Team-Up: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #100 (March 1972)

Happy Batman Day!

Yes, today marks the 75th Anniversary of the Dark Knight's debut in Detective Comics #27.  To honor this landmark in comics publishing, I couldn't think of a better topic for today's post than one of the Blonde Bombshell's team-ups with Batman in the pages of The Brave and the Bold.  And, thinking one big anniversary deserves another, what better issue to cover than The Brave and the Bold #100 starring Batman and Robin, as well as the Hard Travelin' heroes, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary?

"The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" is written by Zany Bob Haney with art by the legendary Jim Aparo and a cover by the equally legendary Nick Cardy.  The Brave and the Bold #100 is cover dated March 1972 but hit the streets in December of '71.

The issue begins with an unseen sniper spying potential targets on the steps of Gotham City Hall.  When Batman comes down the steps, though, the sniper zeroes-in and fires, cutting down the Dark Knight Detective.  Commissioner Jim Gordon rides in the ambulance with Batman, cursing the drug dealers he believes responsible for this attempt on Batman's life.

The hospital's chief-of-staff tells Gordon the bullet penetrated Batman's chest and stopped perilously close to his heart.  There is only one surgeon who might be able to save the Caped Crusader, according to the chief-of-staff; unfortunately, Dr. Hellstrom is in Zurich and can't arrive in Gotham for three days.  That means Batman has to stay safely on the sidelines for three days while the biggest drug shipment in history is set to go down.

Batman stubbornly tries to rise out of the wheelchair but his body betrays him.  Alfred pleads with him to stay in the chair while Batman agonizes over his newfound uselessness in the war on crime.

While sulking, Batman observes a spider catching a fly in its web and has a sudden epiphany.  "The bat must turn into a spider," he says, and tells his faithful butler to summon Robin.

Later that night, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern arrive in Gotham City wondering if Batman's condition is as serious as it sounded when he beckoned them.  And naturally, it doesn't take long for the Emerald Archer and the Ringslinger to start shouting at each other about drugs and other societal problems.

Unseen by the trio of Justice Leaguers, Robin makes contact with his boss, using code names for both of them.

Huh... Robin can't understand what value Black Canary brings to Batman's scheme?  Is this naiveté of youth?  Ignorant sexism?  Or just another Bob Haney-ism that we roll our eyes at and press on with this wacky adventure?  Let's go!

Commissioner Gordon contacts Batman and tells him he can't combat the drug trade by himself while recuperating from his gunshot.  Batman tells him not to worry, that he's brought in his ward and three members of the Justice League of America to help his operation.  Then, inexplicably, Gordon complains that this war on drugs is police business.  Is he objecting to more costumed crime fighters lending a hand in an unofficial capacity?  He knows he's talking to Batman, right?  Haney!!!  Anyway, Batman asks for Gordon's trust and a little bit more time to put his plan into motion, then he hangs up and fights back the pain of his life-threatening injury.

Across the world in Switzerland, Mr. Belknap, the head of the international drug cartel is nervous about the security of his drug shipments to Gotham, so he sets up a test run.  Back in Gotham, we learn that Batman has a coded set of delivery routes and dates.  If he cracked the code, he ought to be able to anticipate the location of every one of Belknap's shipments.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the Bat-Spider sends the Ace-Archer into action.  Green Arrow slips into the Gotham City Post Office and observes the drug traffickers disguising drugs into mail packages.

Green Arrow sends a shaft through the chest of one of the drug runners, killing him; the other punk gets away.  Green Arrow checks the packages full of drugs but discovers that it's only fine sugar.  After reporting in to Batman, the Dark Knight realizes that Belknap sent in a test shipment.  Now they are aware of each other and the operations will get even more dangerous.

Batman gets word that another shipment is coming in through the docks.  Green Lantern watches the ship come into port and unload a foreign car.  He suspects the drugs might be hidden in the car, but when he goes to investigate, hidden gunmen from the ship and the docks open fire.  Green Lantern uses the power of his ring to protect himself and thwart the shooters.  Then he uses the ring to deconstruct the car, only to find no drugs hidden inside.  Once again, Belknap has foiled Batman's plan by sending a false shipment.

Of course it's the woman who nearly ruins Batman's carefully constructed scheme!  And of course Robin thinks Black Canary's an idiot, though he is able to recognize her legs from across the street in the rain.

Wait, Black Canary had to get out of the rain because it was ruining her hair?  She wears a wig!!!

Batman wallows in despair that he couldn't catch Belknap's drug deliveries.  Three chances, three misses, and now the Dark Knight has run out of time.  He collapses under the strain and needs to be prepared for surgery.

Back in Switzerland, Belknap learns that Batman will be operated on by Dr. Hellstrom from the same country.  That night, "Hellstrom" oversees the loading of some equipment onto the plane sending him across the ocean.  In Gotham, Robin and Commissioner Gordon watch as Batman is wheeled into the operating room.  Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern fume over their inability to stop the drug shipments and head to the hospital to be close to Batman during his surgery.

In the operating room, Dr. Hellstrom points out his elaborate machine that will keep Batman's condition stable during the procedure.  The Dark Knight begins to feel the effects of anesthesia which causes him to hallucinate images of a giant spider web and Belknap at the center.  The vision of Belknap transforms into the vision of a surgeon and Batman feels himself ensnared by webs.

The Caped Crusader snaps out of his sleep and begins to resist the doctors about to cut him open.  He struggles while they try to increase his anesthesia.  In desperation, he signals Robin in the waiting room.

Before Belknap can slice Batman's throat, Green Arrow fires an arrow that knocks the scalpel out of the drug kingpin's hand.  The heroes take down Belknap.  Gordon gets word to Switzerland where they discover that the real Dr. Hellstrom was captured by Belknap's goons.  It will take six hours for him to fly to Gotham, and Batman doesn't have that much time.  So Green Arrow uses his green power ring to collect the surgeon and bring him to Gotham in a much speedier time.

When the real Hellstrom begins to operate on Batman, he realizes that his specialized machine isn't working correctly.  Upon inspection, the heroes realize that the machine is filled with Belknap's drug shipment.

After the operation, the heroes gather around Batman and explain how Belknap planned to usurp Dr. Hellstrom, kill Batman during the surgery, and then take his machine out of the hospital to flood the city with his product.  They wonder how Batman figured out Belknap had taken the doctor's place, and the Dark Knight tells them he felt needle marks on the doctor's wrist and remembered that Belknap was a junkie.  Hmm... that seems like information we should have had earlier.

What to say about this issue?  It's fun and hilarious in all the usual Bob Haney ways.  The story is too complicated by half for its own good.  Why all this ridiculous spider imagery and emphasis on Batman spinning complex webs like a spider?  This doesn't amount to anything profound and the metaphor doesn't even hold up.  The characters are exaggerated and slightly wonky, and sexist in Robin's case, but that's just natural fun.

In any event, the true star of this book isn't Batman or Black Canary or Robin... it's Jim Aparo!

Team-Up: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #141 (June 1978)

According to the Super DC Calendar from 1976, yesterday was the anniversary of the tragic but formative murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.  That put the Dark Knight Detective on my mind, so I decided to review a Batman and Black Canary team-up.  Was that the smoothest introductory segue?  Perhaps not, but whatever.

The Brave and the Bold #141: "Pay--Or Die!" is written by Bob Haney with pencils and inks by Jim Aparo.  With Aparo on art, you know the characters will look absolutely terrific.  With Haney on the script, you know there's going to be some kind of implausible third-act leap in logic that demands more suspension of disbelief than usual.  The cover depicts the story's villain, the Clown Prince of Crime himself, the Joker, as well as a dramatic threat to Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred.

In addition to calling Black Canary the Blonde Bombshell and "the Mistress of the Sonic Scream", the title page shows her lying death-like in a coffin, nearly covered in bundles of cash as Batman crashes through a window and swoops down to confront his greatest adversary.  Note that the Joker calls Black Canary Batman's girlfriend.  Note also the opening lines to the song "Mack the Knife" in Haney's introduction.

The story begins with the owner of Farber Hardware store in Gotham City closing up shop after a day of slow sales.  As Farber laments the state of his finances, a sudden explosion kills him.  Later, the head of Leggett Industries is having similar worries about his business when a nearly identical explosion kills him.  The explosions were identical, but contained enough to kill only those specific men.  The police are baffled, and Commissioner Gordon wonders if the deaths were suicides to collect on insurance policies.

Batman doesn't think so.  After digging through some financial records, he deduces that the victims were paying off a loan shark, and when they failed to pay, they were murdered.

Ahh, you can practically tell how excited Bob Haney got when he learned the term vig and said, "I'm going to put that in my next Brave and Bold script.  Yeah, I'm going to put it in there a lot!"

So Batman heads out into the underworld and beats up or terrifies everyone he can find to dig up information on the loan shark connected to Farber and Leggett.  What he comes up with and tells Gordon is that the shark's name is Longreen.

But elsewhere in the city, Dinah Lance is greeted enthusiastically by a famous fashion guru named Antonio.  Dinah, it seems, as designed a dress for his latest fashion show.

Hmm?  Dinah has given up her career as a florist for fashion design; maybe I need to change this blog to Fashion and Fishnets.  That seems appropriately Haney-ish.

As Antonio begins his show, a stranger wearing a hat and beard pushes Dinah to the ground, and a second later, Antonio explodes in the same manner as Farber and Leggett.  Unsure whether the man who pushed her meant to save her, she figures he knew about the explosion and chases him through the back of the studio.

Wow... stymied by mannequins.  That's embarrassing.

Black Canary chases him to the roof, but he manages to get to the ground safely.  Batman arrives and similarly pursues him, but the mystery man escapes from Batman whilst making a brutal pun about "assault and battery."  Then the mysterious villain escapes... laughing as he does so.

Batman and Black Canary return to the studio and question Antonio's poor seamstress/assistant.  In her broken, Eastern European-accented English, she confesses that Antonio used a loan shark whom she calls Mr. Long Grin.  The phonetic coincidence alarms Batman and he realizes that the killer must be the Joker, who saved Black Canary because of a connection they had back in her earliest days with the Justice League of America.

The Bat and the Canary go to Wayne Manor, where Batman lays out his plan.  Bruce Wayne can't approach the Joker/Longreen about borrowing money, not without arousing too much suspicion.  But Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth could do it.  They plant the tip amongst Batman's underworld network that Alfred needs money, and before long he gets a call from Longreen arranging a meeting.

Alfred is picked up by a taxi.  Batman and Black Canary follow, but they're tricked and led around town by the wrong taxi.  Alfred, meanwhile, is taken alone and helpless to the Joker's secret hideout at a funeral home.

After explaining the rules of their arrangement, the Joker pours Alfred a glass of wine and eyes him carefully as Alfred drinks it.

When Alfred returns to Batman and Black Canary, he confesses that he does not know where the Joker's hideout was.  He can't remember any sounds he heard coming from outside the funeral home that would point Batman in the direction of his nemesis.  Batman is furious about Alfred's failure to get them the clue they need.  Black Canary tries to redirect Batman's focus on Alfred's safety, and Batman shows her the scan that reveals no explosives or hidden bombs on Alfred's person.

A week passes with no word until the Joker finally calls Alfred demanding his money.  Batman tells Alfred to say he will pay, hoping that they can catch the Joker during the drop-off.

Alfred puts fifty-thousand dollars of Bruce Wayne's money on the underside of a sewer manhole cover.  Black Canary stakes out the drop-off site, and notices a funeral procession driving over the manhole.  When the hearse drives over, Black Canary hears laughter coming from the car, and then springs into action.

Of course, she gets captured.  Black Canary always gets knocked unconscious and captured since her Golden Age stories in Flash Comics.  

Later, the Joker wants more money from Alfred and threatens to kill Black Canary if Batman tries to stop him.  Batman shouts at Alfred that he must remember what he heard and saw when he was with the Joker... and now Alfred remembers that he heard far-off mechanical laughter and that he drank wine with the Joker.

This timely intelligence informs Batman that the wine was laced with some kind of chemical compound that would explode at a certain time, and that the Joker's funeral home hideout is next to a burger joint with a big clown mascot.  Gee, you wouldn't have thought of that earlier, Batman?  Classic Bob Haney.

At the Joker's hideout, Alfred bursts through a window and grabs the Joker, threatening to blow them both up if he doesn't surrender.  The Joker's goons start to run, but Black Canary nails them with her sonic scream.  Wait, what was she waiting for?  Classic Bob Haney.

Then the Joker struggles and pulls off an Alfred mask, revealing that the man holding him was actually Batman.  Then the real Alfred comes in and Batman says they'll both explode if the Joker doesn't give him a blood transfusion to cure him of the chemical explosives in his system.

The issue ends with Alfred having the Joker's blood in his veins and that makes him susceptible to horrible puns.

Wait, why did Batman have to dress as Alfred and fake the threat when the real Alfred was there and capable of doing the same thing?  And why didn't Black Canary get up and knock out Joker and the others with her scream earlier?  Why wasn't she tied up and gagged or incapacitated?  The answer to all of these questions is: classic Bob Haney.

Jim Aparo's art is gorgeous throughout the story.  I started reading Batman comics in the late '80s and early '90s, and his models for Batman, Gordon, and the Joker are the versions of the characters I think of when I close my eyes and picture them.  Aparo's work is as iconic and merchandisable for my generation as the stock art culled from the talents of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Praise Be His Name.

Team-Up: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #166 (Sep 1980)

Today is World Penguin Day, and if you know anything about me and this blog, you know I take advantage of every ridiculous opportunity to coordinate posts with holidays and anniversaries, be they real or not.  Well, as soon as I heard about World Penguin Day, I knew I would review the Black Canary and Batman's team-up against the Penguin.

Actually, when I first heard about World Penguin Day, I hung my head and sighed heavily.  But then I thought of the issue!

The Brave and the Bold #166 pairs the Dark Knight Detective with the Blonde Bombshell in a tale called "Requiem for Four Canaries" written by Michael Fleisher with art by the legendary Dick Giordano and the nearly as legendary, but no less extraordinary, Terry Austin.  Fleisher is probably best known for his work on Adventure Comics where he pushed The Spectre to new heights of horror and greatness with the even legendarier artist, Jim Aparo, who happened to provide the cover for this issue of The Brave and the Bold.

Anyway...

"Requiem for Four Canaries" opens with a breakout at Gotham Penitentiary.  Three prisoners sprint across the marshland after an unknown party dynamited the exterior wall.  These convicts don't know who blew the wall, but they're not waiting around to find out.

Unfortunately for them, the Batman arrives on scene and puts the three escapees down pretty quickly.  Through his inner monologue, we discover that the dynamite went off two hours ago and Batman has spent the time since rounding up prisoners who are trying to get across the bog.  At last, the Dark Knight has recaptured all of the convicts save one: the Penguin.  Commissioner Gordon tells Batman they had better get back to Gotham before the Penguin's latest crime wave kicks off.

Batman knows, though, that the Penguin isn't heading to Gotham; he's going to Star City on the other coast, to exact revenge on four henchmen who sold him out after his last crime spree.  And sure enough, we find the Penguin in Star City the next day...

The Penguin explains that canaries are crucial to his revenge plot for what they symbolize.  The word "canary" is slang for a criminal who "sings" to the authorities, like the underlings who turned state's evidence on the Penguin.  The noisy canaries in their cages will serve as inspiration in the Penguin's attacks on Batman and his former goons.

That night, Dinah Lance, "the lovely brunette who is secretly Black Canary", attends a Star City night club for a performance by a songstress known as the Divine Miss B.  As the talented beauty belts out the song "People", the audience listens in rapt attention.  But when Miss B. hits a particular high note, a sugar shaker cracks releasing a toxic gas right in the face of the spectator at the table.

Dinah examines the victim and then notices the Penguin slipping through the crowd and exiting the night club.  Dinah tells her friend Alice that she's not feeling well because of the noxious gas floating around the dead guy's table.  But when she sneaks away...

As the Penguin is about to get in his getaway car, one of his henchmen asks why he didn't use a canary in the murder of the first victim.  Penguin argues that he did use a canary, in a way:

Suddenly, a batarang rips through the night and disarms the henchmen before he can execute Black Canary.  The Batman swings down toward the Penguin and his goons.

Acting quickly, the Penguin sprays Black Canary with the poison gas from his umbrella.  He knows that Batman can't chase him and save Canary at the same time, and he correctly guesses that the Dark Knight will save a life first.  After the Penguin escapes, Black Canary regains consciousness and asks Batman what he's doing in Star City.

Black Canary tries to play tough cop with her informant, demanding information on the Penguin and the three remaining henchmen.  Max isn't intimidated by a girl in fishnets.  She makes a few sexist comments before suddenly changing his tune and looking quite intimidated.

Unbeknownst to Black Canary, Batman has snuck into the room behind her.  The Bat's mere presence is enough to frighten Max into revealing everything he knows, but Batman slips out before she sees him.  So when Black Canary comes out with the intelligence they need, she's beaming with pride over the effectiveness of her tactics.  For his part, Batman lets her feel like she earned the win.

The heroes arrive at the second target in time to see the explosion that kills him.  Now the Penguin has only two victims left and Batman proposes that he and Black Canary split up to watch over the next targets.  But the Penguin anticipates this strategy and takes action to get rid of Batman first.

While the Dark Knight surveils one of the other targets, the Black Canary surprises him by coming back and claiming the other target is already dead.  Then she throws herself at him.

As if this scene wasn't strange and unexpected enough, the final sequence comes completely out of nowhere.  Suddenly, the Black Canary is held captive at the Penguin's hideout and she's stripped down to her bra and underwear.  Because, sure, why not?

We learn that the Penguin sent a decoy dressed as Black Canary to kill the Batman.  Batman's thought bubbles also reveal that the plan nearly succeeded, but when the impostor got close enough Batman could tell she was a natural blonde, whereas the Dinah Lance is not.

I present here the last two pages of the comic because they're full of Batman in action and a nearly-naked Black Canary.  It's cheesecake, but it works on me.

The odd turn at the end notwithstanding, this is a really fun story.  Most issues of The Brave and the Bold starring Batman that I've read were written by Bob Haney, and his storytelling... leaves some to be desired.  And yet, the ending does take a bizarre twist, but still, Fleisher's story works really well.  This same plot could have been farcical, but the seriousness of Fleisher's script and the beauty of Giordano's and Austin's art save it from going to far.

Probably the greatest achievement in this story is how well Fleisher depicts the Penguin as a cold-blooded and productive gangster.  He's not silly or stupid or spouting off puns or poetry pertaining to ornithology.  He's a killer; his methods get a little comic book-y at times, but he kills without drawing too much attention to himself.

Batman, as always, is Batman.  Black Canary doesn't get a whole lot of standout moments.  She beats up a couple of goons, but she's twice endangered, and one of those times isn't explained or justified.  She's reduced to damsel in distress...or rather damsel in undress.  Still, though, she manages to help Batman and she even kisses him very familiarly in the end.  And she's rarely looked as good as she does in this issue.  Both Giordano and Austin have worked on Black Canary before and they deserve a place on the list of Greatest Black Canary Artists.

Happy World Penguin Day!