being his mentor. Speedy spent pretty much his entire life trying to get noticed by him. He trained and worked hard, always doing his best and doing everything swiftly and perfectly, but no matter how hard he tried, it was never enough, because Green Arrow just didn't care (or rather couldn't show that he cares with his nonchalant attitude), so resentment started to boil as he was always underestimated. Then he joins Titans East, and he ends up in the same position where, in his mind, he's not given a chance to prove himself, and anytime he tries his best, it's met with disappointment from his teammates (as to them he comes off as cocky and arrogant, because he does everything "so effortlessly"). Not only that, but since he's not a leader, he still feels like all he can be is a little helper who cannot make it on his own, which sucks. However, since he doesn't want to show weakness and any time he complains, he is met with rejection, he never actually talks about the root of his problems, so he ends up feeling misunderstood. Kid Flash is his friend, but he's too casual, Wonder Girl is his girlfriend, but she both prefers Bumblebee to be a leader and actively tries to micromanage the conflicts he causes rather than solve them and still put the entire blame on him alone as if he's completely unreasonable (Wonder Girl in her mind is trying to fix him, which you know is a toxic mindset of its own, even if it's from best intentions in mind), and then of course you have Bumblebee who hogs all the leadership positions and Aqualad who gets upset over the most insiginificant in Speedy's mind (like Speedy's a hunter, he knows how to manage nature and eating fish is not violation of it, and other fish also eat fish, so what he's crying about Speedy thinks). It also doesn't help that out of all the members, he's effectively the only one with no real superpowers, making him feel like he needs to prove himself even more, so Speedy's going through it.
The breaking point is really when Jinx is crowned new leader. While Speedy has no issues with Jinx whatsoever (much like he doesn't really have any real issues with Bumblebee), the fact that a newcomer who was a reformed villain still got to be a leader before him starts to feel like a personal insult. Speedy may not be sexist, but he can tell that the girls absolutely would mess with him enough to establish any girl member of the team as a de facto leader sooner than him (and they would jokingly, without realising how much it actually upsets Speedy or why he's upset in the first place), like even Terra who may have came to just clean their fridge could be established as a leader out of petty spite and Speedy is losing it. He doesn't want to be seen as the bad guy, the guy who always has an issue, the guy who always thinks of himself and whatnot, so he tries to bottle it further, but he can't shake this feeling of,f so then he starts being an addict, because at this point nothing else can help and people don't bother to think of him highly or that he could have legitimate issues so why would anyone care? This, of course, ends up disastrously as the team finds out and they try to do an intervention, but it goes poorly. Kid Flash is furious because he feels betrayed. Aqualad has another reason to rub it in on how he doesn't think of Speedy highly. Jinx tries her best to assertively solve the conflict, Bumblebee is not present during this shitstorm, and Wonder Girl cranked her "I can fix him" up to 11. Things go nuclear. Speedy breaks up with Wonder Girl and leaves the team, Kid Flash is so furious he also quits because he simply doesn't want to make amends with Speedy anymore, Aqualad takes his chance at running away, Jinx tries to talk Kid Flash out of this but fails, and Wonder Girl ends up feeling like she's the reason everything fell apart and girl is in shambles (all the other female titans pull up to comfort her once Wonder Girl runs away to Themyscira after it all happaned). So the team is non-existent, Speedy's addiction got worse until Cheshire showed up and babytrapped him to make him snap out of it, and credit where the credits are due, Cheshire at least saved the friendships between Titans East as becoming a father helped Roy fix his act and make amends with Donna and Wally, but it was still GG for Titans East.
So anyway, that's all, that's a very tragic end to Titans East as I reassembled them, what do you think of it all?
Had to get my desktop again. Hard agree on Mas y Menos. they're great for the visual gag and the fact that somehow American censors just straight up let them curse, like all the time, despite, you know, the US being the second largest Spanish speaking country on the planet, and neighboring the first.
I of course do sort of see the whole Wally is too powerful thing, but also like, the main team has Raven, and sometimes Terra, so you cant really get away with that argument.
That said, I do have an alternative to Wally, which does address the speedster power problem and somehow adds more angst and does still heavily intertwine Wally into the dynamics of the groups while keeping his mobility for Keystone City.
Jesse Chambers (Jesse Quick)
So another member of the Core "Flash Family", but also the least seen. Jesse is the daughter of Justice Society members, Johnny Quick, and Liberty Bell. She is a grumpy workaholic that Wally has spent many decades trying to get to socialize. She is a Speedster like most of the Flash Family, but she and her father both have to actively recite the speedforce formula to activate it (It was later confirmed that Jesse doesnt actually need to, but the misconception that she did has left her with a significant mental block that limits her powers). With that, Jesse usually falls back on the powers she inherited from her mother, Super Strength and Flight, at one point going several years in comics not speeding up.
Her main story in the comics is that she of course grew up surrounded by heroes, and would spend hours each day training with her father, who was trying to unlock her powers early. or in his own unfortunate words "Make her Special". (Fathers in DC, am i right?) Meanwhile her mother would get annoyed and upset and eventually divorced her dad because he kept training her. Shes closer with her father and her mother dies when shes young, leaving her with now two mantles to inherit.
Anyway, she figures out the formula of the speedforce and starts fighting crime. Around this point, Wally wants to hand Kid Flash off to Bart, but he doesn't think he's going to take it seriously. So instead, he offers it to Jesse, specifically to make Bart get his shit together. Jesse, understandably, did not like being used. And it took several years for them to be sort of ok again, during which her parents are killed. (it should be noted that in listings of her 'friends', Barry and Bart are listed, Wally is not. Argent is though, so we can not that for a friend in another team). Also to give perspective on her asocial behavior, I looked through probably too many forums discussing who each of the Flash family is closest to and literally no one had any suggestions at all for Jesse. The closest they got was Hourman, her husband in some continuities, and even then its very limited (and also Hourman straight up used drugs to get powers, sorry, 'Special Vitamins' for an hour at a time, and I dont think thats a message DC wants)
Jesse doesnt go to most of the Flash reunions because she is stressed and always working, an excuse she also uses to get out of civilian socializing. She runs the family business, Quickstart Enterprises, after her father sacrifices himself to save her (This was originally portrayed as a small but successful media company, but under Jesse it branched out to "manufacturing" and "Selling Products". Jesse isnt eloquent). At least one of the products in the comics is a smartphone, so it is pretty safe to assume its a tech giant now. This could result in her acting almost like a hub of technology for the East Titans. (can also give Cyborg a break from having to make T-coms all the time.
I can see the issues with the Roy-Jinx-Wally dynamic absolutely triggering her, I can see Roy pacing around her lab while shes working and complaining about Jinx being made a leader. This could result in a great hyperspeed battle, because Wally is faster, but shes got superstrength.
That said, Roy is absolutely not getting the backing he wants either because she know what legacy and responsibility needs to be handled, and his inferiority complex doesn't fly. And she's another 'doesnt care about the squabbling'.
I think this would be a case of GG team.....for now, I do think they can work and get back, but it requires a lot of growing up from everyone.
I do like the image of everyone splitting off and leaving the tam and Jesse barely noticing because no one stopped by the lab. She can probably keep the tower fixed up while everyone figures there shit out and she for sure doesnt need therapy, of course not, shes fine building gadgets and not speaking for weeks on end.
I think the break up is a good lead into Roy's addiction storyline, and it gives him a bunch of babysitters.
Also hard agree on Cyborg with Bee. I know it was for the cartoon because they wanted every member to be super likable, but Comics Cyborg was a dick as a teen. He's much more mature in the league, but i do kinda wish they let him be more of a teen in the show. I think Herald would be good for Bee, god knows she needs someone that can give her a break from the minefield that is this branch of the titans.
I think Bee would be a great trainer while shes getting used to her new suit. She already has experience leading a student based team that teaches strategy and control. Jinx similarly I think would work great here, advocating for villain reform and being a bit more realistic with the expectations for the incoming heroes. I could see them retrofitting the tower to help with training too.
Aqualad i can see being a back up call in the future. That way he's available when needed but also has the freedom to protect Atlantis and do environmentalist work.
Ive just had a hilarious vision of Wondergirl trying to physically drag Jesse out to a cookout and not being used to someone else having superstrength. Actually anyone in the team forgetting one of Jesse's powers, because she does not give the usual speedster energy.
