Out of all of DC's series that have launched since the New 52, there are three (including relaunches of the same series) that have consistently sat in the bottom of the barrel: Suicide Squad, Teen Titans, and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Given that these three franchises are still ongoing, it would seem that DC at least considers them staples of the DCU, and yet they will have no problem leaving them in the hands of fill-in writers. Suicide Squad was a critically acclaimed series under John Ostrander, and has a heavily hyped up film adaptation in the works. Teen Titans was DC's premier series for a long time, having been written under the pens of Marv Wolfman and Geoff Johns, and still has a strong brand presence where animation is concerned. Red Hood is considered a member of the Batfamily (despite never having a competently written series unlike the others), and Arsenal was a prominent character on a popular TV series. Surely DC can do better. So what writers (excluding big names like Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder) would be well-suited to salvage these three disasters?

Suicide Squad is probably the one series out of the three to actually have a good writer at one point (Ales Kot), but that run lasted all of four issues, and ended before it could really take off. The various other writers in that rolodex seemed to miss the point of Suicide Squad in the first place, treating it as a revolving door of big name villain cameos, or simply didn't care and just used it to take shots at DC's editorial. Other than bringing Ales Kot back, I think Tom King would make an excellent fit, even though he has a big workload coming up. King is a huge talent find for DC, and he knows how to weave an intricate and morally complex storyline. And he doesn't pull his punches when it comes to character deaths. He's willing to pull D-list characters out of the woodwork to make them relevant, and he already has his toes dipped in the "shady organizations" corner of the DCU.

For Teen Titans, Brendan Fletcher might be the answer. He already has his name associated with a number of books aimed at bring in new readers from a younger demographic, and Teen Titans is traditionally that sort of "gateway" comic. More importantly, Teen Titans has always emphasized the camaraderie between mismatched young heroes growing up in a world of superheroes and supervillains, and Fletcher's shown in Gotham Academy and Black Canary that he can handle those types of character interactions. Fletcher should be able to inject Teen Titans with a sense of youth without sounding like an out-of-touch old man. Pair him with an artist with a unique style.

For Red Hood/Arsenal, the solution is simple: get a writer whose talent isn't just turning in scripts early. In theory, Red Hood/Arsenal/Outlaws could be a fun, action-packed popcorn flick with likeable anti-heroes. In practice, it's a vehicle for Lobdell to incessantly drone on and on about nothing, while one-dimensional characters run around and talk about all the action that is barely shown on the page. Three issues in, Steve Orlando's Midnighter is everything that Lobdell's RHATO wishes it could be. Midnighter has tongue-in-cheek violence, smoothly flowing action sequences, some occasional wit, and just enough heart to make the reader care about the character. Orlando might be able to breathe some life into Jason and Roy that goes beyond being a tryhard "edgy" mope and a "genius" with the maturity of an 8 year old. Maybe the concept would work even better as an "Outsiders" setup, with some C/D-list anti-heroes like Ravager joining the mix.

And while we're at it, why not bring Kyle Higgins back for Deathstroke? Before the title was passed onto writer/artists who can't write worth a damn, Deathstroke was a straight-forward action-packed popcorn movie. It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was readable, and was solid for a character whose popularity has risen in recent years.

I don't dislike the current Suicide Squad comic. Sure it's not the greatest, but to be honest I didn't expect it to be. Really, one of the reasons the Ostrander stuff was so good was because it hadn't really been done before, whereas now it's much more difficult to come up with fresh ideas for a team like the Suicide Squad.

Pretty much, right now Suicide Squad is kind of cool but nothing special, and I don't have a problem with that. It's like what you said about Deathstroke; readable, and a fun popcorn movie type deal. I never really though the Suicide Squad needed much depth, getting to see some of DC's villains interact with each other and smash stuff up is just a fun book to me. Maybe if the book ever does return to a state or real greatness I'll look back and say by comparison that the current stuff is bad, but right now I'm enjoying it for what it is - dumb fun.

I like the SS and TT, although I wouldn't shake a stick at your ideas on how to make them better. Don't really give a **** on way or the other about RHATO.

TL;DR

Friendly warning, that's a no-no word. against the rules.

@joey_destroyer_of_worlds Oh sorry thank you for letting me know.:

I enjoyed the first new 52 volume of Suicide Squad. It was far from great but I was pretty entertained by it.

From what I have seen the new volume has virtually no redeeming qualities.

@rurgandy I think your right on about Suicide Squad and Teen Titans and having King and Fletcher, respectively. If i could see anyone else for Titans it would be James Tynion. He handled some of the younger characters during Batman Eternal and I think he did a fine job. Also, I don't understand why Red Hood/Arsenal is still around, I imagine it sells well. But what bugs me the most are The Flash, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Now not the worst running series, they just fell in like they are in creative ruts. This characters are in the Justice League there solo books should be on a pedal stool and have only the richest storytellers attached. I fell, that's not happening.

There should be a massive line-wide crisis that retcons New 52 to remove a lot of Gotham characters that are stupid or are just excessive. Red Hood's not cool or important enough to justify his resurrection. Make Arsenal a bit younger. Oh yeah, and remove all references to Harley Quinn in continuity.

I haven't read any of these comics recently though DC can survive with getting rid of Red Hood and his Outlaws. They already kinda did though it just keeps getting sillier with things such as Red Hood's and Arsenal's terribly designed costumes.

Teen Titans they should keep trying just because of the brand. It is still a very popular brand and very important to DC. The New 52 has taken a lot of there impact away though. I want to see them keep trying though if all fails then I say revive Young Justice and make that into what the Titans once were.

Suicide Squad will probably get better with time. With a movie coming out I could see DC doing some pretty big stuff with them. Maybe give them a new writer or artist.

Like I said though I have pretty much been out of the comic loop for months now.

The inherent problem of the new 52 Titans is, that they erased the pre crisis history of the members and changed their background, cancelled their solo series and removed them mostly the connection to their mentors. If they don't make more space somewhere to reestablish these things, this series will never really work.

I disagree about teen titans. The first run of teen titans in the new 52 was pretty bad. As a big titans fan, I even gave up on it, but Will Pfeifer's run is quite good. It's pretty underrated, but I think he has done a great job so far!