By Bob Haney, Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-813-3
Now settled on a winning format – pairing media superstar Batman with other luminaries of the DC universe in complete stand-alone stories – The Brave and the Bold proceeded to win critical as well as commercial kudos by teaming regular writer Bob Haney with the best artists available. At this time editors favoured regular if not permanent creative teams, feeling that a sense of visual and even narrative continuity would avoid confusion amongst younger readers. During this second collection (reprinting B&B #88-108 in crisp, efficient black and white) a number of stellar artists contributed before the comicbook finally found its perfect draughtsman…
Following a ground-breaking run by the iconoclastic and influential Neal Adams (see Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold Batman Team-ups Volume 1) was always going to be a tough act but veteran Irv Novick – who would unfairly tread in Adams’ mighty shadow on Batman for years to come – did sterling work here on a gritty tale of boxing and Cold War mind-games when the Caped Crusader met Wildcat in ‘Count Ten… and Die!’ (B&B #88, February-March 1970).
Mike Esposito inked that tale before rejoining longtime collaborator Ross Andru for a brief return engagement that began with an eerie thriller pitting Batman against the mystery sensation Phantom Stranger in #89’s ‘Arise Ye Ghosts of Gotham!’ and then switching pace and genre for a time-bending science fiction thriller ‘You Only Die Twice!’ guest-starring interstellar champion Adam Strange.
Issue #91, ‘A Cold Corpse for the Collector’ is a true gem of a tale. Haney was always at his best with terse, human scale dramas, especially “straight†crime thrillers, and his pairing of the Gotham Guardian with Black Canary (transplanted from Earth-2 to replace the “de-powered†Wonder Woman in the Justice League) found the recently widowed heroine searching for the Earth-1 counterpart of her dead husband only to find imminent death in a masterpiece of ironic melodrama. It also signalled the advent of the superb Nick Cardy as illustrator: a run of beautifully drawn and boldly experimental assignments that are still startling to see even four decades later.
The artistic exploration continued in the next issue when Batman traveled to England, embroiled in a moody, gothic murder mystery with a trio of British stereotypes fancifully christened “The Bat Squad.†Although the scratch team never reappeared, ‘Night Wears a Scarlet Shroud!’ remains a period delight and a must for those who still remember when “Eng-ga-land Swung.â€
At the end of the 1960s the Comics Code Authority ended its ban on crime and horror comics to allow publishers to exploit the global interest in the supernatural. This had instantly affected comics and more and more stories had macabre overtones. It even led to the revival of horror and suspense anthologies. One such was the venerable House of Mystery; and unquestionably the oddest team-up in B&B history.
Scripted by Denny O’Neil and illustrated by Neal Adams #93’s ‘Red Water, Crimson Death’ is a chilling ghost story with the added advantage of having the Dark Knight’s somber shtick counterbalanced by the musings of the sardonic laconic Cain, ethereal and hip caretaker of that haunted habitat…
Bob Haney, Nick Cardy and the Teen Titans returned for the powerful counter-culture bomb-plot ‘Rebels in the Streets’ whilst a forgotten mystery hero (I won’t spoil it for you) helped Batman get the goods on ruthless, fat-cat industrialist Ruby Ryder in ‘C.O.D. – Corpse on Delivery’, and – somewhat more palatable for continuity bugs – Sgt Rock’s second engagement was set in contemporary times rather than in WWII as the honourable old soldier became a bureaucrat’s patsy in an excellent espionage thriller ‘The Striped-Pants War!’
Haney clearly had a fondness for grizzled older heroes as Wildcat made another comeback in #97’s South-of-the-Border saga ‘The Smile of Choclotan!’, an epic of exploration inked by Cardy over the husky he-man pencils of the hugely underrated Bob Brown. The Phantom Stranger guested next in a truly sinister tale of suburban devil worship which found Batman thoroughly out of his depth in ‘The Mansion of the Misbegotten!’, illustrated by the man who would soon become the only B&B artist: Jim Aparo.
Brown and Cardy returned to draw the Flash saving the Gotham Gangbuster from ghostly possession in ‘The Man who Murdered the Past’ and Aparo illustrated the anniversary 100th issue as Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary had to take over for a Batman on the verge of death and trapped as ‘The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair’ as well as the outrageous murder-mystery ‘Cold-Blood, Hot Gun’ wherein Metamorpho, the Element Man assisted the Caped Crusader in foiling the World’s most deadly hitman.
Brave and the Bold #102 featured a true rarity: the Teen Titans again featured in an angry tale of the generation gap ‘Commune of Defiance’ which began as an Aparo job, but in a bizarre turnabout Neal Adams – an artist legendary for blowing deadlines – was called in to finish the story, contributing the last nine pages of the tension-packed political thriller. Bob Brown and Frank McLaughlin illustrated ‘A Traitor Lurks Inside Earth!’ a doomsday saga of military computers gone awry featuring the multipurpose Metal Men whilst Aparo handled the poignant story of love from beyond the grave in the eponymously entitled ‘Second Chance for a Deadman?’ from #104.
The aforementioned unpowered Wonder Woman returned after a long absence in Haney and Aparo’s superb revolutionary epic ‘Play Now… Die Later!’ wherein Diana Prince and Batman become pawns in a bloody South American feud exported to the streets of Gotham, and Green Arrow was sucked into a murderous get-rich-quick con in #106’s ‘Double Your Money… and Die’, featuring a surprise star villain.
Black Canary then featured in a clever take on the headline-grabbing – and still unsolved – D.B. Cooper hijacking of a airliner in ‘The 3-Million Dollar Sky’ from B&B #107 (June-July 1973. Inflation sucks: “Cooper†only got $200,000 when he jumped out of that Boeing 727 in November 1971, never to be see again…) and this volume ends with a wonderfully chilling tale of obsession as Sgt. Rock tried once more to catch the greatest monster in history on ‘The Night Batman Sold his Soul!’
These are some of the best and most entertainingly varied yarns from a period of magnificent creativity in the American comics industry. Aimed at a general readership, gloriously free of heavy, cloying continuity baggage and brought to stirring action-packed life by some of the greatest artists in the business, this is a Batman for all seasons and reasons with the added bonus of some of the most fabulous and engaging co-stars a fan could imagine. How could anybody resist? Seriously: can you…?
©1970-1973, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.