I would like to truly glom on to something that Mark Waid’s doing in his return to DC, given Waid’s original tenure was fundamental to my formative comics years and produced material I enjoy to this day. But of late, I’ve yet to be blown away; I had hopes (perhaps knowingly too high) that his World’s Finest: Teen Titans would be as powerful and defining as his smash JLA: Year One, but unfortunately it’s just not the case.

It goes wrong in a variety of ways. Inasmuch as the “World’s Finest” brand has seemed to be about delivering 1980s stories between 2025 covers, Waid attempts to update the classic Titans' interests and sensibilities here, with disastrous “How do you do, fellow kids” results. The story turns on conflicts among the Titans that feel awful familiar, such that I’m not sure Waid brings much new to this new incarnation. Continuity updates and simple gaffes both abound, which might not bother as much if the rest of the book held up better.