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4.0 out of 5 stars
JMS' Brave and Bold Intro to the DCU marks an impressive debut!, August 24, 2010
This review is from: Team-ups of the Brave and the Bold (Hardcover)
JMS has long been one of my favorite writers in comics. I loved his run on Spider-Man, his What If's stories for Marvel (some of the best ever) and most especially, his reworking of the Squadron Supreme, which regrettably he never got to finish (or at least, it has an unfinished quality to it, but then again, there's always Rising Stars)!
So, when I found out he had made the move to the DCU, I was intrigued. I love both Marvel and DC, but they're very different animals. The Marvel universe is a little bit closer to our own than the DCU, on the other hand, DC is a little more timeless, like the god's of mythology, or the character's in a fable might be.
So, "the Brave and the Bold" is a perfect venue for JMS to get his feet wet, and he doesn't disappoint. Mind you, there are six stories here, featuring Batman, the Flash, Aquaman, the Demon, the Atom, the Joker, Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Zatanna, and you'll never walk away thinking "Wow! he really nailed that character, this is the definitive interpretation of so and so. His portrayal of the Joker in fact, rests heavily on Keith Ledger's interpretation in Dark Knight, the movie, which was (and is) as far as I can tell, a unique interpretation of that character. But it's not cannon... (but who cares, if the story works)!
As I say, this whole book very much feel like a writer (a very good writer) poking at the edges of this new universe he's going to playing with, and getting a feel for the characters that populate it. Sometimes he's smart enough to refer to to time honored interpretations (his Green Lantern particularly feels right, and in line with what Geoff Johns is doing with that character, and the Joker makes an appearance in the story, "Ladies Night" featuring Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Batgirl, which recalls Alan Moore's Killing Joke, and will possibly bring a tear to your eye) and sometimes not so much. Batman is featured in two stories also featuring in one, Brother Power, the Geek and in the other Dial H for Hero. Even though he goes as far as Bruce Wayne's childhood in the Brother Power story, you never get the feeling, "Wow, I have a much deeper understanding of what drives Bruce Wayne now. But in the Dial H for Hero story, he has a really nice speech, about what it means to be a hero, to get that (for some) one chance to make a difference in someone else's life, and to make something of yourself, even for one single moment, that truly matters.
It may not be definitive Bat's, but I'll read that speech again and again in the days to come.
The unlikely pair of Aquaman and the Demon, are made less awkward than you might imagine, by the description of an annual team up in which they get together to stop the hordes of hell from making their way into our world through the sea. The Demon's dialog (which of necessity has to rhyme) feels right and is spooky besides. And Aquaman (a character whom, let's face it, along with the Atom, I've never particularly cared for) is given the proper sort of Majesty befitting a "King of the seas".
I gotta admit, even the Atom story works for me. Not because, I walked away feeling I got some new insight into the character (the closest who's come to that I think are Geoff Johns and Brad Meltzer and even they can't turn me on to Ray Palmer), but because Ray Palmer has some truly hilarious dialog as he's forced to team up with the Joker (this is the story which relies heavily on Keith Ledger's interpretation of that character) and in the end, justify it by do something which totally negates the Joker's world view.
All in all, you might be better served by picking this up in paperback. It's certainly not worth the hoopla of releasing it in hardcover and paying the requisite price. But at paperback, it's a solid purchase and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
JMS Needs to Brush Up on the DCU, August 21, 2010
This review is from: Team-ups of the Brave and the Bold (Hardcover)
Longtime Marvel Comics writer J. Michael Straczynski has ventured over to the DC side of the fence with much fanfare. I bought this collection on the strength of its favorable press and I can see why JMS is a popular writer among comic fans. This is not the first time he's written super hero comics for DC but it's been awhile and he made need to brush up on the characters particularly since Brave and the Bold by its very nature cycles through many often obscure characters.
In the first story Batman teams up with Dial a Hero (talk about a throwback) and at first blush JMS wasn't blowing me away. It wasn't until the poignant ending that I found myself impressed. My one issue was with the rather long winded out of character speech that Batman gives at the end. In fact the usually hyper suspicious Batman's whole reaction to Dial a Hero seem unlikely.
The second story has the Flash inadvertently time travel back to WWII while breaking his leg in several places. This leg injury plot device conveniently traps him in the past but is generally ignored through the rest of the story. He meets up with the Blackhawks just as the Battle of the Bulge is about to start and after convincing the Blackhawks that he's an ally gets handed a pistol to help defend against attacking Nazi's. Since he's the Flash he obviously doesn't use a gun so hilariously he pelts them with near cinder block sized bricks from about 50 yards. I would have to believe that if I was nailed in the body with a large brick from half a football field away I would probably be as dead as someone shot with a bullet but what do I know. I guess we're supposed to believe he merely bludgeoned them into unconsciousness because the Blackhawk leader rips into the Flash for not shooting and killing the enemies in the midst of the war (which seems weird because the Nazi's are all sprawled out on a field). The Flash's response to said tongue lashing is somewhat memorable but I do feel like it lost some impact given that the Flash did single handedly lay out a dozen or so Nazi's even if he didn't use a pistol.
The third story features Batman and the unbelievably obscure Brother Power the Geek. This was the story that sold me on this collection having gotten a very rare 9.5 score on IGN. This is interesting because after I read this volume I read another review for this story from a different website that gave it an abysmal 3.0 out of 10. Meanwhile the Aquaman/Demon issue was given a 9.0 and I thought that issue was a dud so I guess quality as well as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My opinion is that this story is closer to a 9.5 that a 3.0 but it certainly isn't one for the ages.
I have to call a major foul on the Joker/Atom story. Twice in this collection JMS makes a reference to Alan Moore's landmark The Killing Joke but in this story he creates an all new past for the Joker that completely contradicts that canonized origin of the Joker including the one written by Moore. I suppose you can argue that the story isn't actually an origin story but if it isn't I'm not sure what it is.
Aquaman and The Demon fight off a Cthulhuoid threat from under the sea and this one more than any showed Strazynski's ignorance of the DC characters. The Demon shows several abilities that I've never seen him possess before including the ability to grant a human gills using magic. I also have to confess that The Demon's trademark rhyming is poorly served his as JMS offers up some of the weakest poetry I've ever heard the Demon utter. Aquaman is the classic clean cut two handed Aquaman so either this story is out of the current DC timeline or these are non-canon stories. The ending was meh and I've never been a huge fan of comic writers mixing in Lovecraft as they never do the master justice.
The final story is ladies night out featuring Wonder Woman, Zatanna and Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Batgirl on the town in street clothes. One of my issues with DC Comics is the weak characterizations and even the attempts to give characters multi-dimensions often falls flat. In trying to give characters depth DC writers can to focus on one trait and beat it to death so we have the hot headed Guy Gardner, the brash Wally West and the sanctimonious Oliver Queen. Giving a character one trait is still just one dimension. This story had potential but in the end it was just three ladies in a rather humdrum evening at a dance club. The story had a twist ending but the banality of the night out rather spoiled the twist for me.
If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't buy this volume. It's not bad but for me it's something I would like to read once rather than own in my collection. For me it's not about the money, it's more about the storage space and this is probably not a book I'll be returning to any time soon. Writing character driven stories is always a challenge but the rewards can be great. Unfortunately I just wasn't getting into it. The Green Lantern/Dr. Fate story, which I didn't mention, is nearly all dialogue and my patience ran out before the story did. Alan Moore is capable of writing a dialogue heavy story and still keep the reader engaged but Straczynski just didn't pull it off for me. I also found the art to be rather inconsistent as the series switched artists several times. I really expected to like this one a lot more than I did.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
if you like JMS you'll like this, give it a try, August 23, 2010
This review is from: Team-ups of the Brave and the Bold (Hardcover)
I read this first volume of his "The Brave and the Bold" series and thought it was really good. Each chapter shows a previously untold team-up between two characters who have never been together before I believe. Such as Green Lantern and Doctor Fate, or Wonder Woman and Batgirl. They seem to take place at random points in the history of the DCU and don't really require you to know anything going in. A lot of the characters are really obscure, some I have never heard of, but he explains them well so you're not lost. I don't want to give away any spoilers so I'll just say the writing and art is great and it's worth the read.
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by J. Michael Straczynski
by James Robinson
by James Robinson
by Geoff Johns
by Michael Green
