Teen Titans: Earth One

Teen Titans: Earth One
Cover for Teen Titans: Earth One Art by Terry Dodson
Publication information
Publisher	Earth One (DC Comics)
Genre	Science fiction Superhero
Publication date	(Volume One) November 19, 2014 (Volume Two) August 10, 2016
Main character(s)	Teen Titans Deathstroke Niles Caulder
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jeff Lemire
Penciller(s)	Terry Dodson
Inker(s)	Rachel Dodson Cam Smith

Teen Titans: Earth One is a series of graphic novels written by Jeff Lemire, penciled by Terry Dodson and inked by Rachel Dodson and Cam Smith. The novel is a modernized re-imagining of DC Comics' long-running Teen Titans comic book series as part of the company's Earth One imprint. Earth One's Teen Titans exists alongside other revamped DC characters in Earth One titles, including Superman: Earth One and Batman: Earth One, as well as other graphic novels.^[1]

Volume One was released on November 19, 2014,^[2] while Volume Two was released on August 10, 2016.^[3]

Publication history[]

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Plot summary[]

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Volume One[]

Sixteen years before the start of the series, a spaceship crashes on Earth. A group of humans investigates the accident and finds an alien couple with an infant. With the father already dead and the mother on the verge of dying, the group takes the baby away.

In New Mexico, a young girl named Raven wakes up from the visions of the spaceship crash. Even though Raven is skeptical about the nature of her visions, her grandfather believes in them, telling her that it is time for her to go out to the world. In Monument, Oregon, four children are about to make their way to their first day of high school. Tara Markov, a troubled child with an alcoholic mother, Garfield "Gar" Logan, a boy who is worried about skipping two grades, Victor "Vic" Stone, a boy whose mother, Elinore Stone, has high expectations for him, and Joseph "Joey" Wilson, an extremely gifted boy who finds high school boring.

Throughout the rest of the day, the children discover that they have newfound abilities. Vic discovers a liquid metal trying to cover his body, Tara discovers she has geokinesis, and Gar's skin turns green and becomes catlike in appearance after coming in contact with his pet cat. The moment their new capabilities fully flourished, they all say the same thing: "Am Starfire. Need help". The four children all go to the beach and learn about each other's predicament. Back in New Mexico, Raven's grandfather takes her to a secret location. Along the way, Raven begins to tell her grandfather about her dreams of the four children. She also tells him that she has been dreaming of a female being. They arrive at a cave where Raven's grandfather has been recording his own visions, which tell him that Raven will be the one who saves all of the teens.

The children's parents come together. Elinore tells them that she has contacted their employer and tells the parents to contain the situation. Tara's mom, Rita, telling Elinore that she wasn't expecting to put her life on the line for what they are doing. Steven, Gar's father, threatens to call the police, prompting Elinore to kill him. Slade, Joey's father, attempts to back out, but Elinore threatens him by planning on telling Joey of Slade's past. Elinore leaves telling the parents that "she" has been triggering the children's abilities and plans on stopping it.

At the beach, the children have revealed that they've been seeing visions and have been searching for familiar spots. They come to accept that their parents are involved somehow. Joey tells the rest that he hasn't received any powers and to trust Elinore, unintentionally starting an argument with Vic. Slade appears in uniform as Deathstroke engaging the children in a fight. During the struggle, Slade tells them they aren't related to their parents at all. Somewhere else, the other parents are revealed to be part of STAR Labs and is seen keeping captive of the alien baby, now all grown up. The parents desperately try to keep her heavily sedated. The alien contacts Raven prompting her to transport her astral self to the fight, striking Deathstroke in the right eye and ends the battle before returning home. Elinore's higher-ups threaten to terminate the alien if she couldn't control her in an hour. Even though she tells them that "Starfire" is too important to terminate, she is told that "Blackfire" project is still ongoing.

The children locate the STAR Labs facility underneath a nearby lighthouse. The children begin to hear Starfire's voice. They find a room with the name "Titans Project" on its door. They all find incubators specifically made for them and a sea creature-like boy surrounded by turtles in a tank. The team encounter Elinore surrounded by men similarly dressed like Deathstroke. Elinore tries to reason with the children with the men subduing anyone who tries to use their abilities. She tells them that their abilities came from elements from Starfire and the ship that brought her to Earth. After Gar sees his dad's body's condition, he lashes out at Elinore and fighting ensues with Joey, calling himself Jericho, siding with Elinore and uses his body jumping capabilities. Deathstroke attempts to intervene and the struggle ends with Jericho's throat accidentally slit by his father. As a means of saving his life, Jericho jumps into his father's body.

The children find Starfire and rescue her from her cell. Out of rage, Starfire attacks Elinore and kills her. Starfire leaves, telling them that they're not who she's looking for. Distraught, Vic, Gar, and Tara worry about their futures. Rita suggests they head to Utah, where another facility and the head of the entire project, a man named Caulder is located. Rita also suggest that they should bring the sea-creature boy, named Tempest. The children leave STAR Labs and disappear. Four days after the incident, Raven appears worried about not having dreams of the group. She enters a cave and finds Starfire asking for her help.

Volume Two[]

Tara, Vic, Gar and Tempest are hiding out in an abandoned house in Seattle. Tara is almost caught stealing food and medicine for the group, but uses her earth-moving powers to elude the police. The four of them have no better place to go than to hide where they are. Vic's metallic condition worsens - he complains to Tara that he can't feel anything anymore, and that he feels like he should just give in to the feeling of nothingness. Slade Wilson, still possessed by Jericho, breaks into a high tech complex, disables a number of guards and confronts Niles Caulder, the head of the project that empowered the children. Caulder dismisses his security forces to talk to both Jericho and Slade. Jericho tells Caulder that he lost the four children, but only because he followed Starfire instead. He offers to lead Caulder right to her.

Starfire has taken refuge with Raven at her New Mexico home. Starfire links minds with Raven and shows her Tamaran and how she came to Earth. Her parents barely survived an attack on their world - they took their baby daughter, got into a space ship and ran for it. She came to Raven because Raven is able to hide Starfire from those aliens who are searching for her with her powers. Caulder instructs his chief scientist Joshua Clay to send a Doom Patrol unit with Jericho to New Mexico to retrieve Starfire and to send The Titans to Seattle to retrieve Tara, Vic, Gar and Tempest. The four of them wake up to the sound of a helicopter approaching their hideout. Three teens drop out: code named Wonder Girl (a young black female with superhuman strength), Kole (who creates crystal) and Impulse (a super speedster). They fight, and the well trained Titans easily vanquish their targets and put them on their helicopter to bring back to Caulder.

In New Mexico, Raven senses the trouble in Seattle, but before she and Starfire can consider going there to help, they see a squadron of armored soldiers approaching. One of them hurts Raven's grandfather when he kicks in the door - Starfire blasts him halfway back to where he came from and has a good time attacking the rest of the squadron with her energy blasts. Raven faces Slade Wilson - Jericho tries to possess her, but Raven traps him within her mind and holds him helpless, with her still in control. Raven reveals to Slade that Starfire's real name is Koriand'r - after she stops Kory from killing Slade. He tells them of Caulder's insane plan to change the world, starting by taking over the US government. He used Starfire's DNA to create both the four children who led normal lives and the Titans, who were never given normal lives. They were brainwashed from birth to believe Caulder's lies and to believe he's their father. Slade tells them that all of them involved in the project were under Caulder's thumb - he had blackmail on all of them and kept them from leaving the project for fear he would ruin them.

The captured four are brought in as planned. Slade pretends to be Joseph and reports in - he says he and the Doom Patrol unit captured Starfire, killed Raven and are sterilizing the area before bringing Starfire in. Caulder greets them all wearing an exo-skeleton he calls the Robotman in order to walk. He sends the Titans off for debriefing and tells the four captured teens that they will become his Titans as well. He has them locked up to start the process and goes to greet the arrival of Slade and Starfire. Once in Caulder's presence, they drop the ruse and attack the security men, leaving Caulder vulnerable to attack. Raven prevents Starfire from killing him and takes her to the captive children. A brief fight breaks out, but Raven is able to show Impulse the truth. Kole chooses to unlock the power damping collars on Gar, Tara and Tempest of her own free will. Raven mentally stops Wonder Girl from fighting and they all turn against Caulder. Impulse races through the complex and then brings the others to see the horror he found: their dead cloned forebears.

They confront Caulder and demand answers. Caulder responds by releasing Subject 8 - Starfire's clone Blackfire. Blackfire is an uglier version of Kory, and hates her instantly. As they fight, Tara finds and frees Vic, who had fallen into a metallic coma. As the battle with Blackfire rages, Jericho emerges from Raven and takes over Blackfire's body. He relishes the power in her and continues the attack until Vic and Tara enter the fray. Vic is now free of the metal, but ensconced in a huge, power robot body that does his bidding while letting him remain flesh and blood. They fight Jericho off as a group- he chooses to flee rather than face defeat, and Raven teleports the others away before the police arrive. Slade finds a despondent Dr. Clay sitting beside an empty chair. Jericho/Blackfire took Caulder and fled for parts unknown.

The group flees to New Mexico, where they make a home for themselves. Raven shows them her dream cave, where she drew images of each of them as she dreamed about them. Gar and Kole seem to have formed a relationship - they stay behind in the cave while the others go about their own business. Vic reveals that he and the robot body he calls Rover can't be apart or he falls back into the metallic coma. Tara tells him that she won't leave him by himself - if he's bound to Rover, so is she. Cassie- Wonder Girl and Tempest have developed a friendship as well- they're inseparable. Impulse- Wally loves having the freedom to run that New Mexico affords.

Raven and Starfire look online using Raven's laptop and discover that Caulder is still missing, but his entire Star Labs operation has been shut down. Dr. Clay is shown being taken away by the authorities, and the article says that the "miracle teens" are missing. Raven confesses to Starfire that during the fight, she may have dropped the mental shield around Starfire and that those searching for her might find her. Starfire says that if they come, they'll fight the aliens together. Raven's grandpa has a bonfire for all of them. The group is happy to be together but nervous about their future. Raven tells them that for the past two years, she's awakened screaming from nightmares, but since they arrived in New Mexico, all her dreams have been good. Her final words are: "And all of you were in them".

Reception[]

IGN's Jesse Schedeen gave Teen Titans: Earth One a positive review, stating that "the book offers a clever, cohesive overhaul of the franchise and is the first Titans comic in a while to try new and interesting things". He also compared Teen Titans: Earth One to the graphic novels of Superman and Batman that came before, as they all offer a streamlined, contemporary take on the characters in a new world free from any previous continuity, while also commenting on how Teen Titans doesn't even seem to be connected to the other Earth One graphic novels.^[4] Teen Titans: Earth One has made into #5 on The New York Times' Hardcover Graphic Books Best Seller List.^[5]

See also[]

• List of Teen Titans comics

References[]

External links[]

• Teen Titans: Earth One on DC Database, a DC Comics wiki