Dollar Bin Discoveries: Batman’s Trip Down Memory Lane
The Brave and the Bold had many similarities to Marvel’s Marvel Team-Up. Both series shared an anchor character, Batman and Spider-Man respectively, usually teaming those anchors with another hero. The most appealing aspect of the series, for many, was the self-contained stories, a nice way to see your favorite heroes battling a usually unknown villain for not much money.
That leads us to this installment of Dollar Bin Discoveries, a tale from The Brave and the Bold that pairs Batman up with Wonder Woman. While the dialogue was sometimes a bit stilted, the plots not always tight and the villains ham-handed, the series did have some highlights now and then. Would this issue be one of those examples?
The Book: The Brave and the Bold #158
The Date: January, 1980
Battle for the Cowl: Who Will Be The Next Batman?
Now that Battle for the Cowl #1 has hit the comic book shops and the subsequent tie-ins are certainly on their way, let the speculation as to who will inherit said cowl commence. If the first issue of this intriguing storyline has told us anything, it’s that the future of Gotham City is truly what’s at stake here. With Arkham freshly emptied by an (alive?) Black Mask, a desperate Bat-Family and a pretender to Batman’s name all working overtime, who, at the end, will be left standing to lead Gotham into, hopefully, a time of peace? Below, some odds on who it might be.
Catwoman: 250 to 1: Even though she has emerged as a champion, of sorts, for Gotham City in the recent past, and has become an intimate part of Bruce Wayne’s life, the disconnect in different parts of their moral codes keeps the good Ms. Kyle from ever really being able to inherit the cape and symbol. Will she still be an effective part of the extended Bat-Family after BFTC ends? Probably, but Batman, she’s not. Her interest in the East End mostly also may hinder this.
DC’s Faces of Evil: Review Number One
DC Comics could have been taking a page from Marvel with their focus on the villainy of their universe with the January Faces of Evil specials, but they’re taking it in a different direction by using these issues to either tell the story from the baddie’s point of view and/or displaying what their role in their nemesis’ life is.
With several major titles and smaller ones taking part, a massive amount of reading is to be done! Below is a review of six of the issues with another review on the way, rated on a scale of 1-6, one being meek and mild, six being really rotten.
Secret Six #5: Deadshot - It seems odd that DC would choose to highlight a villain in a book that’s already about villains, but Deadshot gets to narrate the action in this month’s issue. Although his narration is an interesting change from the series’ usual storytelling, it’s not much more than a “so?”. A villain-driven series has to do a bit more than add narration from one of it’s characters, that doesn’t add much to what we already knew of Deadshot, by the way. Plus, the biggest shock of the issue had nothing to do with Deadshot. All in all, pretty unscary: Terror Scale Score: 1
Bruce Wayne Has To Be Alive!
To follow-up on the earlier Comicbook.com article “Batman Dies Again And Still No One Believes It,” the “demise” of Batman in Batman 681 and now Final Crisis 6 did surprise me and I give the staff at DC Comics respect for even entertaining the notion that Bruce Wayne could die. His death, unlike the “death” of Superman over a decade ago, is surprising because it reminds us that Bruce Wayne is simply a mortal with lots of tools, gadgets and learned skills. I’m not surprised that it gained media attention, as typically it seems that modern news outlets only give comics the time of day when a major pop-culture event happens, much like the ballyhooed “Death of Superman” and most recently the death of Captain America. Even the dissolving of Spider-Man’s marriage made it onto a few outlets’ web pages when that happened several months back.
For all the news surrounding the event of Batman’s death, and there was a bit, I’m not convinced, and I question DC’s motives in even doing the storyline to begin with. Even when the Batman RIP event was announced and the ominous artwork of a hollow, floating cape graced the cover of Batman 676 to kick off the storyline, I thought to myself “ok, this will be a metaphorical ‘death’. He’ll go on some dark night of the soul again and emerge as some sort of ‘new’ Batman.” My other thought was that the Batman we knew was dead and he, I don’t know, would reveal his identity to the public, briefly retire and give the mantle to long-time colleague Dick Grayson, or some other scenario where Bruce would take time off but eventually return. Even writers and contributors to the series acknowledged that Batman R.I.P. would be a more psychological piece. What happened? Enter Final Crisis.
Star-Crossed? Comic Book Characters and Potential Mates
If you’re a busy hero web-slinging across town or a villain who has way too many bombs to place and set off, then finding a date can often take a backseat. Plus the whole dual-identity thing can really be a hard thing to ease into on just the third date. To help alleviate these potential hardships, consider the suggested list of mates, mostly real, some fictional, for various heroes and villains of the comic book universe.
Bruce Wayne and Paris Hilton: Ok, so maybe this one in name only is a bit of a stretch, but consider the beauty of it. Batman: dark avenger of the criminal element. Bruce Wayne: somewhat flippant party-goer with a penchant for casual relationships. What better cover than the ultimate party girl? Paris is quite at home with the rich and powerful, and they don’t come any richer in the DC Universe than Bruce. She loves going out at night and controversy, and his inability to keep those late night date commitments to her can only help to solidify the persona he wants some to believe about him. Who knows! It could work! Both better have a pre-nup however!
Top Ten Comic Book Character Deaths Of 2008
The year 2008 will go down as a banner year for killing off comic book characters. Perhaps inspired by the wonderful press coverage that Marvel received when they put a bullet in Captain America last year, DC Comics in particular really let the hatchet fly quick and hard this year.
While none of the deaths seemed to generate quite as much media coverage as Captain America’s death, 2008 was impressive for the sheer quantity of second tier characters killed. There was one death that had the potential to be bigger than Captain America’s death, but the comic publisher readily admitted the character was going to return, so the media coverage quickly died down.
No one was immune from death in 2008 from Justice Leaguers to Avengers to New Gods to Super Friends. Some were killed in a crisis or an invasion, while others fell victim to heart attacks or mad Wonderdogs. Without further ado, here is our list of the top ten comic book character deaths in 2008.
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