As the year is coming to a close the Titans are pushing forward leading their first big event since becoming the DC Universe’s premiere superhero team. While Titans: Beast World begins next week, that is not the only story Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott have been developing. The ending to Titans #5 clued us into the future direction for the team. This future points to Starfire becoming the lead character of the team in 2024.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON IN TITANS
As established at the beginning of the year in Nightwing #100 the Titans new mission statement involves them stepping up to fill the hole left by the Justice League. So far they have done just that as they are answering all sorts of crises going on around the world. Whether its terrorist attacks, wildfires, or power plants at risk of exploding the Titans aren’t just fighting villains.
This is on top of keeping their teammate Wally West from being killed after a future version of Wally’s Flash showed up dead in Titans Tower at the end of Titans #1. Since then, they have been dealing with a new Brother Blood and the Church of Blood trying to return to power. That’s on top of also being involved in the Knight Terrors event over the summer. It all has firmly established the team as the Earth’s heroes.
This hasn’t been fully embraced by everyone. Specifically, Amanda Waller and her new Task Force X have made it clear they don’t like the Titans. Peacemaker tried to make the team commit their loyalty to the United States. After the Titans turned down the offer, we’ve seen Amanda Waller and Peacemaker monitoring the team’s activity. With Amanda Waller being part of the Beast World event the Titans are set-up to play a big role in the direction we saw established at the end of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.
BROTHER BLOOD TIES TO TAMARAN
Throughout the new Titans series one of the major characters is the new Brother Blood. This version of Brother Blood has taken a Televangelism approach to gaining supporters. One surprise support who has joined Brother Blood’s cause is former Titans member Tempest. With Tempest by his side Brother Blood has been trying to establish himself to be completely different from his predecessors.
That’s obviously not something the Titans have bought into at all, even with Tempest joining Brother Blood’s side. That lack of trust turned out to be the right move as at the end of Titans #3 we saw that the new Brother Blood is using some sort of parasite alien to control Tempest. Brother Blood through Tempest would then take control of Linda Park-West. This was all to make the future where Wally was killed come true.
The Titans were able to stop this future as Nightwing and Flash tricked the infested Linda to think she could kill Wally. After pulling off their trick they were able to save Wally from suffering the same fate as his future alternate self and curing Linda from the parasite she was infected by. This would in turn confirm to the Titans that their suspicions of Brother Blood was right.
With his plan foiled Brother Blood showed his true colors in more ways than one. In a fit of rage over the Titans ruining his plan to kill the Flash, Brother Blood removed the make-up he was wearing to reveal he is an unnamed Tamaranean. As of now we don’t know if this Tamaranean Brother Blood has the same powers as Starfire and Blackfire. Thus far we have seen him using a parasitic alien and teasing something that could annihilate the human race. This could indicate the Tamaranean Brother Blood is more a mad scientist-esque villain rather than a warrior.
2024 COULD FINALLY BE STARFIRE’S YEAR
With the revelation that the new Brother Blood is a Tamaranean this immediately launches Starfire to the forefront. This has been a long time since Starfire hasn’t been given a major storyline in a long time. Her biggest role in the last few decades is arguably being the Headmaster of the failed Titans Academy, though even then she wasn’t a focal character in that direction. We are long overdue for a new Starfire-led storyline like we got back during Marv Wolfman and George Perez Teen Titans creative run.
Major plans being created for Starfire aren’t coming out of nowhere. Obviously, Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott knew the new Brother Blood was going to be Tamaranean given how early into their creative run it was revealed. In addition to this, Tales of the Titans #1 reintroduced Tamaraneans as finding homes on other planets and still recognizing Starfire as their Princess they hold in high regard.
In addition to that, during the Blue Beetle: Graduation Day series from early this year Starfire offered to mentor Jaime Reyes. Starfire showed she has what it takes to be a mentor with how she supported Jaime during his latest crisis with the Reach. That included Starfire standing up to Batman, Superman, Cyborg and other heroes trying to stop Blue Beetle. Based on this Starfire has now been set up to continue to mentor Jaime in his new ongoing, though we haven’t seen that spotlighted in the series just yet.
All of that is on top of Starfire being showcased as one of the Titans heavy hitters during the first five issues of the latest series. Which does provide plenty of set-up to make Starfire’s new rise to the forefront as a major player in the DC Universe in 2024. Its about time we see Starfire’s vast potential tapped into and hopefully we see that happen starting in the new year.