Review by Ian Keogh

Depending on which explanation best suits, these are either the Teen Titans of an alternate world, or a revisionist look back at the Teen Titans in the their earliest incarnation. Either way, readers will know how much or little appeals about the line-up seen on the cover. They’ve only recently united their talents, but drones and online influencers are part of their world.

Bumblebee’s a latter addition, but when Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, Speedy and Wonder Girl were a team in the 1960s, their personalities were pretty well interchangable. Mark Waid’s treatment, though, accentuates their individuality, and the clashes and learning curves that entails. Although they look human, Aqualad and Wonder Girl both come from societies very different from an American city, while Robin discovers that the standards he’s been set by Batman are so high he demands too much of others. Being unable to control the more confident Speedy’s methods of crimefighting drives him batty.

Waid delivers the different personalities responding to situations from the mania of a Titans convention to the psychic abilities of frightened child. They read well as adventures set in the present, but are extremely faithful to the idea of bright superheroics that saw the team through the 1960s. There’s some poking fun, but an underlying love for the Teen Titans as they were shines through, and Waid addresses the issues he introduces, sometimes very surprisingly.

Adding to the feeling of the best possible version of the 1960s Teen Titans is the clean art and clear storytelling of Emanuela Lupacchino, who’s as good a stand in for Nick Cardy as you’re going to get. The emotional strength of her art is a real plus point. And as a bonus the chapters are separated by a beautiful set of montage illustrations of individual Titans from Evan “Doc” Shaner, and several others deliver pin-ups of the team when all is done and dusted. A few pages by Mike Norton toward the end attempt to blend with Lupacchino’s style, but there’s not quite the same delicacy about the people.

A delight about these Teen Titans is that although they’re modelled on a very old version, you don’t have to know that to enjoy what Waid and Lupacchino provide. The fun is had.