By Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, George Roussos, Howard Purcell, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Bruno Premiani, Ramona Fradon, Charles Paris & Bernard Baily (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012- 0405-1
The Brave and the Bold premiered in 1955; an anthology adventure comic featuring short complete tales starring a variety of period heroes: a format mirroring that era’s filmic fascination with historical dramas. Devised and written by Robert Kanigher, issue #1 led with Roman epic Golden Gladiator, medieval mystery-man The Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. Soon the Gladiator was sidelined by the company’s iteration of Robin Hood, but the high adventure theme carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning superhero revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like the astounding successful Showcase.
Used to launch enterprising concepts and characters such as Task Force X: the Suicide Squad, Cave Carson, Strange Sports Stories, Hawkman and the epochal Justice League of America, the title then created a whole sub-genre – although barely anybody noticed at the time…
As related in the Foreword by Robert Klein and Michael Uslan, National Periodicals/DC Comics had for nearly a decade enjoyed great success pairing Superman with Batman and Robin in World’s Finest Comics and in 1963 looked to create another top selling duo from their growing pantheon of masked mystery men. It didn’t hurt that the timing also allowed extra exposure for characters imminently graduating to their own starring vehicles after years as back-up features…
This was at a time when almost no costumed heroes acknowledged the jurisdiction or usually existence of other costumed champions. When B&B offered this succession of team-ups, they were laying the foundations for DC’s future close-knit comics continuity. Now there’s something wrong with any superstar who doesn’t regularly join every other cape or mask on-planet every five minutes or so…
This sublime, compellingly quirky full-colour hardback extravaganza collects those first eight exploratory alliances from October/November 1963-April/May 1965: re-presenting The Brave and the Bold #50-56 plus #59 (issues #57-58 having diverged to debut solo sensation Metamorpho, the Element Man). This run resulted in two long-running series and would be followed by a further eight pairings… hopefully in a follow-up volume one day…
Those yarns included a return engagement for the kids – now dubbed the Teen Titans – two issues spotlighting Earth-Two colluding champions Starman & Black Canary; Wonder Woman teamed with Supergirl and, as an indication of things to come, Batman duelling hero/villain Eclipso in #64: an acknowledgement of the brewing TV-induced mania mere months away.
Within two issues, following Flash/Doom Patrol and Metamorpho/Metal Men, B&B #67 saw the Caped Crusader take de facto control of the title and the lion’s share of the team-ups. With the exception of #72-73 (Spectre/Flash and Aquaman/Atom) The Brave and the Bold became “Somebody and Batmanâ€: a place the Gotham Gangbuster invited the rest of the company’s heroic pantheon to come and play…
The ancient hero-histories commence with Brave and the Bold #50 which saw Ace Archer Green Arrow team-up in a book length adventure with the Manhunter from Mars. ‘Wanted – the Capsule Master!’ pitted the newly-minted Green Team in a furious fight with marauding extraterrestrial menace Vulkor; a fast-paced thriller by Bob Haney & George Roussos.
Haney scripted the majority of the stories in B&B, and followed up with a magnificently manic tale of eerie excitement for superb veteran artist Howard Purcell in ‘Fury of the Exiled Creature’ (#51, December 1963/January 1964) in which the fearsome Outcast of Atlantis turned mystical mutative powers against not just Aquaman but also new DC superstars Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
Superheroes were not the overarching force then that they became. DC’s war division was also spectacularly popular and Brave and the Bold #52 (February/March 1964) grouped Haunted Tank commander Jeb Stuart with Sgt. Rock and Navajo air ace Lt. Cloud as the 3 Battle Stars in ‘Suicide Mission! Save Him or Kill Him!’. Produced by Kanigher & Kubert, this superbly moody WWII combat-thriller saw Air Force, Armoured Cavalry and Infantry stars combine forces to escort and safeguard a vital Allied agent. Codename Martin had been sealed into a cruel and all-encompassing iron suit by the Nazis and in their rush to complete the mission nobody could spare the time to crack the spy out of the metal box…
Fast-paced, explosive and utterly outrageous, the chase across occupied France resulted in one of the best battle blockbusters of the era, and culminated in the revelation that the precious cargo had been a fourth war star in mufti all along…
One of the most memorable and visually evocative team-ups was ‘The Challenge of the Expanding World’ (#53, April/May 1964) in which the Atom and Flash strove valiantly to free a sub-atomic civilisation from mad dictator Attila 5 and simultaneously battled to keep that miniature planet from explosively enlarging into our own…
The concept of juvenile-hero teams was not a new one when a trio of kid sidekicks were assembled in a hip, fab and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil.
The biggest difference between wartime groups as The Young Allies, Boy Commandos and Newsboy Legion or such 1950s holdovers as The Little Wise Guys or Boys Ranch and the creation of the Titans was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “The Teenager†as a discrete social and commercial force. These were kids who could be allowed to do things themselves without constant adult help or supervision.
In the June/July 1964 issue (#54), Haney turned out a gripping mystic thriller superbly illustrated by unsung genius Bruno Premiani. ‘The Thousand-and-One Dooms of Mr. Twister’ united solo problem-solvers Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin, the Boy Wonder in a desperate battle against a modern wizard and deranged Pied Piper who had claimed the teenagers of Hatton Corners in lieu of an ancestral debt. Our young champions had met in town by chance when students invited them to mediate in a long-running dispute with the adults…
In issue #55 (August/September 1965) Haney and illustrators Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris detailed the ‘Revenge of the Robot Reject’ which embroiled the Atom and Metal Men in deadly peril. When a series of suspicious lab accidents destroyed the Heavy Metal Heroes, distraught Doc Magnus was menaced by rogue robot Uranium and his silver-metal lover Agantha until size-changing champion Professor Ray Palmer intervened. Soon the scrap-heap scrappers were once more resurrected to end the evil automaton’s nuclear threat forever.
In #56 Haney and Bernard Baily flooded the 1964 World’s Fair with bizarre costumed antics as ‘The Flash and the Manhunter from Mars: Raid of the Mutant Marauders’ found the heroes battling an army of hybrids based on themselves and their Justice League comrades. Due diligence soon revealed that a lovesick artificial warrior and a haughty alien princess were responsible for the chaos, but not before the saga ended in tragedy…
Closing these epic annals is the landmark from The Brave and the Bold #59 (April/May 1965) which became the prototype of the title’s next twenty years. Illustrated by Fradon & Paris it found Batman and Green Lantern reliving the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo as they strived to foil ‘The Tick-Tock Traps of the Time Commander!’
Devious criminal scientist John Starr had tricked Bruce Wayne into clearing his name and stolen the Emerald Crusader’s power to fuel his chronal assault on Gotham but had severely underestimated his foes’ resilience and ingenuity…
With covers by Roussos, Purcell, Kubert, Bob Brown, Premiani, Fradon & Paris, Baily and Gil Kane and a full Biographies section, this is a stellar collection of groundbreaking Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction every fantastic action fan will adore.
© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.