Waid and Lupacchino team for WORLD’S FINEST: TEEN TITANS

Mark Waid and Dan Mora‘s Batman/Superman: World’s Finest has been one of DC Comics‘s most highly-acclaimed titles since it launched last year. Now the world of that series is set to expand, as DC has announced Waid and artist Emanuela Lupacchino will team for World’s Finest: Teen Titans, a new ongoing series spinning out of the teen sidekicks’ appearances in the main World’s Finest title. The series will debut in July.

Here’s how DC describes World’s Finest: Teen Titans:

Led by Robin, the Boy Wonder, a new super-team has burst onto the scene—meet the Teen Titans, DC’s grooviest group full of super-teens with super-problems. When they’re not fighting alongside their Justice League mentors, they’re managing their image and cultivating the rabid fan base that helps them save the world…as, all the while, a danger from the shadows intends to tear these friends apart before they ever reach the big time. Before they were the Titans of the DCU, they were the Teen Titans, and you won’t want to miss this fresh take on their origins.

Along with a main cover and 1:100 ratio black-and-white variant by Chris Samnee, World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1 will sport variant covers by Evan “Doc” Shaner (open-to-order), Jim Cheung (open-to-order and foil), W. Scott Forbes (1:25 ratio), and Lupacchino (1:50 ratio), as well as a blank sketch cover.

The new series reunites Waid with Lupacchino, who previously illustrated the Supergirl and Robin-centric Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #12. In a statement announcing the series, Waid described getting to dig further into the Titans during their formative years:

“I’ve had so much fun writing the Teen Titans in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest that DC asked for more, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Waid. “Taking our cue from the main World’s Finest book, the series is set in the not-too-distant past, when Robin led the team—including Bumblebee and Mal Duncan—as they answered calls for help from kids worldwide and dealt with their celebrity status. The real fun for the wonderful Ema Lupacchino and me is revealing many surprising secrets about who each of the Titans really is. Even longtime readers will be stunned by these untold revelations.”

With the Titans taking center stage in the modern-day DCU thanks to Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott‘s soon-to-launch series, a title exploring the characters’ early days as a team feels like a no-brainer.

Check out the variant covers by Shaner, Forbes, Lupacchino, and Samnee, as well as design art by Bumblebee by Samnee and a few interior pages by Lupacchino, below. World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1 will arrive in stores and digitally on Tuesday, July 11th. And keep an eye out on The Beat for more info from Waid about the new series.