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"Leader? Me? Seriously? "
- CyborgOriginally aired: January 15, 2005 Written by Marv Wolfman
Directed by Alex Soto
The final showdown between Cyborg and Brother Blood culminates in the creation of a new branch of the Titans team. Titans East includes a new tower in a new city with five new members: Aqualad, Bumblebee, Speedy and a pair known as Mas Y Menos.
Wil Wheaton as Aqualad
Mike Erwin as Speedy
T'Keyah Keymáh as Bumblebee
Freddy Rodriguez as Mas Y Menos
John DiMaggio as Brother Blood
Mas Y Menos were created for the animated series, and are not characters from the comic book series. But the Titans do have a history of sibling heroes [Hawk & Dove, Thunder & Lightning] as well as super-speedsters [Kid Flash, Jesse Quick, Impulse/Kid Flash II]
Wil Wheaton on Voicing Aqualad: Wil posted on his site - www.wilwheaton.net - the following blurb on October 18th: "The weekend was awesome. I started out with some ADR work on Teen Titans Friday morning, for Titans East Parts One and Two... holy [expletive deleted]. It's no secret that I love Teen Titans, and it's no secret that I'm fiercely proud of my work there... but holy [expletive deleted]. The episodes just keep getting better and better, and this story arc is the best I've been in so far. It's dark, it's a little scary, and the animation is SO FREAKING COOL! I actually had my very first "cool, dry superhero" line on Friday. I got to say, "Something tells me you guys don't like water... " right before I... uh, I mean, Aqualad does some seriously cool superhero stuff. I can't wait to see this episode when it airs."Producer David Slack on bringing back Speedy: "With Speedy, we were looking for someone to mirror Robin. For the purpose of that episode, we wanted someone to go up against Robin. And Speedy ends up having some of the same problems Robin has. He's got kind of a dippy name, he shoots... arrows. [laughs] So there's stuff about him that's not all that cool. I think we managed to make him pretty cool. And we did that the same way we did with Robin. We searched for some more contemporary ways for him to express himself. When we bring back Speedy at the end of season three, we have a slightly different take on his character. We nudged him a bit more gruff direction. [...] We sort of played more into the whole bad boy thing when we brought him back. "
Producer David Slack on developing Titans East: "There was a lot of discussion about that as far as what characters we'd use - and also their interaction with each other. Then there are the licensing issues. We finally arrived at our group through a bit of a long, slow process. We loved Aqualad, so we knew he was in. Speedy seemed to come out really cool so it would be fun to bring him back. But we knew if we brought him back, we didn't want to bring him back as a 'Robin clone' like we first saw him [in WINNER TAKE ALL]. So we decided to dig into the character that had been developed over the years in the comics, and push him into a bit of a darker place. We thought he would be a bit like our teenage Wolverine."
"Then Mas Y Menos developed from wanting to a speedster character. But we didn't just want to do another version of Kid Flash. Then Sam and Glen thought of this idea of a binary Flash. They can go really fast, but only when they're touching. They're kind of like circus acrobats. If they grab hands, zoom! If they get knocked apart, they're just a couple of kids."
"So then I said the sentence I may regret for the rest of my life. I said, "OK, but only if they just speak Spanish." [laughs]. It was a really fun idea but ended up being difficult to do. I don't know that we'd want to do a whole episode with them.... but we got a little bilingual in the show. I speak decent Spanish, but Alex Soto - our director, speaks fluent Spanish. So he was correcting my terrible translation."
"So they're kind of a cross between Flash and the Wonder Twins. That's really something that Sam, Glen and the whole group cooked up. the great thing about TITANS is that it's really just a pot-luck. Everyone brings something. [...] They're a lot of fun. They are so unlike other super-heroes you're going to see. They're really sympathetic. And they are unique in a way. Our other characters have mostly been adapted from another medium and given a different tone. Mas Y Menos, in a sense, are the only true 'animated' Titans. "
"And then we also brought Bumblebee in. I wanted another girl character besides Bumblebee to have the same balance that own Titans had. But the compromise there was to make Bumblebee the leader. And she's very well suited for that. "
Producer David Slack on characters NOT using Hotspot, Wildebeest or other Titans characters for Titans East: " I forget why we didn't go with those. We know we wanted to use Speedy and Aqualad in there. We thought about Wildebeest. But then we thought that Cyborg would be the strong guy on the team. We kicked around a number of characters. When we originally talked about doing Mas y Menos, we talked about doing a female Flash character. We thought it might be easier to create our own. And then there's discussions about whose powers complement whose."
"There was a lot of discussion about some of those [comic book] characters. We're still looking for some opportunities to bring them in. We'd love to get our hands on a number of the other Titans. It's a question of finding the right episode for them and getting the OK from everybody."
Producer David Slack on working with Marv Wolfman [co-creator of the New Teen Titans]: "Marv is great because he's not only an excellent writer, but he's a very understanding guy. He recognized that we were lucky to get to do a guy named 'Brother Blood' at all! And a great deal of what Brother Blood did in comics would not be appropriate for our audience. So Marv was on board with the adjustments of the character for this incarnation. And let's not forget that Marv is the guy who gave us the new interpretation of Lex Luthor as an evil businessman rather than a straight-up super-villain. So Marv is no stranger to new takes on old characters So he was great and helpful in our understanding of who this Brother Blood was."
[...] "Marv Wolfman and I wrote that final 2-parter. It was an honor to get to work with Marv. And he did a great job, he was just tremendous. Together, we created the character of Steamroller, who appeared in TITANS EAST, part one. And we created Steel City for Titans East, which was more of an East Coast city. It was more like Pittsburgh, Chicago or New York. So we felt like we wanted an East Coast version of someone like Cinderblock or Plasmus. So it was fun to create that character with Marv."
The bicostal Titans Teams are somewhat confusing... so follow along if you can!TITANS WEST: The comic book Teen Titans were traditionally based on the East Coast - either in New York or outside Gotham City. In TEEN TITANS [1977] #50-52, a West Coast group of Titans emerged known as Titans West. The animated "Titans East" is founded on that same tradition.
BUMBLEBEE: Bumblebee was not a member of the original Titans West, but she was a member of Titans "East" when the groups met. She later relocated to California with her husband and fellow Titan, Mal. Since then, she has been a member of Titans West when the group gathered again.
AQUALAD & SPEEDY: Aqualad and Speedy were founding members of the original Teen Titans, as shown in their origin story in TEEN TITANS [1978] #53.
TITANS EAST: The Teen Titans were time-tossed 10 years in the future in TEEN TITANS (third series) #17-19 [2004]. The current team met a resistance Titans-group known as Titans East! This was the first time the name "Titans East" was actually ever used in the comic book series. Members included Cyborg, Bumblebee, Terra, Rose Wilson as Ravager, Captain Marvel Jr. and Bat-Girl. Cyborg's appearance in the future is inspired by his animated appearance. So follow this: the comic book inspired the animated series that has now inspired the comic book. All clear?
Speedy is characterized a bit 'gruffer' than seen in WINNER TAKE ALL. In the Teen Titans comic book series, Speedy was always a bit of a bad boy - often getting himself into trouble.
Cyborg uses "Titans, Together!" as a battle cry for Titans East. "Titans Together!" was the battle cry for the New Teen Titans when Marv Wolfman wrote the series.
For more information on the comic book versions of the characters - including many images - visit titanstower.com's meeting room page.