I miss new George Perez art.

For a while there in the late 90s and into the early 2000s, he kept pretty busy. From inking Dan Jurgens on “Teen Titans” to his now legendary run on “The Avengers” written by Kurt Busiek, to the even more legendary “JLA/Avengers” crossover, and some CrossGen work in and around that, it was a good time to be a Perez fan.

Perez doesn’t churn out pages like he once did, but there’s one other series he worked on just after that time that I left off that list. That’s not because he didn’t do a good job with it. He did a great job with it, and Mark Waid told some interesting stories on the series, too. I just think most people have forgotten it already, maybe in part because it came during a time when DC fans were busy looking at whatever weekly crossover event was running at the time.

It was 2007. “Countdown” was the weekly series.

The Waid/Perez book was “The Brave and the Bold.” It had an interesting storytelling premise. Each issue was a kinda/sorta self-contained story featuring two DC characters, and each story fed into the next, telling one large story.

The point of this entire structure, I’d bet, was just to give George Perez different and major DC characters to draw from month to month. When I pulled out a stack of the first six issues from a nearly-forgotten longbox, I saw Batman, Green Lantern, Supergirl, Lobo, the Legion of Superheroes, and even Blue Beetle.

I chose issue #4 to read for this review, just because I wanted to jump into the middle to see how it read, and because it’s Supergirl and Lobo together. That seems like a casting for immediate friction.

Also, one is the star of her own television series these days with a movie in the works, while the other is set to show up in the second season of SyFy’s “Krypton” and may or may not still have a Michael Bay movie in development.

And as we all know in 2018, you’re not a real comic book character unless you’re an optioned comic book character. DC/Warner Bros. doubles down on that. They enjoy double dipping with their characters, putting multiple versions out simultaneously in different media….

The Saga Continues…

There’s some business to take care of from the previous issue.

Namely, Batman is half alien cyborg trying to kill both Blue Beetle and some human woman from the previous issue who’s never named or explained. That’s OK; we’re in the middle of the story and she’s not a major part of this plot.

But can Beetle stop Batman without killing him? That’s a bit of a problem, and one which disappears in a blinding flash of light, to be continued at the end of the issue…

Supergirl Arm Wrestles Lobo!

This arm wrestling match has been going on for hours. The aliens around them are betting on the match. The odds change as the stalemate continues.

Short story, even shorter: Lobo wins, though Supergirl at the end of the issue hints that she threw the match because she was in a hurry to get out of there.

Supergirl has hired Lobo to help her find a book that eventually finds her, along with Destiny. There’s a whole plot-stopping moment where Wait tries to explain the Book and its powers and how it fits into the series so far, I guess. Perez is able to pack a lot of panels onto those pages, as you would expect.

And then Supergirl and Lobo are back to squabbling as Supergirl turns her attention to the planet, Rann.

The most entertaining parts of this issue aren’t the bits related back to the main plot. It’s all the inbetween stuff between Lobo and Supergirl. They’re instantly antagonistic towards each other, simply through their own natures. It’s a great pairing, and I would read an entire issue of these two barking back and forth, easily.

Two Last Quick Notes on the Issue

I’m not sure how well Lobo would fly in this day and age, though, where a big portion of his personality is what we today refer to as “toxic masculinity.”

It’s funny, anyway, and Supergirl wins every volley between them. Waid is careful to show that, which is good. Lobo has his skills and Supergirl puts them to good use for her mission, and not one inch more.

The book wraps up on a double page spread that has Batman running up against the Legion of Superheroes, with no less than 17 characters on the page.

That was a simple day’s work for Perez, I’m sure.

Post-Perez

George Perez drew the first ten issues of the series. Mark Waid lasted until issue #16. Jerry Ordway and Scott Kollins handled the art duties in that time.

The series ran 35 issues, and featured writers such as Marv Wolfman, David Hine, and J. Michael Straczynski.

I only read those first ten issues, but enjoyed the Perez art and Waid’s take on the DC Universe. Those were some classic style comics by two creators who know how to make such things.

But Supergirl arm wrestling Lobo? Classic!

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