By Aimee Hart Published Sep 24, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT What to Watch When there’s trouble, you know who to call
Image: Cartoon Network Sign in to your Polygon.com account Add Us Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap If you’re a completionist, reading every superhero comic released by a studio like DC or Marvel can be daunting. Sure, there are reading guides and plenty of superheroes and villains to choose from, but deciding what to start with still feels insurmountable. The best advice we’ve always been given is to just start — and that doesn’t necessarily mean going straight to comics. In 2026, plenty of superhero media is available beyond the genre’s comic book origins.
That's been the case for most of the 21st century, as the superhero genre exploded off the page and onto screens of all sizes. And that's especially true in animation, which has always felt like a natural fit for the hand-drawn origins of our favorite heroes and villains. After the success of '90s cartoons about Batman and the X-Men , the medium expanded in the early 2000s with hit series Justice League and X-Men: Evolution . However, one superhero TV show stood out for highlighting teenage struggles while fighting crime, and it's streaming for free on Tubi.
Image: Cartoon Network/Warner Bros. Based on the original comic book created by writer Bob Haney and illustrator Bruno Premiani, Teen Titans follows five teenage heroes: Robin (Scott Menville), the cool and capable leader of the group; Starfire (Hynden Walch), an alien princess from the planet Tamaran; Raven (Tara Strong), a reserved girl who must keep her emotions in check; Cyborg (Khary Payton), a young cyborg with great strength and technological know-how; and Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), a shapeshifter who can transform into animals. Together they live in Jump City, where their headquarters—a T-shaped building called Titans Tower—is located. They battle villains who threaten the city.
For showrunner Glen Murakami, Teen Titans ' goal was twofold: make them cool and make them relatable.
The former was easy enough — what isn’t cool about an alien girl, a robot guy, a shape-shifting boy, a witch girl, and their gadget-packed leader, all living together in a superhero hideout with no parents involved? Add in a heavy Japanese anime influence to the animation style, allowing for exaggerated expressions that make our heroes' big personalities stand out even more, and you’ve got a winner. However, making them relatable meant deviating from a classic superhero trope: the secret identity.
It was really important to me that little kids watching it could identify with characters.
“It was really important to me that little kids watching it could identify with characters,” Murakami revealed in a 2004 interview with TitansTower , speaking about his inspiration for Teen Titans . “I thought that the minute you start giving them secret identities, then kids couldn't project themselves onto the characters anymore.”
It helps that the cast is made up of young adults. Murakami could focus on how Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven were teenagers who faced many of the same problems as other teens, superpowers notwithstanding. They still wanted to fit in with the everyday world and often felt frustrated when they couldn’t, either because of their powers or their ide…