How many DC characters can you shove into one story? We look at the Brave and the Bold #5 & 6 and wonder if Mark Waid was going for some kind of record...

The Brave and the Bold #5

Let's take a short detour away from the regular series and see what Mark Waid can do with the Legion on a different book.

For those who are curious, this book came out the same month as Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #32 but I didn't want to break up the Quest for Cosmic Boy just to see what was going on here. I find it kind of strange that Waid brought the Legion over to the Brave and the Bold right after he quit the regular book, especially as the Legion was losing many readers each month. Do you put the Legion into the Brave and the Bold to save the Legion, or for another reason?

Before we begin, can I just point this one thing out? I think Tom Smith was one of the better colorists during this time period and he really brought a lot to George Perez's work. But what he did to Karate Kid on the cover? Wow... and I thought 70's comics were bad for their yellow face...

We're midway through an extended story (that's been going since issue one), so I'll recap the important Legion-related points from issue #4 and try to make some sense of all this. Batman is fused with Tharok and the two are fighting for control of the one body. They disappear away from Blue Beetle so we can focus on the Supergirl/Lobo team-up. Which means, of course, that this story happens after she gets back from the future... right? Or before... right? Or have we just thrown out any continuity for this series?

I'll also point out that Batman, because he's connected to Tharok, is also joined by the Fatal Five. And he has control of Validus. I'll just point out that none of them have appeared in the Threeboot Legion yet... and ignore that Bedard has just introduced Validus as the god of thunder on Winath... but there's no way different editorial teams would talk to each other. Right?

My brain is already starting to hurt and I've barely started. That's never a good sign. 

Anyway, when Batman and the Fatal Five blipped away, they somehow ended up in the 31st Century and were greeted by the Legion. Make sense? Good... Let's start on issue #5.

We start with an amazingly-good first page. Perez, who's the series artist, draws every Legionnaire and includes tons of phallic sci-fi buildings in the background. Judging by the roster we see here, I have absolutely no clue when this happens in actual continuity. But since this is The Brave and the Bold, I don't think they care that much anyway.

Brainiac 5 is attempting to split Batman and Tharok and, at the same time, is nice enough to provide Batman with all the background information he needs to understand that he's in the future. They also drop this bomb - they don't have time travel yet, so they can't get you home...

Unfortunately, Brainy and Evolvo-Lad did invent time travel and used it in issue #36, but, again, let's not worry about anything making sense.

They split them into two (no idea how) and Invisible Kid goes crazy at the chance to meet a legend. They performed a telepathic scan to confirm that he was, indeed, Batman. Cause the costume and the time travel wasn't enough...

More exposition comes and we get more of the back story we've missed. The Fatal Five came back to the 21st Century (I guess they invented time travel but Brainy didn't and I honestly can't be bothered to go back to find out how that worked) to get a weapon called a Haruspex. That weapon merged Batman and Tharok and also brought them back to the 31st Century. And that weapon is with them now as Batman wouldn't let go of it.

Suddenly, a temporal rift opens and a bunch of robots attack. Then another and they're fighting Rimborian Rayzers, a kind of bird. Batman refuses to sit back and let the Legion handle it even though Brainy is worried that he's just going to make everything worse. Unfortunately, Batman is the one causing these rifts.

So Brainy tries to use the Haruspex on Batman again but it doesn't work. So Batman elbows Brainy in the jaw, kicks Lightning Lad, and drops a smoke bomb. Batman grabs Brainy's flight ring and flees in the chaos.

Okay, I get that Brainy is a jerk (although much nicer in this issue than in any issue of the Threeboot), but he's actually completely right here. Batman running away is the dumb move... but since they need heroes to fight more, I guess that's what we're doing.

We have a bigger storyline to serve, so the next five pages show us that Supergirl has joined Green Lantern and Adam Strange on Rann and they're trying to find a book thief. They find General Mondath, the leader of the Rannian forces, and he's got possession of the book they're looking for. It's Destiny's book and they're worried it's going to fall in the hands of the Luck Lords. Which, according to the book, it's about to.

Back to the 31st Century, where everyone's trying to find Batman. To no one's surprise, they're all failing. Finally, we get a Karate Kid/Batman showdown, which is really, really well done. But another time rift appears and Batman escapes again.

The Legion ends up searching through the shadowy underbelly of the city (Batman's perfect hiding spot) and Dreamer pops up, scaring Phantom Girl. How is she there, you may ask? Another time rift.

Saturn Girl orders everyone to stop what they're doing - Batman hasn't gone crazy. He's trying to save the world.

Which is when Brainy finally figures everything out - the Haruspex isn't broken. It only works when it perceives a threat. Phantom Girl, under Dreamer's orders, fires it at Batman...

Which is when one of the Luck Lords arrives, with the book of Destiny, and lets everyone know that they're in charge of the cosmos now.

Two things I'll point out before we get to the next issue:

• I have no idea how any of the Legion stuff would make any sense if you weren't reading their series. So many characters pop in and out and the big reveal, that Dreamer is back, doesn't even really work because you either don't know she's dead or she know she's back as a ghost. Either option ruins that ending.
• Also, when does this book take place? If Supergirl isn't on the team and is back in the 21st Century, is that after issue #36... or before issue #16? Or does anyone care?

 Let's continue with the chaotic mess, shall we? 

 

The Brave and the Bold #6

I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at all that the Legion have already been moved to the background. I mean, could they not have said it was Green Lantern and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes? This book is selling solely on the strength of Waid and Perez - do you need to plaster Batman on everything?

The first five pages of this book show the Luck Lords gloating about their victory while slaughtering the Legionnaires and the future. They explain why they've stretched the war between Thanagar and Rann out for a millennium and show off their new weapon to destroy the past. After they crush Brainiac 5's skull, Batman is suddenly whisked off on a green beam and heads into the past.

Is this the first time DC "entertained" us with a two-page panel showing numerous dead Legionnaires? Is this the first time they were used as cannon fodder for a bigger story? What's worse is that I can't help but keep thinking, "It's the Luck Lords. The Luck Lords just massacred the Legion. Not the Fatal Five. Not Mordru. The freaking Luck Lords..." Maybe Waid does hate this new version of the Legion now.

Oh, and this is the last we'll see of the Legion this issue, so if that's all you care about in this story (and you're not alone), please feel free to stop reading and skip ahead to the Spotlight. 

We go back on Rann with Green Lantern, Supergirl, and Adam Strange fighting General Mondath, who is currently in possession of the Book of Destiny, which is what everyone's searching for in the 21st Century but the Luck Lords have in the 31st.

Supergirl is out of control as she's under three suns, so she's faster, stronger, and more dangerous than usual. Adam gets zapped by something called an Aqua-Ray, starts turning into water, but Green Lantern smashes the ray and saves him. Supergirl flies the two of them out of there and we get our next big bit of exposition.

Destiny sent Supergirl to help the pair to get the book back and they have to get it to "The men who weren't there." Yep, that's what she calls them. Green Lantern has no clue what she's talking about (and neither do I) but she claims that Destiny said that either he or Batman would know who these people are.

Supergirl then uses her powers to read the Book from far away so they can find out where Batman is. She discovers he's in the year 3007 and realizes that the book is blank after that point.

Using a Zeta-Beam, and Green Lantern's ring, they're able to bring Batman back from the future and figure out what's going on. Hal shows a now despondent Supergirl (viewing your own death will do that) a couple of holograms and she's able to identify the two mystery people.

As Rannians attack, Batman reveals that there were four men who survived a horrible plane crash and, because they now aren't ever afraid of anything, they can help them. They are the Challengers of the Unknown. He uses the Zeta Beam to drag them into this already convoluted story and the fighting continues.

For some reasons that makes no sense to me, these four are the people who aren't in the Book of Destiny... because they should've died... so I guess this is a Final Destination-type-thing, right?

We get our first shock as Supergirl is impaled with an artificial Kryptonite talon and it looks like she's dead. Green Lantern flies her up into space so she can absorb the solar energy of all three suns and that should save her life.

The Challengers end up catching Mordath and get their hands on the Book. But before we can celebrate, the Lords of Luck have arrived to the party.

Adam Strange blasts them with a Zeta Beam, teleporting them to the center of universe, orbiting Oa. The battle is over, the universe has been saved, and time has reset so the Luck Lords never attacked the Legion. They hand the Book to the Challengers and everyone heads home... because why try to stop the horrific war between Rann and Thanagar when you can just relax on Earth? Especially when Batman knows the Luck Lords want to prolong the war for 1,000 years...

 

Whenever anyone talks about how amazing Mark Waid is as a writer, I think of stories like this to argue against that premise. These issues are bad... he's throwing so much crap into the story and nothing makes any sense. He's pulling more and more Silver Age references into a book, making sure that only "true" fans like himself really get the story, and he ends up with an incoherent mess.

I remember buying these books when they originally came out, excited because I was a fan of both Waid and Perez. The art is amazing... as always... but there's a reason I stopped buying this book.

As far as the Legion goes, is it too much for the person who wrote the book to actually maintain any consistency? There's nothing connecting this book to anything that happens in the Threeboot and if you aren't reading the Legion, I can't imagine much of it makes any sense. 

And I'm always going to downvote any story that uses the Legion as dead bodies in the background to add drama. 

 

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Monstress!!

 

 

 

I think it's safe to say that Monstress has the best "real" name of any Legionnaire: Candi Pyponte-LeParc III. There are so many great things about that, the least of which is that we have learned that, in Xanthu, the woman's name is the one that's carried down by their children. If not, how could Candi be the third in her line?

I'd also like to point out that Xanthu gave the reboot Legion most of their interesting members: Monstress, Star Boy, Kid Quantum, and Wildfire (half).

Yes, in the beginning Monstress looked a little too much like a certain Gamma-irradiated Marvel hero. And after turning orange, she looked a little too much like a certain Cosmic Ray-irradiated Marvel hero. But she was an incredibly unique character for the Legion and that's what I want to focus on here.

Candi brought two great things to the Legion after she joined - an insatiable love of fashion and an unbreakable positive energy. The scene where she's going through costume after costume, causing the poor Athramites to wish she would finally pick just one, was a great moment that showed you exactly who Monstress was. That whole issue, Legionnaires #52, was a great intro to the character and her moments with the different team members showed that she was nothing like how she looked.

Whenever the team was down and out, depressed about what was happening around them, Monstress was the Legionnaire who tries to buoy their spirits and was always focused on the positive. She was the perfect antidote to those post-Mordru moments when everyone was sad and depressed.

It's somewhat fitting that I've reached Monstress in my columns on the exact same day that the Long Live the Legion podcast focused on Legion Lost is released. In Legion Lost, we finally learned Monstress' horrible origin story, saw her compassionate nature in full effect, and were stunned when she died at the hands of the Progenitor.

Very few moments in comics surprise me any more, but Monstress' death surprised me. It came out of nowhere, it was the character who had done nothing to earn her fate, and she wasn't given a heroic finale. It reminded me a little bit of Blok's death during 5YL - we kill off a member we care about to show you just how evil the villain is. What's worse, of course, is that I later found out that writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were told to kill Monstress during this series. Such a shame and a waste of a great character.

I seem to be writing this a lot when we talk about the reboot Legionnaires, but this is another character who should make a comeback in any new version of the Legion. Now that I think about it, having her and Blok as a combat team would be amazing to see!

 

Did you enjoy The Brave and the Bold? What do you think of Monstress? Please share your thoughts on Reddit or on these pages. Until next week, when we see what Jim Shooter does on his third Legion run...