Reprints Brave And The Bold #98, 100-102, 104-122
Written by Bob Haney.
Penciled by Jim Aparo and Neal Adams.
Inked by Jim Aparo and Dick Giordano.
Summary:
Over 500 pages of Bat-Tacular Brave, Bold Bronze Age tales, including:
Roger Birnam, a close friend of Batman has died. The caped crusader feels that he should look in on the man's widow Clarinda and son Enoch. But Batman will be shocked to learn that there is more to Enoch than meets the eye.
There seems to be something supernatural going on at the Birnam mansion. Thankfully, the paranormal investigator Phantom Stranger arrives to help Batman solve the mystery of Enoch Birnam.
Sometime after that, Batman is shot by a sniper and is on the brink of death, confined to a wheelchair. The bullet is lodged near his heart and the only surgeon who can save him is based in Zurich, Switzerland and won't arrive for another three days.
He might be the World's Greatest Detective, but how can he solve his own attempted murder while recovering from a gunshot wound? His former partner, Robin, steps in to help find he sniper. Batman also summons his fellow superheroes Green Arrow, Black Canary and Green Lantern to help Robin. Batman will direct them on the telephone, providing the detective work, while they follow his orders and try to nab the shooter!
Batman apprehends a criminal named Fast Frankie in Barclayville, a poor neighborhood in Gotham City. A group of community activists known as the Young Aquarians tells Batman that they plan to use vigilante justice on Frankie. Batman says he will turn Frankie over to the police. The Young Aquarians act as the de facto police in Barclayville, because the law enforcement officials don't seem to care about the neighborhood.
At City Hall, Gotham's City Council announces plans to tear down buildings in Barclayville as part of an Urban Renewal project. Batman tries to talk them out of it, but the mayor says it's too late.
When the bulldozers arrive in Barclayville, the Young Aquarians lay down in front of them. The activists get some surprise help in the form of the Teen Titans! The debate is joined by Batman, Commissioner Gordon and Gotham's mayor.
The city leaders tell the kids they have 30 days to beautify their neighborhood and save it from the wrecking ball. Batman and the Teen Titans offer to assist the Young Aquarians' clean-up project. Can Barclayville be saved?
Batman discovers a secret facility that provides plastic surgery for dangerous, wanted criminals who want to change their appearance. When Batman's attempt to go undercover doesn't work out, he seeks out the Deadman, who can take possession of any living person.
Deadman possesses a criminal named Richie Wandrus. He makes progress in breaking up the plastic surgery ring, but Deadman jeopardizes the investigation when he falls in love with Wandrus' girlfriend Lily Lang. Can Batman get Deadman to focus and prevent the plastic surgeons from giving criminals the ultimate disguise?
Bruce Wayne is having dinner at a restaurant in the Las Pampas district of Spanish Gotham. When a shootout occurs, Batman finds himself caught in the middle of a political firefight between rival factions from the nation of San Sebastian. Thankfully, his friend Diana Prince, also known as Wonder Woman, is available to assist him when the San Sebastitianos try to fight their civil war in the streets of Spanish Gotham.
Batman and Commissioner Gordon find a family murdered. Each member of the family is holding a Joker playing card, which indicates it's the work of Batman's arch foe the Joker. Batman says that the Joker has gone too far and that he will hunt down and destroy the clown prince of crime. The Caped Crusader says the police better catch the Joker first, if they want him alive.
But after a little digging, Batman's deduces that the Joker may have been framed for the murders. Believing that Joker is for once, not guilty, Batman offers his enemy a truce so that they can identify the real killer. But can Batman trust the Joker to hold up his end of the truce?
Batman contacts his Justice League teammate Aquaman, knowing that the king of the sea is his best hope to recover the plane. However, Batman is shocked to learn that Aquaman himself is responsible for downing the plane! Has Aquaman turned evil? Or did he have a good reason to take down the jetliner?
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| Aquaman sends an Orca to save Batman! |
When a teenage girl named Debbie Manton is kidnapped, Batman searches desperately for her all around Gotham City. During his quest, he receives a high voltage electrical shock. He is dumped by criminals at the police station, where the Batman is pronounced dead!
Commissioner Gordon refuses to give up hope and remembers that Batman's old friend, Dr. Roy Palmer, a physicist, just happens to be in Gotham. Palmer is also the superhero known as the Atom. He shrinks down to microscopic size and goes inside Batman's brain to stimulate blood flow.
Finally, B.B. Riggs brings his sideshow to Gotham City. Batman is shocked to see his old ally Swamp-Thing chained up on display in the sideshow. Batman confronts Riggs and says it's inhuman to abuse Swamp-Thing in this manner.
Shortly after, a poisonous substance in the local water supply causes giant vines to start sprouting up out all over the city. This creates a flood that destroys property and brings chaos to a highly populated area. The citizens of Gotham decide that it must somehow be the fault of Swamp-Thing and decide to kill him.
Batman knows that without Swamp-Thing's help, Gotam City is doomed. Can Batman save Swamp-Thing? Even if he does, can they stop the giant vines from destroying the city?
Review:
Legends Of The Dark Knight: Jim Aparo is a good book, but it's mostly lighter fare and done-in-one stories. However, Jim Aparo's art is the main attraction and it still looks great four decades after these stories were originally published.
Story:
As some readers recall, "Zany" Bob Haney wrote stories in Brave And The Bold that seemed to exist in their own unique pocket universe. Haney often had little regard for continuity and didn't seem to care that Batman and others acted somewhat out of character in his stories. That's why these stories show the Batman visiting the Birnam Mansion in costume and taking a stroll through Gotham City in broad daylight, enjoying the Springtime weather!
Mixed in with the tales of common criminals are stories about witch covens and Batman selling his soul to the devil! Plus two team-ups with Sgt. Rock. While these are a bit more interesting, the Batman seems a bit out of place in such stories.
The main problem I had with these isn't their "Haney-ness." It's that most of the stories feature Batman and the guest heroes teaming up to fight generic gangsters, drug dealers and street hoodlums. Maybe these were more enjoyable when they were bought off the racks 40 years ago. But reading one story after another featuring Batman vs. generic criminals without superpowers gets old fast.
The only DC super-villains that appear in Legends Of The Dark Knight: Jim Aparo are the Joker and Two-Face, and Joker shows up in two different stories. Not surprisingly, the Joker stories are the best in the book. Haney writes a very entertaining, crazy, cunning Joker.
Haney also doesn't seem to have a lot of use for DC's superheroines. For instance, Black Canary seems more concerned about drying her hair than saving Batman's life. Wonder Woman doesn't get to do much in her guest appearance. I should mention that this story was published during a period when Wonder Woman had lost her superpowers and was fighting criminals using martial arts.
The stories aren't all silly. In fact, some of them even resemble the "grim and gritty" Batman tales that have become the norm since the 1980s. There are quite a few murders and accidental deaths in these stories. Batman himself takes a bullet to the heart in one story, which puts him at death's door.
While the Young Aquarians/Barclayville story was slight, it was interesting to see Batman and the Teen Titans interact with the "counter culture" kids of the early 70s. And it made sense that the Teen Titans, being younger than the Caped Crusader, joined the Aquarians' civil disobedience against the demolition of Barclayville. It's not the best story ever, but at least Haney was trying to write something relevant, even if some of the slang used by the Aquarians is a bit dated (it was probably even dated when the story was first published). In any event, it's better than another "Batman and guest hero vs. gangsters" tale.
In this blogger's opinion, Jim Aparo was the definitive Batman artist of the Bronze Age. Some will say it's Neal Adams or Marshall Rogers. I give the nod to Aparo because he drew quite a few more Batman stories than anyone else during that time. Legends Of The Dark Knight: Jim Aparo gives us 500+ pages of Aparo's pencils and every page looks excellent.
Since Brave And The Bold was a team-up title, we get to see Aparo draw tons of DC characters. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of the Demon, seen below.
Another high point is Atom's trip through Batman's internal organs.
I also love the way Aparo drew the Joker in these stories. The super-thin chin is a great touch.
How Does It Look?:
Here's a page scanned from Brave And The Bold #100, borrowed from one of my favorite blogs, Diversions Of The Groovy Kind:
Here's a scan of the reprinted version found in this hardcover reprint:
3 Sals.
