2 Brave 2 Bold

The Brave and the Bold #23

We start out this issue of DC’s semi-venerable team-up comic with Booster Gold fishing Rip Hunter out of a future timestream where he’s battling someone who appears to be the new Magog from the “Justice Society of America” comic. This soon leads to a confrontation between the two after Magog involves himself in a hostage crisis in Kahndaq. Magog is pretty good at tearing terrorists’ arms off, but he’s not so good on little details, like where bombs are located, or where child hostages are. Booster is a good deal better with those sorts of details, but he’s not the sort of guy who can intimidate a hardcore badass like Magog.

Verdict: Ehh, I want to like it, but thumbs down. The main problem is that there’s no connection between Booster and Magog — it comes across as an entirely random meeting. That’s worked just fine in previous B&B comics, but here, there’s just no common ground. Magog meeting Guy Gardner would’ve worked — they’re both tough guys, but there are still enough differences between them to allow for plenty of friction. By the same token, I could see a good story coming about from a meeting between Booster and the JSA’s current Starman — both come from the future, and it would be fun to see Booster try to deal with Starman’s various mental illnesses.

The Brave and the Bold #24

This issue does it right — Black Lightning and Static. You get two African-American heroes, both electricity-slingers. One is the older, more established character, while the other is from the newly re-introduced Milestone Comics universe. The conflict here is that Jefferson Pierce used to be a Cabinet member in former President Lex Luthor’s administration, and so Static suspects him of being crooked. So does another Milestone character — the pyrokinetic gangster Holocaust, who’s willing to roast both heroes alive just so he’ll look tough.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good characterization, good action, excellent art by Howard Porter. All in all, a fun comic. The next several “Brave and the Bold” comics will spotlight Milestone characters — I hope they give all of them the great treatment they give Static here.