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Saturday, March 05, 2011

The All-New Batman Brave and the Bold #4 - April 2011

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Comics Weekend "The Bride and the Bold" by Sholly Fisch, Rick Burchett, and Dan Davis.

I picked up the newest issue of The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold (whew, that's a mouthful) a few weeks ago but only recently sat down to read it. Had I known it would feature a surprise guest appearance by Aquaman, I would have gotten to it a lot sooner!


In this issue, the God Eros watches in horror at Wonder Woman and Batman trading fisticuffs with Giganta and Mouse Man. Insisting Diana was sent to a Man's World to teach love and peace, not violence, he shoots two of his arrows into Batman and Wonder Woman, which of course causes them to fall madly in love! Before you can say Holy Matrimony, Bruce and Diana are having an outside wedding.

Unfortunately, it is interrupted by the heartbroken Talia and a gaggle of other Bat-villains. But luckily for our smitten kittens, the wedding is also attended by Bruce and Diana's super-pals:
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Red Tornado grounds Kite-Man, Creeper hits on Harley Quinn while trying to arrest her, Changeling and Vixen take on Catman and Cheetah, and Killer Moth gets swatted by the Sea King:

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Not wanting to miss the fun, Batman and Wonder Woman join in, which thrills the adventure-loving Aquaman to no end:
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All this brawling infuriates Eros, who shows up personally to chastise Wonder Woman. As if that wasn't surprising enough, Aphrodite herself arrives, reminding Eros that people cannot be made to fall in love, he must try and inspire it. She and Eros depart.

Its only then Batman and Wonder Woman reveal that they've been faking most of the time--Bats used the Magic Lasso to free Diana from the spell, but decided to go with a public wedding to draw out super-villains like ants to a picnic.'

Robin and Superman kid about his protestations that the only woman in his life is Lady Justice. Meanwhile, we rejoin Mouse Man as he gets an unwelcome surprise from someone even more mad about Batman getting married...Catwoman! The end!


I absolutely loved this issue--its got all the traditional superhero action stuff that kids want to read, but it also works in a greater theme, as well as some wonderful bits of characterization, not to mention finding room for a whole gang of guest-stars!

The art is also, to my eyes, nearly perfect: Burchett and Davis make an ideal team, keeping the art cartoony and kid-friendly, but giving the characters real heft and physical presence. Of all the issues from both Batman: Brave and the Bold tie-in series, this is one of my all-time favorites.

Dear DC: more from the Fisch-Burchett-Davis team, please!

5 comments:

John said...

Is that an Earth-2 Robin & Huntress I spy? Ahhhhh...those good ol' Pre-Crisis days....

JasonMotesBowles said...

Robin wore the Earth 2 costume for a while, but he switched to Nightwing, so that look is not up-to-date. And Huntress looks like the Earth 2 version, but flirts heavily with Batman, so that's creepy and they probably should have taken that into consideration when designing her.

David J. Cutler said...

There seems to be some in-story confusion as to whether that was meant to be Killer Moth or Firefly, too. Fun stuff, though.

CulturalPop said...

I've been really interested in getting this issue. These are some stunning pane;s that you posted.

Thanks!

Guillermo Biasini said...

Yeah, they confused Killer Moth with Firefly.