Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold - The Batman Team-Ups, Vol. 2

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ok, bone weary of people bleating about how these books are in black & white.
Newsflash for the few comic fans who still don't know: Showcase Presents & Marvel Essentials are in black & white, ok? Get over it. It's still exceptional value for money.
As for B & B 2, well, it's clearly a VAST improvement on vol 1. Sure there is some great Neal Adams stuff in the previous volume, but there's a lot
of old tat as well.
Herein, you get Adams, Nick Cardy and THE Brave & Bold artist, ( Also the best Batman artist ever. Discuss. ) Jim Aparo, along with stories from the
insane genius of Bob Haney.
Haney was the kind of writer who never let realism, continuity or even simple logic get in the way of a good story. And his B & B stories are always mad flights of fun. Remember when comics were FUN?
( For instance, in vol. 1, witness the Bats / Sgt. Rock tale, where he gets around the tricky problem of having two characters from different times meet, by having Bats simply say " Back when I was in WW2, I met Sgt. Rock ", when we all know this is impossible. You have to admire that kind of chutzpah. )
Similarly, when teamed with Aparo, Haney seems let off the leash, and promptly puts Bats through: Being possessed by the ghost of a wooden legged sailor / Selling his soul to the Devil / Foretelling the exact date of his own death and, in the best story, being paralyzed in a wheelchair.
( Which stops him chasing the bad guy not one iota. )
This is brilliant, brilliant stuff, and well worth your money.
Don't let anyone tell you different.

This is another great Showcase book by DC. The stories are self contained in one issue and don't drag out for months in a prolonged manner just to sell a tpb. Batman is fairly close to the Dark Knight we all know and love but is a little bit less despondant in his personality. Great art and fun stories featuring most of the DC 2nd division heroes of the early 70s. I guess this title was used by DC to keep some characters active by throwing them in with Batman so they would not be forgotten.It's definitely worth buying for 12 bucks or so.

When I read volume one of Batman's Brave and the Bold Team-Ups I wrote that the stories were nearly unreadable until Neal Adams came along to save the day with his incredible artistic abilities. Things are better off this time around! I'm still not sure I'm sold on Haney's writing. Many of the stories seem to try too hard for "relevancy" and end up seeming quite dated. Batman teams up with a very nice, diverse collection of heroes but the most important team-ups are probably the artists that join Haney to tell the tales. There is some more Neal Adams in this volume but by the end the star of the book is Jim Aparo! There's even a story where the first half is drawn by Adams and the second by Aparo and I almost can't distinguish between the two!

This is the second in the Batman Brave & The Bold Team Ups, and I have to say it's better than the first volume in a lot of ways. For one thing, you have Neal Adams and Jim Aparo supplying art throughout. That gives you two of the best Batman artists of the 60's and 70's in the same book. There's always a different self-contained story in each issue, so you don't have time to get bored with anything. Those are the positives.

The negatives are the amazing amount of repeat guests you have in these twenty-something issues. Two stories featuring Sgt. Rock (of all people), the Teen Titans (complete with the "hip" 60's slang), Black Canary, and Green Arrow. Some stars only rated one issue, like Wonder Woman (during her powerless phase), Plastic Man, Metal Men, and The Bat Squad (don't ask...it's easily the worst story in the book). Heroes like Deadman and The Flash are sorely underused in this run. Both of them get one story each to shine, and they should have been more in there.

Hopefully the next volume will pick up with a few different guest stars rather than recycling the old ones over and over again. Hawkman, The Atom, and even The Elongated Man would make better guests than Sgt. Rock or the Bat Squad. Still, this is better than not having the stories at all. It's a nice glimpse into the past that was leading up to the best years of the Brave & The Bold stories ahead.

One of the most anticipated series I get to review is DC Comics Showcase series.
Where else can you get over 500 pages of a book dedicated to your favorite characters? So, far, DC has 'showcased' Wonder Woman, Batman, the Justice League, Jonah Hex, The Phantom Stranger, The Elongated Man, the Flash, and even the House of Mystery! To paraphrase one of my favorite book titles, all in black and white for under $20!
Showcase: Robin, covers the comic book career of Robin the Boy Wonder from May of 1964 to September of 1975. It may not be a long time period chronologically, but the range of stories in the book spans the Worlds Finest team ups of Robin and Jimmy Olsen, Robin and Batman, Robin and Batgirl, Robin and Superman, and course, Robin and Robin.
Not only are there outstanding stories in the book, but also outstanding art as well. Gil Kane, Rich Buckler, Terry Austin, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff, Pete Costanza, Joe Giella, Al Milgrom, Chic Stone, Sid Greene, Ross Andru, Vince Colletta, and Murphy Anderson contribute to the stories. Mike Friedrich, Leo Dorfman, John Broome, Frank Robbins, Bob Haney, Denny O'Neil, and Gardner Fox pen this Whose Who in the DC universe from 64 to 78.

Older comic readers will remember the stories from the first time they read them. I know I recognized a few right off the top, but that didn't stop me from sitting down and reading. Robin appeared in various titles like Detective Comics, Worlds Finest Comics, Jimmy Olsen, Batman, and the Justice League. My favorite tales include "How Many Ways Can A Robin Die??" by Frank Robbins, "Theater of the Mind" (Friedrich/Buckler), "The New Terrific Team" (Hamilton/Swan/Klein), and "Midnight is the Dying Hour" (O'Neill/Kane/Colletta). I am perpetually amazed by the volume of work that Gil Kane did for DC in his tenure there and books like this drive that point home every time.
The book cover is interesting. If we look back in our collections, there is a Murphy Anderson Batman/Robin cover that is almost identical! Perhaps they took the same cover, and just removed Batman from the mix, or is it even NEW art for just this book?
Enjoy the adventures of Robin, coming soon to a comic store near you.
Www.dccomics.com

Tim Lasiuta

This volume covers issues from Feb 1970 to September 1973. The team-ups include Wildcat, Phantom Stranger, Adam Strange, Black Canary, Teen Titans, Flash, Sgt. Rock, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, Metamorpho, Metal Men, Green Arrow and Green Lantern, and an interesting collaboration from the House of Mystery. You may read these texts in the morning along with coffee, or at night. Haney's stories are light and entertaining.

However, Haney's Batman is not the Dark Knight created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and that appeared in the late 30s and 40s, neither is he the Batman of the post-Frank Miller period. He does not wear a Bat uniform to instill fear in the "superstitious cowardly lot" of the criminal mind. Nor do we see Gotham from rooftops while Batman swings between buildings in the dark, away from the people. This Batman gives us the impression that he has quite forgotten the purpose of his disguise, for the bat has no significance in it anymore. In the "Commune of Defiance" Batman parades Gotham streets during daytime in his uniform among the crowd while he enjoys the pretty girls in the streets: "Sheer magic! Winter's over and pretty girls are blossoming like flowers! Delicious!" There is nothing inconsistent here since we know that Bruce Wayne is a playboy. It is just the fact that Wayne muses these things as he wanders about downtown in his Bat uniform that stands out different from a dark knight. I found it amusing that he gets shot in "Warrior in a Wheel-chair" as a common pedestrian, not while he's in action. Batman also hangs around Gotham in cars and he acts as he is part of Gotham's police force.

Also, his bat image is no longer a scary one. In "A Cold Corpse for a Collector" he's easily deceived by a Larry Lance into looking elsewhere for the "collector," while he gets a chance of killing off his other enemies. In the existential "You Only Die Twice" Batman is easily duped by a lawyer with a dubious reputation. When Batman realizes his mistake, Commissioner Gordon calls him a "soft-hearted fool." Throughout the B&B issues here we see over and over again a Batman that is closer to human, and far from the mythical creature created by Kane and Finger.

This is because Haney is plot-oriented. His stories do not build a myth around the superhero, which is what superhero writers usually do. With Haney, plot and setting overrule the superhero myth. Some of Haney's stories are regular "whodunit" fiction with Batman acting as the detective, and for that matter a flawed detective. In order to keep the plot alive, Batman blunders his way to the truth as he does in "Arise, Ye Ghosts of Gotham," "You Only Die Twice," "A Cold Corpse for the Collector," "C.O.D. Corpse on Delivery," "The Man Who Murdered the Past," and "The Warrior in a Wheel-chair." Haney also creates other plots where Batman is involved with the supernatural. It is very likely that these stories are an influence from popular media during these days (e.g. "The Exorcist," "The Omen," etc.) "Arise, Ye Ghosts of Gotham," "Mansion of the Misbegotten" (Satan worshipping), "The Man Who Murdered the Past" (possession by spirits), and "The Night Batman Sold his Soul" are examples where Batman faces the occult.

Two stories involving the Teen Titans attempt to deal with social justice issues: "Rebels in the Streets" and "The Commune of Defiance." These stories have happy endings and they are didactic, with Batman mediating between the forces of change and those who are in power. These are the most simplistic of his plots, given the clear boundaries of good and bad, and their predictable conclusion.

Sometimes Haney's plots are convoluted and far-fetched, testing our suspension of disbelief. Most of his stories share this convolutedness. Suddenly, a Nazi bomb shows up in "Night Wears A Scarlet Shadow" while Batman's trying to unwrap the true identity of a "possessed strangler." The world is threatened by an invasion of ghosts in "The Man Who Murdered the Past" and it has Batman walking around an island with an imaginary wooden leg and throwing harpoons because he is possessed by a Portuguese sailor. In his Space Odyssey type adventure the government hides a radar type edifice one mile underground and protected by nothing else than "molten magma." In this same story, a robot takes control of this radar and threatens with wiping out humanity, and Batman looks for Metal Men in a robot convention demanding equal rights. The story involving Metamorphosis is quite humorous, whereas Deadman's intervention has the touch of melodrama. In "A Second Chance for Deadman" Batman even stops being the major character, Deadman's love affair being the center of attention. The most far-fetched of all his plots is the existence of Adolf Hitler, where Hitler is Satan himself and purchases Batman's soul while he tries to survive in a well (The Night Batman Sold his Soul).

It is Haney's dealing with Sgt. Rock that I dislike from this text. After reading Kanigher and Kubert's Rock, one can't help but react by Haney's portrayal of the Rock as a bitter and foolish soldier in "The Striped Pants War," and then as a fanatic pursuing Adolf Hitler all over the world. Haney's Rock is as zany as some of his plots and I simply had a hard time swallowing these two stories.

In sum, these texts are entertaining to read given the price, although I can't consider them memorable in the Batman mythos. Any other hero could've taken Batman's place in Haney's convoluted world. After reading his stories, readers are left wondering, did Haney need Batman to tell his stories, after all?

Classic Batman before he got too dark and still went out in the day. Great 70s era tales. This is the volume to start with as the previous volume one is 90% campy. Vol 3 is also superb.

While I generally love these big black and white collections this one featuring Robin isn't the best. Much of these stories are really dated and boring '70s "teen movement" themed with Robin cast as the middle man between the "uptight adults" and the "revolutionary college kids" he hangs out with. Sure, that sounds like it could be kitschy fun but most of these stories are dull and full of groan-worthy cliches clearly written by a middle-aged guy trying to make sense of the '70s college lifestyle. It's not terrible but certainly nothing you'd want to read more than once, there are better Showcases out there.

This book contains dozens of stories from Batman, Detective, and World's Finest comics that have Robin either off on his own or teamed with Batman, Batgirl, Jimmy Olsen, or a host of others. I like the stories, but for some reason, they seem second-tier to Batman stories, although I would imagine that was the intended idea. Anyway, if you like Robin all the time, then this book is for you.

I really like most of these DC Showcase (and the Marvel Essentials), I even like the fact that they're in B&W. I was hoping the Robin Essential would start with the late Golden age solo Robin series from Star-Spangled Comics, but instead they begin with new era Robin from 1964. Oh well..