| Titan | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Dark Horse Comics |
| First appearance | Comics Greatest World: Golden City Week 2 (Cameo) |
| Created by | Barbara Kesel Team CGW |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Frank Wells |
| Team affiliations | Alderwoman Faith Perdue, NSC, Golden Boy, Catalyst |
| Notable aliases | Mr. Red, White, and Blue |
| Abilities | flight, invulnerability, super-strength, super-speed, heightened endurance, imperviousness to pain, ability to return from the dead |
Titan (Frank Wells) was a Dark Horse Comics superhero. He first appeared in Comics' Greatest World: Golden City Week 3 (1993). He was created by Barbara Kesel and the other members of Team CGW. He was part of the Comics' Greatest World "16 issues, 16 weeks, 16 bucks" event.
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He first appeared in the third month of the event making a cameo appearance in Golden City Week 2 and featuring strongly in Golden City Weeks 3 and 4 (July/August 1993). He was then a regular character in Catalyst: Agents of Change issues 1 through 4 (February-May 1994). In June of that year, he starred in his own one shot. He was then the feature character in the Will To Power mini-series, which ran from June through August 1994.
Frank Wells was the son of a US Marine Sergeant. Sgt. Wells was physically and mentally abusive to both Frank and his mother. At a young age, Frank’s super-strength manifested and he began protecting his mother from his father’s abuse.[1]
He hated me for being different. In his mind I was better than he was. [2]
Eventually, Sgt. Wells was sent to ’Nam, where he was killed by a sniper.[3] The Wells family moved off the base into town, where the other kids bullied Frank. Over the years, the bullying grew steadily worse until high school. Frank stole a football uniform and ran onto the field during a game. Taking the ball, he plowed through the players on both sides, leaving a “trail of broken bodies littering the field [4].”
Never even looking back, Frank left town, eventually finding his way to Golden City and the woman known only as Amazing Grace. Almost immediately upon arrival, agents of Grace picked Frank up. He was put through a rigorous series of tests, greatly impressing everyone, from Grace to her top aids and scientists. Everyone that is except Madison:
You’re making a big mistake. I don’t think Frank here has the guts to do the job.[5]
Against Madison’s objections, Grace unveiled Frank as the American icon, Titan. He was eventually given a boy sidekick named Elmore Meyer AKA Golden Boy. However, on Golden Boy's first solo mission a villain captured Golden Boy, resulting in the loss of an eye and his being retired from duty (actually, Madison mind-wiped him so he would forget his time with Titan).
Despite this early setback, Titan proved himself over the next few years. However, eventually Grace finds other heroes and (at least in his mind) betrays Titan. This betrayal came in Grace’s announcement of “a new age for Golden City” and “a hero for that new age [6].” That hero was not Titan but newcomer Rebel.
When the super-villain and US government prisoner, Warmaker, escapes from The Vault, a super-prison located in Golden City, all the local heroes, including Titan, have to face him. While Titan is easily more powerful than Warmaker, he is overconfident and has no self-control.
Titan is near invulnerable but when the villain aims his wrist cannon at him, instead of taking the hit, Titan pushes Warmaker's arm causing damage to a skyscraper. This endangers the lives of both the people in the building and the pedestrians on the street below.
Later, after Grace has defeated Warmaker, Titan attacks him for no reason. Warmaker strikes Titan knocking him into Rhapsody, who falls and is killed.
Grace uses Warmaker's escape and the death of Rhapsody as an excuse to secede from the United States. The US attacks the city attempting to force Grace's surrender. She forms Catalyst: Agents of Change to defend the city. The team consists of Titan, Rebel, Ruby, Mecha, and Warmaker, who has made a deal with Grace in exchange for freedom.
Titan, along with Mecha and Warmaker, defends the city's food source, a wheat-field, from the US attack, while the rest of Catalyst protects the city itself, which the army is attacking with missiles.
The government then sends in Grenade, a cyborg soldier, to attack the heroes. When Catalyst defeats him, Grenade releases a radioactive cloud and then self-destructs.
Using public opinion (she had the fight televised on CNN), Grace is able to force a truce with the government, gaining independence for Golden City.
Later, Titan and Grace disagree over her motives leading to his resigning from the team to "find America."
After leaving Golden City, Titan discovers Tent City, a newly formed suburb of refugees trying to get into Grace's paradise. He then decides someone needs to champion the people and goes to join the National Security Council as a field agent.
If this country needs a hero to solve its problems, then I'm just the guy to do it. [7]
His first assignment puts him up against The Inhibitors, a group of genetically created super-powered creatures designed by Dr. Stanley Kirby and his own former sidekick Golden Boy.
The NSC then sends him to Arcadia to protect Congressman DeMarco from the vigilante X. X attacks the congressman and Titan chases him, confronting both Scream and Monster, before X convinces him he is a dupe for a drug lord.
Next, Titan is sent to Steel Harbor to quell the gang wars which have spilled out of the slums and into Castle Pointe, the home of Steel Harbor's elite. He faces down Mace Blitzkrieg’s Prime Movers before going completely over the edge. Now quite crazy, Titan faces the Wolf Pack, Counterstrike, and Motorhead, before Grace snatches him up and brings him back to Golden City.
Titan defeats Catalyst then flies to Cinnibar Flats to challenge Vortex. Titan’s rampage at the army base causes the deaths of many US soldiers, including Lt. Eileen Anderson, Vortex’s only human friend. Vortex is angered by the death and kills Titan.
After his death, Titan's body was taken by the government. They attempted to autopsy him but couldn't cut open his body due to its invulnerability. Suddenly, for unknown reasons, Titan's body went through some kind of change, becoming vulnerable. In that exact moment Special Agent Bert gained powers similar to Titan.
Titan has many of special powers that are commonly found in Superheroes, including the power of flight, super-strength, and a heightened ability to withstand pain. He is a hero in the mold of such archetypal characters as DC's Superman and Astro City's Samaritan.
Late in his career, Titan began to manifest more and stronger powers. Grace speculates that he has either "tapped into some new power source, or whatever was limiting him before has been stripped away"[8]. He becomes immune to Madison's mind control and his body becomes too dense for Grace to deconstruct and transport. Over the course of the Will To Power storyline he is constantly growing stronger and stronger. At one point he moves the Vortex force field, including everything within it.
Eventually, Titan is killed by the mystic King Tiger and is able to return from the dead.