Comic Book Review: The Best of DC #26: The Brave and the Bold edited by Mike W. Barr
Before The Brave and the Bold became an all-Batman team-up book, it was an adventure comic book series that featured multiple action-oriented characters. This digest reprints five of those features, plus a Batman team-up because that was something that sold well.
The lead page is by Jim Aparo, introducing the digest. Then there’s a double page spread of “fact files” written by Mike W. Barr with art by Trevor von Eeden & Larry Mahlstedt with pictures and brief descriptions of the guest stars.
“You Can’t Hide From a Deadman!” story by Bob Haney, art by Neal Adams, is the mandatory Batman tale. Batman and Robin are breaking up an extortion racket when Robin suddenly steals a pistol from one of the criminals and threatens Batman with it. The Dark Knight is taken aback for a moment, but manages to toss a smoke pellet in Robin’s face before the Boy Wonder can pull the trigger, and disarms him.
When Commissioner Gordon enters, he too attempts to murder Batman. Once disarmed, Gordon is confused about why he did that, as is the now recovered Robin. Batman realizes there’s only one person who could be responsible, Deadman!
Deadman is Boston Brand, a circus aerialist who performed an extremely dangerous routine wearing a spooky costume. He was murdered mid-air by a mysterious man with a hook hand who was auditioning for a spot in the League of Assassins. Boston had been kind of a jerk in life, but still had the potential for good, and a burning need to get justice for his own killing. Thus it was that he was contacted by Rama Kushna, a godlike being that promotes the “balance” of good over evil.
She told Deadman that in order to resolve his karma and move on to the next phase of existence, he would need to find his killer and also help anyone who needed it along the way. She granted his ghost the power to temporarily “possess” any body, taking it over to interact with the living world.
Eventually, with the help of Batman, Boston was able to find the hook-handed man, and find closure on that part of his life despite the Hook being killed by someone else. He then returned to Nanda Parbat, the idyllic pocket dimension city run by Rama Kushna, to in theory move on.
But suddenly he’s back in Gotham City and trying to kill Batman, forcing the Caped Crusader to dodge a gauntlet of random citizens who attempt grievous bodily harm. However, Batman quickly realizes Deadman is not seriously trying to kill him, and calls the ghost out on this.
We cut to the headquarters of the League of Assassins, and its leader, Sensei. (Who is a Chinese martial arts master. Yes, I know. It was the Sixties.) He is speaking to a Willie Smith, who explains that he was attempting to destroy Nanda Parbat at Sensei’s orders, but was foiled by Deadman. Thinking Willie dead, Boston entered Nanda Parbat.
Willie doesn’t know precisely what Boston and Rama Kushna discussed, but apparently Boston was not able to move on and chose not to remain in Nanda Parbat where he could be a solid “living” person, but go back to the outside world as a ghost. He got this information from a woman named Lotus, who was the only inhabitant of the blessed land who was willing to leave with Boston.
While Deadman was still partially solid, Willie shot him with a poisoned dart of some sort, which didn’t kill him because ghost, but did leave him dazed and suggestible. Willie was able to mesmerize Deadman into believing Batman was his enemy and he should kill him. Regardless of whether this would actually succeed, it means the spirit is not around to protect Nanda Parbat, so Willie came back for an army.
Batman isn’t completely able to break the suggestion, but is able to convince Deadman to go back to Nanda Parbat with him, using the body of Boston’s living twin, Cleveland Brand.
Turns out Sensei wants Nanda Parbat destroyed, as without this haven from the evils of the outside world, the world will become just that much a worse place, creating more work for the League of Assassins.
Cue an exciting battle!
“Three Arrows Against Doom!” art by Russ Heath, is a Robin Hood tale. The famous outlaw of Nottingham Forest is a public domain character, last seen on this blog in The Boy Knight.
It is Fair Day in Nottingham, and there’s a charity auction going on. Prince John and his lackey Sir Osric stop to watch. The wicked ruler interrupts to ask why the bidding is so high on what appear to be three ordinary arrows. The old man running the auction replies that these arrows were used by Robin Hood to accomplish three amazing feats. Prince John is amused by this, as he’s just gotten a message from the Sheriff that the outlaw is dead.
The crowd is dismayed, but Prince John still wants to know the story of the arrows. The old man tells how Robin Hood used the last three arrows in his quiver to first, defeat twenty men with one shot, second, make smoke rise downwards, and third, cause an entire castle to surrender.
Then the old man reveals that he was the one who sent Prince John the false news of Robin Hood’s death, and he can prove it by pulling off his disguise! The laughing archer once again gets away.
DC hasn’t used Robin Hood recently as they don’t really do straight up adventure comics anymore, and the trademarkable Green Arrow does all the neat archery stuff.
“Menace of the Mirage People!” story by Robert Kanigher, art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, stars the Suicide Squad. No, not that one, the first DC version. Captain Rick Flag, Dr. Karen Grace and scientists Doc Evans & Jess Bright travel the world exploring strange places and fighting secret evils for the United States government and Task Force X.
In this case, they are somewhere in the East, in the middle of a desert. Rick and Karen whisper to each other the running subplot that they are in love with each other, but can’t act on it because Doc and Jess are also in love with Karen and it might hurt team cohesion if she played favorites or openly turned them down. They see what appears to be a lake that’s not on the map. Rick believes it to be a mirage.
But when they reach it and the horses fall in, that’s not normal mirage behavior! Mysterious non-human beings appear and equip each of the squad with a helmet that allows them to breathe, but has a gas that knock them out. Some of the beings are intangible, but some of them are not.
When the team awakens, their captor explains that he is from an M-dimension as a scout to see if it’s time to conquer the world with alien mirage powers. There’s actually only one of him, but it’s impossible to tell which of his many images is the real alien.
The alien puts them through a series of traumatic illusions, then introduces the main test. The Suicide Squad will have to fight a “mirage” Suicide Squad. If any one member of the real Squad fails to defeat their opponent, all of them lose and the invasion commences.
You might think it’s easy for each of the Squadders to defeat an evil knock-off of themselves, but the alien switches it up to have them each matched against a different member of the team. Fortunately, the Suicide Squad’s bonds of love and friendship allow them to see through trickery. The alien retreats…for now…and his entire lake vanishes with him.
Rick Flag would eventually be the first leader of the Suicide Squad you’re more familiar with, and his teammates would also appear in minor roles.
“Threat of the Ice King” story by Robert Kanigher, art by Joe Kubert features Jon, the Viking Prince. Our noble-hearted young warrior has been unjustly banished from his kingdom, and must complete the Tasks of Thor to regain his throne. He’s accompanied by a mute bard who writes his current quest in each chapter.
In this story, they’ve come to the frozen domain of the Ice King, and Jon’s task is to “awaken a rose.” There’s no visible roses in this wasteland, but most of the tasks have some kind of twist. The Ice King uses his magic to send various ice and snow-themed perils against Jon. But in the end, the Viking Prince is able to awaken the Rose Princess and vanquish his frozen foe. Only eight more tasks to go!
The Viking Prince has appeared on and off during the years, including the “Endless Winter” event where he was summoned to help fight the Frost King.
“The Sword in the Lake!” story by Bob Kanigher, art by Irv Novick is about the Silent Knight. Young Brian Kent’s father is murdered by the usurping Sir Oswald Bane in a “jousting accident.” Brian has to conceal his true prowess at knightly combat so that Sir Oswald won’t realize he’s training to overcome the evil knight. One day, young Kent discovers a mysterious set of armor, complete with face-concealing helmet, in the forest, along with a handy steed. He uses this to deal with some wicked knights, but has to refrain from speaking lest his distinctive voice give him away. Thus his nom du guerre, the Silent Knight.
In this tale, Brian of Greystone is out riding with Lady Celia, the girl he likes. Alas, she thinks of him as but a friend, and is smitten with her frequent rescuer, the mysterious Silent Knight. She plans to give him a scarf to be her “favor” for the upcoming tournament. Brian offers to be her champion instead, but pretends to give up so he can ride off and change his outfit.
In the few minutes since he left her, Lady Celia has managed to attract a couple of ruffians. The Silent Knight chases them off, not hindered in the least by his chivalrous refusal to use a weapon with a longer reach than his opponents’.
Knight and lady ride off to Camelot. They are greeted by King Arthur, but the sorceress Morgan le Fey is also there. She’s got her own champion, a hulking fellow who’s also wearing a fully concealing helmet. Naturally, the Silent Knight and Morgan’s Champion dominate the jousting, and are soon matched against each other for the top prize.
Morgan lures Celia into making a wager that will make the losing knight have to serve the winner’s lady. To almost everyone’s surprise, her champion wins the bout, only to reveal that he is merely an empty suit of animated armor. (“Ain’t no rule…”)
While Morgan does relish Celia’s frustration and the Silent Knight’s embarrassment at the outcome, she has some practical reasons for this scheme. She sends the knight on two fetch quests, first to bring her a golden apple guarded by a dragon-like beast, and next a necklace held by a disembodied arm in a nearby lake. Brian’s skill, strength and a bit of cunning helps him achieve these goals.
Morgan releases the Silent Knight from her service with a kiss (on the helmet, she might need his secret identity later) which inflames Lady Celia’s jealousy. The willful young woman scolds her knight all the way back to their home shire, he being unable to defend himself due to the whole silence thing.
The Silent Knight has popped up a few times since; he was retconned to be one of Jonathan Kent’s ancestors and a prior incarnation of Hawkman.
“The Secret Beneath the Earth” art by Bruno Premiani, rounds out the issue with the first Cave Carson story. Cave (apparently his actual name) is a top spelunker. He’s on a scientific expedition with geologist Christie Madison and sandhog/tunnel expert/strongman Bulldozer Smith in a mountainous area. They’re planning to test a new underground vehicle, the Mighty Mole.
The Mole is one day from completion when word gets to the team of a mysterious happening. An entire radio tower sank into the earth for no apparent reason, and then a number of empty freight cars. Cave decides to go in to the local subterranean system alone to see if he can figure out what’s going on.
A day later, Carson sends a balloon up through the caldera of an extinct volcano with a message that he’s figured out what’s going on, but is trapped. Time for Bulldozer and Christie to fire up the now-finished Mole. This advanced device can move through air, rock or water, and doesn’t use an old-fashioned drill, but a modern thermo-ray as its digging tool.
Once they’ve located Cave, the trio and the Mole undergo various perils trying to get back out, including an underground lake serpent, a lava creature, and the Magnetic Monster that was causing the problem. They manage to destroy that last creature, and escape to the surface.
Cave Carson later joined the Forgotten Heroes, and makes rare guest appearances. At some point he picked up a cybernetic eye.
There’s some very nice art here, and most of these stories are rarely reprinted. Some may never have appeared in another collection at all, so this is definitely one to seek out if you’re a fan of the characters or artists.
