The Brave and the Bold #1
Publisher: DC
Story: Liam Sharp
Pencils: Liam Sharp
Inks: Liam Sharp
Colors: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letters: Troy Peteri
The first of a six-issue mini-series, which DC seems to be doing a lot of these days, kicks off a team-up adventure between Wonder Woman and Batman, as they work together to help out the gods and creatures of Irish myth in the Faerie world of Tir Na Nog. That appears to be the premise, at least, but the “team-up” aspect is absent from this first installment, although the pieces have been laid for it to come together in the future issues.
The story for Chapter 1 of the series, “Summonings,” is told in two parts, one focusing on Wonder Woman in her role as a warrior, but also in her role as an ambassador of peace and understanding. This section is the slightly more successful of the two parts, as it sets up the main conflict and introduces new characters, both protagonists and antagonists. The story initially sets up that Wonder Woman is trying to take a break and get away from any super-heroics by sneaking off to Antarctica with Steve Trevor, and leaving all means of communicating with her behind. While this is a nice attempt to humanize Diana a bit and show that she is about more than just being a strong warrior and leader, it does come across as a little irresponsible and slightly selfish of her, and is somewhat out of character. Her portrayal in these scenes as also much more sexualized than it needs to be to get across the point that she enjoys Steve Trevor’s company. He’s not seen as an equal here, but almost rather as a plaything for Diana, and again, that depiction is very out of character for both heroes. Their lover’s tryst is interrupted by a forgotten god of the Irish pantheon, Lord Cernunnos, and after an unnecessary off-color comment, this is where the heart of the story begins, and also where the issue overall gets better.
Liam Sharp is the perfect artist for this kind of mythological, fairy-tale story, and the visual world building he does of Tir Na Nog is fascinating and creative in its details and character designs. In addition to the standard type of panel layouts and close-ups, Sharp makes good use of Irish designs, such as one page that features a Celtic knot design as border panels. It’s the art where this book really excels.
The second part of the story focuses on a mystery, and involves everyone’s favorite detective, Batman. While the juxtaposition of putting Diana in the mythological realm to use her skills and knowledge as a semi-mythological being herself, while putting the more street-based mystery aspect of the story (people in the Irish quarter of Gotham are all catatonic) in the hands of Batman seems inspired, the mystery part never manages be compelling. Batman sits brooding in his cave, lifts some weights, chats with Alfred, and tries to figure out why everyone is catatonic, and then drives over to investigate in person. There’s little here that seems urgent or terrifying.
The Gotham and Batcave scenes are shadowy and less visually interesting than the mythological scenes in Tir Na Nog, but Sharp’s Batman looks great, although he is mainly just showing standing around for this issue.
From an art standpoint, especially in the scenes and character designs for Tir Na Nog, this is a stunning issue up to Sharp’s usual standards. The concept of the story has some compelling elements, but this first issue does not spend enough time on the actual conflict, focusing instead on non-related matters that slow down the story’s pace, and squanders an opportunity to show Wonder Woman and Batman working together. If the art stays up to this quality, future issues of this mini-series should be entertaining, now that the overly long set-up is out of the way.
Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net
