{"id":25344,"date":"2022-01-08T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=25344"},"modified":"2022-01-07T17:15:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T17:15:08","slug":"the-all-new-batman-the-brave-and-the-bold-volume-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/01\/08\/the-all-new-batman-the-brave-and-the-bold-volume-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Sholly Fisch<\/strong>, Rick Burchett<\/strong>, Dan Davis<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-3272-6 (TPB)<\/p>\n

The Brave and the Bold<\/strong> premiered in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short complete tales about a variety of period heroes: a format reflecting the era’s filmic fascination with flamboyantly fanciful historical dramas. Devised and written by Bob Kanigher, issue #1 led with Roman epic Golden Gladiator<\/em>, medieval mystery-man The Silent Knight <\/em>and Joe Kubert’s Viking Prince<\/strong>. Soon the Gladiator was alternated with Robin Hood<\/em>, but the adventure theme carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like Showcase<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Used to premiere concepts and characters such as Task Force X: The Suicide Squad<\/strong>, Cave Carson<\/strong>, Hawkman<\/strong> and Strange Sports Stories<\/strong> as well as the epochal Justice League of America<\/strong>, the comic soldiered on until issue #50 when it found another innovative new direction which once again caught the public’s imagination.<\/p>\n

That issue paired two superheroes – Green Arrow<\/strong> and Martian Manhunter<\/strong> – in a one-off team-up, and was followed by more of the same: Aquaman<\/strong> and Hawkman in<\/strong> #51, WWII \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Battle Stars\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sgt. Rock<\/strong>, Captain Cloud<\/strong>, Mme. Marie<\/strong> & the Haunted Tank<\/strong> in #52 and The<\/strong> Atom<\/strong> & Flash<\/strong> in #53.<\/p>\n

The next instant union – Robin<\/strong>, Aqualad<\/strong> and Kid Flash<\/strong> – evolved into Teen Titans<\/strong> and after Metal Men\/the Atom<\/strong> and Flash\/Martian Manhunter<\/strong> appeared, a new hero debuted in #57-58: Metamorpho, the Element Man<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

From then it was back to the increasingly popular superhero pairings with #59. Although no one realised it at the time, that particular conjunction – Batman<\/strong> with Green Lantern<\/strong> – would be particularly significant\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

A return engagement for the Teen Titans, issues spotlighting Earth-Two stalwarts Starman<\/strong> and Black Canary<\/strong> and Earth-One’s Wonder Woman<\/strong> and Supergirl<\/strong> soon gave way to an indication of things to come when Batman returned to duel hero\/villain Eclipso<\/strong> in #64: an early acknowledgement of the brewing TV-induced mania mere months away.<\/p>\n

Within two issues (following Flash\/Doom Patrol<\/strong> and Metamorpho\/Metal Men<\/strong>), B&B<\/strong> #67 saw the Caped Crusader take de facto control of the title and a lion’s share of team-ups. With the late exception of #72 and 73 (Spectre\/Flash<\/strong> and Aquaman\/Atom<\/strong>), the title was henceforth a place where the Gotham Gangbuster invited the rest of DC’s heroic pantheon to come and play\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Decades later, Batman: The Animated Series<\/strong> – masterminded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in the 1990s – revolutionised the Dark Knight and subsequently led to some of the absolute best comic book adventures in his 80-year publishing history. It also led to a spin-off print title\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With constant funnybook iterations and tie-ins to a succession of TV animation series, Batman has remained immensely popular and a sublime introducer of kids to the magical world of the printed page. One fun-filled incarnation was Batman: The Brave and the Bold<\/strong>, which gloriously celebrated the team up in both its all-ages small-screen and comicbook spin-off.<\/p>\n

Shamelessly and superbly plundering decades of continuity arcana in a profusion of alliances between the Dark Knight and DC’s lesser creations, the show was supplemented by a cool kid’s periodical full of fun, verve and swashbuckling dash, cunningly crafted to appeal as much to the parents and grandparents as those fresh-faced neophyte kids\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This stellar trade paperback and digital collection re-presents issues #1-6 of the second series – The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold<\/strong> – in an immensely entertaining all-ages ensemble suitable for newcomers, fans and aficionados of all ages. It was originally released between January and June 2011. Although absolutely unnecessary to the reader’s enjoyment, a passing familiarity with the TV episodes will enhance the overall experience as will knowledge of the bizarre minutiae of 1960s and 1970s DC lore\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Crafted by Sholly Fisch, Rich Burchett & Dan Davis and following the format of the TV show, each tale opens with a brief vignette\/prequel adventure before telling a longer tale. TA-NB:TB&TB<\/strong> (last time I’m typing that!) #1 sees the Caped Crimebuster battle Joker robots\u00c2\u00a0 beside Black Canary before main feature ‘Bottle of the Planets’<\/em> reunites him the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153World’s Finest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d partner in a devious mystery set in the last outpost of Krypton: the Bottled City of Kandor\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Having successfully solved the case of vanishing super-weapons, Batman teams with talking tiger Mr. Tawky-Tawny<\/em>, magical (Captain) Marvel Shazam<\/strong> and his gods-powered family to save Christmas in ‘That Holiday Feeling’<\/em>. That involves finding, fighting and foiling the emotion-bending Psycho-Pirate<\/em> whilst #3 sees Flash (two, actually) and the Dark Knight hunting Mirror Master<\/em> and the Mad Hatter<\/em> through a mirror dimension inhabited by all the characters from Lewis Carroll’s books. Curiouser and curiouser \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Wonder Woman headlines in #4 as irate godling Eros<\/em> seeks to teach her a lesson by using his arrows to instigate a wedding in ‘The Bride and the Bold’<\/em>. The ceremony between Bat and Amazon sparks a lot of interest and – thanks to jealous Talia Al Ghul<\/em> – a wave of super-villain attacks and the biggest wedding party brawl of all time before order and sense are restored\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

‘Man-Hunted’<\/em> find Batman and Emerald jerk Guy Gardner<\/em> fractiously allied to defeat a legion of the killer robots, but diverted to other realms to save a glorious enclave of nigh-forgotten 1960s alien beasts and sidekicks like Cryll<\/em> and Zook<\/em>(look them up, I double-dog dare ya…) from manic main man Lobo<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Ending this excellent excursion through DC’s daftest corridors is a beguiling contest between the Dark Knight Detective and Martian Manhunter J’onn J’onzz<\/em> who tests his abilities against classic observation and deduction in ‘Now You see Me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em>; sadly the salutary learning experience goes slightly awry when the calamitous Clayface<\/em> is accidentally exposed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Despite being ostensibly aimed at TV-addicted kids, these mini-sagas are wonderful, traditional comics thrillers no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, splendidly rendered yarns for the broadest range of excitement-seeking readers. This is a fabulous rollercoaster ride confirming the now-seamless link between animated features and comic books. After all, it’s just adventure entertainment in the end; really unmissable entertainment\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

What more do you need to know?
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2010, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sholly Fisch, Rick Burchett, Dan Davis & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-3272-6 (TPB) The Brave and the Bold premiered in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short complete tales about a variety of period heroes: a format reflecting the era’s filmic fascination with flamboyantly fanciful historical dramas. Devised and written by Bob Kanigher, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold volume 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,76,91,82,131,9,263,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-dc-superhero","category-flash","category-green-lantern","category-shazam","category-superman","category-the-brave-and-the-bold","category-wonder-woman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6AM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25348,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25344\/revisions\/25348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}