Hey Kids! Comics!
I still read the darn things, and am occasionally moved to write about them, too.
BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #17 (DC Comics)
Lead Story Script: Michael W. Conrad | Art Miguel Mendonca, Christopher Mitten.
I've always liked the B-list Batman foe the Calendar Man. Originally created as a crook (real name: Julian Day) who committed crimes based on the calendar- i.e. holidays, significant days, etc., this version reached its apex when Walt Simonson took it upon himself in 1975 (I think) to deck him out in costumes that represented the days of the week in Norse and Roman mythology. Of course, Bats came out on top but the costumes Simonson designed, including a sporty number with a cape and shoulder pads that looked like calendar pages, grabbed me.
The new duds didn’t really lead to much of a bigger role for CM in Batman’s rogues gallery; he made this or that appearance here or there, not many, until Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale made him a part of their Batman: The Long Halloween saga. Loeb reimagined him as a now-bald, quiet and calm, somewhat creepy Hannibal Lecter type, providing advice to Batman from inside his Arkham prison cell. This was a revisionist take that I actually liked; at some point, not reflected in the image below (and it’s been an age since I read Long Halloween), Sale made him look different from, oh, Lex Luthor by drawing him with the abbreviated names of the months (JANFEBMAR etc) around his cranium, rather striking. Some artists have chosen to render it as Roman numerals, like one of the artists in the lead story for B:TBATB #17, which I will now examine more closely.
One of four shortish stories in this issue, my interest was piqued by CM’s appearance. I’m not familiar with writer Conrad at all, nor am I with Mendonca, who is apparently responsible for the Roman numerals, which would seem more apropos for the Clock King, but that’s neither here or there. The third creator here, though, I do remember: Christopher Mitten, from the old blogging days in the mid-80s, when I actually got comped and wrote regular comics reviews in places. He did a lot of art for various BOOM! Studios titles, eventually moving on to work for Dark Horse, working with Mike Mignola on Hellboy and B.P.R.D. stories, Image, and DC. I can honestly say that I didn’t follow his career; I didn’t hate his art but I didn’t care much for it either, I was indifferent. Here, however, he seems to have made some tweaks to his style (and it’s entirely possible that it was always skewing that way, I’ve just forgotten) and those changes have been for the better. Mitten’s art looks rough, sketchy, but really dynamic. He and Mendonca tag-team on the art; Mitten gets most of the scenes with Batman and his style works very well, full of drama and tension. Mr. Mendonca, on the other hand, has a more polished style that if I had to make a comparison, I’d make it to Phil Jiminez or Christ Weston.
I haven’t been part of comics fandom for so long, I hope most of you know who those people are.
Anyway, the basic story is that CM has escaped from prison (nobody stays in prison for long in Bat-world) on the 28th of February and has taken a group of hostages, Die Hard style, in an office building. Our Julian has a bug up his arse about Leap Years, and the people who are his unwilling guests are born on February 29th… and he’s going to blow them all up at midnight unless.. well, it’s not quite clear what Day wants, except for Leap Years to stop. Lotsa luck there, Jules. Anyway, this should get to the heart of the matter, art by Mendonca.
From here, we get into The Negotiator territory, as a young officer tries to reason with Day before the fateful hour, with policeguy Harvey Bullock breathing down his neck. You know, speaking of that movie, I think current persona non grata Kevin Spacey would make an excellent Calendar Man if they ever decided to stick him in a movie. Anyway, I digress. One of Julian’s hostages is Yakuza connected, so a group of killers is dispatched to get him out of there. Then, of course, Batman gets involved. This is Mitten’s art here. He does an excellent job of showing Bats throwing down with the Yakuza killers.
The resolution isn’t all that novel, really, it ends like you think it will. But Conrad has done enough with dialogue and character interaction to make the pro forma ending unimportant. I liked how he had Batman actually sympathizing in a way with Day and his obsession, and ruminating about the passage of time, which is something we can all get behind.
I have to say I prefer Mitten’s rough-edged style to Mendonca’s sleeker look. All in all, it was a pretty good showcase for the Calendar Man, and shows what the character is capable of if handled correctly.
The other stories weren’t terrible; none made the impression on me that the lead did. Story 2 gives us a team up between John Constantine and Streaky the Super Cat. I’m not kidding. Much is made of Conjob being allergic to cats. Bet Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben never saw this coming when they created the character!
Story three gives us the Question, Steve Ditko’s creepy blank faced business suited crusader, now embodied by Renee Montoya of the much missed Gotham Central series. This has been status quo for a long time, but to be honest, I never cared for the character after DC got hold of him. Having Montoya assume the blank mask wasn’t a terrible idea, unless you loved Gotham Central like I did and preferred them as normal humans and not Questions and Spectres (another GC cast member was shot and became God’s seeker of vengeance for a while, what a waste). This one, another continued story, brings back, somehow, the Question’s original alter ego, Vic Sage, and also Batwoman joins the fun towards the end. I don’t know where it’s going really and I’m not interested enough to want to find out although I know one of my blogging acquaintances from the wild west days, Alex Segura Jr., is a very good writer and will probably bring this home in fine fashion.
The penultimate story, which is played more or less for laughs, points out how much comics have changed in their presentation to follow along with their cinematic counterparts. Marvel does this too, perhaps even more. The two Shazam films have Captain Marvel as a teenage boy in a super powered body, with all the supposed goofiness that signifies; so here we have a Captain Marvel who is just like that, rather than the venerable character (since the 40s, for heaven’s sake) who was portrayed as an adult when he became an adult. Anyway, the art is bright and cartoonish, and we get a team-up between Cap and Green Arrow, who pretty much sticks to his established comics persona here albeit with some of the TV actor who played him’s scruffiness. Clayface is the bad guy, and while he’s not totally played for laughs, there is a lot of the buffoonish ham actor that he is in the Harley Quinn animated series. He’s hit the internet and hired a crew of henchmen, I mean people, and they’re a motley bunch; lots of banter and the occasional chuckle springs from that. Their first job just happens to be the diner where the Arrow and Billy Batson are having a heart to heart chat about good vs. evil and what makes bad guys bad guys and whatnot. Chaos and presumed hilarity ensue. It’s fun enough and the artist, David Baldéon, has a lively style. I bet he loved Humberto Ramos’ art back in the 00s.
Finally, a 2 pager that features Man-Bat. In the 70s and even beyond, he was presented as more or less a good guy, a scientist, who transformed into a half man/half bat when he took a potion of his devising. Frank Robbins, who really did some clever stuff back in that day, created the character to stand as a literal counterpoint to Bat-Man, get it get it. He eventually became less a wild monster and more of a thinking man in a bat body. These days, in both animated series and in comics, he seems to be shown as more or less a monster again. That’s not quite the case here; G. Willow Wilson, who’s doing bang-up work on the Poison Ivy title, makes us privy to Kirk Langstrom’s inner monologue as he accidentally takes his potion by mistake and transforms right before he has to go to a therapy appointment. The dark, scratchy, gothic style of art by one Jason Shawn Alexander, is really quite good, looking like Sienkiewicz in places. Where do these people come from? Anyway, It’s too short to be anything but filler but well-done filler does have its place.
This is the first issue I’ve read of this particular B&B series; I guess they feature Batman teamed with someone in the lead story, then others feature random characters. Based on this issue, the results are outstanding in places and quite readable in others. All in all, I’m not sorry I checked this out. Will I get another? We’ll see.
I like this series, as there are usually a couple good stories to be found in each issue. I just read #10 on DC Infinite, so I am behind.