Just before this issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD came out, the second of the two prime time specials that are collectively known as LEGENDS OF THE SUPERHEROES premiered. In contrast with the first, which contained an actual adventure story, as hammy and embarrassing and ill-considered as it was, this second one was a full-on roast, including sketches and blackouts and comedy bits with the heroes and villains as players. It’s pretty cringe-worthy stuff. But I was so starved for super hero content in 1979 that I enjoyed it despite itself (and the fact that it was, in essence, laughing at everything that I loved.) It’s maybe difficult to understand that in 2024 when it seems like a new super hero film or series is announced every week. But in 1979, this stuff was rarer than water in the desert, and so you were thankful for whatever droplets appeared, almost no matter how bad they actually were. Back then, we could only dream of living in the world of today.
Anyway, this issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD united Batman with the Teen Titans, a group that wasn’t active at the moment, the team having split up after the end of their 1970s revival series. Only a few years later, these characters would be at the forefront of the series that pushed DC towards modernization and the Marvelization of their publishing line. So this story was really the last gasp of the original incarnation of the Titans and the ethos that was behind it. I can remember enjoying this story pretty well, but it not especially standing out from the pack until years later after NEW TEEN TITANS became a massive hit and so everything Titans took on an extra level of importance.
As most issues of BRAVE AND THE BOLD at this time, this one was written by the wacky Bob Haney. Haney had an interesting relationship with super hero stories and with the continuity therein. To be short, he often didn’t pay it any mind. He would do the most absurd things, make the most ridiculous plot-twists an mess with the characters’ continuity in the most off-handed ways, all in the service of making the single comic book that you were reading the most interesting that it could be. There’s something to be said about that approach. Haney had been writing Teen Titans stories since the strip began, and he was well associated with the strip’s awkward attempts to mimic what DC’s out-of-touch editors felt was the language of the kids. Apart from one or two reunion special moments in later years, I believe this was the last genuine Teen Titans story that Haney wrote within a canonical space (a space that he never thought twice about.)
The story opens with Batman contacting the individual Teen Titans, telling them that he needs them for a special mission. You see, Gotham has been plagued by a crime wave performed by underage kids calling themselves the Runaways. While individual members of the group have been caught, their mysterious patron is always ready to bail them out and provide them with assistance, legal or otherwise, as needed. Batman wants to smash up the entire operation, so he wants the Titans to go undercover and root out the person or persons behind the Runaways. Because their powers still work even without their costumes (as opposed to Speedy, who needs his bow and arrows), Kid Flash and Wonder Girl will be the inside men.
With Robin and Speedy keeping an eye on them from afar, Wally and Donna are swiftly able to infiltrate the gang, posing as homeless kids themselves. They pass a couple of tests, then are put through a cram course to give them the pickpocketing and lock-picking skills that they’ll need as part of their profession. Robin is eager to leap in and bust up the ring, but Batman tells him to hold off–he wants to find and nail the rat behind the organization. In order to divert suspicion from Wally and Donna as they’re being tailed on a meet-up with the Titans, Batman pretends to attempt to arrest them and the pair seemingly beat the tar out of him. Rather than finding this at all suspicious, the other gang members are instead impressed by just how tough their two new recruits are.
As the next move in their strategy, Robin and Speedy capture Turk, the leader of the Runaways and stash him at the Batcave for safe keeping. Donna and Wally, meanwhile confront the unseen leader of the gang publicly, telling the other Runaways that they had followed Turk to the Man’s secret hideway, and that Turk never came out again. this begins to turn sentiment against the Man, and he’s forced to reveal himself in person to his Runaways troops in order to prove that he’s been on the level with them. This is just what Batman and the Titans have been hoping for.
As the meeting time nears, Robin and Speedy are surprised to see Batman silently gliding into the meeting hall, but they assume that he’s got a good reason for doing so. In the meeting, it’s revealed that Donna is wearing a transmitter, and so the identities of the two Titans is blown. This doesn’t seem like a big deal–surely Wonder Girl and Kid Flash could mop up a room of kids all by themselves. But as they begin to fight back, Wally is surprised by the sudden appearance by Batman–giving the Caped Crusader the moment of surprise that he needs to clock the swift Titan. You see, this isn’t Batman at all, but rather The Man disguised to look like him (for really no good reason apart from that it keeps the story rolling forward. Haney!)
As the tide begins to turn, the Man, still in his Batman guise, attempts to make his escape through a secret passage disguised as an incinerator shaft. But at the bottom, he’s confronted by one of the former Runaways whom he’d left to stew in prison. The real Batman shows up in time to prevent his impostor from being gunned down by the disgruntled youth. In an underwhelming resolution, the Man is revealed to be Max Cash (!!!), a convicted slumlord who was one of those responsible for the creation of the many Gotham ghettos which spawned the Runaways in the first place. As Cash had never been mentioned previously in the story, this reveal falls totally flat. But still, in the end, the runaways are given probation for their actions, and the guy who exploited them to line his own pockets is going back to jail. So it’s a win for the super heroes.
The letters page in this issue includes our old friend, the Statement of Ownership, which gives us some data through which we can evaluate how well the title had been performing the year previously. According to the data, BRAVE AND THE BOLD had been moving 205,975 copies on a print run of 386.422, giving the book an efficiency rating of just over 53%. Which isn’t a bad number for this period.
And the issue also included a new edition of the weekly Daily Planet promotional page, which included another fun, dopey strip by fan cartoonist Fred Hembeck.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
When Haney wrote a story showing the Silver Age Batman teaming with Sgt. Rock during WW II, the ads screamed How Is This Possible? In the issue, Haney doesn’t answer, he just lets it happen. But it’s a fun story and the multiple subsequent team-ups between the Rock and the Bat show it worked (i guess).
The implausible teen dialog never bothered me as a kid — as an English pre-teen I had no reason to think authentic American teenagers didn’t sound exactly like that. I do think Haney’s strength is that he seemed to like teenagers — drag racers, rock-and-rollers, teenage scientists, he wrote as if they were all pretty cool (come to think of it while there were lots of kid scientists in comics, I can’t think of anyone who treated them as cool).
LikeLiked by 1 person
You would think that once Batman became the main team-up hero for The Brave and the Bold that Bob Haney would have used the Earth-2 Batman for that Sgt. Rock WW2 team-up or any team-up with DC Comics golden age or WW2 characters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe YOU would think that, but not ol’brainy Bob Haney! It’s like cosmic phenomena in the deep reaches of space. Or pop music charts. If we can’t exactly explain it, just take it in, or look away…
LikeLike
Haney likewise saw no need to deal with which Earth Spectre/Batman and Wildcat/Batman stories took place on, though later writers would work it out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve always thought that there’s an argument that in Wildcat’s first appearance, he could be considered on Earth One. Flash Of Two Worlds established that the Golden Age heroes were comic book characters on Earth one and Ted was inspired to don a costume by a Green Lantern comic. That would make him the first Earth One costumed adventurer and Haney actually working within continuity to have an aged Wildcat appear in Brave and the Bold.
LikeLike
I did some blogging a few years back about Earth-One/Earth Two comic books and the characters who were shown reading the comic books they were in: https://atomicjunkshop.com/the-golden-age-of-comics-as-experienced-by-earth-two-comics-readers/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I liked that post. I would have gone another way. If Earth One comics featured Earth Two heroes (with less accuracy for the five whose comics survived past the Golden Age), I’d have thought Earth Two comics would be inspired by the next heroic Earth having obviously skipped Earth Three. Any further links? It said to be followed by another post but there was nothing to click on.
LikeLike
Steve McBeezlebub – I think it would be very fitting if Earth-Two comics started by featuring all the Fawcett heroes (Earth-S/5). Not simply Captain Marvel (though that would be a nice nod to his Golden Age popularity), but Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Ibis, and so on. And maybe Earth-Fawcett comics first featured the Quality heroes, etc.
Hmm, has it ever been implied there’s a strict one-to-one relationship in terms of comics? That is, if Earth-Two heroes have comics about them on Earth-One, what about Earth-One comics for heroes of Fawcett, Quality, and so on?
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Seth Finkelstein, Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler, & Richard Howell did show at least Captain Marvel as a comic book on Earth-2, in All-Star Squadron” # 36, I think. The issue with CM getting the best of Superman, w/ several other famous heroes framing the cover. “Thunder Over London”.
LikeLike
While giving continuity purists palpitations Haney at least did give you a good story. Once I figured out it was pointless being bothered by Batman and his guest stars all behaving wrong according to their characterizations elsewhere ’cause it was still going to happen, I could just enjoy the book. That said, there were a couple of recurring guest stars who got to keep their mangled histories appearance to appearance. I think that included Plastic Man and Wildcat were at least some of the ones who got to be written the same every time. Haney only liked his continuity even if he didn’t adhere to it every time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
love that mean face on Donna on the cover.
any chance to see a Daily Planet page, especially if it has the Answer Man and a Hembeck strip, is welcome.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Liv Tyler sort of has an Aparo-style face.
LikeLike
Aparo did a great job with the Titans. He does a great job with everyone, pretty much, but the Titans team-ups in B&B make me wish he’d had a run on a TITANS series…
LikeLiked by 2 people
I guess the closest Jim Aparo would get to doing that was on Batman and the Outsiders#5 ( December 1983 ) part of The New Teen Titans#37 ( December 1983 ) crossover against the Fearsome Five. To bad he never got to do something for Marvel.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Plus this B&B issue, of course.
And yeah, I always wanted to see Aparo do a run on Spider-Man. I think the only thing he did that Marvel published was a sketch in CAPTAIN AMERICA 616, which he didn’t do for Marvel, but did wind up in a Marvel comic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Kurt, I definitely wish Jim had drawn Spidey, & as many of his foes as possible. Lizard, Sandman, Green Goblin (I wouldn’t care how they worked this out, story-wise, even in flashback), Electro, Rhino. Jeez. And his supporting cast, Aunt May & MJ. I can pretty much visualize them all, but getting to actually see his versions would’ve been great.
Add Dr. Strange to my Marvel Aparo wish list. And the Fantastic Four. Cap w/ Falcon & Nick Fury. Cripes. And the X-Men, in some incarnation- maybe the original line-up, but after they ditched the initial black & yellow uniforms. Jim would ace Marvel Girl in her green mini-dress, Ice-Man, angsty Cyclops, Angel,, & more human-looking Beast.
LikeLike
Unless I missed someone pointing this out, isn’t Max Cash a Fagin ( Merriam-Webster, an adult who instructs others ( such as children ) in crime ( Also the character in Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel Oliver Twist – seen a version of him in the TV series Castle ( possibly other shows ) & Timely Comics ).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jim Aparo’s art was at its height during his Brave and the Bold run. Even if Bob Haney’s stories were more than a little off-kilter, the book was unfailingly gorgeous to look at.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pretty sure the only reason the Titans reuniting as a favor to Batman was mentioned on the splash page is that Paul Levitz had recently taken over as editor at B&B and he cared about continuity. If Murray Boltinoff was still handling the book, I doubt that detail would have been addressed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peak Jim Aparo. Dynamic figure drawing and poses, especially for Batman. Still using more black space, like that Caniff school style.
LikeLike
I remember an interview with Denny O’Neil where he complained about Haney’s totally ignoring continuity. In contrast in another interview Neal Adams listed Haney as one of the authors he enjoyed working with. While I generally appreciate continuity, Haney’s approach certainly worked well with the team ups in Brave and the Bold
LikeLiked by 1 person
In answer to Mr. McBeezlebub above, more links:
On Earth-Two’s comics post-WW II: https://atomicjunkshop.com/earth-twos-comic-book-industry-after-world-war-ii/
Earth-One and writers who vibe on other Earths: https://atomicjunkshop.com/and-your-writers-shall-see-visions-writing-superheroes-in-the-dc-multiverse/
More on Earth-One: https://atomicjunkshop.com/batman-are-you-named-for-that-guy-in-the-funny-books-the-earth-one-paradox/
And still more: https://atomicjunkshop.com/earth-one-where-comic-books-are-just-like-ours-only-different/
Post-Crisis DC Comics: https://atomicjunkshop.com/after-the-crisis-comic-books-on-dcs-post-crisis-earth/
Golden Age Marvel: https://atomicjunkshop.com/i-didnt-know-future-man-used-a-life-battery-marvel-comics-on-earth-616/
Silver-Age Marvel: https://atomicjunkshop.com/my-letters-on-the-fan-page-silver-age-marvel-comics-on-earth-616/
And the question of why supervillains don’t just kill the creators who make them look like losers: https://atomicjunkshop.com/stan-dr-dooms-suing-us-for-libel-oh-and-our-office-just-exploded/
LikeLike