#billy wu

What if Damian never ran? What if, at the end of everything—after the prison, after Djinn, after his team fell apart—Damian Wayne obeyed his father's command and returned to Gotham? But it doesn't last.

Bruce, tired of a son who doesn't seem to be able to bend, sends Damian to a small town no one's ever heard of, to a quieter, more discreet Titans Academy run by Dick Grayson. No costumes. No capes. Just a second chance he never asked for. But small towns have their own secrets. Those he would have met if he'd gone have managed to find their way into Damian's life, whether he wants it or not. ------ This fic is loosely inspired by Wind Breaker and Spy x Family, and takes place a few months after the end of Teen Titans (2016-2020).

Speed Force #6 - "Game Over (Continue…?)" (2024)

Titans West (a Post-Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths team)

Kid Flash aka Ace West & Wallace Rudulph West

R-iko aka Riko Sheridan

Power Girl aka Tanya Spears

Roundhouse aka Billy Wu & William Wu

Gorilla Gregg

Tress

Power Boy aka Matt Price

Thoughts: 

Kid Flash, Ace West, is primed to take center stage in his own book, and what better book than Titans West?  The Flashes have a tendency of being written as impulsive-support characters in the middle of a fight. Ace could approach the Speed Force a little differently; I’d like him to stand out. Instead of racing ahead of the team, he gets selected to lead his own team, which means he’ll have to learn to stand still and work on strategy. Using his super speed, Ace will be able to plan and pivot at the speed of lightning all while constantly coordinating with his team with split second precision.

Another angle I’d like to explore would be a Flash & Gorilla team-up. Gorilla Gregg has the same telepathic powers as his Uncle Grodd. Imagine Gregg in the field keeping the team in contact via psychic link. Imagine the types of things teenagers would probably want to keep private from their friends. Imagine the ways Gregg and Ace could potentially combine their powers; seven minds moving at the speed of light.

When I looked at R-iko’s wiki entry, the trivia listed a Fuefollet album cover on her bedroom wall. A real-world anecdote about me, I’m from South Louisiana and have listened to Cajun, Creole, Swamp Pop, and Zydeco music my whole life. Fuefollet is sort of a big deal for us and our cultural preservation attempts. Another fact about me, I work at a small TV station, KLFY, and in the past, we used to spotlight live local acts. Sometimes the only way for local bands to get recordings of their work, or well-lit photography of them playing, would be at our studio. Some album covers featured KLFY TV10 images in the background. Pressed vinyl got shipped around, some reaching as far as Japan where the band Zydeco Kicks found and fell in love with the music. The band has since visited the area and were excited to visit the station which they were very much aware of due to album covers. Anyway, I thought that was cool and now I feel connected to R-iko.

Power Girl needs a comeback. The more Super adjacent characters the better, so we don’t have to keep rebooting and convoluting the main cast. I think in the field Ace would call her PG.

I don’t know that much about Roundhouse other than he has a solid and easily recognizable design. Oh and I’ve always liked Bouncing Boy’s powers so...

Tress looks really fun to draw, and she’s a bit of a blank slate in terms of backstory and motivations so that’s cool. She’s like Marvel’s Medusa, DC’s Godiva, and Beast Boy all rolled into one.