The Top 10 TEEN SUPERHERO TEAMS of All Time
Breakfast (Super) Club
1 of 12Young people will someday takeover the world - and over the world of comic books media is in the middle of an increasingly-apparent youth revolution.With TV shows and movies featuring the Teen Titans, New Mutants, New Warriors, Runaways, Cloak & Dagger, and more in the works, it’s pretty clear – teen superhero teams are in.
But who are the greatest teen teams ever? You’ll have to read on to find out.
Here’s our list of the ten greatest teen superhero teams of all time!
Power Pack
2 of 12OK, so most of the team weren't technically "teens" when Power Pack started, but we're counting them anyway, since the characters have since done some growing up.Alex, Katie, Jack, and Julie Power all received incredible abilities when a member of the alien Kymellian race bestowed his wondrous abilities on the kids, granting them the power to save their parents, and the world.
It may sound a little silly, but the popularity of the Power Pack was nothing to sneeze at back in the day. With a series running for 62 issues, the Power Pack were bona fide Marvel stars, even landing a failed TV pilot. Rumors and speculation still persist that the fan favorite Power Pack will receive a new movie, or perhaps animated series.
Cloak & Dagger
3 of 12OK, so there are only two of them, but that counts as a team, right?When teen runaways (not to be confused with our next entry) Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson ran afoul of some chemists creating a special synthetic heroin for the Maggia, they were injected with the drug awakening their latent mutant powers.
While their history has since gotten complicated, Cloak & Dagger remain fan-favorite characters, despite not having carried an ongoing series in many years. Still, for many fans, their sporadic appearances, usually part of larger events, are a welcome treat.
Fans who have missed Cloak & Dagger have something to look forward to, as a will premiere in the next year on Freeform.
Runaways
4 of 12It's hard to find a better example of a cult favorite than the Runaways. Even though they haven't formally been a team - or had a title - for several years, they are always one of the first properties fans ask about when they get in front of Marvel's creators. So much so that Marvel brought back a revised Runaways book for Secret Wars.And why not? There's something inherently compelling about the group of teens (and younger kids) whose parents formed a secret supervillain cabal. Though it's been a while since they've all been together, the impending premiere of the Hulu Runaways - and some recent teasers from Marvel - give hope that Marvel Comics will re-focus on the group.
New Mutants
5 of 12There's a tradition in the X-Men universe of young mutants assembling into super teams that goes all the way back to the original five X-Men. And while the X-Men have continuously welcomed teen heroes into their ranks, in the '80's, a new class of mutant heroes, appropriately called the New Mutants, were brought together at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.While the original five may have paved the way, it's the New Mutants who solidified the tradition of new classes of mutants making up the school's roster every few years. And while the New Mutants originally lasted less than a decade before leaving the school to become X-Force, their legacy has remained, seeing many young mutant teams form under the banner of Xavier's school.
And of course, there's the New Mutants film in development at Fox, with a script done and casting underway.
Gen 13
6 of 12Wildstorm's Gen 13 is perhaps the epitome of the 1990's artist-driven title. Featuring five young heroes in their late teens, Gen 13 was sexy, super hip (well, 'Grunge' was very hip then), and substantially more open with its subject matter than the kind of teen hero books DC and Marvel were publishing at the time.While the series ended some years ago after WildStorm was bought by DC, several of the characters - notably Caitlin Fairchild - have appeared in DC's "New 52."
Now that DC has moved on to Rebirth and the relaunch of WildStorm proper is underway, there's more of a chance now than ever that Gen 13 could return.
Marvel Family
7 of 12Captain Marvel may be an adult (sort of), but his alter ego is decidedly a teenager. Billy Batson is usually portrayed as being somewhere between 13 and 16-years-old, and his younger sister Mary Marvel, and companion Freddie Freeman, A.K.A. Captain Marvel, Jr. are even younger, with their alter egos maintaining their youthful qualities.Sure, the team eventually expanded to include the much older Uncle Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels, but the iconic threesome have always been shown as young teenagers. Shazam, as he's now solely known, hasn't appeared in DC's Rebirth, but promo art for the relaunch showed a S.H.A.Z.A.M. team similar to the one from the alternate Flashpoint universe.
Legion of Super-Heroes
8 of 12Hailing from countless worlds across DC's universe, the Legion of Super-Heroes are more than a team - they're a family. With roster numbers reaching into the thirties, it's almost pointless to name them all here.But the 31st century team started with the original trio of Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad, three teen heroes who saved the life of intergalactic billionaire R.J. Brande, and began a legacy that would follow them into adulthood.
While it's been decades since the team were technically teens, they still started out as youngsters, even traveling back in time to recruit possibly the greatest teen hero of them all, Superboy.
Original X-Men
9 of 12The five original X-Men may have languished in their initial run - it's hard to call Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's much-overlooked original run much of a success - but the teen mutants did give rise to an entire Marvel dynasty.The original team, composed of Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman, and Marvel Girl were high school aged youngsters, and while they did grow to adulthood - something rare for comic book characters - they did craft a legacy of teen heroism that carries through to the X-Men today, with countless younger members often filling the team's ranks.
Of course, the original five have also found their way into the modern day, still in their teenage forms, thanks to the power of time travel, so they're still relevant to this day.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
10 of 12The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may not be the first thing you think of when the concept of "teen superheroes" comes up - but maybe they should be. After all, it's right there in the name.Sure, these four mutant brothers may be unorthodox superheroes, but they're heroes nonetheless. Originally created as a homage and parody of Daredevil, their superheroic roots are undeniable.
Also undeniable is the power of their phenomenon, which has spawned hundreds of comics, toys, several TV shows, and even a host of feature films since their inception in the '80's.
New/Teen Titans
11 of 12The greatest teen team of all.The Teen Titans started out in the 1960's, with the "fab five" sidekicks of DC's biggest heroes banding together to fight crime - and forge a bond that would last into adulthood.
While Robin, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Aqualad, and Kid Flash may have all grown into more adult roles, they formed the core of the Teen Titans well past their teen years. Even into the era of the seminal New Teen Titans, these five were mainstays, even banding together simply as the Titans and dropping the "teen" all together when they became adults.
Like the X-Men, the Teen Titans are more than just five youngsters. While the original team may have set the standard for the "junior Justice League" template that so many teen teams have followed, it's the numerous rosters of teen heroes that have banded together under the Titans banner over the years that makes them so special.
With Rebirth, two series were needed to encapsulate the team's legacy, with Teen Titans featuring younger characters alongside mainstays such as Beast Boy and Raven, and Titans reuniting several of the original team members including Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, and the original Wally West.