Benjamin Percy burst onto the scene for DC ‘Rebirth’ writing both “Green Arrow” and “Teen Titans,” both of which have righted the ship for franchises that were seeing rough times before the relaunch. His “Teen Titans,” in particular, has set a new course for the team that feels both new and tied to classic Titans stories.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Ben about his approach to “Teen Titans,” the prospect of writing his first crossover, and more. Stay tuned for an interview with the third writer of this crossover, “Deathstroke” scribe Christopher Priest, over the next few weeks. Check out the rest of our ‘Lazarus Contract’ coverage, including an interview with “Titans” writer Dan Abnett, here.
This interview has been edited for clarity
This book feels very much like a spiritual follow-up to ‘The Judas Contract.’ What is your relationship with that book? Did you read it when it was coming out? Did you read it later? What stands out to you about that book all these years later?
Benjamin Percy: I read it many years ago. I’ve re-read it several times since. It is not only the greatest Teen Titans storyline, but one of the greatest storylines in comics history. By tipping our hat to it, we wanted to pay homage to [Marv] Wolfman and [George] Perez, but not to recycle their storyline. We wanted to create something for this next generation of readers that channeled legacy but moved in its own direction.
Is there something in particular about this story that makes it the greatest Teen Titans story of all time?
BP: Well, it was just a perfect recipe of Wolfman/Perez awesomeness. The stellar art, the characterization, double-crossing, the entangling of loyalties, and of course, the spotlighted villain, Deathstroke, is the greatest that the Titans have ever faced. That was one of the things we kept in mind when we moving towards this crossover, because since ‘Rebirth’ began, we’ve been talking about the Titans and the Teen Titans coming together, and Deathstroke was the way to unite them. He is the star of this crossover, and he is the greatest villain that the respective franchises have ever faced.
It’s interesting you say that, because Deathstroke and the Titans certainly have a very, very long history together and they’ve faced-off many times. When you guys putting together this story, how do you avoid falling back on some of the tropes or some of the conflicts that happened before? What goes into making this story between the Titans and Deathstroke feel different?
BP: Well, we’re at an interesting juncture in that due to the fact tht a lot of these characters have not yet crashed together [in current continuity]. So, we’ve been wanting to have a situation where the Titans were the varsity team and the Teen Titans were the JV team, are brought together. We wanted to make sure that was done in an adversarial manner. And so, by having a common enemy, we have that first warring with one another, and then uniting in their common cause: to save their lollies and to overcome this great villain.
So, once we figured out those plot mechanics … We thought we were in territory that was familiar to readers of these franchises over time. This is unique real estate that we’re dealing with, so there was no real anxiety about telling a story that people are already familiar with. This felt like its own unique and essential animal, and that we were answering a lot of questions that have come since the “DC Universe Rebirth” issue. And we’re also charting through a storyline that has felt inevitable since then with all three of these series, at last, coming together in a kind of DNA strand moment.
The collaboration, from everything you guys have said, sounds incredibly smooth, which is so great to hear from a fan’s perspective. Some folks come into these books without being caught up on all three of them, and you want the book that you’re reading to still feel like your book. And so many times, you’re coming into a crossover and the issue just seems off. So it’s really great that you guys were able to work together to ensure that the tone of both the books and the characters stayed consistent throughout.
Continued belowBP: This is my first crossover, and I’ll admit that I was a little worried beforehand. I wondered if there would be a battle of egos. I wondered if people would guard their series protectively. You’ll see in the credits that the story is enlisted in all of these issues by all three of us, and that’s true to the fact. And we all got along famously. We all collaborated by email, by phone.
And we weren’t at all precious about disagreeing with each other and allowing each other to rhetoric each other’s characters, but then to sort of write over the top of each other as well. Because if [Christopher] Priest wrote something that Damian was saying that I felt was a bit off, he would allow me to step in and push a few words around. If I wrote something that came out of Deathstroke’s mouth that felt wrong to Priest, he came on and shuffled sentences around, and so on. Even though I was a writing a night warring scene, or even though I might’ve been a scene involving Beast Boy, we all were co-authoring, we all were engaged in a kind of cool treatment of all these different voices.
But I knew from the very beginning that one of the most iconic moments in this crossover event would be when these two teams came crashing together. So that rooftop moment, that two-page spread was a really exciting time for me to be at the keyboard composing that.
We got along famously, and that’s the only thing to say. There was no edict from on high about this. It was really generated by us, and moderated beautifully by the editors. Give props to Alex Antone for getting us all together, by giving us incredible feedback, by mediating all of our different perspectives. It was really without drama from beginning to end. All the drama was on the page, I should say.
I want to ask about your team construction. You have a really interesting team in that you have characters like the young Wally, Jackson, and Damian who are relatively new to the Teen Titans. And then you have these three characters that have been Teen Titans for thirty years now: Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy. So when you’re putting together a story like this, or any Teen Titans story for that matter, how much does that sort of history as part of the team play into it? Are you thinking about, “These characters have done so many things before, I don’t want to repeat what they’ve done.” Or, do you just kind of take each story as it comes and not really think about where the characters have been beforehand?
BP: If you look at the Justice League and if you look at the Titans, these characters have a reason for being together. They are iconic characters who don’t run into the same problems that the Teen Titans do because this team is young, fresh, unfamiliar with each other, still in a kind of embryonic state so that they can fall apart at any minute. And I think that ups the emotional stakes. In a series like “Justice League,” you never really worry about whether Batman is going to quit, you just worry about how they are going to come together awesomely to defeat this interstellar threat.
But in “Teen Titans,” there’s a different quality to it. It packs more emotional want because of the inter-dynamics of this fresh new unit. So, I love the way that you have a character like Damian, who’s so obnoxiously dominating, paired with a character like Aqualad, who is a rookie and has joined the team because he’s trying to find himself. e ends up in a kind of mentor/mentee relationship with Damian that is somewhat destructive. And then you have accompanying them someone like Starfire, who is this warrior spirit, but she also radiates this maternal warmth. And she is the most experienced, the oldest, and maybe, arguably, the most powerful on the team. So you have a kind of Jean Gray/Wolverine relationship between her and Damian.
And then you have a character like Raven, who is rather a dower, who is haunted by her past, and who is offset by someone like Kid Flash, who doesn’t have anywhere near the experience that she does and wears his heart on his sleeve. So they make a wonderful, odd couple together. And I’m cycling through all these different characters, and I could continue to do so, to show you the ways that they intersect, and the way that they oppose each other, which is one of the reasons that I love this series so much. Because it’s always this complicated turnstile of emotions.
“Teen Titans” is a really important book for DC for a few reasons. There is so much about hope and about the future and about the fact that these things continue after we’re gone, or us assuming the positions of power when the prior generation goes; there is just so much legacy there. Do you feel that writing “Teen Titans” is a more hopeful assignment, is a more forward thinking assignment, perhaps, than some other books that you’ve written?
BP: I do. There’s a joyfulness to it, there’s a hopefulness to it that is strengthening, I think to the reader and to me. And it has everything to do with that forward thinking quality. They are on the cusp of adulthood, and they are trying to become their best selves. And they’re not weighed down by cynicism. They are instead optimistic about their futures, even as they struggle with adolescent drama. So, there’s something so aspirational about that mindset that I think appeals to me because I’ve seen the world and I’ve seen heroism through fresh eyes. And I think it is so relatable to readers who often times come to comics hoping for a better vision of the world. Where the good guys win, where darkness is overcome.
