Teen Titans #84

It's a Wyld Wyld World

Felicia D. Henderson Writer
José Luís Penciller
Mariah Benes Inker
Marcelo Maiolo Colorist
Sal Cipriano Letterer
Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson with Maiolo Cover
Rachel Gluckstern Editor

Our cover shows Aquagirl and Bombshell about to be eaten by a giant sea monster. But Superboy, Miss Martian and Blue Beetle are there to save them. Unfortunately, this is our second consecutive cover that really gives us a misleading idea of what happens in this issue. Yes, Aquagirl and Bombshell will battle a sea monster, but they'll do so on Earth, not a different dimension with a red sky. Superboy, though, will be in another dimension, while Miss Martian will continue to recover in the Teen Titans tower. And Blue Beetle isn't even a member of the team anymore. Also, when we get to the other dimension, the sky will not be red, as the previous two covers indicated. There's either a serious lack of communication going on between our creators, or a lot of last-minute changes. The end result is a rather frustrating read for me.

Our story opens with Dr. Vincent Barnes taking Aquagirl and Bombshell out in a helicopter to the South Atlantic, near West Africa, while Dr. Rochelle Barnes takes Superboy, Beast Boy, Kid Flash, Static Shock and Wonder Girl to the North Pacific, near East Asia. (Apparently these scientists are also accomplished pilots.) Equipped with a scuba suit, Bombshell dives into the water with Aquagirl, and sure enough, they had to fight their way past a bunch of mutated fish to get to the portal, which Aquagirl unlocks by stabbing it with a trident.

The rest of our heroes faced no dangers on their abandoned island, and casually walked through the portal when it opened up. They emerge on the Wyld's world, which is a gray, desolate place. They immediately position themselves in a circle and make sure the coast is clear before Beast Boy transforms into a dog to pick up Raven's scent. Cassie reminds everyone that the physics of this dimension could work very differently, and Bart says he hopes to get Raven and get out of this "creepy" place as quickly as possible.

Suddenly, the ground beneath our heroes turns into quicksand. And this isn't ordinary quicksand — Superboy and Wonder Girl can't escape it, and Beast Boy can't even transform. Bart decides to try moving the sand from the inside, by vibrating himself. He eventually works his momentum into a full-blown whirlwind, which carries away all the sand. Bart almost gets carried away with this stunt, but his friends call him back — with Virgil dubbing him "Hurricane Bart."

Once our heroes are free, Beat Boy tries again to find Raven's scent, but has no luck. Suddenly, a bunch of razor-sharp tumbleweeds surround everybody. Cassie gets cut, and when Superboy asks if she's OK, she angrily tells him to quit treating her like his girlfriend. Superboy tries to blast the tumbleweeds with his heat vision, but surprisingly finds he now has freeze vision instead. And Static is shocked to see his lightning is now yellow. At Wonder Girl's order, Kid Flash digs a trench around everybody, then uses mini-tornadoes to join the others in fighting off the tumbleweeds.

Eventually, the coast the clear, and Beast Boy offers to try to find Raven's scent again, but Wonder Girl believes that won't work. Kid Flash suggests scouting the area ahead at hyper speed, but Cassie's worried he'd run into obstacles too tough to manage. Gar thinks the risk is worth it for Raven's sake, but Kon shuts him down. Superboy then flies up high in the sky, hoping his super hearing can pick something up. Sadly, he reports no sounds — not even radio. But this gives Static an idea. He asks Bart to "give him enough speed" to send out a radio wave — reasoning that since they're not native to this dimension, they must have distinctive radio pings. So Bart ... uh ... gives Virgil some speed.

Inexplicably, this nonsensical plan actually starts to work. Superboy says he can hear their "radio pings," with Cassie's ping being the loudest. So Static decides to increase the wave to cover the whole dimension, which, for some reason, require Bart to now run circles around him. Superboy starts to hear something, but suddenly he and all the others are struck by lightning.

Meanwhile, Aquagirl and Bombshell are forced to wait at the bottom of the sea to reactivate the keyhole when it's time to bring the search party home. But while waiting, they are swallowed by the giant sea monster we saw on the cover. And in Titans Tower, Miss Martian is warning the scientists that they need to send her to the Wyld's dimension now or her teammates may never come back.




This story is getting worse by the issue. First of all, the idea of Raven being kidnapped is not an entirely new one for this series. Secondly, it was rather conveniently cliché to shoehorn in an underwater mission just to find something for Aquagirl to do. And thirdly, Cassie's attitude toward Conner is unjustified and very tiresome by now. But all of those things wouldn't be that big of a problem if the story itself just made sense. I'm perfectly fine with the Wyld's dimension being a desolate place that defends itself. But why did Superboy's heat vision turn to freeze vision? If this is supposed to be a bizarro world, then how come no one else got different powers? Truthfully, this story would be a lot more interesting if our heroes had to adapt to new (or no) powers on the fly. But instead, we're stuck with this half-formed, inconsistent idea. And I doubt anyone can adequately explain to me what was going on with Static's "radio pings."

To be continued!