The Brave and the Bold

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Brave and the Bold was a DC Comics Silver Age comic book series that ran from 1955 to 1983. It is best known for its incarnation as a superhero team-up comic, in which various DC superheroes joined forces with each other Batman to fight menaces too big to face alone.

The original concept for The Brave and the Bold was an Anthology Comic of historical adventure stories, featuring the likes of Robin Hood, the Viking Prince, and the Silent Knight. From issue #25 it became a try-out title for new potential series, beginning with the debut of the Suicide Squad, and going on to introduce the Justice League of America, Cave Carson, the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and "Strange Sports Stories", all of which went on to achieve at least occasional recurring status except for "Strange Sports Stories".

It became a team-up comic with issue #50, which featured an alliance between Green Arrow and the Martian Manhunter. (Although with occasional lapses back into being a try-out title, such as #57, the debut of Metamorpho.) Issue #54 featured a team-up between Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad, which led a few issues later to the formation of the Teen Titans. Batman appeared in the title for the first time in #59, teaming up with Green Lantern, and from #67 on, he was in every single issue. The series ended with its 200th issue, a double-sized special featuring a team-up between Batman and ... Batman.

The quality of the team-up stories varied considerably. Some were very good (you wouldn't think a crossover between Batman and House of Mystery would be one, but in #93 Denny O'Neil made it work), and some were, to put it bluntly, the kind of Silver Age potboilers that made Superdickery.com what it is today (Exhibit A: #108, in which Batman accidentally sells his soul to the Devil).

A new The Brave and the Bold series was launched in 2007, which removed Batman's ex officio status and returned to being a series where any combination of heroes could team up; it is currently being written by J. Michael Straczynski. The spirit of the Silver Age original is arguably better carried on by the animated series Batman the Brave And The Bold.

Tropes used in The Brave and the Bold include:

The Silver Age version of the comic provides examples of:

  • Avengers Assemble: Featured in issue #28, the debut of the Justice League of America.
  • Back for the Dead: Issue #187, "Whatever Happened to What's'ername?", features a team-up with the Metal Men and the return of a character who had fallen victim to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome in Metal Men over a decade earlier. Three guesses what happens to What's'ername in the end.
  • Enemy Mine: Two separate issues, #111 and #191, had Batman teaming up with the Joker to solve murders that the Joker had been framed for.
  • Eye Remember: In issues #188-189, during a teamup between Batman and Rose & Thorn, Batman comments that seeing the image of a killer in a dead man's eyes is myth, but nonetheless checks. Sure enough, he sees an image of the killer frozen in the victim's eye. No explanation is ever given.
  • I Always Wanted to Say That: In issue #191, when Batman and the Joker turn the real villain over to the police, the Joker says "Take him downtown and book him!" Then he turns to Batman and says "I always wanted to say that!"
  • The Noun and the Noun
  • Team-Up Series: Batman teaming up with others, in the Trope Codifier.
  • Totally Radical: The Teen Titans in their introductory stories.

The 21st-century version of the comic provides examples of: