In Batman: The Brave and the Bold #8, readers are treated to another grab-bag of stories spanning across the DC universe. The question is: how do these stories stack up?
Title: Batman: The Brave and the Bold #8
Writer: Guillem March, Gabriel Hardman, John Higgins, Kyle Starks,
Artists: Guillem March, Gabriel Hardman, John Higgins, Fernando Pasarin, Matt Herms
Color Artist: Arifa Prianto, Matt Herms, Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Guillem March, Rob Leigh, Simon Bowland, Troy Peteri
Cover Artist: Simone Di Meo
Variant Cover Artists: Guillem March, Gabriel Hardman, Mike Deodata Jr
Release Date: December 26, 2023
This comic book review contains spoilers
“Batman: Pygmalion Part 3”
Story, Art, and Letters: Guillem March
Colors: Arif Prianto
In 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds, a feat previously thought impossible. Two months later, he did it again, along with fellow runner John Landy, and today the “four-minute mile” is considered a standard in professional running. This story is frequently cited to demonstrate the power the mind wields over our actions. If we don’t know something is impossible, there’s nothing stopping us from achieving it. Such is the story of Bryce, or rather Frank Freeman, an amnesiac former green beret, martial artist, hacker, and all-around master criminal who is also pretty sure he might be Batman.
This first story serves as the conclusion to Guillem March’s twisty trilogy that recontextualizes itself once again in its final chapter. What started as an amnesiac Batman story asking what exactly it means to be Batman, is now digging even deeper, asking questions about the power of will and how our beliefs hold us back. Batman is unattainable; he is a paragon of human excellence (mental health issues aside). He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t watch Netflix, he doesn’t sleep in, he exhibits a physicality and fighting proficiency of an impossibly high standard, he also just so happens to be possibly the smartest person in the world. It’s a fantasy of the peak of human perfection.
March asks the question of what would happen if someone woke up with nothing but the false knowledge that they are this person. Imagine for a moment this concept of Tabula Rasa. If your mind were wiped clean of all your memories, assumptions, self-limiting beliefs, impulses, and fears, what would you be able to accomplish? Every mental barrier evaporated in an instant. The fact that March does have to contrive a way for Frank Freeman to successfully pass as Batman does hamper this mental exercise a bit (Batman calls him an expert in jujitsu, jeet kune do, kali, etc). But ending the story with him rejecting his criminal past at least posits that humans are impulsively drawn towards good and capable of change.
By the time this third story opens, Frank has so embraced his identity as Batman that we’re not sure who’s narrating until the bottom of the first page. Last issue Aurora, the young girl who Frank has been staying with, and her mother Magdalena, call for help after some men break into their apartment. Upon arriving with the real Batman, Frank correctly identifies Magdalena reading an upside-down book as a clue that a trap has been set. Just a few weeks in and Frank is already a more competent Batman than Jean-Paul-Valley was, and he’s even wearing a fabric suit! But before we get too impressed, March drops another twist that perfectly utilizes Frank’s ignorance of Batman’s history: Aurora is accompanied by an innocent-looking old man with a wooden puppet dressed up like an old-timey gangster. Nothing to worry about, right?
Well, when Frank takes Aurora and the lonely Ventriloquist up to the rooftop for safety, they are met with an ambush. Not only that, but these thugs reveal that the Ventriloquist (well actually his puppet) is the boss behind this whole operation. Oops.
The gang gets the better of Frank, but at the last second, Batman is able to jump in and take them out, saving Frank in the process. In the chaos, Aurora throws the Scarface puppet off the rooftop and out of the Ventriloquist’s reach. Batman assures us that Scarface cannot manifest without a physical catalyst of some kind. However, a small cellphone concealed in the ventriloquist’s palm, emitting Scarface’s voice, speaks a trigger word, which sets off a series of explosions that blow up the entire complex. This causes Aurora to plummet to her death before being caught by Catwoman, who I guess was just hanging around since last issue. In the final panel, we see that Catwoman has stolen the Scarface puppet, but it’s unclear if this is meant to set up a future story or just leave us with a striking image.
It’s a pretty blockbuster ending to this arc and follows the classic formula of introducing a bunch of complex ideas and then using a big set piece to wrap it all up without meaningfully addressing the cerebral concepts introduced in the story’s setup. Now if Frank Freeman returns for further development down the line, then you can consider this criticism null, but as a standalone story it’s a pretty disappointing conclusion for his character. He’s incapacitated during the rooftop ambush and stays out for the rest of the issue. In fact, his character development is pretty much stifled the moment we meet the real Batman. He musters out his real name before getting loaded into a medical helicopter, and the rest of his arc is relayed to us from Batman himself: “I’ll keep an eye on him. Locate his daughter. He’s just recovered a family he had lost. He will never be Batman again.” A pretty lame ending for a character we’ve spent two issues following.
The art remains strong with excellent blocking and page layouts that are able to build tension effectively. It’s never unclear which Batman is which, and the action is all handled with delicate precision. Prianto (whose prismatic work I’ve been enjoying in Poison Ivy) shows a different side here with moody blues and deep blacks. Their color-scheme seems more influenced by Alex Sinclair’s past work on Batman more than anything else.
While easily the weakest of the three parts, it’s still a fun read, especially for the Scarface twist and how Frank can’t help but fall into his trap.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #8 variant cover by Gabriel Hardman
“Wild Dog: Here Comes Trouble! Part 2”
Writer: Kyle Starks
Pencils: Fernando Pasarin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Rob Leigh
Wild Dog is not a character I have any particular affection for. The idea that he’s the only superhero in the Midwest is funny conceptually, but are the jokes themselves funny? Well, not really. At least not for me.
After another intentionally banal conversation between Wild Dog and the food truck worker from last issue, Dog arrives at a diner to confront Alan: a roided out ‘alpha-male’ sporting a fedora, facial scar, and a torrent of misogynistic ideas. This character is clearly an amalgamation of several highly publicized online malefactors (although may their names not be printed here). And while Alan seems to just be spewing his hateful rhetoric into the open air to anyone who will listen, the real reason why Wild Dog is there is to get information about where the next Midwest gang meetup will occur.
After a dirty fight featuring two groin kicks from Wild Dog, Alan reveals the time and location of the meetup, and Dog’s alter ego Jack Wheeler meets with Lt. Andy Smith to plan a bust. In keeping with Starks’ commitment that everything be as midwestern as possible, the gang meets in an abandoned stripmall-supermarket to discuss the mysterious supervillain who has been making inroads in the area. That villain is revealed to be the old Titans foe Gizmo, and a bloody parking lot battle ensues to close out the issue.
Not too dissimilar from the twist in the last story, right? But the difference is Starks doesn’t actually have any interest in Gizmo as a character, only as a prop. During his villain monologue at the end of the issue, Gizmo says “When I was getting my butt handed to me over and over by capes, I asked why don’t they just kill us? Why keep letting us break out of prison, hurt more people, destroy more property or even worse?” Um… what? I hate it when writers write villains like they think the same way the heroes do. Why would Gizmo ever talk about his past this way? He doesn’t describe any of his actual motivations or interior perspective; he only talks about the collateral damage he has caused. So the question is, if he’s stripped of all character, why bring him back in the first place? Just to be used as a punchline. A goofy C-tier villain that Starks brought back to laugh at, much like the story’s title character himself. That’s just not the kind of comic book storytelling that I like to read.
Now for the good part: the art. Fernando Pasarin’s pencils coupled with Matt Herms’s colors give the comic a crisp and vibrant look that immediately pulls you in. There is some really great attention to detail, including some little moments, like Wild Dog grabbing crackers off a plate before shoving them into Alan’s eyes, that I didn’t pick up on the first time. All around this is probably the best-looking story in the collection.
This is the ultimate “your mileage may vary” story, but I did not care for it.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #8 variant cover by Guillem March
“Aquaman: Communion Part 2”
Writer & Artist: Gabriel Hardman
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Simon Bowland
Three stories deep into this book, we get the second part of an Aquaman story that itself is a trojan-horse for a high concept sci-fi tale featuring talking apes in a deep underwater evil base. Aren’t comics cool?
This is my favorite story of the bunch. We pick up from Batman: The Brave and the Bold #7 on a base inhabited by an alien species called the Dominators. You may remember them as a Silver Age foil for the League of Superheroes or from any of their subsequent revivals. In fact, this entire story heavily harkens back to the Silver Age with Aquaman teaming up with a talking gorilla named Konar who reveals how the Dominators gained access to the vessel in an intriguing flashback sequence. This is where Gabriel Hardman really gets to flex his muscles as a science fiction writer.
Konar describes a faction of society on Gorilla City who began to question the elder teachings that explained their hyper-intelligence as a result of the speed force. Instead, Konar developed the radical belief that their intelligence was bestowed onto them by a higher life form. But the ideas were deemed dangerously conspiratorial and could only be explored in a secret base away from the city’s Orthodox leaders. After contacting the Dominators who they mistakenly believed to be their progenitors, they were enslaved, which is why Konar sent the signal to ask for Aquaman’s help. The disruption this causes to the surrounding sea life is enough to get Aquaman onboard, and they enact a plan to shut down the base. The proposal doesn’t go as planned when Konar is shot and Aquaman is seemingly teleported to Gorilla City, setting up the story’s final chapter.
Hardman’s art pairs quite well with the story, and Matt Hollingsworth does a fine job with the coloring as well. The Dominators are horrifyingly realized with glowing red eyes and mouths spilling out piranha teeth. Aquaman looks great in his classic green and orange costume, and the panel where Konar gets several shots to the stomach is brutal.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #8 variant cover by Mike Deodata Jr.
“Angels in the Architecture”
Story and Art: John Higgins
Letters: Troy Peteri
As per usual, the issue closes with a short black and white Batman story. This one comes from legendary colorist John Higgins who serves as both the writer and artist. A misguided medical trial leads to military armor suits being given to paralyzed children so that they can walk again. Of course, these suits are now being hacked and controlled from the outside with the children becoming unwilling participants. What is the reason for all of this? It has something to do with an unexplained game called Gothimon Go, a reference that’s about eight years too late. The story ends with a big explosion, and all the kids die.
I’m not sure why this story was written other than them needing a standalone story to close out the book. The art is poorly staged, so it’s hard to tell what is going on half the time. Every page is so busy that at first glance, my eyes just started to glaze over. Even at a mere eight pages, it is hard to get through.
