Just as the Teen Titans are a group of young protégés trained under heroic
mentors, the Terror Titans are the inheritors of several villainous mantles.
Their leader is the new Clock King, who possesses surprising abilities.
With his high tech stop-watches, he can alter time/space itself, allowing him
the ability to see the future, and to teleport. The Clock King considers all
his cohorts expendable. Even his sexual relationship with Disruptor was merely
a control tactic.
The Terror Titans's strategy was to divide and conquer. Dreadbolt (son
of Deathbolt) was the first to attack Kid Devil at Titans Tower. Clock King
invited Kid Devil to join him, and introduced him to their remaining number:
Disruptor II, Persuader II and Copperhead II. Danny
refused their offer and was given over to Darkseid, to fight in his new Dark
Side Club. (#56)
Ravager managed to stop them from taking Wendy and Marvin and she trailed
them back to their base. (#57) Miss Martian was also
captured (#58) and placed with Kid Devil in the Dark
Side Club. By this time, the remaining Titans were on the case, and hot on
the Terrors' tails. (#59) Though they managed to free
their teammates, Clock King absconded with his team, and planted the seeds
of doubt within Ravager, who later decided joined them. (#60)
»
FIRST APPEARANCE: Teen
Titans v.3 #56 (April 2008)
»
FEATURED APPEARANCES: Teen
Titans v.3 #56-60
»
SERIES: Terror
Titans, 6-issue limited series (2008)
The Vanishing Point.
From Booster Gold #7 (2008). Art by Dan Jurgens
The Time Masters were a group of scientists led by Rip Hunter. Their specialties
all revolved around the study and travel through space/time.
I've chosen not to write about them, as there is a great site devoted to their
adventures. Please read Adam Arnold's Vanishing
Point, which focuses on Rip Hunter and the Linear Men.
»
FIRST APPEARANCE: Time
Masters #1 (February 1990)
»
SERIES: Rip Hunter ... Time Master, 29 issues (1961-65) Time
Masters, 8-issue limited series (1990) Booster Gold v.2, current (2007-)
After his defeat at the hands of Rip
Hunter and Booster Gold (52
#52), the
Venusian worm dubbed Mister Mind plotted revenge on the "Time Masters" and assembled
a rival band of Time
Stealers. Mind began
by possessing the 24th century body of Booster Gold's father, Jon
Carter,
and stealing the Supernova suit from his 21st century ancestor, Daniel Carter.
(Mind knew that the suit would only operate while worn by a member of the Carter
family.) He then plucked several key villains from across time: from the early
days of the Justice League, he recruited Despero; from the days of the
Justice Society, Per Degaton.
The Time Stealers (from top left): Ultra-Humanite, Per Degaton, Despero,
Black Beetle, Maximillion and Supernova IV (Mr. Mind). From Booster Gold v.2 #7
(2008); art by Dan Jurgens.
To ensure the existence of their next recruit, Degaton and Despero traveled
back to 1948 and allied with the Ultra-Humanite (then in the body of Dolores
Winters).
(Justice League of America v.2 #8) The pair provided
Ultra with a new host—a
powerful white gorilla called a "Nzame," born in Gorilla City. Once
matured, they kidnapped the gorilla and transferred Ultra's brain
into its body. (#9) Ultra
then joined the Time Stealers' grand plot to erase Booster Gold and Rip Hunter
from the timeline.
Mr. Mind began a two-pronged attack by both altering significant time points
and attacking directly. The Time Stealers' goal was not to kill
Booster Gold, but to thwart his successes. (Carter's existence was still necessary
to the Stealers' desired timeline.) While Booster attempted to protect the
origins of Hal Jordan, Barry Allen and Superman, Rip's Time Bubble was attacked
by Mr. Mind/Supernova. (Booster
Gold v.2 #2) Another
Time Stealer also joined the attack—Jason Goldstein, a former Time Master
cast out by Rip. Goldstein now called himself Rex
Hunter. The Time Stealers' roster was rounded out by Maximillion (an
evil counterpart to Booster's robot Skeets) and the Black
Beetle.
(#4)
The Black Beetle claimed to have hailed from the from the 27th century and
first posed as a friend to Rip and Booster. This Beetle (called "Joshua" by
Mr. Mind) gathered his own predecessors, Dan Garrret and Jaime Reyes (Blue
Beetles I and III)
and convinced them that they must save Ted
Kord (Blue Beetle II) from his death at the
hands of Maxwell Lord. With Booster
Gold's help—and against Rip's protests — they did indeed snatch
Kord from a moment just before his demise. But when the Time Masters returned "home,"
they found their machinations had changed things for the worse. In the corrected
timeline, Maxwell Lord and his OMAC hordes ruled the planet and super-heroes
were forced underground. (#5,
0)
Along the way, Rex Hunter was captured by Rip. To keep his secrets safe, Mr.
Mind ordered Goldstein be murdered in his crib. Upon completion of this hit,
Jason vanished from the timestream. (#5)
The Time Stealers watched everything unfold from the Vanishing Point, the
headquarters of time's former keepers, the Linear
Men. (#7) Max Lord's dominion aided the Time
Stealers' cause, but the villains underestimated the depths of the heroes'
selflessness. When Ted Kord realized how much worse the world was for his survival,
he sacrificed himself to realign the time stream. (#9-10)
During their final conflict, the Time Stealers attempted to capitalize
on Lord's iron-fisted control, but Booster managed to expose Mister Mind inside
his father's body. Mind was driven out of his
body and squashed—but not before reproducing.
As Kord's sacrifice took
effect, the Black Beetle confessed that he was destined to become Jaime
Reyes' worst enemy, but could only exist as long as Kord remained alive in
an altered time. (#10) With Kord dead again, the
Black Beetle disappeared, too.
When the time stream returned to normal, the
members of the Time Stealers all presumably returned to their proper places
in time.
NOTES: The first
Supernova was Superman. He briefly adopted this identity around the time the
JLA was founded, as told in Superman/Batman Annual #2 . Booster Gold
himself was Supernova II and Daniel Carter was
the third.
Booster's father's name was revealed for the first time
in Booster Gold v.2 #10.
The young white "Nzame" gorilla was also featured in Flash v.2
#?? (2008)
»
FIRST APPEARANCE: Justice
League of America v.2 #8 (June 2007)
current: Power of Shazam! #13;
historical: Capt. Marvel Adventures #22
Active
Black Beetle (Joshua, last name unrevealed)
Booster Gold v.2 #4 (shadowed)
Erased from the timeline, Booster Gold v.2
#10
Despero
Justice League of America v.1 #1
Active
Maximillion
Booster Gold v.2 #4
Active
Per Degaton
All-Star Comics #35 (1947)
Active
Rex Hunter (Jason
Goldstein)
Booster Gold v.2 #4
Killed in infancy, erased from the
timestream, Booster Gold v.2 #5
Supernova IV (Jon
Carter)
Booster Gold v.2 #1 (shadowed)
Active, 25th century
The Ultra-Humanite (unrevealed,
Nzame)
original: Action Comics #13
(1939);
as ape: Justice League of America #195
Last incarnation destroyed JSA #37
Titans East
The Titans East were a rival group of vengeful young heroes originally assembled
by Deathstroke. (Teen Titans v.3 #42)
After their defeat, the veteran Titan, Cyborg, assembled another group of
relatively untrained heroes, including: Anima, Power Boy, Hawk & Dove,
Lagoon Boy, Little Barda, and Son of Vulcan. But during their first training
exercise, the entire team was brutally attacked and left for dead
by an outside menace. Power Boy was killed (although the hole through his chest
suggested that he was killed by the New God killer that day). (Titans
East Special)
Victor's former teammates in the New Teen Titans reunited when they heard
what had happened. Under Nightwing, they learned that the Titans East had
been the first to fall against the Sons of Trigon, Raven's brothers.
Amazingly, Power Boy was the only one truly killed (although he and Little
Barda soon perished along with the rest of the New Gods).
Hawk and Dove were stable; Son of Vulcan, Lagoon Boy and Anima comatose. (Titans
v.2 #1)
The team was effectively defunct after this. Cyborg joined with Nightwing
and the others to reform as the Titans.
»
FIRST APPEARANCE: Teen
Titans v.3 #41 (mentioned in #38)
»
FEATURED APPEARANCES:
Teen
Titans v.3 #38, 41, 43-46 • Titans v.2 #1 • Titans
East Special #1
Legends of the Dark Knight #120 (as Cassandra, Batman #567)
Active in adventuring
3.
Enigma (Riddler's
Daughter)
Teen Titans v.3 #42
Active in adventuring
3.
Inertia (Thaddeus Thawne)
Impulse #50
Active in adventuring
3.
Kid Crusader (unrevealed)
Teen Titans v.3 #41
Active in adventuring
3.
Match (none)
Superboy #35
Active in adventuring
3.
Sun Girl (Deborah
Morgna)
Teen Titans v.3 #42
Active in adventuring
FORMED UNDER CYBORG
9.
Anima (Courtney
Mason)
Titans
East Special #1
New Titans
Annual #9
Deceased Faces of Evil: Prometheus #1
9.
Cyborg (Victor
Stone, Cyberion)
DC Comics Presents
#26
Active
9.
Dove II (Dawn
Granger)
Hawk
and Dove v.2 #1
Active
9.
Hawk III (Holly
Granger)
Teen
Titans v.3 #22
Killed Blackest Night: Titans #1
9.
Lagoon Boy (none)
Aquaman
#50
Active
9.
Little
Barda
52
#21
Killed
by the New God killer
9.
Power
Boy
52
#21
Killed
in Titans East Special #1
9.
Son of
Vulcan (Miguel Devante)
Son
of Vulcan v.2 #1
Active
Titans of Myth
Post-Crisis
Gaea the Earth mated with Uranus the Heavens and gave birth to
the Titans: Iapetus and Themis, Titans of Justice; Crius and Mnemosyne,
Titans of Memory; Coeus and Phoebe, Titans of the Moon; Hyperion and
Thia, Titans of the Sun; Oceanus and Tethys, Titans of the Sea, and
Cronus and Rhea, Titans of the Earth. The Titans were beautiful godlike
beings, but the rest of Gaea's brood were horrible monsters that Uranus banished
to the pit of Tartarus. Hoping to free all of her children, Gaea gave Cronus,
the youngest and bravest Titan, a potent weapon to use against his father. Cronus
slew Uranus, but he did not release Gaea's brood. Instead, he and his fellow
Titans created a "paradise" of subservience on the planet Earth.
However, Cronus feared an oracle which foretold that his own children
would rise up against him, so he swallowed each of them as they were born, except
his son Zeus, whom Rhea had saved. When Zeus reached manhood, he freed
both his own siblings and Gaea's brood. Together, these Olympian
Gods and their monstrous allies defeated the Titans. Cronus was mistakenly
believed destroyed, and the rest were banished from Earth into the farthest
reaches of space.
Zeus' curse bound the Titans to their new home; they lacked the power to even
attempt to return to Earth. Instead, they transformed a nearby moon into New
Chronus and began to guide the primitive race on the planet below (Synriannaq).
Being the only Titan without her mate, Rhea mated many times with these primitives.
The resulting demigods made war on the planet. After 3000 years passed, they
abandoned all hope of guiding that world. However, these gods were still driven
to bequeath their power unto sentients. To this end, Rhea sacrificed herself
and sent her own energy out in to the universe. Her power would fall upon several
worlds and "seed" a child from each. Each of these children was plucked
from certain death and returned to New Chronus. The Titans raised them and rebuilt
New Chronus. At age 13, the children were returned to their home planets with
no memory of their time with the Titans. Upon adulthood, they would be called
to return, more powerful, and as gods, to New Chronus. One of these seeds, named
Sparta, shook Mnemosyne's amnesia and went mad. Sparta conquered Synriannaq
and brought war on New Chronus. She could not defeat her makers, and so set
about a quest to claim the power of all the other seeds. Phoebe lost two-thirds
of her power when she escaped and made her way to Earth in search of one seed:
Donna Troy. At first, she found Princess Diana instead, but soon related
the story to Donna and the New Titans. With Donna's memories
restored, Phoebe passed away. (New Titans #50-51)
Donna's Titans were able to dodge Sparta's warriors and they used Sparta's
"travelspheres" to return to New Chronus. One group rescued the seed
Xanthi, the other spared Athyns just before his planet was destroyed.
Xanthi died in the battle against Sparta. With Raven's help, Sparta was contained,
and the remaining seeds restored the Titans to their full powers. It was their
plan all along, to use their seeds' growing power to add to their own and break
Zeus' curse. This they did and vowed never again to interfere with sentient
lives. (#52-54) Sparta became a vegetable and was taken into the care of the
gods. Athyns returned to Xanthi's planet and assumed his duties. Donna received
several gifts: a pendant of Cronus, from Coeus; an armored metal from Thia and
Hyperion; and earring from Iapetus and Themis; a bracelet that belonged to Phoebe;
a cloth of the firmament, from Mnemosyne and Crius; a mystic net from Oceanus
and Tethys; and the name, Troia, from Rhea. The Titans themselves departed
for parts unknown. (#55)
During a great battle between the Olympians and the sorceress, Circe,
the Olympians bequeathed Olympus to the Roman Gods. They left Earth to
join the Titans in their exploration of the universe. (War of the Gods #1-4, Wonder Woman v.2 #58-60) The Olympians eventually returned to Earth
(W.W. #122) and merged with their Roman counterparts. (#130-133)
Though the Titans have remained true to their quest. Their brother, Cronus
grew bitter during his imprisonment. He eventually cultivated a cult of believers
to fuel his powers. His true goal was to possess all the power of the God Wave
on Earth. To do this, he would have to defeat and destroy all the deities on
Earth. He began by releasing the remainder of his progeny from his belly (those
who had not been regurgitated at the time of Zeus' triumph). These were Arch,
god of strategy; Disdain, goddess of emotion; Harrier, goddess
of speed; Oblivion, god of memory; Slaughter, skilled killer,
and his own sibling the monster, Titan. Another key to their success
was the creation of a champion. As his children had created and empowered Princess
Diana of Themyscira, so did Cronus create Devastation, a being gifted
by all these new Titans. The Titan first heralded the coming Cronus (W.W. #139), then Oblivion made an unsuccessful attempt to enslave Diana within
her own Wonder Dome. (#140-141) Devastation also proved unsuccessful against
Diana; then Cronus made his move. He began by defeating the Olympians and casting
Zeus down to Earth. He then conquered the Hindu pantheon and headed for Heaven.
But Wonder Woman freed the Olympians and united with the Hindus and the Pax
Dei (heavenly host). Diana trounced Cronus but the god still managed to touch
the power of the Presence. In doing so, he gained perfect clarity. Humbled,
he gave up his corporeal form and returned to mother Gaea. (#150)
This upheaveal soon moved Zeus to form an alliance with the other pantheons.
Indeed, Zeus soon appeared to Superman with several allies under the banner
of I.D.C.A.P. (Interfaith Deity Council of Active
Polytheistics; Superman: Man of Steel #127)
NOTE: The Titans had many
children and grandchildren, some of whom were also called Titans. Notable among
them is Iapetus' son Atlas, who often lends his incredible stamina to the world's
mightiest mortal, Captain Marvel. Wonder Woman
#130 describes Themis as the "last of the Titans," and she resided
on Olympus. This does not fit with existing history.
»
FIRST APPEARANCE: New
Teen Titans v.2 #50
»
FEATURED APPEARANCES: New Teen Titans v.2 #50-55 • Wonder Woman v.2
#139-150.
»
SEE ALSO: Titans
Tower (navigate within the Who's Who)
Pre-Crisis
From Who's Who #24
The early pre-Crisis origins of the Titans is the same as above.
Instead, however, when the Titans were defeated, the Olympians imprisoned them
in columns of stone in Tartarus.
Thousands of years passed, and only the Titan Thia had escaped.
Finally, Hyperion freed himself and bewitched the mortal Teen
Titan known as Wonder Girl and then released his fellow Titans. Together
they made an assault upon Mount Olympus and were thus opposed by the Olympians,
the Amazons of Themyscira and other Teen Titans. Cronus intended to remake the
Earth into the paradise that he remembered, but eventually, Zeus and his daughter
Athena convinced him that man must have free will to chart his own destiny.
Wonder Girl was released from her spell and the Titans returned to Tartarus
in order to forge a new life for themselves there.
Sometime later, Thia resurfaced, and she too attempted to conquer
Olympus. Fearing reprisals from her fellow Titans, she set the Giants of Myth
against them. Despite the assistance of the Teen Titans, Iapetus, Crius and
Tethys were all killed before Hyperion sacrificed his life to destroy his mad
wife Thia. Zeus invited the surviving Titans to stay on Olympus and live in
peace. The offer was accepted.
