News transcript: GRAYSON ON NEW TITANS SERIES from Newsarama

Writer DEVIN GRAYSON recently sat down with the CBI-N to give us some more insight into her upcoming ongoing TITANS series with artist Mark Buckingham. In the following, which we're going to precede with a spoiler warning and space, Grayson for the first time discusses in detail the much speculated upon full team line-up (which she warns may be revealed in full in new DC house ads debuting this week), rumors surrounding the future of Vic Stone, the "leader issue", and other topics of reader speculation...

Grayson on the LINE-UP - "Nightwing, Flash, Troia (we were hoping to use the name 'Avatar,' but can't, for legal reasons), Arsenal, Tempest, Jesse Quick, Starfire, Damage, Argent, and Cyborg. Rumors that Vic will be called 'Robotman' are, at this time false. Cyborg and Troia may be changed down the line, but by down the line I mean WAY down the line. For at least the first year, that's what they'll be called. However, as you'll see at the end of JLA/Titans, Vic may be looking a little bit more like his Kingdom Come self."

"Titans #1 shows the original five deciding which five other members they would like to include (as well as explaining why they decide to reform the Titans), and the Titans Secret Files - also due out in January - depicts them actually approaching these characters about membership."

On HOW she made her LINE-UP choices - "I knew right away that I wanted to use the five originals - that was basically part of the deal going into the new series. But there was also an opportunity to pick a few more members, and with such a rich history of Titans providing so many wonderful characters to chose from, I decided, in effect, to let the characters themselves pick other characters. In other words, rather than grabbing up a few characters that I enjoyed (though actually, I do very much enjoy the ones we ended up with) and artificially crafting reasons as to why they might logically join the new team, I tried to think about the forming process the new team would go through, and how they might make those kinds of decisions on their own.

The two quasi-exceptions to that are Vic (Cyborg) and Toni (Argent)...Vic was kind of someone I really wanted, personally, to use. I always really loved reading about him, I didn't feel like his character arc ever got properly finished, and I really think that there's a pressing need to be more racially and culturally inclusive in mainstream comics. So in a sense, JLA/Titans was my 'artificially crafted' explanation for how he comes to be back in the fold. Argent is sort of a darling of Titans editor Eddie Berganza, who requested that I use her. She's proven to be quite a bit of fun, though, and I'm really warming to her as the scripting moves along.

Starfire, Jesse Quick, and Damage all came about very naturally as choices, and I was thrilled to find out they were available for this. Issue #1 goes into the selection process in detail, and will hopefully answer any remaining questions about the logic behind the choices.

On "SCREEN TIME" and possible conflict with other titles - "As for the 'screen time' structure of the team, despite concerns expressed by some Internet fans, we don't have many confining editorial restrictions concerning character use. Well, not concerning the AMOUNT of time we use them, at any rate - there are a lot of exciting story lines from other books these characters are in that we try to work with and weave in - or dodge (laughs) - as much as possible, and that is a challenge. But all the characters will pretty much get equal time. Different story lines and subplots concentrate more on different characters, but over the course of the year, everyone gets a chance to shine. Part of the major draw for me, too, in doing a book like this is the interactions between the characters, so I promise it's not a matter of having someone on the team in name only.

On the LEADERSHIP issue - "Again, I kind of left this up to the characters to decide for themselves, and the answer unfolds slowly during the first year's arc. Initially, Nightwing does sort of take point, but I bet most readers won't guess who takes over!"

On VILLAINS and GUEST STARS - "An all-new H.I.V.E. show up in issue #1, with a mysterious new backer who's identity won't be revealed for several issues. The front man for the group is a new character by the name of Damien Darhk. Do you know that humorous 'If I were an Evil Overload' chain email that goes around the Internet every now and then? Well, my main character note about Damien is that he's the villain who took that to heart. Superman guest-stars in issue #2, and the Titans meet a new villain called Goth in issue #3 (March). And a new, highly dangerous group led by Vandal Savage called 'Tartarus' begin getting together around issue #5."

On rumors surrounding the fate of GARFIELD - "Gar's fate is touched on in Titans Secret Files, which also come out in January. And readers will see more of his adventures some time next year, we're not trying to cut him out."