Batman in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD [annotated]

Following up on my recent post The Notebook Notions: Batman in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, here's a slightly expanded look at what DC superstars would appear as guests in each issue of this imaginary twelve-part series.

When editor Murray Boltinoff and writer Bob Haney planned out what would happen in The Brave And The Bold in the '60s and '70s, I would presume they picked a guest star first. My fancies here started out that way for the first seven chapters; for the four final chapters, I switched to story idea first, as I expanded on the notion of all of this as an inter-related serial. Chapter 8 was a last-minute add-on.

I rejected a few ideas along the way. "World's Finest!" would have been a gathering of the Superman family (Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Supergirl, plus the Man of Steel himself) and the Batman family (Robin and Batgirl), a nod to the Superman Family and Batman Family series DC ran in the mid '70s. "A Piece Of The Outer Space Action" was originally a DC Comics Presents idea, teaming Superman and Green Lantern in a story concocted specifically so the villain could channel Donovan while protesting, "Superman and Green Lantern ain't got nothin' on me, see?" I am too cute for casual description, but my mind couldn't see that as a Batman story. A Justice League of America story called "The Trial Of Dr. Light!" was actually among my many failed DC submissions, and it didn't fit here, nor did Batman solo stories "Nightmare Resurrection" and "The Day I Met The Batman." I considered "Bounty Hunter's Back In Town," reprising a one-off hired assassin created by Haney for The Brave And The Bold # 101, and "When Gotham Freezes Over," continuing Mr. Freeze's quest for revenge from "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze." The latter story would have to be told in this series, but could be chronicled within the events of the later chapters.

Among the other guest stars I considered for this hypothetical B & B exercise: Jimmy Olsen, Blue Beetle, The Crimson Avenger, The Martian Manhunter, The Challengers of the Unknown, Dolphin, Kid Eternity, Doll Man, and The Seven Soldiers Of Victory. Now, let's have a look at the twelve chapters I decided to include.



BATMAN & AQUAMAN:
"The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze"

The only chapter I've ever completed, and I'm crazy, stupid proud of it. I think this can stand alone as a purple prose Batman pulp short, but it also serves as the spark for this series.




BATMAN & WONDER WOMAN:
"Paradise Does Not Believe In Tears"

My satisfaction with "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze" led me to think about expanding that storyline. Picking up on Steve Trevor's cameo in the Mr. Freeze story made Wonder Woman a logical candidate to guest star in Chapter Two, for which I wrote a teaser intro. I also wanted to incorporate the amoral Ruby Ryder, whom Haney created for The Brave And The Bold # 95, one of my favorite issues. Ryder appeared in several subsequent issues of B & B, and I think she's the only B & B-specific supporting character Haney ever re-used.



BATMAN & SHAZAM!
"Between Arkham And Eternity"

The billing says "Shazam, " but we're referring to The World's Mightiest Mortal, the original Captain Marvel. I became a fan of Captain Marvel in the early '70s, and ol' Cap was likely the guest star I would have most wished to see in The Brave And The Bold. In an interview many years later, B & B artist Jim Aparo agreed that he would have enjoyed drawing Captain Marvel (or, even better, Cap's younger pal Captain Marvel Junior) in B & B, and didn't know why that never happened. I suspect licensing concerns may have complicated things: DC was still just leasing the character from original publisher Fawcett Comics at the time, and wouldn't get around to owning the character outright until the '90s, I think.



BATMAN & THE SANDMAN
"Bring Me No Dreams"

Golden Age comics greats Joe Simon and Jack Kirby reunited for the 1974 one-shot The Sandman # 1, starring a new titular character with no connection to the previous DC hero of the same name. It was very goofy, very out of place in the milieu of '70s superhero comics, but it had an energy that was sorta kinda fun. From what I've read elsewhere, I gather that some glitch in sales reports led DC honchos to the erroneous conclusion that The Sandman # 1 was a smash hit on the spinner racks, prompting an order to series. Neither Simon nor Kirby stuck around for the unexpected second issue, leaving the reins to writer Michael Fleisher and artists Ernie Chua and Mike Royer. Kirby returned with the fourth issue, and Neil Gaiman much later incorporated the character as a tangent to his own acclaimed Sandman series. Writer Len Wein provided my favorite use of the character in 1983's Justice League Of America Annual # 1.




BATMAN & RIMA THE JUNGLE GIRL
"Welcome To The Jungle"

As comics sales seemed destined to dwindle to a vast and empty void throughout the '70s, DC publisher Carmine Infantino scrambled to find ways to scrounge up sales, trying different formats, different genres, any damned thing that might stick. One half expected a new DC title called The Kitchen Sink. Jungle girls (particularly the iconic Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle) had been popular in comics in the '40s; Marvel Comics started its own latter-day Sheena counterpart Shanna The She Devil in 1972. Rima the Jungle Girl was a public domain character, from the 1904 novel Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson. Artist Nestor Redondo rendered Rima as a strikingly beautiful character in the DC comics version, while still avoiding the cheesecake good girl art style of the classic Sheena. Batman and Rima would be an odd team-up indeed, probably involving time travel, and (if I were writing it) definitely featuring Poison Ivy as the big bad.



BATMAN & ?
"The Phantom Of Gotham City"

No, it ain't The Riddler (though maybe I should make him the villain of the piece, just 'cuz). The mystery guest-star concept of "Batman And ?" was first used in The Brave And The Bold  # 95 (the same issue that introduced Ruby Ryder), and reprised for The Brave And The Bold # 150. At this time, I have no intention of telling you who my Super Secret Mystery Guest Star would be. I will say that I'm playing fair with the selection itself: it's a DC Comics character, one who was part of DC continuity in the mid '70s milieu I've chosen for this Brave And Bold project. And '70s B & B letter columns indicated that there had been requests for this character to appear as B & B co-star, requests that were never answered...until NOW! Sort of. Fans familiar with Silver Age DC continuity might find a clue in the "Phantom" part of this story's title. That's all you're gettin' outta me about it today.



BATMAN & THE BLACK ORCHID
"Who Is The Black Orchid?"

The Black Orchid's three cover-featured appearances in Adventure Comics made her a star in my eyes, and I followed her subsequent appearances as a back-up strip in The Phantom Stranger. The Black Orchid's true identity was a mystery, to crooks and to readers, and I always figured this had to be a job for the World's Greatest Detective, Batman. In her original '70s incarnation, The Black Orchid never interacted with the rest of the DC universe, though I think writer E. Nelson Bridwell, bless 'im, used her--and Rima the Jungle Girl!--in Super Friends.




BATMAN, OMAC & SGT. ROCK
"Our One Man Army At War"

As noted above, this was a last-minute choice, and I began to second-guess it immediately. OMAC--Jack Kirby's One Man Army Corps--much, much later became a large part of Batman and DCU continuity, though I would ignore all of that here. But I don't feel any real affinity for the idea either. "One Man Army Corps" put me in mind of DC's long-running war book Our Army At War, and its star (and frequent Batman B & B co-star) Sgt. Rock. Rock doesn't work for me outside of a World War II setting, so the only Batman-Sgt. Rock team-up I really liked was the first one, 1969's "The Angel, The Rock And The Cowl" in B & B # 84, which was set in WWII. (I didn't see B & B # 162 until years later; it was published in 1980, during the brief period when this cash-strapped college student stopped buying comics altogether. Its Batman-Sgt. Rock story also went back to the '40s, but it was written by Bill Kelley, not Haney.)



BATMAN & THE SPECTRE
"The Judgement Of Gotham"

One of my favorite characters since I was a kid, the ghostly avenger The Spectre replaced The Black Orchid as the star of Adventure Comics in a new series of stories by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo, stories which became notorious for their grim and gritty revenge fantasies. Brrrr! "The Judgement Of Gotham" was a title in my original notebook notions of half-baked story ideas, and it was intended to introduce my new villain Torquemada, a fire 'n' brimstone zealot determined to cleanse Gotham's sins in a funeral pyre. The Spectre vs Torquemada? A match made in Purgatory!



BATMAN & THE JOKER
"The Death Of The Joker"

One of the many little bits that delighted me in the creation of "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze" was my idea of The Joker putting himself into a catatonic state at will, allowing himself an opportunity to re-invent himself according to whatever his mad whims dictate. A line early in "Paradise Does Not Believe In Tears" tells us that The Joker had awakened from his slumber, but had been affected by the emotional miasma felt worldwide at that first story's climax. What if this made The Joker...sane? What if it gave him a soul, a conscience, and an overwhelming sense of guilt over his own murderous actions? What if The Joker felt that, in penance, it was time for him to die?

And what if The Batman disagreed?



BATMAN & HIS GREATEST FOES
"A Superstitious And Cowardly Lot"

The events of both "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze" and "The Death Of The Joker" would culminate in "A Superstitious And Cowardly Lot," a free-for-all finding Batman battling alongside some of his enemies, including The Riddler, Poison Ivy, The Penguin, Two-Face, and Catwoman.



BATMAN & 4 FAMOUS CO-STARS
"Hope In Crime Alley"

Writer Dennis O'Neil's "There Is No Hope In Crime Alley" (Detective Comics # 457, cover-dated March 1976) is one of the all-time classic Batman stories, a perfect balance of the tragedy that birthed The Batman and the undying hope that belies the story's title. There is hope, or at least there can be, even in dark circumstances. The original story introduced Leslie Tompkins, a woman who comforted young Bruce Wayne in the moments after he'd witnessed his parents' murders. Tompkins has been brought back in many, many later stories, but "There Is No Hope In Crime Alley" is the only time her character was ever done right. In my opinion. Harrumph.

I can't say whether or not my own indirect sequel "Hope In Crime Alley" would render Tompkins correctly, but the story would build on the feeling of hope Gotham needs after all that its citizens have been through in the year since Mr. Freeze attempted and failed to conquer death. The "4 Famous Co-Stars" billing was first used for The Brave And The Bold # 100, then referring to Robin, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. Here, our fab four is Wildcat (opening a youth gym in the Crime Alley neighborhood, to help give direction and purpose to the children of its streets), Plastic Man (using his own experience as a reformed criminal to inspire marginal individuals to better themselves), Robin the Teen Wonder (to help his mentor retain the hope he needs), and Wonder Woman (because...well, that would be telling). Challenges would arise. Despair would threaten. Hope would prevail. The Batman, as always, will make damned sure of that.






And there's my twelve-part fantasy edition of The Brave And The Bold. And though it's been said many times, many ways, it bears repeating: B & B seeing you!

In this issue, a future blogger identified as "Carl Cafrelli" suggests Batman be teamed with The Shadow. I do not recall making that request. And no, The Shadow is not the co-star in "The Phantom Of Gotham City."

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