World’s Finest: Teen Titans #6 – Mark Waid, Writer; Mike Norton, Emanuela Lupacchino, Artists; Jordie Bellaire, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: DC has been through some rough spots over the years, and some franchises were affected worse than others. Almost all have rebounded—but in one case, not so much. There hasn’t been a universally well-liked Teen Titans run since the Geoff Johns run was derailed by the events of Infinite Crisis. It’s been such a long stretch that the best-liked run since then has been… a flashback story going back to the very first Teen Titans team! It helps that this book has done a great job fleshing out an era that was originally only explored in the Silver Age, and gives many of its players enhanced personalities and roles in the team’s formation. And now they have their first arch-enemies—the Terror Titans, a team formed by failed Titan Haywire. And as the team reunites after Dick revealed his secret identity to get everyone to give the team a second chance, it’s time for one final battle.
Many of the characters in the Terror Titans were set up in the run, but not all of them—it was interesting to see a new version of Artemis, likely the character who eventually becomes Tigress. There are a lot of great little details for how the Titans manage to save the day, including an amusing little cameo for Oliver Queen. Speaking of mentors, I was glad to see that in the end, Waid portrayed Batman as a little more reasonable than he came off in the rest of the run. He can be a strict taskmaster, but he’s also not a cruel man and understands when something is for the greater good. There are a lot of nice little touches in this issue, including the resolution of the relationship between Wonder Girl and Aqualad. So why did this run click with people in a way all the current runs struggled to? Likely because Waid is a master of both DC continuity and characterization, and made this flashback story feel totally new.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
