Teen Titans was the bread and butter of many childhoods. Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven were probably the superheroes I got to know the most before entering the larger world comic book characters.
However, the TV show did not use the original comic book designs. Being targeted towards a younger audience, the characters had to be translated into a more cartoony animation style. The characters that looked more adult in the comics had to look a little cuter and more colorful. This has led to some of the character designs being successful, while their cute forms also kept them true to their old character designs.
There are also disappointments in the lot of updated characters. There are some that changed completely, making us lose the design that already worked and giving us someone who looks completely different. Teen Titans did like to keep itself somewhat serious, so another failure is when the characters end up looking too goofy.
Teen Titans Go! will not be discussed on this list, though it’s worth mentioning that they also have made their own character designs to keep characters as cute (and in some opinions, dumbed-down) as possible.
So below is a list of ten character designs done better and ten done worse from the Teen Titans cartoon television show.
20 Better: Starfire
In general, Starfire may have one of the prettiest character designs. It’s hard not to love her reddish-pinkish long locks and glowing green eyes. Her hair has much more proof in the comics. Her comic form also seems to really target the male gaze when it comes to her choice in outfits.
The Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon, like most of the main characters, looks much younger than her comic counterpart.
She is the tall and lanky one of the group. In fact, she is taller than Robin, isn’t she? That’s a nice touch since they are shown to have romantic interest in each other and almost all media makes the girl shorter than the boy if that’s the case.
Unlike in the comics, this Starfire is not drawn in very revealing attire. What she wears is still able to resemble and pay homage to her comic self. We get that resemblance in the purple colors and futuristic sci-fi style of how the clothes are cut.
Some versions of Starfire have orange-tinted or yellowish skin, giving her a more alien and fire-goddess look. Maybe the people in charge of the show decided that they didn’t want Starfire looking too alien.
We can definitely say this Starfire is the cutest-looking of the Teen Titan squad.
Art was done by Chillguydraws.
19 Worse: Pantha
What in the world happened to Pantha?
The Pantha known from DC comics looks nothing like her Teen Titans cartoon version. Her comic self was far more cat-like. Her whole background centered on the fact that she could not remember who she was before she was mutated. Was she a woman or a panther? Either could be believed due to her character design.
Pantha from the Teen Titans cartoon has only one cat-like feature: a mask. It’s not an everyday sort of mask either, but a lucha libre wrestler mask. She’s basically a wrestler with super-human strength.
Having powers makes more sense for someone with a woman-panther mutation design rather than just someone super good at wrestling. The design is way less interesting to look at in the show compared to the comic version. Maybe the writers thought kids were into lucha libre at the time? Maybe they weren’t wrong, since we also had cartoons like ¡Mucha Lucha! at the time. We also don’t see female wrestlers often enough in cartoons, so that is refreshing.
Still the character’s look fails hard compared to her fierce DC comic design. She went from a feral and feminine mutant to just a woman in a mask. The mask isn’t even interesting either, it’s pretty plain.
18 Better: Slade (Deathstroke)
Slade was the big bag of Teen Titans and he was good at making himself memorable. The combination of his wonderful voice acting, his lines, and his design all really nailed down a powerful character.
The body suit, armor, and mask give him a scary look. The best touch is that we never got to see what he looked like in the Teen Titans cartoon. There was a time the dark side of his mask was taken off in a battle. We only got to see the silhouette of his head, which was cool and I’m glad they didn’t reveal too much.
Speaking of revealing too much, we did get to see his face in Teen Titans Go!, but we recommend avoiding that, since a big part of what makes Slade work so well as a villain is that mask.
Slade is actually Deathstroke from the DC Comic universe.
The cartoon adaptation just kept the name as Slade (Deathstroke is his alias), because being called Deathstroke the Terminator was decided to be too much for a kid’s cartoon.
The character design between DC comics’ Deathstroke and Teen Titans’ cartoon‘s Slade have a lot in common. I think the TV show may have even done him the best, as he’s far more sleek, metal, and intimidating than the warmer and simple bodysuit of the DC comic.
17 Worse: Cyborg
Fate wasn’t on the animation team’s side when it came to Cyborg’s design for the Teen Titans cartoon. It is difficult to design a half-man and half-machine character that looks cool, but can still be expressive.
The team who created Cyborg’s cartoon design were in the right when their main focus was to make him more expressive than focus on the cool aspects of a half robot body. Since it’s a kid’s cartoon and the show wanted to have a lot of heart, a more human focus made sense.
However, the fact that he could not both be expressive and a super cool robot is why he is in the worse category. If you look at some of the comic art, he looks amazing in battle! His arms and chest come apart and show all these wires, tubes, and details that the cartoonists would not have been able to handle in a TV show. The TV show’s version’s laser arm may be cool from a kids’ perspective, but the comics are definitely a step ahead on the robotic details.
It’s no matter though, since Cyborg is a lovable character. I even remember the episode where he turned human again for a while and had to explain how much he missed it since he was an athlete and could become stronger, while as a robot he had more limits in strength.
16 Better: Beast Boy
Kids love animals and goofiness, which made Beast Boy a major fan favorite out of the cartoon team. This design presents Beast Boy as younger and less mature than his DC comic self. Then again, he has a simple design! He’s a green boy who can shapeshift! That’s pretty hard to mess up.
The little details the animation team gave the cartoon Beast Boy were great. The “cute little fang” trope made sense for Beast Boy to look a little more animal-like. Not only did they put that trope in for his design, but they flipped it around to give him a cute bulldog sort of look.
One fact about the “cute little fang” trope is that it’s been way overdone. At least for those who watch anime, as the “cute little fang” trope is typically used for women. It’s a trait that has been used on cute “moe” characters and tough “tsundere” characters. Beast Boy’s fang came out way before we started noticing a waterfall of “cute little fangs” in anime though. Also he’s a boy who doesn’t fit into the moe or tsundere mold, so that’s refreshing.
Also the elf ears are great (elf ears are never wrong).
15 Worse: Jinx
So what could be wrong with this design? She has hair like Maleficent’s horns from Sleeping Beauty…and it’s pink! That’s adorable and something I haven’t seen before.
However, the cartoon Jinx is a whitewashed version of DC comics’ Jinx, who is an Indian sorceress. Indian Jinx has no physical trait in common with the cartoon’s Jinx. She wore a lot of golden jewelry and white clothes. Her skin was dark and she had no hair.
Her abilities also differed greatly between the comics and cartoon. Jinx from the cartoon has bad-luck themed abilities, while the Jinx from the comics uses elemental magic.
On her own, Jinx seems like a cool character design. Once I looked at the original comic version of her though…I have a lot of questions. The comic character definitely had more revealing clothes, but you don’t the change the color of a character’s skin to make them more kid friendly, so this adaptation of the character is definitely in the worse category.
I heard rumors that the comic’s Jinx was not the best representation of Indian culture, so the cartoon’s Jinx was an opportunity where they could’ve fixed that. Instead we just got a witch and goth aesthetic. Some argue she has gray skin, so that isn’t white-washing. It is though; it’s lightening a dark person’s skin. Due to that, Jinx is definitely one of the worst designs on this list.
14 Better: Terra
The comparison between DC comics’ Terra and the Teen Titans cartoon version is similar to the difference between the Starfires. Terra is basically a younger version in the cartoon and it can be believable that she’d grow into the woman from the comics.
The DC comic Terra is an adult with short blonde hair and that’s basically the only design difference. For differences can be found though in the characters’ behavior. For example, since Terra is an adult in the comics, her relationship with Slade is physical rather than the father-daughter relationship shown in the show
In the show, Terra is shown as a very complex villain. Her relationship with Beast Boy makes her teeter on the edge between good and evil. Her inner struggle is what made her a very memorable character. However in the comics, she is shown as irredeemable and psychopathic. The writers’ choice to make Terra more complex was certainly a welcome change, as it brought more complexity and emotion into the cartoon. Many fans were attached to her story, constantly waiting for more episodes about her character and waiting for her to not be a statue anymore.
Also it’s easy to make geo and rock-based powers look dumb, but the animation team for this cartoon did an excellent job making them look cool and intimidating.
13 Worse: Gizmo
Like Jinx, Gizmo has some significant differences between his cartoon and comic self. First and most noticeably of all, he’s a pint-sized adult man in the comics, not a teenager. His adult self has rocked different facial hair looks from just mustaches to beards. I guess we won’t get that aesthetic from a kid.
Like Batman and Iron Man, one of his superpowers is just being rich! Who needs destiny and powers when you just have a ton of money? Is it just me or are pint-size boy geniuses way overdone? We already have Jimmy Newtron and Dexter. Why make Gizmo fit into that same mold?
Maybe statistics showed that kids at that time liked small boy geniuses?
Compared to the other Teen Titans cartoon designs, Gizmo falls flat. We’ve seen little boy genius’ before! If you exclude the small part, we’ve seen evil boy geniuses in cartoons too, like Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown and his character design was way more creative looking. It’s disappointing since Gizmo was known to make more appearances than other villains throughout the show’s seasons. He’s the only villain to make an appearance in all five seasons.
Gizmo is on the worst list because of the overused boy genius trope being done with a boring character design.
12 Better: Raven
With her dark powers and mysterious and cautious personality, Raven was definitely a fan favorite of the cartoon Teen Titans. With her popularity, her design also become so popular that there are rumors that the comics tried to make their Raven look a little more like the cartoon one.
They cartoon kept her costume the same and why wouldn’t they? Raven without her cloak and dark colors would be like macaroni without cheese. The DC comic Raven has black hair while the cartoon one has purple hair. The color choice made sense for the kids show to have more pop and interesting hues without being overdone.
What made Raven such an interesting character in Teen Titans was how she had to suppress emotions due to its influence over her powers. This made her seem distant and cold to her friends despite seeing them has family. She is also arguably the most powerful one of the group, as we see when she defeats her own horrifying monster father when no one else on the team could.
In the DC comics, she has a romantic relationship with Beast Boy. The cartoon did not forget this detail, and made her and Beast Boy’s relationship show hints of a love and respect for each other despite his constant goofiness and her seriousness.
11 Worse: Mammoth
Like Cyborg’s character design, the animators were at a disadvantage with Mammoth. He’s a character who is defined by his size and muscles. With a character who is very physically defined by their powers, it does take special work to make sure you show how massive, capable, and scary they are by showing them at the right angles and with the right shadows.
Mammoth in the cartoon is just big and that doesn’t work.
Big arms but no muscles do not display any power to get viewers excited about. For all we know, they are just fat arms! The DC comics succeeded in putting shadows around his arms to show off the muscles. They also made his hair much more wild, which is a very simple way to hint at a more physical attacker. Even in panels where you look down on his character, he still manages to look frightening. They are amazing at making his gaze look as fierce as his muscles.
The cartoon team sought to make their characters look more child friendly, but Mammoth’s design got too dumbed down. With him in a squad with Jinx and Gizmo, they all make a team of dumbed down DC characters.
10 Better: Bumblebee
Thank goodness this character did not face the same sort of whitewashing Jinx did, especially since she is DC’s first African American female superhero. She even looks better in the cartoon due to her outfit change.
The outfit is probably the biggest difference between the cartoon and DC comic Bumblebee. In the comics, she wears a bodysuit of black and yellow designs. They don’t really give you a bumblebee-vibe. Wasps are also black and yellow and she’s not Wasp from Marvel!
In the Teen Titans’ cartoon though, she resembled her namesake more because she actually has stripes on her shirt like a bumblebee would. But to make matters more confusing, her powers are more like Wasp’s than Bumblebee from the comics. She can shrink into a bug-like size, fly, and shoot electric blasts. Bumblebee from the comics used her suit for her shrinking power. In fact, her helmet and googles also had various functions that were useful in battle. Cartoon Bumblebee has no goggles, special suit, or helmet.
A more subtle reveal to her namesake is her pigtails. They are fluffy and fun looking, like a bumblebee! Though something that made comic Bumblebee so interesting was that she got stuck in small size and had to live in a dollhouse. She certainly had her weaknesses.
9 Worse: Argent
Don’t these look like two completely different characters? One looks alien and the other looks like a Hot Topic customer. The comic version looks alien because she is half-alien. Her powers are silver while the cartoon version has red energy.
Different is not necessarily bad, but the cartoon version of Argent looks like a goth Bratz doll! Rumor has it that she was supposed to look like Nico Minoru from The Runaways, but I don’t see it. Also why even make her look like someone else? The Runaways popularity at the time may be the reason, but it falls flat when it’s a character that has no business looking like Nico when she’s Argent!
In the DC comics, her silver skin is iconic and shows off her alien heritage.
In the cartoon, her skin looks like Jinx’s, so that’s no longer a unique trait. They also made the cartoon version from New Zealand, but gave her a British accent. The show did not really go into Argent’s backstory, and why would they when she no longer looks half-alien and is suddenly from New Zealand? It begs the question why the writers picked New Zealand. Maye there were a lot of New Zealand fans?
8 Better: Aqualad
The cartoon version of Aqualad is known for being handsome and he looks far more handsome and unique than his comic counterpart.
A big trait that makes the cartoon’s Aqualad’s character design better is the hair. While the comic version of Aqualad had short hair, the cartoon styled his to be long. If you have someone underwater in an animation, a good character design would usually include long hair since part of the fun is seeing that hair gain a life of its own in the water. It’s also a good way to show how wet his character still is when he is out of the water. In the cartoon, when he is on land, his hair is always slicked back to show that he’s wet.
Secondly, his garb change is welcome. At the time of the show, Aqualad’s character would have not been taken seriously if he kept his speedo on. The cartoon’s Aqualad wears a wetsuit similar to what scuba divers wear. The dark blue colors give him a cooler look than the classic superhero red that he wore in the comics.
With trendy updates like that to his design, who can blame Starfire and Raven for their crushes on this Atlantian?
7 Worse: Brother Blood
With a name like Brother Blood, you better be prepared to create a character design that can illicit fear and intimidation.
In the DC comics, we actually have a couple individuals who have held the title of Brother Blood, as it’s not an individual but the title of a high priest in the Church of Blood. The villain dates back to the 1980s, so for fairness this is a comparison between the two Brother Bloods that existed between 2003 and 2006 while the Teen Titans cartoon aired.
While the cartoon aired, DC comics had Sebastian Blood IX and he looked like a monster! His images are caked in red hues. He wears dragon and skull-like helmets that are fitting of a cult leader.
In the cartoon, Brother Blood looks like he can be someone’s dad or like a school teacher. His name is Brother Blood and that’s not supposed to be a subtle statement! The writers probably noticed how much he looked like a school teacher and thus made him the head of the villain academy in the cartoon. Instead of being a cult leader like he is in the comics, he actually does take on a school teacher role for the younger villains of the show like Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo. But his name is Brother Blood! That’s a cult leader’s name hands down!
6 Better: The Brain
It’s not easy to make a disembodied brain intimidating, but I think the Teen Titans cartoon took up the challenge and made a design that works. There is a skull-like design for both brains, but the cartoon one definitely has a more sinister look than its comic counterpart. The design succeeds due to the darker tones, glowing red eyes, and eye shape.
The eye shape of the DC comics’ version looks like the eyes of someone who is being tickled. The artists gave it cheekbones and that left it with an almost playful look. The all white color doesn’t offer anything. The lack of a paint job and the eyes of the skull make it look like an unfinished character design.
The Brain is a genius scientist though, so why would he care about a paint job when there is so much evil to be doing? Then again, where did he get that jar? Why does it look like a skull? Was it going to be a case for something else? Was it going to be a weapon? Or did he get it after his disembodiment?
5 Worse: Robot Man
Robot Man did not look like a robot in the Teen Titans cartoon. He looks like a golem made of stone and clay. Who looks at that design and thinks robot? He’s just big, brown, and clunky looking!
Despite being a robot, Robot Man isn’t silver in the DC comics, but he’s gold! That’s the interesting about his brown color in the cartoon. Did they try to make him gold but fail? He looks more copper than gold.
The shape of his cartoon version is also an issue. It’s like the artists tried to make him seem strong through size rather than the quality of his robotics. Size is for flesh people and Robot Man doesn’t need size! It made sense with Cyborg, but he’s not part man and part machine like Cyborg, aas he’s a human brain in a robot body.
And why does a Robot Man have a severe bulldog-level under-bite? That under-bite design is typical for characters that are all brawn and no brains like Mammoth. Robot Man shouldn’t be a Mammoth-like character though. It leaves little room for empathetic expression, which is a poor trait for a hero you want your audience to cheer for. Nice golem design, but that is not DC’s Robot Man.
4 Better: Trigon
In terms of Raven’s evil demon father, Trigon, the makers of the Teen Titans cartoon recognized that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. He looked scary and gorgeous on screen just like he did on the pages of DC comic books.
They kept everything that made him cool: the antlers, the glowing four eyes, the fangs, the blood red skin, the huge body, the pointed ears, and the long white hair. The satanic look of the comic version of the villain was translated perfectly to the TV screen. I actually even think they even made his look better in the cartoon.
The horns actually look more delicate in the show than in the comics. In most comics, his antlers are more like ram horns to make him devil-like. I think the delicate deer-like look makes him more other-worldly.
The dark markings on his red skin got rid of blank, boring, and plain space on his design. They define his body shape more too since they curve around his shoulders and chest.
Trigon’s eyes also glowed. The cartoon was good at glowing eyes as a sign of power. Raven, Starfire, and Terra are examples of this. It’s cliché now, but as a kid, it sent shivers down my spine!
3 Worse: General Immortus
General Immortus may look old, but he’s an evil tactical expert and is immortal. Believe it or not, the man is far more ancient than he looks. Besides his brain, experience, and immortality though, he does not have any special abilities. He is wealthy, so he is able to maintain an army of humans and robots. Little is known about his past in the TV show, but from the comics, we learn that he gained immortality due to the discovery of a special and rare chemical.
In the cartoon of Teen Titans, he looks like a goth turtle. The dark lines around his eyes are thick and his lips are black! It looks like he’s wearing goth make-up! On some angles, the forehead wrinkles on his forehead look more like stripes.
In the DC comics, Immortus sometimes still looks turtle-like due to his age, but he has never looked as bad as he has on the TV show.
On good days in the comics, he has straightened his back a bit, wears some fancy clothes, and gives off a dignified air. On a good day in the cartoon, I think he eats his own lips and shuts his eyes to hide his eyeliner.
2 Better: Cheshire
This update to the character felt pretty creative to me.
Cheshire, also-known-as Jade Nguyen, is a Vietnamese villainess known for her martial arts, poisons, and acrobatics. In the comics, her character design is definitely targeted for a young adult and mature male audience. She’s drawn for the male gaze, often wearing very short and tight clothes. In other words, she was a very typical looking female design in the comic world.
The cartoon version decided to make her more mysterious and inhuman by giving her a mask with the famous Cheshire Cat-like grin. Her long sleeves are great for hiding what she could possibly have in her hands. Is it poison? Daggers? Poisonous daggers? You won’t know until she gets to you. She even uses her long sleeves and long pig-tails as whips! How cool and creative is that? If that’s not enough, Chesire gets metal claws and is acrobatic enough to run on all fours like some monster animal. She was a very fun character to watch in a fight.
She was not completely erased from her origins either. Behind the mask, she could still be exactly like the Jade Nguyen from the comics.
1 Worse: Mad Mod
This villain is also known as Neil Richards in the DC comics. He was a fashion designer but also a criminal who sold illegal chemicals and would soak them into his clothing fibers to get them around sneakily. In the cartoon though, he is more of a hypnotist. A little bit of an odd change.
Even in the comics, this guy was a walking and talking British stereotype. In the cartoon however, they stepped on the British stereotype gas pedal. He already had ginger hair, but the cartoon decided to top it off with bad teeth, a posh accent, and a shirt with the British flag. He looks like a reject from The Beatles.
To make him even more posh, he carries a staff. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the writers had the poor man recite “God Save the Queen” with how they’ve designed him! He even wears a crown a couple times, as some call-out to the English monarchy! The amount of British stereotyping in cartoons is crazy. We already have a problem with giving many villains a thick British or Russian accent. Did the cartoonists really have to take it so far?
