DC Comics artist Gabriel Picolo recently tweeted some heartwarming fan art of the Teen Titans that’s gotten some major buzz. It features Starfire arriving home late one night with Robin to a surprise birthday party thrown by the rest of her fellow Titans. The art has a distinct high school drama vibe and is immensely adorable.
Koriand’r (a.k.a. Starfire) has been making a resurgence lately. For one, she’s in two ongoing comic series. In Teen Titans: Academy, the Tamaranian princess has stepped up as a mentor for new young superheroes, including long-time favorites like Red X (of the Teen Titans cartoon fame) and Shazam. Meanwhile, in Titans United, she and her team have to deal with a mystery surrounding someone who suddenly develops all of their collective superpowers. These are also hot off the release of the controversial yet popular graphic novel I am Not Starfire, by Mariko Tamaki and Yoshi Yoshitani, which explores Starfire’s strained relationship with her superpower-less teenage daughter.
Gabriel Picolo’s series of images feature a lot of the touching relationships fans have come to love from the Titans over the decades. The art features Starfire, Dick Grayson as Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven – the gang of five familiar to fans of the animated series and the classic New Teen Titans headed by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. There are a ton of cute touches in the scene, most of all the icing on Starfire’s cake reading “Happy Earth Bday!” and the intimacy between the adorable couple, Robin and Starfire. The artist really captures the love and friendship between the characters.
Picolo is no stranger to drawing the Titans. He has been producing similar fan art of the characters, reimagining them as average teenagers instead of as superheroes, for a long time. It was this popular work that drew DC’s attention to him and made him an ideal artist to draw writer Kami Garcia’s Teen Titans: Raven, the duo’s first graphic novel. This was followed up with a sequel, Teen Titans: Beast Boy, and an upcoming third entry, Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven.
It is beyond touching to see Picolo continuing to follow his dreams as an artist, both in the professional sphere and in his fan art. Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven is set to release on September 28, 2021, promising more heart-melting moments and down-to-earth young adult stories. Picolo’s art shows how what makes the Titans special is not their abilities, but rather the familial bond between them. Whether or not more of the Teen Titans, like Cyborg or Nightwing, appear in Gabriel Picolo’s newest graphic novel, readers can still enjoy the artist’s beautiful snapshot of Starfire’s Earth-birthday.
