New Teen Titans special reunites Nightwing, Superboy, Donna Troy, Starfire, and more

cover of Titans United #1 — (Image credit: DC)

Several of the highest-profile members of DC's Teen Titans will come together this fall to solve an existential mystery in a new story titled Titans United. Written by Cavan Scott with artist Jose Luis, Titans United appears to be a graphic novel-length, single-volume story judging by its listing on DC's subscription service website.

In Titans United, Nightwing, Donna Troy, Superboy, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Red Hood - a cross-section of heroes from several eras of the Teen Titans - will work together to crack a case that DC states will have one of the heroes involved questioning "their very existence" as the team goes up against some type of enemy using their own abilities and skills against them.

"The Titans face their greatest challenge - their own powers!" reads the description of Titans United from DC's subscription site. "Nightwing, Donna Troy, Superboy, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Red Hood kick off a thrilling new case that will lead one of their own to question not only their place on the team, but their very existence."

As ominous and specific as that last bit sounds, it's oddly tough to narrow down which of the Titans may be hit with this existential crisis, considering how many of the characters involved have already had their lives retconned, rebooted, or even wiped out entirely in past stories.

Right off the bat, there's Jason Todd/Red Hood, who was killed by the Joker in the seminal Batman: A Death in the Family, only to be resurrected years later when Superboy Prime managed to alter reality.

Speaking of Superboy, there's the one in Titans United who is presumably Kon-El/Conner Kent, the main user of that name now that Jonathan Kent is going by Superman in his own title. He also underwent a total reality rewrite when he was killed by Superboy Prime, resurrected, totally rebooted by the 'New 52,' and now gone back to a version of his old self - who was an artificial clone to begin with.

And of course, there's Donna Troy, whose very existence and origins have been the subject of multiple past stories that tried to reconcile the questions about how she can exist in the DC Universe with the continuity she's had - and who has been rebooted entirely multiple times to boot.

Of course, all of that is less hard to untangle now that DC has its all-in Infinite Frontier approach, in which every story and every part of DC continuity is accessible somewhere in the Omniverse - a policy meant to alleviate the stringent questions and continuity conundrums caused by decades of successive reboots and rewrites to the publisher's continuity.

Titans United is due out September 14. Watch for all of DC's September 2021 solicitations later this month on Newsarama.

Before you read Titans United, catch up on the best Teen Titans stories of all time.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)