E27 Journal: The Brat Pack

Every Family has their black sheeps, even crimefighting families.

Who are the "Brat Pack"? That's the nickname given to any member of the Titans' second generation who had the sponsoring of an already established mentor.

Originally, this included Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El (aka: Karen Kent, aka: Supergirl), Batman's adopted son Jason Todd (aka: Robin) and his friend Helena Bertinelli (aka: Batgirl), Green Arrow's adopted son Roy Harper (aka: Speedy), Icon's protege Raquel Ervin (aka: Rocket), and Wonder Woman's sister Donna Troy (aka: Wonder Girl); but the term was also later applied to Aquaman's proteges Aqualad and Aquagirl (Garth & Tula), Green Arrow's younger sister Thea Queen (Arrowette), and Atom's students Karen Beecher (Bumblebee) and Malcolm Duncan (Herald).

The Titans of the second generation came together after the first team disbanded after the loss of Terra. Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen believed in the Titans program but did not have the time to fully develop it so they agreed to allow a new group of sidekicks start their own program, trying to pick up the pieces of the last group. Right off the bat, the Brat Pack was born as Karen, Jason, Helena, Roy, Racquel, and Donna were the first ones to move into the Tower, joining Beast Boy and Raven who still lived there.

First thing after moving in, the new Titans decided to hold try outs. The last group of Titans had limited their ranks to six, but only because they sort of assumed the Justice League needed to place new members into the program. As befitting their personalities, the Brat Pack did not ask for permission and just set out on their own thing.

After tryouts, they had three new members: Rose Wilson, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold. There were a few other wannabes that gave it a shot, but even the Brat Pack didn't feel comfortable with letting this sort join something which could get actually get them killed. It was shortly after this that a noticeable clique formed in the ranks and Blue Beetle was the one who coined the term "Brat Pack" as he noticed the trend of when something going wrong he and Booster got scolded harsher than the others or it was assumed they had been responsible (which may have been true most of the time, but not always).

While Rose never let scolding bother her, Booster and Beetle decided to get their own mentor... and so in their off-time, they began schmoozing up different Justice Leaguers. Booster really wanted to be a Green Lantern while Beetle hoped Batman was interested in having some more. In the end, they moved to Hub City and shadowed the Question around and while he may have taught them some valuable lessons, they were a bit disappointed to find out he had no interest in coming to their defense when it was disciplinary hearing time.

The clique was pretty much restricted to that sense. Beetle and Booster were not shunned by any means and got up to just as much mischief (or more) than the others. Some of the notable antics that the Gen-Two Titans were known for included Roy and Jason breaking into the Hall of Justice to street race the back-up Arrow Rod and Batmobile through Washington DC, the boys sneaking into the girls' locker room and Karen retaliating by X-Ray visioning her male classmates and telling gal pals in the Titans who was the "least impressive", a Red Kryptonite influenced Karen making out with Donna while on a late night talk show, Beetle and Booster doing a bunch of commercial advertisements, Booster selling space on his uniform, Rose had a number of arrests for underage drinking or public indecency, and Helena & Raquel had habit of flipping off papparazzi or news cameras and had quite the potty mouth on live TV on many occasions.

Beast Boy and Raven were mostly not part of any major scandals themselves, caught up in their own teen romance at the time; but they were part of many group activities like some wild parties that the Titans hosted in the Tower, some racy social media photos, and the media had a field day when it was rumored that Raven had led the team into hell.

Eventually, as the ranks grew to include the Aquakids, Hawks, and so forth, the Titans bonded more as a whole but the Brat Pack term stuck around as a shorthand reference to those with mentors.

When the Hawks joined up, they reined in the team at first but even their immortal souls gave way to teenage hormones and they had a number of scandals, usually involving the two expressing their eternal love for one another at inappropriate times. Thea had a notorious drug problem in her personal life and it threatened her dual identity many times when Arrowette was photographed swiping drugs off dealers she had just caught or getting high in a back alley while in costume. And of course, the Atlanteans were no exception to scandal. Tula and Garth were both photographed skinny-dipping (though they both claimed they were bathing in the Atlantean fashion) and they were known for makign derogatory remarks toward "surfacers" and having controversial (some say barbaric) political opinions.

As a whole, the Titans of this generation were media superstars and were adored by teenagers and young adults while lawmakers called them bad role models and comedians made them the butt of jokes. Reacting to this, the Justice League decided that the Titans needed more chaperones and so the practice started of a Justice Leaguer pulling Tower duty started, in addition to the already established regular chaperone Red Tornado (whose behavior was also seemingly affected by the Titans who taught the digital lifeform some interesting new personality quirks that the League did not find amusing).

Eventually, Cyborg decided that the Justice League wasn't the right fit for him and he went back to spending most of his time at Titans' Tower and so the Justice League decided to appoint Victor Stone as headmaster of the Titans program. At first, Vic just wanted to be one of the Titans himself but he realized that these kids needed a leader. Clashing with his authority, Jason spent less time at the Tower and more time in Gotham, causing him to take on his private investigation without assistance... and paid the price.

With the death of Jason Todd, the Brat Pack dissolved within months. Only Raquel remained to finish out the program from the original members of their clique.

But Jason didn't stay dead and though he is different and changed, the Brat Pack followed Jason's example and sprung back to life. The Brat Pack and the Gen 2 Titans as a whole have a seasonally held tradition of getting together for a wild party. These parties used to be held on the rooftop of Titans Tower but Victor Stone put an end to that, so now they meet at Ted or Karen's penthouse, crash the Fortress of Solitude, or even once had a week long camping trip in a remote part of the wilderness areas of Themyscira. Recently, they have taken to recapturing the recklessness of their youth with these parties and favor the idea of holding them somewhere they shouldn't. Rumor is their next party might be in the Watchtower itself.