Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16 brings Nightwing’s and Deadman’s story to a much needed conclusion, continues an intriguing storyline featuring Renee Montoya, and offers a few standalone outings. But be warned: Batman himself is nowhere to be seen this issue.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16 main cover by Simone Di Meo
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16
Writer: Tim Seeley, Jay Faerber, Alex Segura, Stephanie Williams
Artists: Kelley Jones, PJ Holden, Andy MacDonald, Asiah Fulmore
Colors: Michelle Madsen, John Kalisz, Patricio Delpeche, Marissa Louise
Letters: Rob Leigh, Troy Peteri, Lucas Gattoni, Dave Sharpe
Main Cover Artist: Simone Di Meo
Variant Cover Artists: Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Lee Bermejo
Release Date: August 28, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers
“Nightwing & Deadman: Down the Road Part 4”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Kelley Jones
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Rob Leigh
Nightwing and Deadman’s journey comes to an end in Black Acres, Alabama (not a real place) at the mythical “end of the line.” Stella Starling, the woman the duo has been searching for, has shoved Nightwing into a pit harboring a hulking monster: the Unfallen. Meanwhile, Stella monologues to Deadman about the evil power of the Unfallen and offers up her brother Action’s body as a permanent vessel for Brand. She explains that he’s inflicted with “vascular dementia,” and soon all his brain activity will fade away. Deadman instead gives the obol to Charon who promises to take Stella’s lost soul to perdition.
Nightwing has a vision where his parents explain that by dying and creating him they were able to maintain a universal balance, because of all the good he’s done. This epiphany leads to Nightwing relinquishing his fear of the Unfallen, thus destroying him. Finally, it is revealed that the vision of his parents was created by the entity Rama Kushna in order to restore balance and defeat the Unfallen’s evil influence. Upon returning to Bludhaven, Nightwing states that he can now see Deadman without using the obol as a result of their shared experience, but Action is letting him use his body for now anyway. Before they split up, Deadman offers the final words: “I’ll see you down the road.”
What started out as an intriguing team up between two ex-Carney DC heroes has unfortunately devolved into a convoluted and protracted fetch quest. One thing leads to another with very little emotional investment involved, and pulling Dick’s parents out at the end just feels desperate. The Unfallen winds up being a deeply uninteresting villain. He’s just another deistic being with reality conquering evil influence. But he can be defeated with the power of thought and he looks like a poor man’s Solomon Grundy. Stella is motivated by a desire for chaos (ever heard of that one before)? And Nightwing and Deadman are separated for most of this issue so we’re even deprived of their occasionally enjoyable interplay.
Kelley Jones’ art and Michelle Madsen’s colors don’t do the story any favors either. This mythical “end of the line” is supposedly a fortress made of a long-lost circus line but Jones visualizes so little of it, it’s almost impossible to tell where they actually are. The page layouts are messy and the colors are muddy and faded to the point where the story just doesn’t look appealing.
By the end of it all we don’t learn anything new about Nightwing or Deadman, there is no reason we should ever see Stella or the Unfallen again, and after four months of keeping up with magic odols, cryptic idioms, rural town names, and Carney legends, I’m just left asking: what was the point?
“First Watch”
Writer: Jay Faerber
Artist: PJ Holden
Colors: John Kalisz
Letters: Troy Peteri
In Metropolis, a wide eyed rookie cop nicknamed “Rook” is partnered up with veteran Sergeant Scanlon for a day on the job. It starts mundane: destruction of property, disturbing the peace, a traffic accident, crowd control, a lost dog, theft and evading arrest, a traffic violation, etc. Rook is disappointed. He joined the force to work alongside Superman and while Scanlon congratulates him for his handling of a barroom fight, it still isn’t the kind of work he had in mind. Then, when the pair get a call to respond to a violent assault at a butcher shop, Rook is sure Supes will show. He doesn’t. So Rook has to tackle and disarm the assailant himself. After they make sure the victim will survive, Scanlon tells Rook a story about how she stopped a car theft in the midst of a Superman-Metallo fight. She tells him it’s their job to deal with the little stuff while Superman’s out there saving the world. Then they go get beers after the shift.
This story serves up a refreshing view on the oft-overlooked Metropolis PD. While the inner workings of the GCPD is an area writers frequently mine for drama (including in this very book), a story set on the inside of the Metropolis police department is more uncommon. The reason for this is obvious: there’s less drama by design. Superman is around so the city isn’t as constantly saturated with violence as somewhere like Gotham City. Jay Faerber navigates this challenge by giving us more of a day-in-life of a police officer which could honestly be transposed to any major metropolitan area in the US. The only hint that we’re in a fictional world is the ongoing conversation between the two cops about the Man of Steel. Rook and Sergeant Scanlon are fine characters for such a short piece, and Faerber borrows the classic “rookie”-“veteran” archetypes. This is an area of the world I wouldn’t mind seeing explored more.
Indie maestro PJ Holden draws the Metropolis city streets with a perceptible quaintness that complements the low stakes outing. His characters are simple and likable. We get to see Rook lose his wide grin of innocence in favor of a more well worn expression. While Scanlon’s seen-it-all attitude is demonstrated through a looser collar and more relaxed features. John Kalisz’s colors are as bright and inviting as the city itself. Timestamps indicate the day’s evolution just as Kalisz’s light blue and teal dawn moves into a warm red and lavender dusk.
“Duality Part 2”
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Andy MacDonald
Colors: Patricio Delpeche
Letters: Lucas Gattoni
Since last issue, Police Commissioner Renee Montoya has redonned her alterego: The Question to investigate a series of attacks on her friends and family. After a tabloid piece drops accusing Renee of abuse and other crimes, she is visited by a former partner: Aristotle Rodor or “Tot” for short. He reveals that someone is out to get her. Someone who knows everything about her, and who knows she’s The Question. The next day she is ambushed in her office by a masked assailant calling himself “Zero.” He threatens to reveal all her secrets and hurt everyone she loves before rushing her. She wakes up in the hospital and then as The Question leaves a thumbdrive at the Gotham Gazette exonerating her of all crimes. The next day at a press conference, Renee recognizes a man in the audience before she is shown an article published by the Gazette exposing her as the vigilante The Question.
Alex Segura picks up Renee Montoya’s story following the events of The Blue Wall and the death of her brother and his fiancee. The Blue Wall itself was following in the tradition of Gotham Central, which established the full cast of GCPD underlings. I’m a fan of all of those stories so I’m always interested to check in and see what the Gotham City heat is up to. Renee Montoya remains one of the most interesting characters in the DCU. If her struggles with sobriety and balancing her dual identity aren’t enough, she’s now dealing with the recent loss of her brother and false allegations of abuse and incompetence. She’s about as fractured of a character as you can get and she’s still supposed to be running the police department. As of right now, I don’t have any guesses as to who Zero might be. Presumably it’s that guy she noticed at the press conference although I didn’t recognize him. Hopefully it’s not her undead brother or some other vengeful relative. That would be dumb.
Andy MacDonald’s noir inspired art is perfect for this story and Patricio Delpeche keeps it dark and moody with his colors. Renee’s expressions permeate a desperation and sadness that can’t help but elicit a deep empathy from the reader. This is a woman who has been through the ringer and she’s gearing up to go through it again. The scene between Zero and Montoya in the office deserves a particular callout for having some of the most realistic ‘dark room with the lights off’ visuals I’ve ever seen in a comic. It’s all there, but MacDonald and Delpeche make you want to squint to see more.
“It’s Our Anniversary”
Writer: Stephanie Williams
Artist: Asiah Fulmore
Colors: Marissa Louise
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Mal and Karen Duncan are celebrating their anniversary at Serenity Cove where a man named David Montgomery also happens to be holding a jewelry exhibition. A criminal named Mr. Kellen attempts a heist where the real target is David Montgomery’s date Ms. Temple. Mal and Karen suit up to take down the threat before they can enjoy the rest of their vacation together.
This story is incredibly slight and skippable unless you’re a big Vox or Bumblebee fan. It was nice to see the pair on vacation and Stephanie Williams provides some believable spousal dialogue, but once the threat is introduced in the form of the unimaginative “Mr. Kellen,” it’s a page and a half before he is neutralized and the story is over. Asiah Fulmore provides the art with Marissa Louise on the colors, and while the character’s are drawn fine, the backgrounds are given a blurry out-of-focus effect that appears slapdash. An occasional blur effect over a background can add dimension or draw the reader in, however when used in every panel it can start to look like Microsoft paint mixed media nightmare.
Final Thoughts
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16 is another mixed bag featuring two worthwhile segments highlighting the public servants of Gotham City and Metropolis, while finally closing out Nightwing and Deadman’s confusing journey into Carney lore and offering a brief peek into Vox or Bumblebee’s anniversary vacation. Just don’t be fooled by Batman’s appearance on the cover, he ain’t here!
