Comics That Never Should Have Seen The Light Of Day

I am now, and always have been, a sucker for team-up comics. Back in the heady days of my youth, you had The Brave and the Bold and DC Comics Presents highlighting Batman- and Superman-matchups, respectively, each and every month. What DC fan didn't want to check out who the Caped Crusader or Man of Steel was teaming up with now, no matter how offbeat it might be? Batman and Sgt Rock? I was so down with that! Superman and the Superboy from Earth-Prime (long before the latter went nuts and became DC's primo 21st century bad guy)? Sign me up! The wackier the pairing, the better, was often the rule. (And not to be outdone, DC's rivals had Marvel Team-Up, starring Spidey and a different guest start each issue, along with Marvel Two-in-One which pulled off the same trick, but with the Thing, from the Fantastic Four.) The concept was pure gold, as far as I was concerned, and my whole life it's been hard to disappoint me too much when it comes to team ups.

The current incarnation of The Brave and the Bold, as originally written by Mark Waid and drawn by George Perez, started off great and made me wistful for the days when such things were common. Then Perez left to do Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, followed by Waid exiting several issues later. Since then, it's been pinch-hit creative teams only, with no one lasting longer than a couple of at-bats. Which brings us to the 2-parter, issues 17 and 18, which just wrapped up. Both halves were the product of Marv Wolfman and Phil Winslade, two creators whose work I've enjoyed in the past. However, this particular product? Almost unreadably bad! (Winslade's artwork, while nothing special, isn't really part of the problem.)

The team-up in both issues involves Supergirl and Raven, the latter of whom was a founding member of Wolfman's New Teen Titans rejuvenation in the early 80s (the artist for that series, when it debuted nearly three decades ago, was once again the great George Perez... he's everywhere!) Both women are written terribly, to the point where no reader is likely to sympathize with their common plight (each has a destructive and manipulative father, although we'll get to the problem with that momentarily) nor consider either of them as being much in the mold of heroes. Much of the dialogue is absolutely tinny, sounding like nothing any two actual people (even superpeople) would ever say to each other. For example, Supergirl asks, "Do you have any idea how many ways I could kill you for kidnapping me like that?" to which Raven replies, "I know how many ways you can try." Uh, yeah...

As for the story, it's some mish-mash of Kara and Raven's daddy issues along with a hitherto unknown young man who (we're told) is the neglected son of flash-in-the-pan DC superhero Triumph, who appeared briefly in the mid-90s. Even a longtime, die-hard fan like me barely remembers Triumph, and yet nothing by way of backstory is provided for him! (Amusing sidenote: "Magic Power" by the rock group Triumph came on in the background while I was writing this paragraph... I kid you not!) Triumph's messed-up son has some bizarre power that made no sense (and certainly had no connection to his father's abilities that I could see) and his feelings of rejection apparently caused him to go on a murderous rampage out of the blue. After that happens, it begins to make even less sense as the two young women trick him into sending himself to another dimension... or something! I know that Wolfman's a better writer than this, but, oh my! What a steaming pile of crap!

Finally, I really, really have to question DC editorial's 'wisdom' in greenlighting this particular story right now, coming out as it does at the same time as the kickoff for the "New Krypton" epic in Action Comics, Supergirl and Superman. Why? Well, I'm so glad you asked...

Since her most recent return from comic book limbo, and as I've remarked upon many times before now, Supergirl has been portrayed in a variety of ridiculous and unappealing ways. She's been a Super-skank, flitting from relationship to relationship while wearing increasingly skimpy outfits; she's been shown as a vacuous "Valley Girl" who couldn't think her way out of a paper bag; and she's been positioned as a "sleeper agent" who'd actually been sent to Earth by her father Zor-El in order to kill her cousin, Kal-El.

It's that last bit that I can't help but hope that DC has finally realized they either need to write themselves a way out of, or just totally ignore and pretend it never happened. But how do you do either when, in October of 2008, you're still publishing new stories that continue to portray Zor-El as a master villain who Kara is rebelling against? "Next Krypton Part 2," in the issue of Superman that came out within a week of B&B # 18, has Kara reuniting with her parents Allura and Zor-El, and a more joyous meeting couldn't be found! It's things like that which make me wonder if perhaps Dan Didio is really just a computer simulation of an Executive Editor and, in fact, no one is actually steering the ship there.

The next issue (or two) promises a Green Lantern team-up with the Phantom Stranger. Now, that's suitably weird and I'll probably give it a try, but I have to say: the last 2 issues have really soured me on B&B, despite its earlier greatness. And in this case, it's a good thing that there's a new creative team on deck, as I wouldn't spend another nickel for something new by Marv Wolfman right now. (J Michael Straczynski is slated to take over B&B in another few months, so there's hope for it yet...)