#world's finest: teen titans

[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

[bluespiritshonour]

Oh my God!

I just caught up with World's Finest: Teen Titans and I absolutely have to write this out:

First of all, I love this cover:

The thing that caught my eye: “you're grounded.”

Not the dramatic “you're fired” as if the motherfucker didn't raise that damn kid in his own damn house for YEARS.

(I know. I know. Bar on the ground, but what would you?)

Also, the anger palpable on Bruce's face and Dick's absolute disregard for it. I'm laughing here y'all. This is what teenagers act like. This is what fights between parents and children look like.

Also. Dick Grayson, I've been missing. You're back from war!

I love how curt he is. The “Get lost” hits in all the right places. We love a strongly-principled character that stands for what he believes in. With all the lukewarm Dick Grayson writing floating around I felt like walking into a coffee shop while it's snowing outside.

More of this writing, please.

I'd been waiting for this moment all through this series.

This conversation.

I compare things all the time. It might not be the right thing in every field but I think it serves well when it comes to comic books. We all have personal “canon criteria”—for example, mine are “Darwyn Cooke wrote this Bruce so I'm taking it as valid characterisation ” or “Every version of Bruce played by Kevin Conroy is valid”. (Minus Bruce Timm bullshit!)

Which was what cinched my hatred for Bruce after reading a Robin short story that Cooke wrote and alluded to Robin: Year One in it. I mean, I might not fuck with Dixon, but am I going to call even Cooke's Bruce OOC? No. It means Bruce is a jerk. Full stop.

Waid is one of the writers I respect (excluding Kingdom Come. I hate it and I can't put my finger on the why. But I just do: I hate it. I hate it for Clark. I hate it for Diana. And I'm a professional Bruce-hater so let's not even go there. I hate it for Dick too.)

And Dick and Bruce's relationship has a lot of baggage from the fact that a) Bruce is himself traumatised and fails to meet Dick's emotional needs b) he wasn't ready to be a father when he adopted Dick c) Dick simply suffers from being the eldest—the test child.

And very rarely have I seen writers manage to walk on the thin line of complicated-but-dedicated-and-strong.

Young Justice cartoon did it. Dick and Bruce's relationship is going strong. But they fight and have different values. And Dick can see all that is wrong with Bruce's approach to vigilantism in particular and life in general.

Grimm (Legends of the Dark Knight #149-154) did it right. Where Bruce hurt Dick deeply and made him feel unwanted all the while overthinking about Dick's well-being. Way to go, buddy! You can see the repercussions it has for Dick while simultaneously stare at this man who's tying himself into knots trying to think how best to parent.

I think that's what most Bruce and Dick comics miss: the excessive worrying. They don't show the worry, make them fight for drama, never address it apart from throwing out a “it's because Bruce's worried” (bitch, where?) and have Dick running back to Gotham at the first chance. It sounds an awful lot like “your parents hurt you 'cause they love you” bullshit.

I think World's Finest manages it well because foremost, Bruce says, in words, that he's worried about Dick's well-being. He's taciturn, he's putting constant pressure on Dick all in the hopes of making him quit Titans. All this makes him a jerk. But I don't hate him for it.

It's between Dick's “you don't trust me” and Bruce's “no, I don't trust them.”

Most teenagers clash with their parents. It's normal. That's what Waid has shown here and I love it. It feels very—normal?

Especially when the Bats aren't normal! Bruce sure as fuck ain't a normal parent. But there was something very bitter-sweet coming-of-age in this conversation.

Bruce does all those things that are bad for Dick and his growing independence. You're not supposed to handle teenagers like that.

He's worried and taking desperate measures. “If I punish him, then maybe he'll obey me and quit Titans and then he'll he safe”—lots of parents who don't know how to deal with teenagers do it.

But the sequence of it: Bruce is worried → Bruce wants Dick to quit Titans → for Dick it means proving himself to be better, to not get hurt (as if he can control that beyond a certain point) → Bruce being alarmed at Dick's insistence to stay with the Titans and taking desperate measures like benching him.

At least it makes sense.

Compare it to Dixon's Nightwing origin story, which honestly, personally I think was lazy writing. Drama for drama's sake. “You’re fired because you're spending too much time with the Titans.” The same writer also had Bruce say that he did it because he wanted Dick to strike out on his own. Blah, blah, blah.

And no matter whatever happens he'd never ever say it to Dick's face that he's worried about him because—well, reasons.

Robin: Year One logic:

I'm worried about Dick's health so I fire him. He runs off and can get hurt? He joins a school for assasins? None of my business. He can get hurt on his own, I don't care as long as it is not on my conscience. Peace.

—Bruce “professional narcissist” Wayne.

So, yes. When faced with this book(WF: TT), I'd call Dixon's writing lazy.

I'm also comparing this to several other instances when Bruce verbally says (never to Dick, mind you) that he loves that Dick's a better person and better vigilante than him. But in the same book he'd yell at Dick for exactly the same thing. (I consider that lazy writing, since BTAS made sure to show a shot of Bruce smiling whenever Dick was happy/not like him).

I like this thing here where he says it to Dick's face. He's still grounding him for “discipline's sake” or whatever—very, very IC for Bruce.

But he also lets Dick know that he appreciates his values, that are different—better—than Bruce's own.

I can stomach that.

Honestly Bruce's writing in this book felt like BtAS writing (pre-Bruce Timm fuckery). That's a compliment.

P.S. Waid's a good story-teller overall. His Superman: Birthright was one of the first Superman comics I read and I fell in love with Clark right away.

Peace ✌️😂

[comicsiswild]

World's Finest: Teen Titans (2023) #4

[superherocaps]

[ufonaut]

Dude, I'm rich. Rich don't know jealous, plus my home life is awesome. All is great.

Roy Harper's awesome home life in World's Finest: Teen Titans (2023) #1

(Mark Waid, Emanuela Lupacchino)

Bonus:

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

Dick and Roy doing their favourite activity: being at each other's throats:

And Wally being adorable believing in the power of friendship:

[aqua-dan]

World's Finest: Teen Titans #4 Preview

[big-gay-apocalypse]

// World's Finest: Teen Titans (2023) #4

[smashpages]

Bumblebee character design by Chris Samnee for World’s Finest: Teen Titans

[jimiscribif]

just a little guy :')

[chernobog13]

Dan Panosian's portrait of the Teen Titans team from World's Finest: Teen Titans.

I know only one issue has come out, but it was good enough for me to declare that this is an awesome book that everyone should be reading! It's a great take on the team before the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans era.

I am so glad writer Mark Waid is back at DC, and that editorial is letting him do fun comics again (the title above, Shazam!, and World's Finest: Batman/Superman).

[gffa]

Damn, Dick didn't even hesitate with that. I mean, he's not wrong, Bruce spent those years traveling the world and obsessing single-mindedly over becoming the perfect fighter to be able to protect Gotham, he never allowed himself friends or teammates or truly relying on anyone but himself, he never got the teenager experience. He was a teenager, but he doesn't know anything about being a teenager, and that's sad, but it also means that Dick has to remind him that he's not the same, for all the weirdness that is Dick Grayson's life as Robin, he still grabs onto the concept of friends and hanging out and doing teenager things. Which makes Bruce's reactions all the more meaningful--he's always viewed Dick through the lens of being similar to himself just a little too much, sometimes Bruce has trouble letting go of that view of him, that they're mirror images of each other, especially when it overlaps with how this kid brought light and laughter and joy to Wayne Manor and Bruce's life, how hard it is for Bruce to love him and let him go, because he's never gotten that experience, either. Everyone Bruce Wayne has ever loved was either ripped away from him in bloody tatters or he's held onto them with an iron fist. Dick Grayson is the first one he's had to willingly open his hands with, and it's hard as hell when he never had or wanted those normal teenage experiences, when he never wanted to be the leader of a team of friends, when he doesn't want to open his heart to people who can be ripped away from him again. He never had the chance to learn how to do it like most people do. But he does do it. Because he also wants Dick to be better than him, the whole point of taking Dick in was to help him not be what Bruce is, to save him from that. And he has to let Dick make his choices, have his friends, let him go, even just a little, even when Bruce doesn't understand the appeal of wanting friends to just hang out with, he sees that Dick needs that, and so he asks, did your decision save lives? Yes. Will you do it again? Not without talking to you first. Then one month without the uniform. This moment is told from Dick's point of view, we don't know what's going on Bruce's head, but it's not a hard to leap to see that it's hitting every single exposed nerve he has--his secrets are what allow him to be Batman, this kid he let into his heart is slowly starting to step out on his own and go away from him, he did it without talking to Bruce first--that he's being asked to open his iron fisted grip to keep everything he treasures close. And still Bruce Wayne uncurls his clenched fingers just enough, against every instinct he has, and lets go a little, praising Dick for doing a better job than he could as he goes.

[robinwinggrayson]

Very mild spoilers for World's Finest: Teen Titans #1 (yes the story is set in the past but this run just started. Warning for those who want to read it but haven't yet).

The Teen Titans are saving the world and shit but I'm not here to talk about the action, I wanna talk about the drama and relationships because that's why I read comics.

Here we have Garth, Wally, Donna, and Karen, bonding with their respective mentors, discussing the team and how great it is to branch out on their own. It's nice, it's light hearted, it's fun.

And then we have Roy and Dick.

Ollie's not there and Roy's been talking to an empty chair the whole time. I saw it coming a mile away but it still hurts. I only want good things for Roy, even when he's being a dick to Dick.

And Dick of course really wants to connect with the team because that's who he is. But Batman is like "I don't trust those bitches" and so Dick won't let anyone close. At least right now. I know they'll (Roy and Dick) eventually become besties so I'll try to enjoy them being at each others throats for now. Maybe we'll get a nice fight scene out of it.

Misc thought: On the fence about Donna and Garth, more Karen and Wally would be great.

Love to hear from anyone enjoying this as much as I am.

[comicsiswild]

World's Finest: Teen Titans (2023) #1

[lorbanery]

Oh god I'm VIBRATING

I knew making Tim Drake bi would open the rainbow road up for other established characters to also get to be queer

I did not expect ANY of the first gen sidekicks to part of that

But they're doing it, they're making an OG Titan queer T0T

I've checked this on multiple sites, on sites that I recognize to make sure this isn't just some AI, click-harvesting bullshit

But according to the DC October Solicitations, Garth aka Aqualad, my dear sweet angry little fishboy, is going to "open up about his fluid sexuality" in issue #4 of World's Finest: Teen Titans.

I genuinely never thought it would happen for any of the OG Titans

I never thought it would happen for Garth, arguably the one on the team besides Donna that it would make the most sense for and, frankly, is my favorite non-Robin Titan

And it ... kind of makes me hopeful that I might get to see a queer Dick Grayson in my lifetime

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

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