Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Oh Yeah, That Forum: The Titans Re-imagine a Titan

I'll go first.

Wonder Girl -- Donna Troy, orphan raised by the Amazons of Paradise Island (and not the DCnU Amazons, no, no) inherits the mantle of Wonder Woman when Diana dies in a battle against the Titans of myth. But she feels she is still too young and still has to prove herself, so she goes by the moniker Wonder Girl. She is an outcast in Man's World, and the comradeship of the other young heroes and heroines means a lot to her. She also wants to redeem the name Titan, thus she's the one who comes up with the name for the team.

Next?

Duela Dent: a mysterious modern day Crazy Jane. She has multiple personalities, though the one thing all the personalities have in common is that they staunchly believe they are the daughter of one of Batman's enemies.

Each of them are heroic (to varying degrees) though they all have personalities and powers somewhat based on their 'parent'. Mr Freeze's daughter is a tragically stoic cryokinetic; the Joker's daughter is an unpredictable clown who can cause people to become temporarily insane; Poison Ivy's daughter is a fierce environmentalist with plant control powers; and so on...

Batman and Robin found her fending for herself in the worst part of Gotham City, though nothing of her past before this is known. Her powers made her too difficult for normal institutions to deal with, her youth and natural altruistic nature made her a bad fit for Arkham Asylum...her personalities are all fiercely independent of one another, so the dynamic duo eventually came up with the idea of inducting her into the Teen Titans in the hope that being around heroic peers would be a good influence for her and that one day she would build enough trust to submit herself to proper psychiatric care.

Awesome thread idea, FL. Like how you have Donna taking up the mantle of Diana!

Taking Duela's craziness a tad further is awesome, raz.

How about Lilith as a modern-day Cassandra? She first encounters the Titans while trying to warn them about a flash-flood in the middle of town at the height of summer. Naturally, nobody believes her... and are shocked when it does happen!

Lilith joins up, but the Titans feel compelled to disbelieve every prediction she makes - even though they know her powers really do work. Fed up, Lilith embarks on a quest to find the origin of her powers, which leads her to predict the return of her real mother, Thia. She finds out that Thia messed with her, making sure nobody would believe her predictions so that Lilith would be unable to raise an army to stop her.

Confronting her, Lilith and the Titans (plus a reimagined Kole - hey, she's MY favorite Titan) manage to stop her. Lilith deals the finishing blow, and gains pyrokinesis and the ability to fly. She also retains occasional precognitive flashes of danger, but that's the only thing she can foretell.

Great ideas from Raz and IB!

We're on a roll now!

Who's next?

When young Garfield Craig Logan inherits the elixir and helmet of Bwana Beast, he becomes Beast Boy. Possessed of ape-level strength, speed, and agility, he also has the ability to talk to animals, and the power to create bizarre “chimeras” under his mental control by fusing together two different animals.

Unlike his predecessors, Beast Boy frequently uses his powers on human beings. Using ordinary dogs, cats, and flies, he creates small armies of nigh-invulnerable werewolves, cat-people, and human flies to come to his aide. As the—usually innocent bystanders—remember not only their transformations, but Gar’s mental control, he is one of the less popular Titans.

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On one occasion, Beast Boy merged a high school student named Karen Beecher with a common bumblebee, reducing her to a height of only five inches, allowing her to flee a dangerous situation through an air duct. However, Karen was mysteriously immune to his mental control; in addition, he discovered he was unable to change her back. At the suggestion of his mentor, the green monkey named Sakutia, he gave her a tiny dose of the Beast Elixir. This allowed her to transform herself back into an ordinary-sized human girl. It also gave her the power to transform at will back into a five-inch-tall bee girl, who became known as the hero Bumblebee.

As Bumblebee, Karen can fly, has enhanced senses, and is able to project an aerosolized neurotoxin (bee-venom) capable of temporarily paralyzing her targets.

I love your idea for Bumblebee. Wish they'd used that instead of permanently transforming her into a doll-sized girl...

And your new Beast Boy, wow, what a shades of gray character!

I like Klar's idea for Bumblebee, too. Shades of Marvel's Wasp. Not so sure how I feel about his idea for Beast Boy, but far be it from me to discourage people from going to the extremes of the imagination.

Who's next?

When the vampire Vyrkolas, as part of his takeover of the circus, attempted to add young Dick Grayson to his 'family,' the boys parents put up a struggle, and died resisting the vampire ringleader. Bitten, and succumbing to the vampire's curse, Dick was rescued by the legendary Batman, the only full-blooded vampire to resist the dark urges of their kind, and serve as a protector of man, holding back the other predators that lurk in the night.

Now, as Nightwing, Dick Grayson takes a special formula designed by his mentor to keep his curse in abeyance, trapped 'one heartbeat away' from joining his mentor in the eternal night, and losing the sun forever.

His strength, reflexes, senses and toughness increased somewhat, by his partial transformation, Nightwing lends his superhuman acrobatics skills to the hunt, using gadgetry such as smoke bombs, trained animals and misdirection to allow the Titan's foes to believe that he has the full powers of a vampire, to turn into mist, or to shapechange into animals.

Very cool, Set. I had been hoping you'd chime in.

So far, we've had re-imaginings of Donna, Duela, Lilith, Garfield, Karen, and Dick.

That leaves Wally, Garth, Roy, Mal...and whoever I'm forgetting at the moment.

Hey Fanfic Lady, here is my take on Mal.


Mal Duncan was exploring the attic of the antique shop is grandfather owns. He discovers a stange looking dial. On the dial are the letters H, E, R, O. Pressing the letters, Mal is transformed into the hero Guardian. As Guardian, Mal has greater stamina, strength, and reflexes, along with a shield. Mal is thrilled with his new powers, however after going to sleep, he wakes up as plain old Mal again.

Expecting to be turned into Guardian again, Mal presses the letters on the dial again. This time however, he is turned into Hornblower. As Hornblower, Mal has a magical horn. Upon hearing the music, people come under Mal's control. A force of will can break a person free from Mal's control. The more people under his control, the less effort is needed to break free of the control. The control also lasts for an hour after Mal stops playing.


Waking up the next day, Mal has again reverted to his normal self. Pressing the letters this time changes Mal into The Herald. Like Hornblower, Mal has a magical horn. But this time when the horn is blown, a number of angels are summoned who will assist Mal. The angels can fly and are strong, but have no magical abilities themselves. The angels vanish when their task is done. The horn can also open up gateways to other dimensions, allowing Mal to seemingly teleport.


The next time Mal presses the letters on the dial he is transformed into Vox. As Vox, Mal is unable to speak, but can emit a sonic blast.


Mal finds that he is randomly changed into one of these four personas and that being unconscious changes him back into is normal self.

Nice way to tie all of Mal's alter-egos together, Quis.

Batman and Nightwing as actual vampires is an awesome idea!

...and the Wasp has always been one of my favourite Avengers, so I dig the new take on Bumblebee too!

I like the "real" vampires as well, and the new and improved powers of Hornblower and Herald for Mal are great!

Roy Harper, thanks to the backing of an anonymous, wealthy and connected sponsor (whose initials were O.Q.), went from inner city ne'er do well to the first former homeless gang rat street kid to make it to the Olympic archery team, only to be disqualified and dishonored by an event staged by a jealous rival, in which he was found, drugs in hand, and hookers in lap, just as the cameras flashed.

The rags to riches / local boy done good story was quickly abandoned by the media, who as quickly as they'd built him up, savagely tore him down, with his competitor, now taking his spot on the team, flat out stating in his interview that, "'some people' shouldn't be representing this country, trash is as trash does, after all."

Roy might have hit rock bottom after the manufactured scandal destroyed his dreams, but his anonymous benefactor was not ready to give up on him yet, and he woke up to find a strange man in his room, aiming a bow at him. The man asked a question that made no sense to him, "This arrow was a gift from a friend. Do you know anything about Thanagarian technology?"

He mumbled, "What?" and the man released the arrow aimed at his heart, an arrow that seemed to turn into cold sheets of liquid metal and tear through his veins like razors of ice.

He blacked out, and when he woke, there was no sign that anyone had ever been in his room, or that he'd been shot through the heart with a metal arrow. Indeed, he felt oddly refreshed, with no hangover from the previous nights liquid supper, and none of the ragged run-down sense of depression that had been dogging him since his disgrace and expulsion from the US olympic archery team.

It was later that day, when an angry member of his former gang showed up to teach him a lesson about trying to quit the gang, that he wished he had a bow, and the cold sensation returned, as a mechanical voice in his head said softly, 'Weapon Active.' A gleaming bow of silvery metal formed in his grip, and as he pulled back the string and wished for an arrow, an arrow melted out of his hand as well. The thug turned and ran, and he didn't even have to fire the arrow, which, danger passed, merged back into his flesh, along with the bow, with a cold slithering sensation.

Over the next weeks, he learned that he could cause any metal weapon he could envision to form from the strange alien metal substance now inhabiting his body (although he had no special skill with weapons other than the bow, leading to him beginning training in a variety of other weapons, from the common sword and staff to the uncommon bola and whip). He was a living arsenal, and so that became his new name, as he took up the life of a vigilante hero, as Arsenal.

Wally and Garth to go!

(And others like Lilith and Gnarrk and the original West Coast Titans, perhaps!)

Nicely done, Set. I didn't think anybody could make Roy even halfway interesting.

BTW, Lilith was already re-imagined, in one of IB's previous posts in this thread.

Gnarrk

While exploring some caverns as part of a team building exercise, the Titans come across what looks like a young Neanderthal male asleep inside a glass tube. As they approach the tube, a nearby console comes online and part of the tube slides open. The young man emerges and checks the console and then retrieves a pair of coveralls from a locker. Turning to the Titans, He says "I am Gnarrk!" Gnarrk then explained to the Titans that he is from the planet Feldspur in the Mu system. He had been on an exploration mission when his ship crashed on Earth. He was the sole survivor of the crew. He had jury rigged a statis chamber from the remains of the ship so that he could wait out any rescue attempt. His console was set to revive him when is people came for him. He is not sure why it activated when the Titans came within the proximity. Checking on his console again, Gnarrk figures that he has been in suspended animation for 150,000 Earth years. The console also has been monitoring radio transmissions on Earth and transferred the knowledge of all Earth Languages to Gnarrk while he was in stasis.

Contacting the Guardians of the Universe throough Green Lantern, Gnarrk and the Titans discover that his home world was destroyed in a supernova about 130,000 years ago. The people of his planet seem to have escaped the destruction of their planet, but no one knows what has become of them.

Gnarrk has twice the strength of an Olympic athlete. He has a genius level intelligence and has recovered some of the lost technology of his civilization.

Oh, I like the new origin for Arsenal. If you can eliminate his womanizing personality too...

Love Gnarrk being an alien from the past! Awesome!

Kole

Young Crystal Weathers couldn't understand why her parents were so paranoid. From a young age, she kept sane by avoiding them as much as possible, despite their fussy and overprotective ways.

One day, though, she couldn't escape. A young teenager of 16, she went on what she thought was a family vacation - only to find out her parents had joined a cult! The cult leader promised to bring them all to safety.

He separated the children from their parents and send them ahead - only to find they were being forced to work in a diamond mine.

Crystal lost track of how long she'd been in there. She wished, oh how she wished, that she could get out.

One day, she got her wish when the foreman was about to beat her. The coal she was holding suddenly turned to diamond, shielding her. She quickly got herself and all the other kids out, alerting the authorities, who shut down the cult - only to find her parents and many others had suicided under the cult leader's orders.

Still, Crystal was free and, with some help and guidance from the Justice League, found that she could manipulate carbon - changing it from coal to graphite to diamond and back, forming rudimentary shapes with it, and even gathering naturally-occuring carbon for her own needs. With practice, she could even alter the carbon in her own body to give her a degree of invulnerability and strength, though she is loathe to do that unless in an emergency.

She's still learning about her powers, and now fights crime as the superheroine Kole.

When Hank and Dave Yamaguchi failed admittance into the Legion of Super-Heroes, they traveled back in time 1,000 years to become members of the Teen Titans.

Intensively trained in a 31st-century version Shao Lin Kung Fu, Hank Yamaguchi is strong and agile, a master strategist and martial arts expert. If injured, he is able to focus his Qi inward, entering a healing trance which repairs the injuries to his body more quickly and completely than is possible for an ordinary Terran. He was rejected by the Legion because his powers were already completely replicated by Karate Kid (by whom he was easily defeated).

Dave Yamaguchi’s training was more in the spiritual and mental processes of the art. He is highly observant and aware, quick-thinking, gregarious, and charismatic. He has also mastered a number of mental disciplines- he is able to “cloud men’s minds”, appearing invisible, or, at least, unseen. He is frequently able to calm agitated minds, producing within their brains a combination of alpha-waves, endorphins and cannabinoids which suppress aggression, and give a sense of overall well-being and peace. The Legion felt his powers too limited.

Nor did the Teen Titans consider “Hawk” and “Dove”, as they call themselves, Titan material either. Thus the two travel to San Francisco and become founding members of “Titans West”.

Hawk and Dove are not above using their powers in tandem, with Dove reducing the aggression level of an opponent, and Hawk attacking mercilessly.

^^^More wonderful re-imaginings. I especially like Klar's take on Hawk & Dove.

Childhood friends Garth and Bette were kidnapped by a crazy man who wanted to "awaken their true selves". They were rescued by the Titans, but not before being subjected to some tests.

The two seemed unchanged. Then, one day, when Bette was trying to convince Garth to use their athletic skills to try out for the Titans (Garth being a champion swimmer and experienced scuba diver, and Bette being a champion tennis player and gymnast). Their heated argument resulted in Garth pushing Bette backwards with a spout of water... only for Bette to shield herself with a phoenix of flame!

They would learn that they were exposed, as babies, to a mysterious radioactive meteor - a fact their captor had learned via medical records. His tinkering apparently jumpstarted their powers.

Bette eagerly convinced a reluctant Garth to join the Titans. Bette can use her phoenix flame to burn or heal upon contact, and can surround herself with a protective shield. Garth can breathe underwater and manipulate water in all its forms - as liquid, steam or ice. Together, they are known as Flamebird and Tempest.

^I like it, IB.

I've so wanted to participate here, but I'm going through a dry spell creatively and besides, I'm enjoying everyone else's fun takes!

I hope I get some creativity back before the theoretical Round 2!

Thank you kindly, FL! Can't wait for you to join in, Lash.

I really like how Klar tweaked Hawk and Dove's powers so their differing philosophies manifest not only in their tactics but also in their abilities.