Future State: Teen Titans #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFuture State: Teen Titans #1 marks the first physical appearance of Red X in DC print comics — a character who had existed exclusively in animation for nearly two decades. Born in the 2003 Teen Titans animated series as a cover identity for Robin and later reimagined as an independent mystery figure in 2004's 'X' episode, Red X had become one of animation's most discussed unsolved character mysteries. Bringing him into the main DC comics universe — with his identity still deliberately unrevealed — allowed Tim Sheridan to bridge two generations of Teen Titans fandom: longtime readers of the Wolfman/Pérez era and viewers who grew up with the Cartoon Network series. The issue also directly seeded the launch of Teen Titans Academy, functioning as a dark-future prologue that established the stakes and characters for that ongoing series.
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The issue was part of DC's Future State event, a two-month, line-wide publishing initiative that ran in January and February 2021. Future State was itself the salvaged creative output of the cancelled '5G' initiative — then-publisher Dan DiDio's ambitious plan for a permanent generational handoff of DC's hero mantles — repurposed after DiDio's departure into a showcase of possible, non-canonical futures. Writer Tim Sheridan, at the time known primarily for animated DC films, was given access to the classic New Teen Titans roster by editor Mike Cotton and brought in artist Rafa Sandoval for what would become an audition of sorts for their shared ongoing title. The same Sheridan-Sandoval team launched Teen Titans Academy #1 the following March, making this two-issue Future State series a deliberate creative on-ramp to that book.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comics appearance of Red X, a character previously existing only in the 2003–2006 Teen Titans animated series and its successor Teen Titans Go!
- Written by Tim Sheridan; pencils by Rafa Sandoval; inks by Jordi Tarragona; colors by Alejandro Sánchez; letters by Rob Leigh; edited by Mike Cotton.
- Published January 12, 2021, with a cover date of March 2021; a 22-page story in 32 total pages, rated Teen.
- First appearances of new student characters Matt Price, Megabat (unnamed), and Miguel Montez — all depicted as deceased in flashback, illustrating the scope of the disaster that destroyed Titans Academy.
- Introduces 'Cybeast,' a merged fusion entity combining Cyborg and Beast Boy, who play a key role in the plan to recover the Spear of Destiny and confront the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- The issue received at least two additional printings/covers: a 2nd printing, a standard variant edition, and a Wonder Woman 1984 promotional variant edition.
- Part of the larger DC Future State line-wide event (January–February 2021), which grew out of the cancelled 5G generational-relaunch initiative; the event was framed as depicting possible, non-canonical futures rather than a permanent new status quo.
- The issue was intentionally structured as a dark-future prologue to Teen Titans Academy #1 (March 2021), with the same creative team of Sheridan and Sandoval carrying directly into that ongoing series.
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Reprinted in Future State: Teen Titans - Ruins #[nn] (2021), Future State: Suicide Squad #[nn] (2021)
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