@Elaexy

I personally found the NTT to be a great starting point for Titans and the DC Universe in general. I was not a fan of the Silver Age Titans stories I'd read, but NTT completely changed my mind about the team. That said, they are more slow-paced then modern comics, so if you're used to fast paced comics they might seem kind of boring. I barely appreciated the first volume, but by the third I was hooked.

I haven't any other Titans comics, not ones I'd recommend anyway. But I've heard good things about Peter David's Young Justice and Geoff John's run.

I love Silencer https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Honor_Guest_(Prime_Earth), Maps (https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mia_Mizoguchi_(Prime_Earth), Katherine Karlo https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Katherine_Karlo_(Prime_Earth), Riko https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Riko_Sheridan_(Prime_Earth) and the rest of the We Are Robin gang (except for Duke and Izzy, sadly - they were too cliched and stereotypical for me to really get hooked on them).

Yeah, Calvin and Bunker are cool.

Theres also Bluebird, Signal, Silencer, the Others, and Batwing. Id count Jon, but only when he was a kid, not his current version.

Perhaps Duke Thomas AKA The Signal

@Elaexy

I find aspects of all the Titans titles set in Prime Earth that I enjoy, but I can give my impressions as a whole.

Teen Titans Vol 4 (Scott Lobdell's run) had some neat concepts that I believe were executed a little poorly, all-in-all. Lobdell was ambitious, but I felt he had some trouble committing to the stories he wanted to tell. I believe the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. concept would have worked better if it hadn't been the introductory story for this incarnation of the team. It forced readers to swallow a lot at once. One of my issues with his run was that his story concepts were a little larger-than-life, and when you do that type of storytelling, you should be put a little more focus onto how events affect the characters involved. In Lobdell's run, these wild events would just happen, and then the characters moved on into the next plot. I think his characters should have been more connected to the realities they faced, but that wasn't expressed all that well. Lobdell's creations of Bunker and (in my opinion) Skitter were great, although I think he tried too hard to distinguish his versions of Tim, Cassie, Kon-El, and Bart from their previous versions. Many readers and DC's editorial wing seem to agree, since Bendis was given the go-ahead to retcon away most of Lobdell's characteristic of those four and bring about more "classic" versions (although many of the changes still aren't well-explained enough, in my opinion).

Teen Titans Vol 5 (writers: Will Pfeifer, issues #1-16; Greg Pak, issues #17-19; Tony Bedard, issues #20-24) was much more enjoyable for me. It basically continues where Lobdell's run picks off, but it's far less disjointed, despite having three writers throughout the volume. Pfeifer brought Power Girl and Chimera (and arguably Doomed) to the team, and Tanya became really well-loved. Pfeifer's run in particular is well-thought out, and Pak and Bedard's stories measure-up well enough. Despite continuing in continuity from v4, v5 can be read on its own.

Teen Titans Vol 6 is split into Benjamin Percy's (post-Rebirth, issues #1-19) and Adam Glass' (post-No Justice, issues #20-41) / Robbie Thompson's (issues #39-47) run.

Percy had interesting stories, but in my opinion, they were separated by enough time in-universe that the individual arcs were too episodic for my taste. They were interesting, and I really did like them. But I like it when arcs feel more connected, with overarching consequences and themes. Like many other readers of the title I've spoken to, I believe that Percy somewhat regressed Damian's characterization. During the New 52 Batman and Robin title and in the Robin: Son of Batman DC You title, Damian grew from an aggressive brat to somewhat who had developed empathy and a deeper understanding of the consequences of his actions. When Percy got ahold of him, Percy made Damian emotionally distant again. Percy tried to make Damian grow during his run—as if he wanted to be the one to be responsible for Damian growing as a person. But it ended up just feeling a bit recycled. Again, the stories were good, but I'm giving critiques.

Adam Glass' run, which became Robbie Thompson's run after the two collaborated for a storyline before Glass passed the torch, was really refreshing. He used three existing characters who were still relatively new to heroics (Robin/Damian, Kid Flash/Wallace and Red Arrow/Emiko) and then used three brand-new characters (Crush, Roundhouse and Djinn), and it just worked. Because readers weren't going in knowing so much about the characters, readers weren't forced to compare their portrayals to portrayals of the past. Readers could enjoy the moment more, and Glass worked hard delving into who his characters were. Going into the characters' psyches and such was what I felt was missing from some of the other PE runs, at least to the extent Glass did so. He and Thompson worked together well, and when Thompson took over, the book didn't feel different, or rather it didn't feel disjointed. You could tell Thompson was putting his own flavor into his work, but Thompson also respected what Glass had established, which I appreciated. We're one issue away from v6's end, but the post-NJ run has been my favorite TT run since PE began.

Now, PE also has Titans Vol 3. Before we get to v3, though, we have to look at Titans Hunt. Titans Hunt was a miniseries written by Dan Abnett. It was the prototype to the Rebirth concept, and it's one of the three stories to be given the "Road to Rebirth" banner. Abnett does impressively well re-establishing elements from original (Earth-One) Titans lore into PE, especially since he had to wrap up his story in four issues less than promised. He was given 12 issues, but after issue #6, he was told he had to finish the story in two more issues, as the book was shortened to eight issues. The pacing of the mini ends up a bit rushed at the end, and you can tell Abnett had more he wanted to do, but it's still a great finale. Anyway, Abnett then became the writer of Titans Vol 3 (the Rebirth title), so he connected his mini to his ongoing title very smoothly. I personally really love Abnett's post-Rebirth run. Then, No Justice happened, and Abnett was forced by editorial to change his roster and tone. So, while Abnett was still the writer, we'll consider the post-NJ run a separate run. The stories were different, but Abnett still did an exceptional job. And if the characters who were members of the post-NJ roster interest you, you will likely enjoy the run.

So, if you feel the strong desire to start Titans with something set in Prime Earth, my top recommendation would be to buy both Titans Hunt and Titans Vol. 1: The Return of Wally West and read them back-to-back in quick succession.

Otherwise, NTT is still my best recommendation, as it establishes the Titans lore most often used and referenced. You could also start with Titans v2 (Judd Winick's 2008 run). It's fairly modern and doesn't have as much exposition as NTT does, and the art is beautiful. So you could get the first trade, and you may enjoy it. But I'd still recommend Abnett's runs over that route.

On-the-nose criticisms of Teen Titans Vol 4. Those stories always rubbed me the wrong way for some reason, and now I think it might've been because of the reasons you didn't like it either. The art was also a little unsettling. I didn't mind the pencils, but the color pallete was kind of... unsettling.

Now, not that you’re saying this, but I don’t think it’s that the colorists did a poor job. I think Lobdell was intentionally wanting to write dark and edgy Titans stories, and I think he proposed the colors be largely dark to match. Pfeifer’s run was much more brightly and lightly colored, and I think that helped with distinguishing v5 from its predecessor.

There are really fun moments in v4, and I really liked some of Lobdell’s original character concepts like Skitter and Teryx (whom I hope to see again someday). Lobdell isn’t without talent, but he flubbed up a bit too often in his run, for my taste.

I actually didn't mind the darker color palette, that was one of the things I think I would have liked normally. I don't have much technical knowledge about comic art, so it's hard to articulate exactly what my problem was. I think it might have been because the texture of the colors felt too dense, if that makes sense.

I definitely liked some of the plot concepts Lobdell was going for, but the story was confusing and not in a fun way. On the other hand, I didn't love Vol 5's concepts, but its story always flowed well, so in the end I liked it better.

Most Lobdell comics I've read have the problems we've both mentioned, except for Red Hood/Arsenel which is the best comic of his I've read. I've also heard good things about his Rebirth comics and X-men stuff, so I'm certainly not going to dismiss him when reading future work.

Sure. I think his downfall in TTv4 was that he wanted climax after climax, and he didn’t give the characters downtown enough to allow the stories to follow the “conflict > buildup > climax > resolution” storytelling format. Nonstop excitement—as surprising as some writers may find this—becomes stale.

Jessica Cruz (green lantern) & the Shazam siblings.