DCU Comic Book Reviews

The Brave And The Bold #1

The Lords of Luck, Chapter One: Roulette

April 2007

Written by Mark Waid

Pencils by George Pérez

Inks by Bob Wiacek

Cover by George Pérez

Synopsis

In outer space, Hal Jordan (aka Green Lantern) comes across a body that had been killed by a gunshot wound.  He contacts Batman, who tells Hal that an exact duplicate of the body was also found in the batcave.  Identical bodies were found all over the world, usually found near the location of a hero.  Based on the evidence, Batman determines the victim was living in Las Vegas.  Suddenly, Hal and Batman are attacked by a yellow creature.  After they defeat the creature, two unidentified persons watching the battle settle their bet on who would win.  Later, in Las Vegas, Hal and Batman follow the evidence to Roulette.  When they find her, she is attempting to burn a book, but it can not be damaged.  Then two aliens appear, also searching for the book.  One of them gets away, but Hal follows.  Batman, meanwhile, saves Roulette from the fire.  He then asks her about the book.  She tells him whoever has the book has ultimate knowledge and ultimate power. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was one hell of a set-up:  a freshly dead body in outer space who died of a gunshot wound.  Then the identical body appears all over the world, in specific places.  If this were pitched to a major Hollywood studio, Waid would’ve had a bang-up thriller that would’ve done good box-office business, regardless how good the movie happened to be.  Lucky for us, he turned it into a comic book.  Lucky for us, he was given George Perez to draw the comic book.  And it is all good.  This was a great read with plenty of mystery, action, and humor.  I mean, really, who the hell hits on 19?  No fear.  Hal really does deserve the ring.

I loved how GL and Batman worked together in their superhero guise and I loved how they interacted in their Hal Jordan and Bruce Wayne guises as well.  At no point do they argue.  Given their history, especially in Green Lantern: Rebirth, you would not blame Waid, but this is the new Hal and Bruce, so it was nice to see the lack of an argument.  Waid builds their team-up on mutual respect as each has skills to bring the table that the either doesn’t.  It is refreshing to see this; it is a nice change of pace from most team-ups where the heroes argue all the time. 

If I’m correct (based on how this issue ended and the icons on the last page indicating who is in next issue), Waid is using the original premise of the Brave and Bold series (two heroes team up to solve a mystery or defeat a villain) and applying a little bit of the industry’s current method of decompression storytelling.  The mystery of the dead body is far from over, but Waid is going to leap from plot point to plot point and connect the dots even as he connects the heroes.  Next month, Hal will fly to outer space to get the book and it is there he will be joined by Supergirl.  Meanwhile, I suspect Batman will continue his investigation and will combine forces with another hero.  You can see how Waid is using one plot, one story, but multiple team-ups.  Unlike the one-and-done stories of the past, Waid is building a multi-part story that will contain multiple team-ups.  I like this idea and can’t wait to see Waid put the plan into action. 

Comic Connection

Batman briefly mentions that Roulette holds fights pitting villains against each other and then selling their weapons in the underground.  That can be seen a little bit more in JSA Classified, issues #19 and #20.

 

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