DCU Comic Book Reviews

The Brave And The Bold #21

Without Sin, Part Three

March 2009

Written by David Hine

Pencils by Doug Braithwaite

Inks by Bill Reinhold

Cover by Doug Braithwaite

Synopsis

On Kahlo, the Purge (in the body of Green Lantern Orlan) attacks Hal Jordan to deliver him from sin.  Earlier, The Phantom Stranger fell to the effects of the drug Belamort and sleeps blissfully.  The Stranger feels at peace, but is brought back to reality by Cora, a little girl on Earth with a strange connection to the Purge.  Now, the Stranger awakens. He then fends off the Purge and saves Hal Jordan.  Free of the Purge, Orlan feels guilt for what happened to Kahlo.  The Stranger tells Orlan it was the Purge, not him.  However, Orlan still feels responsible.  The three then decide to burn the Belamort.  Meanwhile, the Stranger senses a danger to Cora, so he asks Green Arrow to investigate.  At the hospital where Cora is staying, Green Arrow discovers an assassin on the ground.  He finds the assassin, but when one of the kids distracts him, he is shot.  The assassin then set up explosives to burn the hospital down, with Green Arrow still inside.  On Kahlo, the Belamort burns.  However, the Stranger knows that the Purge has found a new host to continue his quest. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

The stupid ending derails an average issue.  I haven’t really been digging the outer space sections of the story; it just didn’t seem to interest me.  And there was nothing in the front end that made me change my mind (although the little bit of background info on the phantom Stranger was juicy bits of information; why hasn’t DC done more with that character).  Anyway, when the little girl popped back into the story, my curiosity was piqued.  And while Green Arrow is a little bit of an obvious pick (given Hal’s role in the story) and somewhat stupid choice (why pick someone on the west coast to investigate a hospital in West Virginia), I like the Emerald Archer enough that I was willing too overlook Hine’s choice.  And then Hine writes a scene that stretches the boundary of believability for the character.  I mean, come on, I doubt highly that Ollie would look away from a well-armed bad guy to stare down at a young child,  And even if he did he would be well aware of what was happening to not let the bad guy get the drop on him.  So, no, I wasn’t buying the ending at all.  It felt artificial, as if Hine needed some kind of cliffhanger before the finale. 

I would also like to point out the promised team-up on the cover doesn’t actually happen.  Green Lantern and Green Arrow don’t have any contact with each other and don’t actually do anything together.

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