The Brave and the Bold #33 Review

The Brave and the Bold #33

Back in the 80′s, there were four team up books that came out every month. DC had Brave & the Bold, which featured Batman and someone, and Action Comics, which was Superman and random guest star; while Marvel had Marvel Team Up, which paired Spider-Man with various Marvel characters, and Marvel Two In One, which let the Thing get away from the Fantastic Four and find various people to fight with, or alongside, or both. All those titles were eventually canceled. DC eventually brought back Action as just a Superman title, and much more recently relaunched the Brave and the Bold, both as a randomly rotating team up book, and a cartoon on television featuring Batman and various people from around the DCU. I don’t get the book often, just when someone I really like (and often don’t get to see much) is in it, or if a particular pairing strikes my fancy. For example, a while back was what I believe was the first team up of Nightwing and Hawkman, which sounded interesting.

This week sold me on just the cover. The three featured characters are Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon vintage). The fact that it was written by J Michael Straczynski didn’t hurt. The man’s writing is amazing, and makes up for his name being so hard to type. Entitled Ladies Night, the issue begins with a loud sound effect that startles Zatanna out of a dream. A bit stunned, she realizes that this was, in fact, not just a dream but one of her rare prophetic visions. This is the first time I’ve heard of this ability, and I can’t find it referenced anywhere else, but not a huge deal.

We cut to a cruise ship being held hostage by a terrorist who gloats about not only having explosives strapped to him, but his clothes are explosives as well. There is a blur of motion, and he’s lying naked in the ball room with Wonder Woman standing over him. As the police lead him away, Zatanna appears in WW’s reflection, complimenting Diana on a job well done. A bit out of character, she responds “I’ve never had much trouble getting someone’s clothes off.” Zee then tells Diana she needs her for a very special girls’ night out. We then see Batgirl take out some motorcycle riding muggers, and get more or less shanghaied into joining the others.

The three of them turn up in civilian clothes at a club, and Zee magics the doorman into letting them in, amusingly ending the series of commands that he repeats with “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” The three go in and draw every eye (and who can blame folks for looking at THOSE three?). Someone makes an unflattering comment about Wonder Woman, not knowing she’s there, and Diana crushes his iPhone. Meanwhile, Zatanna finds Babs in a corner, fidgeting with her shoes. Zee offers to fix them, and we hear about how Jim Gordon found out Babs liked them and got them for her, special, and Zee encourages Babs to spend more time with him. As Zatanna passes some cute guy, she spells him into asking Babs to dance, and the two are great together on the floor. Babs later goes looking for her friends, and finds them hugging in the women’s room. Wait, bear with me, it’s NOT fanboy girl action. We then see a montage of more clubs, dancing, even kareoke, and they end up in diner. They chat a bit, and Diana tells about the ancient Greek oracles, who could tell the future, but also provide needed information. There’s also an interesting bit where Diana remarks that the gift of prophecy is a heavy burden when you know enough to know something will happen, but not enough to stop it.

Babs, exhausted, finally goes home. Zatanna and Diana exchange a look and nearly burst into tears. We then cut back and forth between scenes of Barbara, at her Dad’s, chatting with him about his files wearing an outfit that looks familiar and terrifying to long time Bat-fans., and scenes of Diana and Zee. The first is the rest of Zee getting Diana to agree to the night out, that they need to make this a special night for Babs. More of Babs at her Dad’s, having made coffee for both of them, wearing her rarely seen glasses and yellow blouse. We see the story behind Zee and Diana hugging in the bathroom, Zee saying she knows it’s coming, but not exactly when, and that if she tries to stop it, things could get so much worse. Babs goes to answer the door, and Zee says she wanted Babs to have this one special night to remember dancing with her friends. Babs opens the door, and we’re back in The Killing Joke, as Joker cripples her. Back in the present, Babs is awakened by her phone ringing, and says to whoever it is “Yeah, I was asleep, but it’s okay. I was having my favorite dream. I have it all the time. I was dancing. I was beautiful. I was dancing.” And the issue ends.

Ok, what I liked and what I didn’t.

Overall, it was a great story. It was touching, it showed the limits of even the very powerful, and that Zatanna and Wonder Woman, in addition to being brave, have immense amounts of compassion. It made me wonder if Zatanna ever found out that her own suggestion led to Babs being there when the Joker came, and arguably contributed to her being crippled. I think it was executed very well.

My problems with it are arguably nit picky, but I can’t help it. Zee being a precognitive is new, and very deus ex machina to get the story going. Diana’s comment about not having a problem getting people’s clothes off seems very out of character to me. I know DC history and continuity seems to be increasingly fluid as time passes, but the time frame here bothers me. Barbara was crippled years ago, even in DC time. The iPhone is far too recent to be part of this. The kareoke scene was amusing, but the song was “All the Single Ladies,” which is also too recent. This isn’t slip ups about DC history per se, its more modern things being out of place in a story from the late 80s. But, as I said, these are small things. A bit more important is Zee using her power to screw with the doorman at the club. She did this in the incidents shown in Identity Crisis, and it was a major part of the problem, that she couldn’t fine control it well and there were side effects. She also wasn’t happy with herself for doing it, feeling she’d overstepped herself. I don’t see her doing it just to get into a club, even being casual enough about it to toss in the Star Wars joke. It was funny, but seemed out of place and character.

Tags: Batgirl The Brave And The Bold Wonder Woman Zatanna