BHOC: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #147

I had a weird love/hate relationship with BRAVE AND THE BOLD throughout almost the entirety of its existence. I bought the book more often than not, the matching up of the Caped Crusader with other stalwarts from across the DC Universe proving too enticing too often. Plus, there was the superlative artwork of B&B artistic regular Jim Aparo, which was always appealing. But more often than not, I found the stories–typically scripted by Bob Haney–to be weird, and to have a strange off-beat take on both the Masked Manhunter and his assorted guest players. I was never quite able to reconcile it with the appearances of these characters in other comics, and so it baffled and troubled me. It felt as though something was fundamentally broken in the series, some misaligned piece of the engine that drove it that misfired irrationally. Really, though, it was simply that the title and its creators and editors had a different ethos than the one that I was used to. And the fact that there was such a present discord is, I think, part of what kept me buying it. I was engaged to try to figure out just what the problem was.

By the time this issue came out, though, B&B was in the editorial hands of relative newcomer Paul Levitz. Having come into the business by way of fandom, Levitz had an understanding of these concerns. And so, while the book never entirely aligned itself with the rest of DC’s output, it did begin to shift closer in that direction. In large part, that was also due to a variety of other authors taking a shot at writing for the series, such as this issue’s Cary Burkett. This issue featured a team-up that it’s surprising that nobody thought to try before: Batman and Supergirl.

The story opens with Bruce Wayne chairing a Wayne Foundation stockholders’ meeting at which he announces the completion of Project: Globespan, an initiative to bring the world closer together by launching a series of communications satellites that will make international broadcasting all the easier. But this initiative is co-opted by the terrorist group the Children of Light, who tell mankind that they’ve secreted a powerful laser cannon inside one of the satellites. And so, if their leader Kahman Abhood, isn’t released from prison and returned to them, they will turn the laser on Gotham City, destroying it completely. Wayne heads out as Batman in response to a summons from the Batsignal, but when he arrives, he discovers that it wasn’t turned on by Commissioner Gordon but rather a group of Children of Light assassins intent on preventing him from intervening.

The killers are armed with sophisticated laser weapons, but Batman is able to drive them off. He tells Gordon that the rest of the Justice League is conveniently away on a space mission, which leaves this situation entirely in his hands. Heading to S.T.A.R. Labs, where the satellites were manufactured, the Caped Crusader comes across the unconscious form of Supergirl. Reviving her, she reveals that, in her secret identity as Linda Danvers, college advisor, she experiences a succession of inexplicable weaknesses whenever she crossed paths with brilliant student Josh Kimble. She followed him to S.T.A.R. Labs, where she witnessed him tampering with the satellites prior to launch. But somebody struck her down from behind, her powers somehow absent in Kimble’s presence.

Brought up to speed on the situation, Supergirl helps to convey Batman into space, where they attempt to destroy the deadly satellite. But the thing is projecting a field of Red Sun radiation which would rob Supergirl of her powers should she get close to it. Batman makes an attempt on his own, but the satellite’s defenses are able to repel him, though Supergirl saves his life. If they’re going to solve this thing, they’re going to have to do so by tracking down the Children of Light. So they head to Josh Kimble’s place, where they find a message that leads them to Le Soleil, a Gotham hotspot. Unsure of whether Kimble’s exposure to the Red Sun radiation that he was working with would still rob Supergirl of her powers, Batman ventures into the club himself, leaving her to shadow him with her X-Ray vision. But the Masked manhunter is clobbered by a gang of Children of Light goons, and though Supergirl races to his rescue, she is felled by a concentrated beam of that handy Red Sun radiation.

And here, the true mastermind behind this affair reveals himself. It’s Doctor Light, a longtime foe of the members of the Justice league of America who battled them both individually and together. He recruited the Children of Light to be his footsoldiers, promising to help in the liberation of their leader. But he doesn’t care anything about that, all he’s after is setting up a blackmail scheme where the leaders of the world will have to pay him a billion dollars or else have their nations blasted into dust by his space laser. But Batman isn’t quite as defeated as me seemed, and he uses a smoke grenade from his utility belt to help slip the grasp of the men who are holding him, and switches off the Red Sun field that’s been protecting the sattelite.

A moment later, Doctor Light sends the signal to reactivate the field, but in that time Supergirl has recovered enough to race that signal to the satellite, destroying it before it can reawaken its defenses. And in the meantime, having taken their measure, Batman makes short work of both the Children of Light and the flabbergasted Doctor Light as well. And that’s it for this outing, a very straightforward done-in-one that was more of a piece with DC’s contemporary output than usual. (Though it did tend to use “Red Sun Radiation” as a sort of a magic cure-all that affected Supergirl however the plot needed it to.)

This issue also included another installment of the Daily Planet promotional page, once again carrying a short comic strip done by cartoonist Fred Hembeck. As opposed to last time, this gag I really liked, and it stuck with me for years