Here we go: a new DC anthology. And despite the title, it is not all Batman stories. True, two of the four stories are Batman stories, but they aren’t all Batman stories.
Issue: Batman: The Brave and the Bold #1, May 2023
Writers: Tom King, Dan Mora, Ed Brisson, and Christopher Cantwell
Artists: Dan More, Mitch Gerads, Javier Rodriguez, and Jeff Spokes
The Plot: Batman and the Joker, twice over! Stormwatch does stuff! And Superman gets a call for help!
Commentary: Alright, so four stories of varying levels of quality. The best was probably the first, but I’m a Tom King fan, so that makes sense. Set early in Batman’s career, it looks like his first case against the Joker. Batman is new and a lot of people don’t know who he is, and Commissioner Gordon is pretty sure they can bring some weird clown down while said weird clown is doing scary things with a missing little girl. It’s a good set-up, and the framing of Joker’s dialogue is a neat touch as it looks like dialogue in a silent movie set on a black card with white writing that covers whole panels. It actually makes the Joker a bit scarier. No meeting with Batman, though…not yet.
That does happen in the last story, the writing debut for artist Dan Mora, drawn to look like a manga where a bike-riding Batman takes on a cyborg Joker to save orphaned brothers Dick and Jason. It’s a fun but largely inconsequential story.
As for the other two, those are less interesting. The Superman story had some nice imagery as he got a decoder ring in the mail that led to a distress call, but then there was a Stormwatch story featuring a new team of moderately recognizable characters that more or less bored me. So, two Batman stories I liked and two others I basically didn’t. That’s not the worst I’ve seen with an anthology.
Grade: C+
More Stories
Tales From The Crypt “None But The Lonely Heart”
Widow’s Bay “Lodging”
Dark Matter “A Quiet Life”