DCU Comic Book Reviews

The Brave And The Bold #3

The Lords of Luck, Chapter Three: The Lord Of Time

June 2007

Written by Mark Waid

Pencils by George Pérez

Inks by Bob Wiacek and George Pérez

Cover by George Pérez

Synopsis

Outside El Paso, Texas, Blue Beetle and Batman were chasing Neferto, an alien with a powerful weapon, when he created a blizzard to throw them off the trail.  Later, Blue Beetle tries to find the weapon with his armor, but gets nowhere.  Batman does it his way, shaking down a local thug.  When Batman mentions the weapon might seem like magic, Blue Beetle realizes where it might be.    On Ventura, Supergirl is looking for a way to reach Rann, where Green Lantern was transported while they were searching from the Book of Destiny.  Since she offers to pay, she is lead to the bounty hunter, Lobo.  On Earth, Blue Beetle leads Batman to La Dama where Neferto is attempting to sell her the weapon.  Suddenly, the Lord of Time arrives along with the 31st century version of the Fatal Five to take the weapon.  Batman and Blue Beetle join the fight.  When the battle goes against him, the Lord of Time flees.  La Dama then uses the weapon, hitting Batman and a member of the Fatal Five, causing them to be fused together as one!

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Dear Mrs. Westberry:  Please excuse Jaime’s absence from class today. Signed, Batman.”

I am torn with this issue.  I love the characterization of Batman and Blue Beetle and the way their relationship works.  Naturally, Jaime is terrified of Batman and the way he reacts to the Dark Knight is in-line with the way he is written in his own title.  This I would’ve expected, although I still gotta give Waid a hand for handling Blue Beetle well.  The surprise, a pleasant surprise, is the handling of Batman.  He is not the menacing, threatening figure most would’ve tried to make him out to be.  Instead, Wait paints him as the patient mentor, allowing Jaime to grown and learn on his own rather than simply terrifying him.  The first part of the story was brilliant material with the highlight coming when Blue Beetle taps Batman on the shoulder to reveal he knows where the weapon might be.  Priceless. 

Sadly, the second half of the story turns into a big, chaotic mess with dozens of new characters bouncing around the pages.  The plot and the story just sinks under the weight of too many characters introduced at the end, which is compounded by the inherent difficulties of time travel.  I suppose I have a leg up on some readers because I read Blue Beetle, but the entire Fatal Five and Lord of time stuff overwhelmed me.  The future version of the Fatal Five, and their leader the Lord Of Time, are not interesting at all, although they are not given enough space to be interesting (even with the obligatory role call).  Yes, I realize they are only meant to be the hired thugs portion of the story (and are therefore not supposed to be important), but Waid obviously has something in mind since he melded one of them with Batman at the end. 

Much like the Batman and Blue Beetle portion from last issue, the Supergirl and Lobo portion was just a teaser for next issue.  I actually like this set-up.  Each issue Waid features the marquee team-up but finds a couple of pages to provide a teaser for the next issue.  Based on this issue’s teaser, Lobo and Supergirl looks might intriguing. 

 

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