DC’s Titans Have a Secret Rejected Member, and He’s Becoming a Huge Problem

Warning: Spoilers for World’s Finest: Teen Titans #5

With so many iterations of the Teen Titans over the years, there have been a ton of heroes on the various rosters. Now it seems that one of the Teen Titans’ earliest villains is actually a secret former member who didn’t make the long-term cut.

The short-lived and forgotten member of the Teen Titans is revealed in World’s Finest: Teen Titans #5 by Mark Waid, Emanuela Lupacchino, Jordie Bellaire, and Steve Wands. In this issue, the Teen Titans are attacked by a group of former villains who are suddenly far stronger than usual. As they try to come together as a team, they’re quickly overwhelmed and brutally defeated, both by their dysfunction as a team and due to a former member known as Haywire.

DC’s Titans Have a Secret Rejected Member, and He’s Becoming a Huge Problem

Haywire attempted to join the Teen Titans, but after being rejected by Robin, he assembles the Terror Titans. This issue sees Haywire and the Terror Titans take revenge on their enemies.

“A Titan Falls!”: DC’s Titans Will Lose a Major Character – But Who?

Solicitations of the upcoming Titans event “Beast World” reveal that one of the Titans is going to fall, but which hero is about to perish?

Haywire Is a Former Teen Titan Gone Bad

Haywire Gets His Revenge on the Teen Titans

The Titans are one of DC’s greatest superhero teams, but they didn’t start out that way. After all, putting a bunch of superpowered and hormonal teenagers in a tower together isn’t exactly a recipe for the best crime-fighting team in the world. The Titans experience many interpersonal struggles, with some characters dating each other and other characters simply not getting along with one another. This leads to infighting, which in turn harms the team overall. Without teamwork, a team cannot work —which is exactly what Haywire preys on in this issue. Haywire was a former (and short-term) member and saw the dynamics of the team firsthand, which is how he manages to exploit them to take the Titans down.

One of the Titans’ biggest weaknesses is their large roster. Traitors will sneak onto the Titans and plan the team’s eventual downfall. The biggest example of this is Tara Markov. Tara joined the Titans as Terra, but eventually betrayed them for Deathstroke, very nearly destroying the team and everyone on it. Likewise, the Titans once invited Haywire onto their team, even bringing him on missions. When Haywire didn’t live up to Robin’s expectations, he was dismissed. But that doesn’t change the fact that he was on the team, however briefly, and managed to see how they functioned. This information makes Haywire a dangerous threat when he returns to get his revenge in the “current day” events of World’s Finest: Teen Titans #5.

A Teen Titan Reject Could Take Down the Team for Good

The Titans grow to be the biggest heroes in the DC Universe, and they are currently standing in for the Justice League on the world stage. But getting to that stage took a lot: of building trust and of trying out different members until the team found the right fit. Now, the Titans are one of the most unbreakable teams that DC has to offer, but when they first started out, all it took to bring the Teen Titans down was one former member with a grudge.