#World’s Finest: Teen Titans

[bludsfinest]

[gemini-care-barr]

⚠️ Spoilers for World’s Finest: Teen Titans #5 ⚠️

On the subject of team books and friendships/teams in superhero comics in general…

So, I just read the latest issue (#5) of Mark Waid and Emanuela Lupacchino’s World’s Finest: Teen Titans series and I gotta say it has made me realize what I’ve been missing for a while in comics:

I. need. more. STRIFE!!!

I need more characters fighting and tearing into each other in the meanest ways! And NOT because they hate each other or are on opposite ends of the good/evil spectrum, but because people fight! They disagree! They get frustrated and they take it out on the people around them! And then when the pain of changing FINALLY becomes outweighed by the pain of staying the same: people GROW. They become better. They see how the ways that they were acting and the things they were thinking were tearing them apart and they come together against and despite that strife. And no, that doesn’t make things perfect, there will (and should) still be inner conflict and butting of heads, but that only guarantees more change and more growth because no one is constant and no one should be. The only constants are change, and, with a good team, each other.

And by God, this issue, and this series really, has shown that perfectly. Over the past few issues, we’ve seen the perfect dynamics of the team getting ever so slowly chipped away. Starting with Roy very understandably getting mad at Dick for not sharing his secret identity with the team which was promptly “fixed” in a way that we all knew wouldn’t last. Then we’ve seen Garth and Donna’s relationship on the rocks almost from the get-go because unfortunately shared circumstances just isn’t always enough for two people to base an entire relationship on when their similarities and compatibility basically stop there. We also have Karen bringing in a new guy and not really having too many close relationships with the already established team. And finally, we have Roy’s personal struggles with his father figure being aired out and almost ridiculed by the other kids who just don’t know how to help him. Oh, and of course we also have Wally who comes from an almost perfect superhero sidekick background (special thanks to my guy, Barry Allen, no doubt 😜) which unfortunately makes him a little too loving and lighthearted in the eyes of some of the team and is also seemingly pretty unequipped for dealing with their levels of dysfunction (can we really blame him? No, we can’t, and we really shouldn’t, he’s literally the most functional member of the team outside of maybe some of his judgement of Roy). And all these problems have (inevitably) finally resulted in a lot of in-fighting. In-fighting that has now utterly crippled them, but hopefully not for long as the final page shows Dick’s willingness to change when he goes against Bruce’s rules of secrecy and finally reveals his true identity to the team. I’m hoping this means that they’ll set aside their differences and start working as a team again, rallied around their now unmasked-to-them leader, but I have a feeling that waiting so long to finally reveal himself to the team may carry some consequences of its own for Dick.

Regardless, I’m excited to see some more deliciously grounded, well-written, and much-needed personal conflict in comics again. Not to artificially further a plot or build fluff drama, but to evolve characters and relationships alike.

[heroesriseandfall]

Okay so this is what I missed by not looking at solicits last month…I no longer feel so apprehensive about the Donna/Garth situation (so long as this isn’t written too badly). All Aqualads queer for real.

(Fluid sexuality…like…water pun……)

[misstergrayson]

Nope nope nope not accepting it nope this is going in the “I’ts never been canon before why start now” pile

I don’t know how but it’s just that DC changes all of these little details it’s so much more frustrating😭😭.

WALLY IS THE YOUNGEST?!?

On the entire team???? Oof, okay, alright, okay, I gotta process that, hold on... Fuck, alright, so Dick is stated as being roughly 16-18 ish in World's Finest and Dick has also stated that everyone on the team is a teenager, so Wally has to be 13-15 ish here?

Which... you know, vaguely makes sense, cause he certainly couldn't be 17 or 18 because he isn't in college and Barry is still alive, but jeez, I thought he'd at least be 16.

Personally, I think Dick is on the younger side of that rough estimate (16) because he hasn't left the nest yet, he's still Robin and the team was just founded. I kinda assumed all of them were 16.

But APPARENTLY Wally is noticably younger than everyone else!

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

When you think you've gotten out of a Father-Son Bonding Moment

[edi-storm]

Comic Comission for @devine-fem ❤️💙

[gffa]

I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT I LOST MY SHIT AT THIS MOMENT. It's the most emotionally constipated backhand compliment and paranoid control freak showing his love thing I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. He's friends with Barry, Arthur, Diana, Ollie, that means something for Batman to say that, but then he'll turn right around and say, "But I don't trust their judgement for shit when it comes to my kid, who by the way, is clearly the best trained out of all you, because he's the best period, and I'm not risking my precious son on your dumb sidekicks." HELP PLEASE HE'S THE WORST AND THE BEST HE LOVES HIS KID IN THE WORST POSSIBLE AND MOST HILARIOUS WAY

[misstergrayson]

Mark Waid trying so hard to crush the Birdflash fans like Tom Taylor with Dick and Kory. Dick would literally never do this.

Robin leaves an important high speed chase against a villain to make sure Kid Flash is okay, and his second thought is if the rest of his teammates are okay. Dealing with the bad guy has literally never been more important to Robin than his friend’s safety, and he never blames someone for getting hurt.

The only time he does make a teammate cry? Because THAT teammate is trying to prioritize the mission over Kid Flash’s broken leg. PRACTICALLY a mirror situation to what’s going on in wftt, only just pure proof that if KF messed up his leg Dick would never do what he did in worlds finest.

Why do they write him like this? I feel Mark Waid is fabricating a rivalry that was never there to keep people from shipping them, but he also could be copying that mini Teen Titans run that never went anywhere and kinda sucked. In that one, they write KF as being jealous of Robin for some weird reason.

Man DC is killing me

World Finest: Teen Titans issue # 5

Richard. John. Grayson. I know u did NOT just make Wally cry....right?

[soranatus]

Doc Shaner’s variant covers to World’s Finest: Teen Titans (2023) #1-#6

[zorilleerrant]

[disco-troy]

Some people are pointing out how out-of-touch Waid seems to be about social media in the new World's Finest: Teen Titans, but I would argue he’s not going far enough. This comic should be the spiritual successor to Bob "Leaping Lumpfish/Cool it Cats" Haney but for gen Z.

Here are some corrections I made to the first issue to make it more faithful to the original.

[bludsfinest]

dick is that one friend with strict parents that never gets to hang out because he “isn’t allowed”

[nightwingstan]

united by hating each other n also having daddy issues <3

[dailydccomics]

what an adorable dude World's Finest: Teen Titans #6 art by Emanuela Lupacchino and Jordie Bellaire

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Aw, no. No, sweetie, no.

Garth. Baby boy. You are so stupid. Incredibly sweet but stupid. I can guarantee you that Roy would be better with an absentee Oliver Queen then he would be with RUDY AND MARY WEST.

Whooooo boy. This isn't- this isn't even, like, a writer just not knowing Wally's lore or whatever, this is MARK FUCKING WAID writing this. Do you comprehend what that means?? DO YOU?!?

That man in that kitchen is two seconds away at all times from going full Ted Bundy. I'm not even fucking joking. It is so insane how much I am not joking.

Wally's father is dangerous. He ran a work camp for children and planned on using land mines on them! He sold his son to a death cult!!! He hired a hitman to kill his wife!!!!!

But he's also really fucking good at playing the part of the 'normal suburban Dad' and that's what Waid is showing REALLY FUCKING WELL HERE. Rudy is playing his part and he's playing it well. Don't think I didn't notice Rudy dropping the coffee pot in front of Wally and fucking smirking when it 'magically' popped back up on the counter. This is a man who knows about his son's powers and is playing along. This man is a problem.

And I'm super excited to see how Waid plans for this story to progress.

[wwprice1]

The Titans and their members get all the cool covers for November!