BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #146

Every so often, BRAVE AND THE BOLD would pair the Caped Crusader up with one of DC’s war comics heroes such as Sgt. Rock. In some instances, the stories would be set in contemporary times, with the guest star seemingly well-preserved despite the passage of years. In other instances, Batman would be alive and active during wartime with no attempt made to explain it–not that this story took place on the parallel world of Earth-2, nothing. Writer Bob Haney didn’t care about any sort of continuity in that manner, he simply wanted to tell an exciting comic book story, and so that’s what he did, with the backing of his editors. In part, this is why BRAVE AND THE BOLD always felt off to me as a kid–it didn’t play by what I understood the rules to be from other DC Comics, and so it was often difficult to reconcile for a reader such as myself who cared about such things.

By the time this story saw print, editorship of the title had passed to Paul Levitz. Having come into the field out of fandom, Paul cared about this sort of stuff more than Haney’s previous editors as well, and so on this meeting between Batman and the Unknown Soldier, he got a concession line added to the story: “on a world not our own.” So this at least covered the point, albeit obliquely. But it was way better than nothing. I can understand the appeal of using the Unknown Soldier as a guest-star. He was one of DC’s most successful war title characters, and plugging his title among the super hero set could only benefit it in the long run–especially because his shtick of being able to assume the identities of other people functioned almost as a super-power, which made him feel more akin to a super hero that Rock and his ilk.

The story opens with Batman responding to a cry for help in the night. An intruder has murdered an old man in his apartment and rifled his papers. The man turns out to be Professor Herzen, who has been working with uranium. In these pre-Atomic Bomb days, Batman doesn’t recognize the significance of this, but he resolves to track down the killer. The trail leads the Masked Manhunter to a hidden Nazi depot where the killer came ashore. Realizing that this matter is connected to the war effort, batman contacts the government, and is ushered into a meeting with the Unknown Soldier and his handlers. Batman has turned up the name of a man who is trying to purchase supplies of Uranium from a friend of Bruce Wayne’s–this person turns out to be Nazi Count Klaus Von Stauffen

Von Stauffen is an old foe of the Unknown Soldier, which is why he’s been recalled from service abroad to get involved in this matter. Disguising himself as a regular tourist, the Unknown Soldier shadows Von Stauffen in his guise as Paul Besserman, watching as he makes a rendezvous in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial with the representative of another outfit that might be able to procure the Uranium Besserman is after. But the man suspects that Besserman is working for the enemy and pulls a gun on him. Von Stauffen kills the man before either the Soldier or Batman can get involved–and once they leap into the fray, they find that the Count is backed up by several gunmen. While the two heroes battle it out with the goons, Von Stauffen makes his getaway.

A quick pause here for a House Ad that caused me some consternation–largely because my 7-11 had stopped carrying oversized comic books such as Annuals and Dollar Comics. So it was that I never so much as laid eyes on the Dollar ADVENTURE COMICS, a title that I definitely would have bought regularly were the opportunity open to me, as it featured several favorites, including the Flash and the Justice Society of America. My fortunes would change down the line, and I would come across the last two issues of the series in this format. But it was only as back issues that I managed to read the rest.

Besserman has retreated to the San Pedro Embassy, where he has diplomatic immunity. The Soldier and Batman block off his attempts to smuggle himself out of the country, which culminate in Von Stauffen heading down to New Mexico in an attempt to photograph the Los Alamos base before escaping across the border. The Unknown Soldier disguises himself as the pilot of the plane Besserman has rented to make his flight and take his photographs, but his disguise is undone by the high winds, and he and his enemy battle it out high in the air. The plane crashes to the ground and the Unknown Soldier is seemingly dead. Batman comes close as well as he tries to capture Von Stauffen as the latter staggers away from the wreckage–a shot from Von Stauffen sends the jeep that Batman is closing the gap with careening over a nearby cliff.

Both heroes survive, of course, and are quick to pick up Von Stauffen’s trail once again. Bugging the San Pedro Embassy (with Government permission, naturally) they hear that Von Stauffen is going to be passed the last bit of information about the Atomic Bomb by a confederate near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day. The duo stakes out the place in disguise, and is able to watch him pluck a particular flower from a wreath on the Tomb and take off with it. Figuring that it must contain the military secrets, the Unknown Soldier moves to waylay Von Stauffen’s getaway by swiping a nearby wheelchair and adopting the guise of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the President of the United States.

In the guise of Roosevelt, the Unknown Soldier plucks the flower containing the key information from Von Stauffen–just before the man loses his composure and races away. Realizing that his foe must have booby trapped the tomb, the Unknown Soldier hurls himself towards it, and is able to locate the bomb and hurl it into the distance before it can cause any harm to the Memorial Day spectators. But once again, Von Stauffen has disappeared in the chaos (and all while Batman was watching and apparently doing nothing.) And that’s the end of the story. The Unknown Soldier promises to stake out the San Pedro Embassy and to catch Von Stauffen when he dares to set foot outside of it. But still, the Nazi got away with a bunch of intel and having killed a couple of people along the way, and neither hero seems to feel like they’ve failed in any way. This was a completely unsatisfying ending to me.

But the issue did include a new Daily Planet page promoting DC’s upcoming titles, including (unbeknownst to me) the first issue of FLASH edited by somebody other than Julie Schwartz. And there’s another fun Fred Hembeck cartoon as well–though this one is a bit more topical than most, and really hasn’t stood the test of time well. That’s President Jimmy Carter in that last panel, who was famous for having been a peanut farmer before entering politics and winning the Presidency. See? Funny.