B&B Seeing You (Conclusion)

Part V—I’ll B&B Back
Following Bob Haney’s unceremonius departure from THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, the title continued under a system of rotating writers, with Mike W. Barr being the most prominent, until it was removed from DC’s schedule in 1982 to make way for Barr’s BATMAN & THE OUTSIDERS. Since then, DC has twice revived the B&B name for six-issue miniseries, neither of which featured the Batman. The first, in 1992, written by Mike Grell and Mike Baron, teamed frequent original B&B guest star Green Arrow with The Question and Baron creation The Butcher. In 1999, a second B&B revival explored the early years of the friendship between The Flash and Green Lantern, neither of whom had a particularly strong connection to the original series. The next year, Bob Haney made a brief return to DC to write a B&B one-shot teaming Batman with perennial original B&B co-stars The Metal Men as part of DC’s “The Silver Age” special event.
During his brief tenure as writer for the revived GREEN ARROW series, film maker Kevin Smith announced plans for a B&B revival which never came to fruition. Recently, DC has revealed plans to bring the title back as an ongoing series beginning in February of 2007. While the Batman will star in the first issue, with Green Lantern, perhaps in a nod to Batman’s first team-up appearance in the original B&B, he will not be the title’s permanent co-star. Rather, B&B will return to teaming two entirely different heroes in each story, which writer Mark Waid terms the “classic” B&B format. I would disagree, however, with that characterization. That approach lasted only twenty-two issues (50-73, not counting Metamorpho’s first appearance in issues 57 and 58) before Batman officially nabbed the lead spot, and of those twenty-two, Batman co-starred in seven. Furthermore, in an interview published posthumously in two recent issues of THE COMICS JOURNAL (#276-278), Haney claimed that it had been his intention from the beginning of the team-up format for Batman to be the permanent co-star, though his first choice was Superman whom that character’s editors had declared unavailable to him.
With or without Batman, it’s good to see B&B, or any team-up title, back in the comic shops, as the format has been absent from the new releases shelf for almost two decades, since ACTION COMICS converted to its short-lived weekly anthology format following an equally short lived run as a Superman team-up book.
If, however, it is truly classic B&B that you seek, then you should check out the January release of Showcase Presents The Brave & The Bold: The Batman Team-Ups, a 500 page trade paperback compiling, in black and white, the earliest B&B appearances of Batman from issues 59, 64, 67-71, and 74-86, which team the Caped Crusader with such heroes as Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Deadman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Sgt. Rock and others. Allof these tales, except #86’s adventure co-starring Deadman, were written by Bob Haney, and feature a wide selection of best of B&B’s pre- Aparo era artists, including Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, and Neal Adams.
Prior to Neal Adams’ eight issue run, the art chores on B&B rotated from issue to issue. After Adams, Nick Cardy illustrated several issues until Jim Aparo appeared on the scene with #98 and settled in permanently as of #100. I should also note that while the checklist in the back of B&B #150 credits Haney with writing #86, the recent hardcover collection, Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Volime II, part of a three part series reprinting every story and cover Adams rendered featuring the character, credits authorship of that issue to Adams, who had written co-star Deadman’s regular series. Having recently re-read that story, and found the portrayal of Batman to be more in line with that of stories Adams collaborated on with writer Dennis O’Neil than the Haney norm, I would tend to credit the citation of Adams as writer of “You Can’t Hide From A Deadman.”
This volume is especially welcome and anticipated by me, as B&B remains the favorite and most fondly remembered comic of my childhood and Bob Haney one of my favorite comics writers of all time.

B&B Seeing You--Part 4

Part IV—Crisis On Indeterminate Earths
To die-hard afficionados of the super-hero genre, continuity, a concept best understood as an internal consistency between the worlds of the many characters who inhabit one publisher’s fictional universe, is very, you might even say disportionately, important. Readers of THE BRAVE & THE BOLD during Bob Haney’s reign as writer where often perplexed and frustrated by Haney’s open disregard for that which the held so sacred. What many considered Haney’s most egregrious offense against continuity involved the B&B tales that teamed the Batman with the heroes known as Wildcat and The Spectre.
In the days prior to the 1985 publication of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, the epic twelve issues series whose stated purpose was to clarify and, more importantly, simplify the history of DC’s super-hero universe, said universe, in fact, was actually what DC’s writer came to call a “multiverse,” consisting of several universes, each containing their own unique set of super-heroes.
The two main universes were designated Earth-One and Earth-Two, with Earth-One being the setting for the adventures of the then current incarnations of DC’s heroes as presented in the majority of the company’s ongoing titles, while Earth-Two housed the heroes as published by DC during the Golden Age of the 1930’s and 40’s, most notably the members of the seminal super-hero team, The Justice Society of America. (Yes. Having the original heroes on Earth-Two did, in fact, strike many as being bass-ackward.)
Thus the problem many readers, and later B&B editors, had with Haney’s pairing of Batman with Wildcat and The Spectre is that those two members of the JSA dwelt upon Earth-Two, whereas the stories presented in B&B ostensibly took place across the dimensional divide on Earth-One, yet Haney’s scripts made no allowance for this fact, instead treating the characters as if they existed on the same world.
Additionally, many characters behaved quite differently once they entered Haney’s realm from the way that they were portrayed in other comics of the time. The Batman himself, as I noted earlier, was considerably less grim than in his flagship titles, BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS. Jim Aparo was one of the few, if not the only, Batman artist of the 1970’s to have the opportunity to draw Gotham’s guardian with a smile on his face.
Two other characters who acted notably out of character in Haney’s B&B scripts were Green Arrow and Plastic Man. Haney’s Plas was given to wallowing in self-pity as he lamented his status as a “freak,” and Green Arrow, after losing his millionaire status as shown in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW, was often portrayed as reckless, often becoming involved in risky get rich quick schemes that inevitably backfire, forcing the Batman to intervene in order to save his friend from the consequences of his own greed and foolhardiness.
I have always felt that continuity should never get in the way of telling a good story, and Bob Haney appears to have held that same opinion, and, more often than not, a good story is precisely what what he delivered. Each issue was packed with action, mystery, surprising plot twists and humor.
Haney had a knack for weaving themes from Pop Culture, contemporary trends and fads and current events into his stories. When the disappearance of ships and planes in the so-called Devil’s Triangle had captured the public’s collective imagination in the 1970’s, Haney crafted the tale which appeared in B&B #127, teaming Batman and Wildcat to uncover the secrets of the “Deadman’s Quadrangle.” For the two part tale in issues #129 and #130, Haney apparently drew inspiration from The Maltese Falcon, and perhaps the legend of the curse of the Hope Diamond, for the story of a supposedly curse artifact that falls into Green Arrow’s hands.
Haney was especially adept at bringing Batman and his co-stars together in ways that rarely felt forced, teaming the down to Earth Caped Crusader with such diverse characters as supernatural heroes The Spectre, Deadman and The Phantom Stranger; ocean dwelling Aquaman, and science-fictional heroes like Green Lantern, Hawkman, and even Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, who dwelt in a post apocalyptic world of the future, and somehow making it seem perfectly natural.
Unfortunately, it was Haney’s cavalier attitude toward continuity and his unwillingness or inability to adapt to editorial pressure to change his ways that led to his exit from B&B following issue #157. The once prolific Haney was thereafter left to write only THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, on which he continued until that title’s cancellation in 1982, at which point his nearly three decade association with DC Comics came to an end.

B&B Seeing You--Part 3

Part III-Bob Haney
The lion’s share (103 of a total 149) of the team-ups in THE BRAVE & THE BOLD, with or without Batman, sprang forth from the imagination and typewriter of the late Bob Haney (March 15, 1926-November 24, 2004) In 1948, following military service with the Navy during the Second World War and completion of a Master’s degree in French history at New York City’s Columbia University, a cash strapped Haney sought employment in the then still young comic book industry. Publishers of comic books proliferated during the 1930’s and 40’s, the era dubbed the Golden Age of Comics, and Haney produced work for several of them, including Quality, Fawcett, Fox, Hillman, and Ziff-Davis, before landing at industry leader National Periodical Publications, as DC Comics was officially known until the mid-1970’s, in 1954. He began at the company as writer of war stories, as well as a contributor to THE BRAVE & THE BOLD during its early, high-adventure phase, working under editor Robert Kanigher.
Haney penned the initial installment of the long-running World War II set series, SGT. ROCK, and would go on to create or co-create many of the quirkier characters in DC’s Silver Age stable, including Metamorpho, B’Wana Beast, Eclipso, The Doom Patrol, and The Super-Sons, who were teenaged offspring of Superman and Batman with unnamed mothers. Among his other assignments were the Superman/Batman adventures in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and The Unknown Soldier. Today, he is primarily remembered for creating and writing the original Teen Titans, and, of course, for B&B.
I find it unfortunate, however, that what appears to most remembered about Haney’s tenure on B&B is the controversy and confusion that his stories often generated among readers.

B&B Seeing You--Part 2

Part II—History
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD began life with the issue cover-dated August/September 1955 as a much different publication than the one remembered fondly by fans today. That inaugural issue contained a trio of high adventures stories in the Hal Foster/Prince Valiant vein starring heroes with such names as The Viking Prince, The Silent Knight, and The Golden Gladiator. Super-heroes were, at that point in time, prior to the Flash revival in SHOWCASE, out of favor in the comics industry and only a handful of titles still featured them. The Gladiator gave way to Robin Hood after a small handful of appearances and this revised line-up would last until the magazine’s 24th issue. With the very next issue, the series switched gears to a “tryout” format, similar to SHOWCASE, where new concepts were tried out prior to being launched in seres of their own. Other than the Justice League of America and the revival of Hawkman, however, none of the features introduced in B&B graduated to their own titles. (Although, “Suicide Squad,” the very first B&B try-out feature, would be revived and revamped in the mid-1980’s by writer John Ostrander and become a long running, fan favorite series.)
The fiftieth issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD unshered in the team-up format, though this was still not B&B’s ultimate form. Whereas, B&B would eventually become another starring vehicle for the Batman, the first issues of the fledgling team-up format featured two or more different heroes every issue, with no permanent co-star. The first outing teamed Green Arrow and The Martian Manhunter. Issue #54 brought together sidekicks Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad, three-quarters of the team that would become the original Teen Titans, with Wonder Girl, as well as the name Teen Titans, being added for the group’s second appearance in #60.
In issues #57 and #58, the new format was briefly set aside for a return to the try-out concept in a pair of stories that introduced Metamorpho The Element Man.Batman made his first team-up appearance in an adventure with Green Lantern in #59, appearing half a dozen more times before officially attaining permanent co-star status as of #74. With Batman firmly entrenched as its star, B&B continued as a team-up title until its 200th and final issue in 1982. That issue featured a preview of Barr and Aparo’s BATMAN & THE OUTSIDERS, the title which would take B&B’s spot on DC’s schedule.

B&B Seeing You--Part 1

The following is the first part of a lengthy essay on the DC Comics series THE BRAVE & THE BOLD and its writer Bob Haney, which will appear in several parts over the next few days:

Part I—Influence
Writing in the December 2004 edition of BACK ISSUE magazine, editor Michael Eury named THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD (B&B), published by DC Comics from 1955 to 1982, as the most influential comics magazine put out by DC during the periods known as the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics. (Opinions amongst comics historians vary, but most agree that the Silver Age began with DC’s publication of SHOWCASE #4, featuring a revival of The Flash, with most placing its end at approximately 1970, and most place the Bronze Age as spanning the years from 1975, kicked off by the first appearance of the new X-Men in GIANT SIZED X-MEN #1, to about 1985.) While Eury goes on to admit that his claim may be somewhat overblown, the evidence that he offers up in support of his theorem, in the form of a listing of important characters and concepts that first saw the light of day in B&B, is nonetheless compelling.
B&B originated the concept of the team-up comic, in which a different set of heroes joined forces in each issue, and was the first venue for the adventures of such superstars and fan favorites as Metamorpho the Element Man, the Silver Age version of Hawkman , the Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans. (Certainly, Cartoon Network would seem to owe B&B a deep debt of gratitude.) In B&B #85’s tale, “The Senator’s Been Shot,” long standing second tier hero Green Arrow was given a new look, costume and attitude, beginning the character’s metamorphosis from a rather bland Batman rip-off into the lovable, liberal hothead familiar to readers of his current monthly series.
Eury also cites in passing the oft-repeated, though quite possibly apocryphal, legend of the golf game between the publisher of DC Comics and Martin Goodman, head of the rival comics house that would shortly become known as Marvel Comics, during which the DC honcho boasted of the success of the Justice League of America, spurring Goodman to urge his editor to create a superteam for his company.
That editor, still legally known as Stanly Martin Lieber but already better known to his readers by the name which he signed to his comics scripts, Stan Lee, has oft been quoted as saying that he had, by this time- the early 1960’s- decided to leave the comics industry in which he had toiled thanklessly for the previous two decades and pursue his dream of becoming a “real” writer. Therefore, with the encouragement of his wife, he vowed to take this seemingly one last opportunity to write a super-hero comic in the manner in which he had always they should be written, eschewing many of the accepted conventions of the genre. The comic that Lee and artist/co-creator Jack Kirby produced was, of course, THE FANTASTIC FOUR, the success of which led to the creation of what we now call the Marvel Universe, and, by extension, the entire modern concept of the super-hero as we today understand it.
It was also in B&B that two artists who would eventually become closely associated with the Batman were allowed their first opportunity to make their mark on the character. Following his acclaimed eight issue stint as B&B artist, Neal Adams went on to team with writer Dennis O’Neil for a series of Batman stories that moved the character away from the perceived silliness of the recent Adam West TV series toward a darker, more mysterious millieu, a movement that reached its apotheosis in the mid-1980’s with the work of Frank Miller, “Batman: Year One” and The Dark Knight Returns. Jim Aparo, who illustrated more issues of B&B than any other artist, first drew the feature with #98, which teamed Batman with the Phantom Stranger, a character on whose title Aparo was the regular artist, and would stay with the B&B for most of the rest of its run. After B&B’s cancellation, Aparo would go on to draw BATMAN & THE OUTSIDERS, which he co-created with latter day B&B scribe Mike W. Barr, and to delineate the solo adventures of the Caped Crusader in the two periodicals that are, to this day, the mainstays of the Batman line, DETECTIVE COMICS and BATMAN.
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD’s greatest significance to a great many readers, myself among them, was an introduction, through the well known character of the Batman, to the wider world of the DC Comics universe. It was through B&B that I was first exposed to the exploits of such characters as the Atom, the Creeper, the Metal Men, Mr. Miracle, the Metal Men, Black Canary, and Green Arrow. It would also be fair to say that it was in B&B that I saw the Batman for the first time. Prior to reading my first issue of B&B, I had really only known Batman from the aforementioned mid-1960’s TV show and TV cartoons such as Superfriends. The Batman of B&B, especially Aparo’s artistic rendition of him with his long pointy bat-ears and flowing cape, was a revelation to me. Though writer Bob Haney’s characterization of Batman was never as grim as that which prevailed in the other Batman books of the 1970’s, his tough talking Darknight Detective was still a far cry from the character posing as Batman on Superfriends.