Review – ‘World’s Finest: Teen Titans’ #5 Is Not The Dynamic Showdown I Was Expecting

After a lot of building up to the revelation of the mastermind behind the Terror Titans, the actual unmasking did not really hit Waugh anywhere the drama it should. Enter failed, morally bankrupt one-time hero, Haywire. And with it a shrug of indifference from this humble reviewer. After a four-issue build up I was expecting a character far more high-status and recognisable than the nobody who is Haywire. Without any real context – other than a quick flashback to his try out with the Titans – his putting as the series’ criminal mastermind just felt flat and lacking in any real weight. It’s not that the previous reiteration of the Terror Titans, as formed by Clock King, was a classic rival team in the making, but at least Clock King and his cohorts were figures with some past pedigree. Haywire, as an all-new nemesis and who’s who revenge plan is based on him not getting onto the team, seems rather limp. And the rest of the issue also plays out with a similar lack lustre to put all as the Titans fail to act as a team and quickly fall apart.

Of course, with Emanuela Lupacchino on art not all is lost. Her art throughout this series has been a big part of the book’s success for me, with clean, smooth lines that capture the innocence of these young heroes perfectly. Her depiction of Wonder Girl, for example, captures the graceful and athleticism of a young woman alway on the go while Jordie Bellaire’s bright colours compliment the vibrant, youthful vibe prevalent throughout. 

Writer Mark Waid does well in capturing the anger of adolescent youth too, as the gang quibble as only teens can do; all overwrought emotions and flagrant accusations. But, overall it’s not one of the finer issues of this series. Haywire and his Terror Titans are enemies that have no real gravitas, and therefore pose no threat you can’t see the Titans easily overcoming when they inevitably realise that team work is the way forward (itself an overplayed trope I’d hope Waid avoids, but I don’t see how he can after this issue), and so what should have been a far more tense, dramatic and meaningful issue doesn’t really get going. A rare damp squid from Waid, with too much reliance on obvious narrative conventions and too much made of Haywire and his second-class team’s threat. 

World’s Finest: Teen Titans #5 is out now from DC Comics