Batman: The Brave and the Bold #2: ‘Wanna Know How I Got These Scars?’

Batman: The Winning Card – Part 2
Writer: Tom King, Artist and Colorist: Mitch Gerads, Letterist: Clayton Cowles

The anthology headliner continues the first meeting of Batman and the Joker, as the vigilante tries to stop a string of murders occurring across Gotham. Taking place in Year One of Batman’s history, senior detective James Gordon waits with the latest target, Mr. Wilde, for midnight, as Joker promised to kill the man at the hour mark. For a brief moment, it seems as though Joker isn’t coming, but a poison dart and gas hit Wilde and fill the room before Joker reveals his hiding spot; a suit of armor in Wilde’s home. 

Joker hacks Wilde up but leaves Gordon alive because of his mustache. Gordon reveals the information to Batman, who sets a trap by tricking fellow rich socialite Brute Nelson to challenge the Joker. When the clown prince of crime tries to murder Brute in his home, Batman strikes and fights the Joker, losing to the clown. After a knockdown, drag-out fight, Joker hijacks a car, and Batman pursues to no avail. The book ends with Joker getting the upper hand and tossing Batman off a bridge. 

The scripting for the story remains tight and tense, playing up the noir and horror elements of the Batman/Joker dynamic to drive the plot. In lieu of a running narration, King feeds the tension and unease through the Joker dialogue, which retains the silent movie speech card panels from the previous issue. Joker is never given a word balloon, even as he battles Batman, all of his anguished screams and jokes filtering through the effect. The choice to use these cards gives a performative sense to the character but also sets the Joker apart from the rest of the cast. Joker is a formalistic outsider not bound to the rules of the story and thus moves from human to something closer to eldritch terror. 

Gerads match that sense of tension and otherworldliness through the heavy linework and atmospheric coloring. Harsh blues and greens set the tone of a darker, harsher Gotham in Batman’s early years, and the only splashes of real color come from the Blood Joker spills and Jim Gordon’s hair. Joker’s eyes are the inverse of Batman’s cowls, tiny white lights surrounded by black make-up that give a sunken, twisted sense to the design. Anytime the Joker is presented in a close-up or focus on the eyes, everything feels trapped under the weight of terror, like an endless black hole of terror that sets this Joker apart from other depictions. Even when Joker is killing a man with a sword while in a suit of armor, Gerads art and colors ensure Joker’s eyes are a central image of the panel/page. 

Writing: 9/10
Art: 10/10
Letters: 10/10

Stormwatch: Down with the Kings – Part 2
Writer: Ed Brisson, Artist and Colorist: Jeff Spokes, Letterer: Saida Temofonte

Stormwatch continues to cement itself in the modern fabric of the DC landscape, this time working on a mission that involves an offshoot of the Atlanteans. The Xebel (the group of ocean dwellers that Mera hails from) rebels have found an ancient sword that holds a living virus. In true Stormwatch fashion, the team’s mission goes off the rails immediately, as budding relationship drama, drunken mishaps, and altered mission parameters. Nothing goes right, and multiple members of the team end up becoming contaminated with the blood/virus. 

Brisson’s script continues to juggle the various characters and dynamics with crystal clarity, probably thanks to his time also working on a book like Batman Incorporated. The mission that Stormwatch is on blends the higher concepts from the DC Universe with the character-driven espionage approach, ensuring the book feels balanced. The mostly mercenary, non-powered characters fight the Atleanian adjacent characters with a steep curve, but the team never feels out of their depth. 

Spokes’s art conveys a similar balance, highlighting expressive emotion just as much as kinetic action. The sword fight between the infected blade and Phantom-One is the action highlight, but the drinking contest between Peacemaker One and Shado, or Ravager and Phantom-One’s aside are just as, if not more, compelling. Spoke gives equal weight to these elements and gives the team book genre a refreshing style that manages to highlight both aspects. It doesn’t hurt that Spokes also manages to illustrate murderous fish-people with stunning detail, playing up the human vs. inhuman nature of the mission. 

Writing: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Letters: 8/10

Superman: Order of the Black Lamp – Part 2
Writer: Christopher Cantwell, Artist and Colorist: Javier Rodríguez, Letterer: Simon Bowland

In the only Superman story of the anthology, Clark continues to unravel the mystery of the decoder ring, which is more than just a cheap toy from a childhood in Smallville. It leads Superman to a secret cave high in the mountains, and then Hop Harrington, a pulp hero thought to be nothing more than a TV character. In between steps in the adventure, Clark takes moments to document his process, detailing the next story for the Daily Planet. 

The secret cave turns out to be the Eidos Citadel and is filled with industrial resources, labs, and futuristic soldiers. As Clark’s stealth mission goes by the wayside and he’s forced to battle the Citadel’s defense, he learns more of the structure’s purpose. The issue ends with Superman realizing the Citadel is also a prison, and Harrington is one of its inmates. Claiming to have been trapped for 75 years, but still in the prime of his life, Harrington reveals himself to a weakened Clark. 

The duo of Cantwell and Rodríguez continue to channel the pure pulp feeling of old serials and adventure comics, giving the story a timeless nature. Cantwell’s voice for Clark is one of the best in recent memory, thanks to the balance of confidence from Superman, and the more human doubts that plague Clark. The shift in perspective, highlighted brilliantly in Bowland’s lettering for Clark’s writing and Superman’s narration, ensures that while these are the same person, there are subtle differences in how they approach the world and story. The human moments provide a strong emotional foundation as Clark finds himself on a swashbuckling adventure. 

Rodríguez’s art gives a picturesque quality to the story, with soft expressions, and flowing linework that sells the big concepts while keeping it beyond the present. Rodríguez blends past and future to create a timeless story that could take place at any time, adding to the twisting nature of the lost pulp hero narrative. The coloring reinforces this retrofuturism, serving as a prismatic reflection of superpowers and dynamic action. The choice to bathe Superman in green is an instant clue to Kryptonite, or the laser beams giving a soft halo of new lighting in a fight with a giant robot are just a few moments that showcase the stunning work on display. 

Writing: 10/10
Art: 10/10
Letters: 10/10

All Things Considered
Writer and Artist: Joëlle Jones, Letterer: Steve Wands 

The final installment of the anthology is another done in one, black-and-white story. This time, Jones writes and illustrates a look at Batman’s extensive scars, walking through the vigilante’s various fights over the years. Opening on the back-breaking clash with Bane, Jones offers brief snapshots of villains and fights, resulting in injury after injury. This morphs into emotional scars, like the doomed romance of the Bat and the Cat, the training of Robins, and even childhood memories of the Waynes. In the end, Alfred is there to patch Bruce up, like he always is, and the scene shifts between the battle-hardened man, and the scared, hurt child. 

In the micro, these moments feel a bit repetitive, and the concept of exploring Bruce’s tapestry of scars has been explored before. But Jones goes just beyond matching cause and effect and infuses a weariness to every pencil and word. While the subject matter and emotion of the story are familiar, Jones’s layout and execution of the process make this story unique, guiding the reader and making connections through adjacent panels. Jones overwhelms at the beginning with Batman’s battles with the rogues gallery, and this is reflected in the layouts. 

Packed, tiny panels float around Bruce as he reflects, consuming his form as he applies first aid. As Bruce rests and the memories continue, the overwhelming sense of his fights only grows, until the panels literally shift on the page, leading to the more personal. As Bruce’s mind wanders to his failed romance with Selina, the events become clear and larger on the page. Then the montage of Robin’s continues the trend, making it easier to drink in the detail than in the various villain fights. Once Jones arrives at the memories of the Waynes, it’s only three, very powerful moments that lock into place, and share a third of the final page. Jones makes these moments abundantly clear for the reader, giving an additional layer of detail.  

Writing: 7/10
Art: 10/10
Letters: 8/10