DCU Comic Book Reviews

The Brave And The Bold #25

System Compatibility

September 2009

Written by Adam Beechen

Pencils by Roger Robinson

Inks by Hilary Barta

Cover by Mario Alberti

Synopsis

In Mexico, Jaime Reyes (aka Blue Beetle) and Curt Metcalf (aka Hardware) team up to track some goods stolen by an outfit called the System.  They find the goods, but also encounter a robot that is designed to specifically battle Hardware.  Elsewhere, they are being watched via a camera in the robot.  Meanwhile, the robot short circuits Hardware’s power suit and then takes off.  Blue Beetle is able to use the power from the scarab to reboot Hardware’s suit.  Later, the duo visit La Dama to gather a lead on the whereabouts of the stolen goods.  Based on La Dama’s intel, they track down the System.  Together, they defeat the robot and retrieve the stolen goods.  However, based on what they have learned from watching, the System can build a better robot to not only battle Hardware, but defeat him, thanks to Gizmo.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was a decent issue, a nice one-and-done story that features some nice action.  The problem I have with this issue is that the character of Blue Beetle comes out better (in terms of being likeable) than Hardware.  In fact, the story is told from Blue Beetle’s point and most of what we learn from the narration boxes is about Blue Beetle (like the mist of team-ups).  Actually, we don’t get to learn much about Hardware, other than the fact that he is grumpy had has a lot of tech.  This would’ve been a great issue to delve into Hardware and introduce the character to the DC universe, but instead he comes across as some sort of second-rate Cyborg and Steel.  There is enough in the story to flesh out Hardware, but we don’t learn more about his relationship to Alva Technologies or anything else about his past.  In fact, it feels like a random team-up featuring an establish character and a no-name character rather than a story to introduce a established character whose title was the longest running out of all of the Milestone books. 

The only Gizmo that I can recall is the former villain from the Teen Titans (who also appeared recetnly in Birds of Prey), but that character was shorter and had a jet pack to travel.  This Gizmo is much taller and looks a lot like Lex Luthor.  Is this Gizmo a villain from the milestone universe?  That would make sense, given the previous issue which featured a hero and villain from Milestone, but I couldn’t find anything in a brief interweb search on the character (and I should note searching for “Gizmo” and “Hardware” gets a lot of computer-related results).  

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