The Brave and The Bold #33

Well, Free Comic Book Month is over. It was a fun ride but now it is time to get back to the status quo. This week I got a treat for you all. This comic has to do with one of my least favorite stories but the same story is seen as one of comics greatest. What story am I talking about? Well if you know the comic I am about to review, it is really clear. With all that said, The Brave and the Bold.

Many people, myself included, first heard about The Brave and the Bold form the Cartoon Network show under the same name. Well almost the same name. The cartoon focused on Batman teaming up with many different heroes from the DCU done in a very silver age, Adam West style. Pretty much, it was campy as all get out. Now hold this TV show thought for a second.

The comic series was an anthology series that started back in 1955 and focused on heroes of the past like Robin Hood and the like. But around issue 25, it became more of a try out book for new DC heroes. Super hero teams such as the Suicide Squad, Teen Titans, and even the Justice League, can all say that their start was in The Brave and the Bold. By the time the book got to issue 74, it became Batman: The Brave and The Bold due to the popularity of one Adam West. And this run of the book was just like the cartoon from what I hear. This book was not forever though. It was canceled.

In the year 1991 there was a short run of the series again, this time as two six issue miniseries. One series ran from 91 to 92, the other 99 to 00. I have never seen this books at all but I assume they are very 90’s. The series I am looking at today is the latest and currently last run of the book. This version had a 12 issue story line before becoming smaller arcs and finally going full circle back to the silver age-ish campy nature that started the book. And that is where the TV show ties in for me. When I picked up this book it was pretty darn close to the cartoon. But I would still watch the TV show over reading these stories.

That should be enough history for now. Time to turn off your brains and get some dance music on, this is The Brave and The Bold issue 33.

 

Now I am reading from the trade paperback and normally that would mean no cover, but this time the covers are right in front of each story. So what can I say about this cover? Well Zatanna, Wonder Woman, and Batgirl are walking down a street in the middle of the day, arm in arm, past a group of knocked out men. I am going to assume these men have super powers however I am not going to assume they are villains. Why you ask? Well look right by Zatanna’s leg. It looks like X-men’s Cyclops is resting his head right on Watchmen’s Nite Owl.

Art wise, um, well, the girls have very ‘meaty’ thighs. Last time I saw Wonder Woman was in the famous fans comics and still she does not work out or get Subway with avocado (now for sale for the summer). 

The comic begins with Zatanna, now about 70 pounds lighter, being shocked awake from an awful dream. She says that it was a dream but now just any dream. She has places to be. Now the art in the comic is fine as far as that goes. I like how the atmosphere here in the first page is dark and a bit foreboding. Yes I know it is the middle of the night where Zatanna is but at the same time, I have seen lots of comics get the lighting wrong on simpler stuff.

After this we cut to a cruise boat jacking where a mad bomber with tons of, well, bombs strapped to him is barking out orders to take him to Siberia. As he is yelling at the people that every single inch of him is covered in explosives, Wonder Woman comes flying in and stripped him naked.

Finally. A thinner Wonder Woman. The perspective is alright but there is an issue I take with this page. Where is Wonder Woman looking? From the story, she is talking to the bomber. From the art, she is looking right at the reader. The bomber is looking up at her but she doesn’t want to see his last ‘explosive’?

Yes. I just made a penis joke. What of it?

After Wonder Woman hands the bomber over to the . . . cops . . . wait a tick. The boat was out at sea. Did the captain drive all the way back to dock or was there a police boat right off in the distance? The comic is very unclear about this. Anyway, as Wonder Woman watches the bomber get taken away, Zatanna appears in the mirror behind Wonder Woman. Zatanna, looking as dead pan as possible, says that she needs Wonder Woman’s help with something. Wonder Woman, looking equally dead, asks what it is.

We then cut to Gotham where thugs on motorcycles are stealing a ladies purse. The lady, who was standing in the middle of the street, is 100% ok, just her purse was stolen. What the heck? Is this a thing? Do thugs on motorcycles have such skills to take a purse and leave the person the purse belongs to unharmed in anyway? I mean this lady did not even get knocked down.

Ugh anyway as they drive away, the three thugs get tripped up by a steel cable. The cable is at just the right height where the thugs crash into it but not the bikes. Again, what the heck just happened? Gotham has some weird things going on in it. The cable was shot by none other than Batgirl who then proceeds to hand them over to the cops.

Huh?

I know the panel gives a caption that says “Eight minutes later” but what happened in these 8 minutes? Who called the cops or where the cops just around after 8 minutes? Too many questions. Anyway, as Batgirl rides away from the cops, Wonder Woman comes and picks up Batgirls bike. 

Now we finally get to hear what this super special awesome mission is. Zatanna and Wonder Woman want Batgirl to take a night off! Something tells me there is not going to be much super hero fighting in this issue. Real fast, again in panel 1, where is Wonder Woman looking? Zatanna is looking at Batgirl, Batgirl is trying to figure out her jump so that she can get back into the Gotham crime action, and Wonder Woman is just kinda staring off into space.

Of course Zatanna takes Batgirl into having a night off tonight and the three of them get changed. Sadly, there is no changing montage. After all three get dressed up, they go to a random Gotham club.

One of these girls is not like the other. And yet, if you ask me, she is the cutest. While Wonder Woman and Zatanna look attractive and confidant in their looks, Barbara looks a bit scared. She looks like that nerd who finally ‘grew up’ and is out of her element. See? The art can be awesome at times and really show the characters for whom they are, and that they are not just dead pan eyes all the time.

So Zatanna magic’s her way past the bouncer, making him say what she wants. As they get in, Barbara says that she has to learn that trick sometime. They get to the dance floor and do, what else? They dance.

As they are dancing, Wonder Woman gets hit on by some guy who thinks with his lower half. Well Wonder Woman reaches into his pants and breaks his iPhone. Now remember this iPhone for later. I got a bit of a rant to go with it. 

Barbara is off to the side of the floor and talks to Zatanna about her favorite heels. These heels were more than her family could afford but her dad, Jim Gordon, got them for her for her birthday. Barbara says that the shoes are a great memory of her past, since she doesn’t see her dad as much with her day job and her night one. Zatanna talks about how you can only have one mother and father. Um, that is kinda hard to agree with. There have been same sex couples so one could be missing a mother or father. Or you can have many different couples raise you over time and do a good job about it. You could even have just one parent raise you their whole life. Now if you are talking biologically, then yes, you do have only one mother and father. I say all this since there are a good number of stories that say that Jim Gordon is Barbara’s adoptive father. All this makes that Zatanna’s comment is really hard to understand right now.

So after Zatanna magic’s some random guy into dancing with Barbara, Wonder Woman and Zatanna go to the bathroom together. There, Barbara sees something a bit strange.

Zatanna and Wonder Woman kissing?

Nah.

Even I knew the first time I ever read this that this was not really happening. I knew this was just a misunderstanding this whole time but one that they will never explain to Barbara. 

After that scene, the three girls go out and hit other clubs. They go to another club like the one they were in, they hit some kind of elderly Spanish retirement home, and they go sing some stage karaoke.

And to end the perfect night, they have food at a Denny’s. It is at the Denny’s were Wonder Woman talks about beings called Oracles. She says there are two main types. The first is the ones burdened with seeing the future. These ones know what is going to happen but if they try to change it at all, it WILL just make things worse for everyone. The other types are the Oracles who know everything by learning everything. These were more welcome to people since knowledge is power. Always has been. This conversation soon ends the night breakfast and the girls get up to leave. Wonder Woman call a taxi for Barbara and they part ways. As Barbara rides off, Zatanna and Wonder Woman cry. Why you ask? Well take a look at these next few pages.

Yes. This story was just the last day Barbara had her legs before getting shot by the Joker in the story ‘The Killing Joke’. 

The comic ends the same way it began, sort of. Barbara is now the one who wakes up and tells whoever is on the other end of the line that she had her favorite dream. The one about her last day with legs.

And now I rant. I made my feelings clear on ‘The Killing Joke’ story before. It was not a great story and just makes a mess of things for the Batman universe, which is very impressive since at the time of its writing, it was not suppose to be canon at all. But it happened and we have to live with it. Now I am fine with this story being Barbara’s last day with legs and how Zatanna wanted to make it special. What I am unhappy with is the time frame the main part of the story takes place in. Barbara got shot in 1988. This story was written as if she got shot in 2007. Mind the time gap people. Remember that iPhone I talked about? Yeah those kinda were not around in 1988. Also, remember my Zatanna special review? That was Zatanna’s 80’s costume. This book, however, had her in her better classic costume. This story would have been so much better I feel if it was written like it was happening in the 80’s, the time frame where Barbara got shot. Instead, we get a good idea but not so great execution.

Next week, it will be time to travel to a time changed earth. Next week, I look at a Flashpoint miniseries.

All Images (c) DC