DC Review: WORLD’S FINEST TEEN TITANS #2
After a strong debut issue, Mark Waid delivers another rousing adventure in WORLD’S FINEST TEEN TITANS #2. Waid’s encyclopedic knowledge of DC history and penchant for modernizing classic characters in storylines for today’s world has been truly impressive and in this second issue he adds new layers of depth to our main heroes.
For this issue, the focus shifts to Wonder Girl’s POV for the opening act and we get to see her sheer exuberance for all the human world has to offer that Paradise Island didn’t offer. Aqualad and Bumblebee met up her and Mal Duncan, her “new friend” as she calls him, for a day of fun around Washington, D.C. and we get to see them partaking in some fun festivities. Throughout the scene, Waid writes some great dialogue between these characters as we get to see how a few superhero teens would spend a day if the only thing they had to do was have fun. He writes each character with a sense of innocence and humanity that we don’t often get to see from those who don a hero costume and it’s immensely refreshing to read.
Titans business breaks up the fun and the three members of the team are forced to call it a day. They meet up with Robin and Speedy at a house in North Carolina that appears to be haunted and is the last place a missing girl, Dalisay, was seen. Two more Bronze Age Titans appear in supporting roles to help solve the case, Lilith and Gnarrk. I’m loving the small cameos that Waid is including and I’m excited to see how he continues to use them in the future.
The team splits up with half the members going to interview Dalisay’s friend and the other half exploring the house to see if they can find her. Waid flexes his writing muscles as we follow the team through the possessed housed. Wonder Girl and Aqualad are forced to confront their inner demons as Dalisay’s own fears are projected on them. Wonder Girl must deal with the idea that she’s no longer welcome on Themyscira due to her embrace of man’s world, while Aqualad has to confront his own feelings of being inferior to his fellow Atlanteans due to the physical differences he possesses. While Aqualad is able to overcome his demons and help convince Dalisay to embrace her own fears by accepting herself for who she is, Wonder Girl is left shaken. It’s a bit of a flip from where their characters ended the first issue and I’m intrigued to see how Waid continues to explore what makes these characters tick.
Lupacchino’s artwork, Jordie Bellaire’s colors, and Steve Wands lettering are as equally impressive as Waid’s writing. Lupacchino nails the homage to the art style you’d expect to see these characters in while also adding modern flair to keep things current. Bellaire’s color palette shines throughout the book but stands out most during Speedy and Aqualad’s nightmare scenes. Fluorescent colors saturate pages giving the illusion that they’ve been viewed under a blacklight. The combined efforts of this creative trio is a masterclass in using visuals to make a strong script even better.
It’s ironic that Waid managed to write a better Titans story about nightmares than the current Titans Knight Terrors tie-in while the event is still happening. That may speak more to the underwhelming first half of Knight Terrors Titans but it shouldn’t take away from the near-perfect issue that Waid wrote in WORLD’S FINEST TEEN TITANS #2.
Rating: 9/10
