In Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14, we see Deadman and Nightwing continue their investigation, Booster Gold battle the Jurassic League, and other stories!
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 main cover by Simone Di Meo. Courtesy of DC Comics.
Title: Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14
Writers: Tim Seeley, Mark Russell, Cavan Scott, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Hayden Sherman
Artists: Kelley Jones, Jon Mikel, Travis Mercer, Lisandro Estherren, Hayden Sherman
Colors: Michelle Madsen, Mike Spicer, Andrew Dalhouse, Patricio Delpeche
Letters: Rob Leigh, Ferran Delgado, Steve Wands, Becca Carey, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover Artist: Simone Di Meo
Variant Cover Artists: Hayden Sherman, Francesco Mattina
Release Date: June 26, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
“Nightwing & Deadman: Down the Road Part 2”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Kelley Jones
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Rob Leigh
Deadman and Nightwing have teamed up to follow the trail left by a mysterious woman in red sashes with a cryptic message: “If I fall, may I never land” (an old carny maxim). The pair have stowed away on a train carrying carny performers headed south through rural Pennsylvania. A train car skirmish leads Deadman to inhabit the body of one of the carny performers, which Nightwing says makes him uncomfortable: “Taking people’s free will like that? Innocent people? For fun?”
Retracing their steps from their old circus performing days, Nightwing and Deadman get off in Hartfield to visit the coliseum, which is hosting something called “influencer con.” It’s a dead end. Next they try Salt Lick, Kentucky, an old mining town that has evolved into a warehouse hub for online shopping: another dead end. Discouraged, Nightwing and Deadman regroup at a local diner when they are confronted by a possessed child with a red balloon. The child speaks in “cant” AKA carny-speak and says “find the red light.” Under the online warehouse, they find a secret circus performance going on and provide the entry password: red light.
The performing troupe named: “The Night Parade Traveling Revue,” or NPTR for short, reveals that they are missing one of their star performers named Stella Starling: the woman in red sashes. As a commemorative effort, the troupe has all gotten small handprint tattoos on their palms. A drunk and angry patron named Hotspit heckles the troupe for what he believes they did to Stella and unleashes a fiery inferno out of his mouth. Nightwing helps everyone evacuate the building while Deadman learns from Hotspit that the handprint tattoo is worn by other carnies that can help the pair find what they’re looking for. Deadman is attacked by a monster called “The Unfallen,” while Hotspit falls to his death in a pit. Finally, Stella Starling’s brother, a circus magician, tells Nightwing and Deadman about a mythical place called “the end of the road” where Stella Starling’s soul is trying to get home.
Part two of this story introduces so many characters and locations and macguffins and ideas, it ends up being a convoluted mess. I had to read the thing multiple times just to parse out all the exposition and mythical inner workings to the point where it doesn’t end up being much fun. Unfortunately, the hook of the story: Nightwing and Deadman’s partnership takes a backseat to Tim Seeley’s overstuffed narrative where he’s trying to tackle ideas such as corporatization, reckoning with the past, free will, and purgatory. None of it comes out fully formed, instead creating a smorgasbord of half-baked ideas, exposition spouting non-characters, and macguffins. With such a heavy reliance on maintaining a mysterious aura around the plot and characters, there’s almost nothing here to get emotionally invested in. Occasionally, Seeley makes allusions to Nightwing and Deadman’s past as if there’s some kind of personal revelation incoming, but it’s not enough to support the weight of all the other idle chaos.
Kelley Jones’ and Michelle Madsen’s art and colors don’t ameliorate the chaotic storytelling either. With faces mispainted to blend into the background, lack of necessary establishing shots, and emphasis on character closeups during action scenes, it’s a doozy to follow. The pages after Hotspit’s eruption are full of confounding action splashes and overlapping panels following a myriad of different storylines occurring all at once. And without a cohesive flow, it struggles to stay engaging or even comprehensible at times.
Boston Brand’s ghoulish power on display. Courtesy of DC Comics.
“Time Jerks Part 2”
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Jon Mikel
Colors: Mike Spicer
Letters: Ferran Delgado
“Time Jerks Part 2” picks back up with Booster Gold trying and failing to assimilate into dinosaur society. Even so, he’s really too lazy to do anything about it. Skeets tries appealing to his loneliness: “you will never go on a date again,” his moral self-righteousness: “upon your death, the human race will be completely extinct,” but it isn’t until Skeets reminds Booster that he’ll never have a cheeseburger again (the enlightened dinos have inexplicably gone vegan) that Gold finally decides to take action. He attempts to steal the time sphere from the Hall of Justice but is stopped by the Jurassic League. That’s when the uncomfortable truth comes out: he can only save his race by destroying theirs. It seems like he’s outnumbered until another member of the League stumbles out: Boostersaurus. Boostersaurus clumsily activates the sphere either out of incompetence or in an attempt to help his homosapien counterpart, and Booster zips back into the amaranthine timestream. He watches as the meteor wipes out the dinosaurs, and he sees the full development of human history before yet another meteor comes hurtling at the Earth. Now it’s up to Booster Gold to stop it, once and for all.
Fun story! There’s nothing particularly complex or profound here, but if you want some fun jokes, bright eye-catching art, and to see a bunch of dinosaurs dressed up like League members, then this is for you. Jon Mikel’s art and Mike Spicer’s colors are irresistible. It’s pretty hilarious how much Mikel has to stretch to anthropomorphize these dinosaurs whose forms do not lend themselves to humanization easily. Still, we get to see saurolophinae in polos scrolling smartphones and stegosauruses in checkered shawls and pearls. It’s pretty great!
“The Flash: A Day in the Life”
Writer: Cavan Scott
Artist: Travis Mercer
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Letters: Steve Wands
Next is a four-page story about all the crises Barry Allen (The Flash) has to handle while fixing coffee for his wife. He assists Superman with evacuating an earthquake zone, Batman with taking down Poison Ivy and Gorilla Grodd at the Gotham Zoo, and even knocks out Reverse Flash in his apartment all within the 10 minutes between when he and Iris wakes up.
I don’t really get this story. It all boils down to a joke that we have seen done and done better many times in the DC Universe before. There was a version of it in the Flash movie, and a particularly funny version between Clark and Lois in episode 5 of Adult Swim’s My Adventures with Superman. The only thing Cavan Scott adds to it are cameos from other superheroes and villains. Travis Mercer’s art is sturdy and energetic, and Andrew Dalhouse provides a nice color pallet.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 variant cover by Francesco Mattina
“The Invader Part 2”
Writer: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Artist: Lisandro Estherren
Colors: Patricio Delpeche
Letters: Becca Carey
Batman and Guy Gardner butt heads while investigating a grounded flying saucer in the forest. They follow a trail of green, radiated alien blood and find a girl that got some of it on her leg, now burning her flesh. Batman directs Guy to take her to seek medical attention while he follows the trail of blood into a cave.When he approaches the wounded alien, he once again experiences a psychic attack, forcing him to see his worst enemies and his decomposed parents. The story ends with Batman begging for help as Guy leaves the hospital, unable to hear him.
In contrast with the issue’s first story, which deemphasized it’s two leads character dynamic, Joshua Hale Fialkov does a great job depicting the contentious rapport between Batman and Guy Gardner. Batman ribs Guy’s overconfidence that he’s the only Lantern whose ring never fails (double entendre alert), and then has to use reverse psychology to get Guy to do what he wants (he doesn’t like getting bossed around). Guy is basically a big kid, and Batman treats him like such, which sets up the ending moment when Batman actually needs his help but has inadvertently isolated himself.
Lisandro Estherren’s art has a kind of youthful doodling quality (in a great way) that enhances the mostly lighthearted nature of the story. But who I truly want to highlight is Patricio Delpeche, who gives these pages a rich watercolor feel that recalls the acclaimed work of Dave Stewart at his peak. The lighting is vivid, giving the scenes a tangibility from the humid overcast forest to the richly shadowed cave cast with warm artificial light.
“The Evidence Remains”
Writer and Artist: Hayden Sherman
Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
The final black and white story sees an introspective Batman reflecting on his routines. Everyday is starting to feel like Groundhog Day: suit up, drive off, help, hurt, return, heal. The monotony leads him to worry that he’s not making a difference. Nothing ever changes. So he decides to collect evidence of his progress. Giant pennys, playing cards, T-Rex’s, etc.
What a visually striking story. Hayden Sherman opens with 54 unique panels on the page, each telling a story of their own. As the pages go on, he starts to play with the formula leading to a full-page splash of Batman in the cave and a very cool spread with panels constructing the shape of a bat symbol. Certainly there’s more style than substance, but it’s not a bad way to close out the anthology.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advance copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
