In this review of Batman: The Brave and the Bold #17 readers get stories with the psychotic Calendar Man, the Yakuza gang, John Constantine, Streaky the Supercat, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, and more!
Batman: The Brave and the Bold main cover by Simone Di Meo
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #17
Writer: Michael W. Conrad, Zipporah Smith, Alex Segura, Troy Peteri, G. Willow Wilson
Artists: Miguel Mendonça, Christopher Mitten, Mike Norton, Andy MacDonald, David Baldeón, Jason Shawn Alexander
Colors: Mike Spicer, John Kalisz, Patricio Delpeche, Veronica Gandini, Lee Loughridge
Cover Artist: Simone Di Meo
Variant Cover Artists: Miguel Mendonça, Mike Spicer, Christopher Mitten
Release Date: September 25, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers
“What’s a Calendar?”
Writer: Michael W. Conrad
Artist: Miguel Mendonça and Christopher Mitten
Colors: Mike Spicer
On leap year, one hour before midnight on February 28th, Julian Day AKA Calendar Man holds a group of hostages born on 2/29 at gunpoint in a Gotham City hotel. A rookie negotiator named Brooks desperately tries to de-escalate the crisis before Harvey Bullock can send in his team of snipers. Meanwhile, Batman infiltrates the lobby through an air shaft and discovers that one of the hostages is Masa Hari, son of Hinata Hari Kaikei of the Yakuza gang. The Yakuza arrive in unmarked trucks and engage in a shootout with police. Brooks gets tagged in his false leg, and an armored truck explodes feet away from him and Bullock.
Simultaneously, one of the Yakuza’s trucks busts into the hotel lobby and Batman takes on a group of armed mercenaries. Once the Yakuza threat is neutralized, Batman tasks Masa Hari with getting the hostages to safety and warns him that if anything were to happen, he knows where he lives. Finally, Bullock and Brooks clear the hostages and move into the hotel lobby to find Calendar Man hanging upside down, ready to be taken into police custody.
This is a nice standalone story to open the issue, probably most notable for its eclectic mix of influences both from a visual and narrative standpoint. We see the return of Calendar Man as a paranoiac domestic terrorist. His being set off by an extra day in February is so on-brand, it’s surprising that it’s not been done before. His plot draws an unfortunate real world parallel to the online astrologist who killed her family during a recent solar eclipse.
Writer Michael W. Conrad’s inclusion of the Japanese gang the Yakuza adds a force of chaos to the plot and an serves as an excuse to see Batman take down some nameless thugs. I can never see the Yakuza in a comic and not think of Frank Miller even if this particular instance is more of a coincidence than a direct nod. But the true heart of the story is in the buddy-cop relationship between Harvey Bullock and Brooks. Bullock is the same old “shoot first, ask questions later” cop that we’ve known for years, but we get to see his soft side come out when he jumps to help Brooks after he thinks he is shot. Even with his mere 16 hours of hostage rescue training, Bullock still lets Brooks attempt to de-escalate before bursting in and once the hostages are successfully rescued, Harvey wraps his hand around Brooks with a goofy grin and tip of the hat. How can you not love him?
Artists Miguel Mendonça and Christopher Mitten alternate pages and both offer a compelling visual style in their own right, even if jumping between them can feel jarring at times. Miguel Mendonça’s style is more vividly detailed and painterly, showing the complex emotions on Bullock and Brooks as they debate the next course of action. Meanwhile, Christopher Mitten offers sketchier and more action heavy pages with particles and grime layered on like crumbled charcoal.
Initially, the comic’s internal logic seems to be that Mendonça draws the exterior scenes such as the police standoff outside, and Mitten draws the interiors with Batman facing off with Calendar Man and the Yakuza. However, since they are literally alternating pages, this rule is broken several times including on page 8 when Mendonça gives us a vivid scene of Day pointing his gun at hostages and page 11 when Mitten gives us a chaotic depiction of the shootout outside. Personally, I prefer Mendonça’s characters so when Mitten depicts Julian Day, Harvey Bullock, and Brooks later on in the issue, it leaves something to be desired.
“Petsurrection Part 1”
Writer: Zipporah Smith
Artist: Mike Norton
Colors: John Kalisz
John Constantine and Streaky the Supercat team up when a number of dead suburban pets return as mutated zombie monsters. Streaky has a talisman with a missing center stone that is somehow tied in with all of this. So, despite his feline allergy, Constantine decides to partner up with Streaky to get to the bottom of exactly what is going on.
I don’t have much to say about this story. Constantine and Streaky is not a team up I ever needed or wanted and even if I had, I can’t say there’s anything interesting done with it in this first part. Constantine feels like a caricature of himself as he speaks entirely in on-the-nose British-isms: “bloody hell… could you bug off…smells like absolute rubbish… ah bullocks… not the telly…” etc. That’s seriously most of his lines. As for Streaky, well he just meows. So after what is undoubtedly the longest nine pages of this book, I’m left asking myself: why?
Mike Norton serves as the artist and John Kalisz as the colorist here. The art is simple and clean with Norton presumably being chosen for his proficiency in drawing animals. Streaky completionists, this one’s for you!
“Duality Part 3”
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Andy MacDonald
Colors: Patricio Delpeche
Letters: Lucas Gattoni
Renee Montoya’s secret is out: she spends her nights moonlighting as the vigilante known as The Question. Meanwhile a masked man calling himself Zero is attacking her closest friends and colleagues. After visiting her sponsor Allie in the hospital, she meets Vic Sage, the original Question, on a rooftop in Hub city. Not only has he supplied evidence to the media exonerating Montoya from being the Question, but he also gives her a lead as to who Zero might be. Shortly thereafter, Montoya busts into Kate Kane’s apartment with Zero trailing right behind her. Inside, she is able to remove his mask revealing Jordan Rich: the man who shot Jim Gordon back in Batman #587. He thinks Montoya ruined his life and he’s out for revenge.
This is a disappointing followup to last month’s entry. For one thing, the entire cliffhanger of Renee’s identity being revealed to the public is resolved off panel. We’re just told that Vic Sage worked it out, he sent in some kind of evidence that completely exonerates her in the eyes of the public. As for what that evidence is exactly, your guess is as good as mine. Alex Segura doesn’t bother to tell us.
Additionally, after originally being outed as The Question, Renee is able to visit her sponsor in the hospital before she is suddenly in an entirely different city on the same rooftop as Vic Sage so they can have a faceless conversation. I get that this is comic book logic, but really, this meeting could’ve been an email. Renee can’t fly, how long do you think it took her to get out there for a four minute conversation? Also someone is trying to kill her, maybe she should be laying low. Later when she bursts through Kate Kane’s window dressed as the Question instead of knocking on the door, Zero is already waiting in the frame. In other words, a lot is left unexplained and a lot of credulity is asked to be stretched.
Furthermore, on top of everything we’re asked to accept, Renee’s journey just feels stagnant here. She visits some familiar faces and learns information but overall takes a much more passive role than she has in previous chapters. I will give them props for the final twist, though. Somehow they were able to make Zero’s identity both someone I’m familiar with and yet still someone who’s completely surprising. That’s ironically very hard to do in comics, and all my worst casinerio guesses from last month ended up being wrong.
Andy MacDonald and Patricio Delpeche continue to provide an effective approximation of Michael Lark’s work on Gotham Central which this story serves as a spiritual continuation of. At the end of the day, despite all my problems including this chapter completely undoing last month’s last cliffhanger in careless 1960s Batman fashion, I’m still curious to see how it all wraps up. I just can’t get enough of these GCPD characters.
“Downtime at the Diner”
Writer: Troy Peteri
Artist: David Baldeón
Colors: Veronica Gandini
An insecure Billy Batson takes Oliver Queen up on his offer to grab a friendly coffee at Grell’s Grill. Billy tells him about a friend of his who had to transfer schools after being bullied and asks why bad guys do what they do. Meanwhile, Clayface and a group of henchmen begin to wreak havoc in the diner. The pair change their identities to Captain Marvel and Green Arrow to take down the gang. Afterwards, Arrow answers Batson’s question about why bad guys do what they do with the old truism: “hurt people hurt people” and even upgrades his nickname from “kid” to “buddy.” Batson is satisfied.
This is a very low stakes story that explores some general platitudes in a straightforward way. It doesn’t try to go for a deep or nuanced exploration of good and evil, and Clayface’s precise motivation is muddy (forgive the pun). While Green Arrow is historically not above pontificating about human nature, his final monologue is pretty elementary and reads more like Troy Peteri using the character as a vessel to convey his own theories about behavior. On the other hand, Billy Batson is what? 10 years old? So maybe Oliver is better at knowing his audience than I’m giving him credit for. Batson’s overactive inner monologue gives a fun contrast to what he says (“coffee tastes like garden dirt”/”sounds great!”) and provides an accurate portrait of social anxiety (“crowded restaurant full of adults, one of them is kinda a friend from work, but not a friend-friend”).
David Baldeón and Veronica Gandini’s art match the story’s tone perfectly: simple and cartoony. But is it just me or does this and “Petsurrection Part 1” just feel oddly out of place in this issue. It’s hard to imagine someone picking up this book for “What’s a Calendar?” and “Duality Part 3” would be too interested in these stories which seem to be aimed at younger readers (and vice versa).
“Bats Again: A Microstory”
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Jason Shawn Alexander
Colors: Lee Loughridge
The anthology closes with less of a story than two pages of flash fiction. Kirk Langstrom pulls an all-nighter in his lab before a scheduled meeting with a divorce counselor. When trying to reach for caffeine he carelessly drinks an open vial of MatBat serum, transforming himself into the monster. He realizes he’s out of antidote so he must attend the meeting as MatBat.
So Kirk keeps an open vial of MatBat serum right beside his coffee at all times? That makes no sense but I think G. Willow Wilson is going more for metaphor here: “sometimes you can’t hide the monster inside.” Well at least it looks cool with Jason Shawn Alexander and Lee Loughridge providing art that’s way too good for this story. You’re not going to make me miss the black & white closers DC, although this brief non-story gets me close.
Final Thoughts
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #17 reinforces that uneven storytelling seems to be this book’s brand. The opening Calendar Man story and the twist in Duality are just worth the cover price but the other stories are some of the least interesting yet.
