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The Brave and the Bold (1955) #88-108
Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold: The Batman Team-Ups, Vol. 2
Batman joins forces with the DC Universe's greatest heroes including The Flash, Phantom Stranger, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Wildcat, the Teen Titans, and others.
520 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2007
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About the author
Bob Haney
450 books13 followersRobert G. Haney was an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. He co-created the Teen Titans as well as characters such as Metamorpho, Eclipso, Cain, and the Super-Sons.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 19, 2018
This book collects Issues 88-108 of Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups. All but one are by Bob Haney.
Rather than detail each team up , I'll offer some highlights both good and not so good.
The good:
Jim Aparo takes over the art. While the art in the book was always solid, Jim Aparo took it to a new level as he did the art for nine of the final eleven stories and began an epic run on this title with legendary art.
Wildcat Returns (#88)
Dennis O'Neill only appearance sends Batman into the House of Mystery with art by Neal Adams (#93).
Batman is sent on a mission to recover a wealthy woman's missing husband and brings back a character who hasn't been since the Golden Age of Comics. (#96)
Batman has to deal with ritual sacrifice and discovers the chilling truth about a late friend's family. One of the most disquieting Batman Comics I've read from this era. (#98)
Metamorpho returns to rescue his girlfriend from an assassin and Bob Haney retcons his horrible conclusion to the Metamorpho solo series with something far better. (#101)
A good youth activism story as Batman helps kids positively clean up their neighborhood. (#102)
The Metal Men are feisty because of "robot lib." (Hilarious) (#103)
Batman teams up with mod Wonder Woman to deal with intrigue in a Latin American country. (#105)
An heiress has sold shares of her estate, yet the shareholders are being killed off and Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) is on the list. (#106)
A great team up with Black Canary as they try to foil a $3 million skyjacking. (#107)
The Bad:
Adam Stranges uses a Zeta Beam to accidentally time travel (that's not how Zeta beams work and then hands Batman a news article from the future announcing Batman's own death as casually as one might share a cate photo on Facebook. (#89)
Bob Haney totally disregards the centrality of Batman's parent's deaths and Bruce's many visits to their gravestone for a ghost story about a Portuguese sailor possessing Batman. (#99)
Batman is wounded in a Wheel Chair and decided to play Ironside to bust a drug ring. He gets a team of four heroes to help him. However, Black Canary almost ruins his plan when she goes inside to keep her hair dry. (Horrible treatment of the character.) Denoument ends up disappointing as well. (#100)
The So Bad It's Good:
In a youth rebellion story, teenagers hold Gotham City hostage with nuclear weapons and orders powerful adults thrown in concentration camps and Batman acts like we need to be more understanding. That's our problem. Not a nuclear terrorist juvenile delingquent. (#94)
Batman falls into a well, panics, screams he'll sell to get out, is rescued by a man who claims Batman's soul for evil. Batman finds out that Sergeant Rock believes that the man who bought Batman's soul is Hitler who is still alive.
Overall,there are some great team ups unlock with a few klunkers and some unintentional hilarity. Still, there are far more than good stories than bad . The art is good throughout,, although it goes to another level when Aparo steps in.
Rather than detail each team up , I'll offer some highlights both good and not so good.
The good:
Jim Aparo takes over the art. While the art in the book was always solid, Jim Aparo took it to a new level as he did the art for nine of the final eleven stories and began an epic run on this title with legendary art.
Wildcat Returns (#88)
Dennis O'Neill only appearance sends Batman into the House of Mystery with art by Neal Adams (#93).
Batman is sent on a mission to recover a wealthy woman's missing husband and brings back a character who hasn't been since the Golden Age of Comics. (#96)
Batman has to deal with ritual sacrifice and discovers the chilling truth about a late friend's family. One of the most disquieting Batman Comics I've read from this era. (#98)
Metamorpho returns to rescue his girlfriend from an assassin and Bob Haney retcons his horrible conclusion to the Metamorpho solo series with something far better. (#101)
A good youth activism story as Batman helps kids positively clean up their neighborhood. (#102)
The Metal Men are feisty because of "robot lib." (Hilarious) (#103)
Batman teams up with mod Wonder Woman to deal with intrigue in a Latin American country. (#105)
An heiress has sold shares of her estate, yet the shareholders are being killed off and Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) is on the list. (#106)
A great team up with Black Canary as they try to foil a $3 million skyjacking. (#107)
The Bad:
Adam Stranges uses a Zeta Beam to accidentally time travel (that's not how Zeta beams work and then hands Batman a news article from the future announcing Batman's own death as casually as one might share a cate photo on Facebook. (#89)
Bob Haney totally disregards the centrality of Batman's parent's deaths and Bruce's many visits to their gravestone for a ghost story about a Portuguese sailor possessing Batman. (#99)
Batman is wounded in a Wheel Chair and decided to play Ironside to bust a drug ring. He gets a team of four heroes to help him. However, Black Canary almost ruins his plan when she goes inside to keep her hair dry. (Horrible treatment of the character.) Denoument ends up disappointing as well. (#100)
The So Bad It's Good:
In a youth rebellion story, teenagers hold Gotham City hostage with nuclear weapons and orders powerful adults thrown in concentration camps and Batman acts like we need to be more understanding. That's our problem. Not a nuclear terrorist juvenile delingquent. (#94)
Batman falls into a well, panics, screams he'll sell to get out, is rescued by a man who claims Batman's soul for evil. Batman finds out that Sergeant Rock believes that the man who bought Batman's soul is Hitler who is still alive.
Overall,there are some great team ups unlock with a few klunkers and some unintentional hilarity. Still, there are far more than good stories than bad . The art is good throughout,, although it goes to another level when Aparo steps in.
June 5, 2014
What keeps this volume from being really good is the writing style of Bob Haney. For contrast, the solitary issue written by Denny O'Neil (w/art by the great Neal Adams) is smart and funny, comments meta-like on how Batman is being forced into an exotic adventure with the "House of Mystery" magazine.
That's the peril of this book, is the outlandishness for crossover. Every issue is "Batman meets...", and it's weird. Bob Haney compensates by getting really involved in logistics, to I think give off the sense "this is too much for one Bat to handle". But it gets really dry and talkative. So many issues are Batman and Commissioner Gordon talking about deficiencies with Batman, or Gotham City. It often takes 10-15 pages to get from "set up the first attempt to capture the bad guy" to "cue Wonder Woman (or the Teen Titans, or Wildcat, etc.)"
And the bad guys are all the same. In essence "Brave and the Bold" is like regular "Batman", just a little more largess. A lot of hoods with guns who are pretty good at elaborate murders, or an ODD preponderence of Latino crime conspiracies (or Batman's got a thing for the Mexicans), so a lack of heavy hitting super villains. Nothing wrong with a more down to Earth heroism, but page after page of hearing about police dragnets, or tracking criminal's accounts, or failing to stop murders/capture minor hoods, it gets repetitive and unimaginative.
I also do not approve of the crossover selections with Batman. Aside from obvious outliers like the Bat Squad (they're just British film crew workers who he enlists to walk around and look for things), team-ups repeat and lack imagination. The Teen Titans have nothing but super powers but often have to come down to Batman's "cop" methodology. Wildcat's two issues are particularly aimless. In one issue he is a down on his luck old boxer, another he has amnesia, but Batman can resolve these issues in a couple of panels? In general, the outlier heroes that seem like good ideas (for example, Deadman, Green Arrow, etc.) just get dumbed down into "what is this criminal doing? how did they kill that person/are they really a killer?", making it seem like a redundant add on to those mediocre Batman stories that people like Frank Robbins were already writing in the actual "Batman/Detective Comics" blah-ness.
The art was really good. Neal Adams only did one issue, but Nick Cardy and Jim Aparo (who became the main artist) all also have a really strong vision for action and scenery. If you like to flip through a book and not care about the story, this is the one for you.
That's the peril of this book, is the outlandishness for crossover. Every issue is "Batman meets...", and it's weird. Bob Haney compensates by getting really involved in logistics, to I think give off the sense "this is too much for one Bat to handle". But it gets really dry and talkative. So many issues are Batman and Commissioner Gordon talking about deficiencies with Batman, or Gotham City. It often takes 10-15 pages to get from "set up the first attempt to capture the bad guy" to "cue Wonder Woman (or the Teen Titans, or Wildcat, etc.)"
And the bad guys are all the same. In essence "Brave and the Bold" is like regular "Batman", just a little more largess. A lot of hoods with guns who are pretty good at elaborate murders, or an ODD preponderence of Latino crime conspiracies (or Batman's got a thing for the Mexicans), so a lack of heavy hitting super villains. Nothing wrong with a more down to Earth heroism, but page after page of hearing about police dragnets, or tracking criminal's accounts, or failing to stop murders/capture minor hoods, it gets repetitive and unimaginative.
I also do not approve of the crossover selections with Batman. Aside from obvious outliers like the Bat Squad (they're just British film crew workers who he enlists to walk around and look for things), team-ups repeat and lack imagination. The Teen Titans have nothing but super powers but often have to come down to Batman's "cop" methodology. Wildcat's two issues are particularly aimless. In one issue he is a down on his luck old boxer, another he has amnesia, but Batman can resolve these issues in a couple of panels? In general, the outlier heroes that seem like good ideas (for example, Deadman, Green Arrow, etc.) just get dumbed down into "what is this criminal doing? how did they kill that person/are they really a killer?", making it seem like a redundant add on to those mediocre Batman stories that people like Frank Robbins were already writing in the actual "Batman/Detective Comics" blah-ness.
The art was really good. Neal Adams only did one issue, but Nick Cardy and Jim Aparo (who became the main artist) all also have a really strong vision for action and scenery. If you like to flip through a book and not care about the story, this is the one for you.
June 5, 2012
Ah, the good old days!
Done in one stories, a non-psycho, tight ass Batman that acts more like a detective than a ninja and beautiful art by Jim Aparo and Nick Cardy.
The first volume of 'B and the B' reprints was wildly uneven in both art and story, but this volume has hit it's stride. Bob Haney has set up a world for Batman and his various guest stars, which while still having some big logic gaps, is consistent from story to story. It creates a world with it's own rules that you accept.
Plus, there's a great variety of guest stars and types of stories. Aliens, ghost pirates, drug lords and spies.
Yes, there is the occasional miss step, Haney's attempt to make Plastic man a serious and occasionally tragic hero feels really forced and never quite works, but otherwise this is one of the most fun and solidly written team up comics I've read.
Unfortunately your enjoyment will be tainted by realizing what a dreary train wreck modern Batman stories are.
Done in one stories, a non-psycho, tight ass Batman that acts more like a detective than a ninja and beautiful art by Jim Aparo and Nick Cardy.
The first volume of 'B and the B' reprints was wildly uneven in both art and story, but this volume has hit it's stride. Bob Haney has set up a world for Batman and his various guest stars, which while still having some big logic gaps, is consistent from story to story. It creates a world with it's own rules that you accept.
Plus, there's a great variety of guest stars and types of stories. Aliens, ghost pirates, drug lords and spies.
Yes, there is the occasional miss step, Haney's attempt to make Plastic man a serious and occasionally tragic hero feels really forced and never quite works, but otherwise this is one of the most fun and solidly written team up comics I've read.
Unfortunately your enjoyment will be tainted by realizing what a dreary train wreck modern Batman stories are.
May 5, 2021
Here's a piece of comics history--Batman fans should be pleased, overall, by these stories, all of which pair the Caped Crusader with other well-known figures in the DC pantheon. Bob Haney is not the greatest comics writer of them all, but as showcased here he certainly has his stellar moments. And although my favorite Batman artist--the legendary Neal Adams--doesn't feature much in this volume, most of the stories are illustrated by Jim Aparo, who was always a creditable second to Adams. All in all, well worth reading for DC aficionados, even though 'Showcase Presents' has converted the original colored versions of these comics to black and white for economy's sake.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 21, 2008
Pretty excellent Batman stories. Volume 2 moves into the 70s, which I think was a great decade for comics, far superior to the 50s-60s anyway, when what currently makes up the bulk of the Showcase Presents line was originally released. Many of these stories are used to address social and political issues of the time, many of which are unfortunately still relevant today. Most notable are rampant drug use and the division of the classes in America.
Also interesting: Green Arrow kills somebody.
Also interesting: Green Arrow kills somebody.
March 31, 2015
This book covers a period roughly 1970-1974. Many of the themes reflect societal issues at the time, the generation gap, plane highjackings, poverty in the cities, etc. Also common throughout is some of the vernacular to make the characters contemporary, such as Right On and Dig It. The team ups are solid and the stories keep your interest. Sometimes things were better in the "old days" and this compilation is an example of that
January 22, 2011
Contains Brave and the Bold issues 88-108 from the very early 70's. These are some really good issues. I always liked Batman and he is hitting on all cylinders in these stories. The team-ups are great and the art is really good and consistent. The 70s were a great time for comics and this bunch here is the tip of the iceburg.
August 9, 2016
The early seventies were that difficult time when superhero comics were trying to work out a their new place in the world. So Hitler, witchcraft and "relevance" are amongst the ingredients. If you can take that in your stride the stories are workmanlike and there's some good storytelling art in here.
May 23, 2020
While Neil Adams is the Name in this volume, it's really Jim Aparo who is the Batman Artist that represents the key artist for me. The stories are average and sometimes forced but the art carries most of them.
July 4, 2012
A mixture of a few good, many mediocre, and a few terrible stories. Somewhat entertaining, but I'm unlikely to revisit this volume anytime soon, and it's generally pretty forgettable.
April 7, 2017
I always enjoy reading these older silver and bronze age comics. The stories are written very differently than the grittier, grimmer books of today. It's interesting to see the world through the eyes of the writers and their heroes and villains 40+ years ago. Nice collection of these batman team-ups. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews