Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Brave and the Bold

To be honest, I didn't notice it was a gay bar until I re-read it. No big deal, though.

Whoo! I'm #100!

My new ranking of the JMS B&Bs so far -

1. Batman & Brother Power the Geek
2. Wonder Woman, Zatanna & Batgirl
3. Batman & Dial H for Hero
4. Green Lantern & Dr Fate
5. Aquaman & the Demon
6. Flash & the Blackhawks
7. Atom & the Joker

...

Worryingly, I'm only noticing about 5 or 6 Legion Worlders regularly posting in this thread. Is that everyone on here who is buying this great book? If not, reveal yourselves silent B&B fans!

If so, why aren't you buying this great book? Pages of glowing reviews from some of the most well-respected comic fans on this forum ( ) about a book that gets right what so many fans complain is wrong about modern comics and yet it doesn't have strong sales. It's a crime! Buy. Read. Love The Brave and the Bold.

B&B was the second comic I read out of a giant stack of 5 weeks worth of comics; all of the praise you've guys have given it is well deserved and even understated. It was just absolutely awesome in its emotional impact and beautiful portrayal of the characters.

One of the best so far. It's almost too hard to get into a nuts & bolts review of it. Like Lash, it was the diner sequence where I finally realized what the story was going to be about and that just heightened the final pages as I read towards the end. The final page itself was very moving.

How can you read this issue and not love Zatanna and Wonder Woman? This was a side of Diana that many writers leave out but I feel is equally important.

It was beyond fun and then became very poignant. Bravo JMS--we expect a great deal from you and you exceeded our expectations!

PS - I agree Blacula, we need to spread the word! Use the Shoutbox! Lardy's Roundtable thread! Any recommendations thread! Your sig! Every single comic book fan should be reading this!

I'm not sure if I commented on the Joker / Atom issue. I liked it quite a bit! I thought it was a solid read, definitely. Like many I'm burnt out on the Joker too, but I think we all owe it to ourselves to let it go and enjoy a good story when it comes along. I'd probably rank it as my least fave of the run so far too but it was still a good story and worth the purchase.

I just got the Aquaman/Demon one, and am looking forward to any with Legion ties.

On the one hand, I love what they were trying to do with the Aquaman/Demon story.

On the other hand, I find 'ruler of 70% of the earth's surface' to be a bit pretentious of a statement for a dude who is the ruler of a city that gets destroyed every 10 years (or he gets exiled, deposed, usurped or flat-out fired by his 'subjects'). I'm already a fan of Aquaman, and greatly respect his power, so the preachiness of the NPC dude trying to impress me with how much sea life exists in a mile, blah-blah, 'king of the seas' was just tiresome.

Too much talking about how awesome Aquadude is. I'm not reading a novel. I want to be *shown* how awesome Aquadude is (and not have him outshone at the end by the Demon, who fries the big bad dude with a wave of his hand). Comics should be a visual medium, and, like the voice-over version of Blade Runner, I feel like the constant sycophantic ass-kissing by the NPC detracted from the actual presentation of the story.

for the less than one week until the Legion/Doom Patrol issue. Can't wait!

The solicit for the Adam Strange/Lois Lane issue looks fab too. Is that the last of the coming team-ups that JMS had already revealed to us? I can only think of Swamp Thing/Lex Luthor and Two-Face/Hawk & Dove as mentioned team-ups we haven't seen yet and I think I remember him saying he couldn't do them for whatever reason.

Wondering who is going to team up next is half the fun of this book. I can't wait to find out who it will be.

Yeah, the Adam Strange / Lois story just looks mind-blowingly awesome. Many LWers will recall I sometimes use an Adam Strange avatar as he's one of my all-time favorites characters and I can't wait for him to get the JMS treatment, plus he'll be with Lois, one of the greatest comic book characters of all time (whose non-Superman adventures are always cool).

I was thinking about how you (Blacula) are the biggest promoter of this book on Legion World and it occurred to me that you even liked the Atom/Joker team-up, and you probably hate the Joker more than any other person in the real and fictional world (including Jim Gordon). So that's quite a compliment!

Well my <strike>ir</strike>rational hatred of the Joker initially prevented me from liking the Atom/Joker team-up and I actually considered it the first dud story in the JMS run.

But when I went back and read it with a forced ignorance of who the Joker is or how completely over-used he is at DC, and took the story on its own merits - I realised it was actually quite a cool, well-written tale. It kinda reminds me of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which is one of my favourite movies.

It's still nowhere near as good as some of JMS' other issues though - particularly Batman/Brother Power the Geek, Wonder Woman/Zatanna/Batgirl and Batman/Dial-H-for-Hero which are all practically flawless IMO.

I've totally given up trying to figure out the rhyme or reason for the characters he chooses...I've learned to just love each and every issue. I mean seriously, the worst issue of this run is better than probably every other super hero comic out there.

This book thrills me!!
Even after you know what the team-up is gonna be, you still have no idea where the story's gonna go!!

I skimmed through the current issue -- LSH/Doom Patrol -- at the comic shop, and to be honest it didn't engage me. I found it rather slow and talky.

Then again, maybe it's not the kind of book that can be truly appreciated unless one gives it focus and patience.

Hopefully there will be a trade of the early JMS issues soon, and hopefully my library will add it to their catalogue in a timely manner.

I liked the Doom Patrol/Legion team up. It was kind of a sweet little story. This is a much better portrayal of young Garth than we've seen so far with the Approximate Legion.

Finally, somebody is calling the time bubble a time bubble instead of a time sphere. Speaking of which, that was a pretty major reveal about how the the thing works. I'm anxious to hear what everyone else thinks about it.

The issue is definitely worth picking up for the dialogue between Imra and Cliff. Plus three pages of shirtless Cosmic Boy.

Siaz gets an A+ for the artwork. Somebody scan the splash page from page 15 already. I need a new wallpaper and it's perfect.

Awesome. The man doesn't even take his birthday off. Thanks, Nightcrawler.

I should've been able to enjoy this more today.

I'm not going to be able to pick this issue up until next week. Would someone mind posting a list of which Legionnaires appear in this issue?

IIRC, it was just the founders: Imra, Garth, and Rokk.

I checked the DC website, and the first JMS B&B collection is due in August, rather awkwardly titled Team-Ups of the Brave and the Bold: Volume 1. Strange title or no, that's great news.

I would have preferred a bigger Legion cast.

^ DIT. TO. :angry:

I like the founders well enough but I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO bored of them (and Brainy) as the constant focus of stories!

Double ditto, although I'm still looking forward to reading this. It would have been a good opportunity to use some of the more fringe Legionnaires with the self-defined DP freaks.

When the Founders get precedence over the rest of the Legion, Blacula's reaction is akin to his reaction to a Joker appearance (to a lesser degree), so I'm curious as to what his thoughts will be on the story!

JMS got Blacula to like a Joker story (not love, mind you ), so this should be interesting.

^Er, that's meant to be taken in good fun, since I have similar feelings about characters & concepts & art styles (it's funny how we know each other's tastes pretty well over the years).

^ I take everything at Legion World in good fun CK.

And no, I don't wear my boredom of the founders and Brainy (and my dislike of the Joker) under my sleeve do I?

I just hate reading a title that's meant to be an ensemble book spending so much time spotlighting 3 or 4 panel-hogging characters.

IMO the Legion is fast becoming a solo book with four rotating leads while everyone else on the team fills the role of background supporting cast. And that is very bad thing for this franchise.

I hope Paul Levitz can turn the ship around though.

But back to Brave and Bold - all the above said, I am of course still very much looking forward to this issue. JMS hasn't put a foot wrong yet and I doubt he will with my favourite team and characters I really like (despite my boredom of them).

The amazing thing about JMS' team-ups is that (other than this one, the Subs/Inferior 5 next issue and Adam Strange/Lois Lane after that) I haven't actually really looked forward to any of the pairings we've gotten yet. Wonder Woman/Zatanna/Batgirl - a ho-hum, girls-night-out story I was thinking. Batman/Brother Power the Geek - how good a story could Brother Power possibly have in him?

And yet JMS has just blown me out of the water with his powerful storytelling (and all the incredible art of course). He even got me to like that Joker story which is of course no mean feat.

So yep - I'm still pretty darn excited for the Legion/Doom Patrol pairing. Even if I do think (without having read it yet) that it will probably be a missed opportunity to spread some love the way of some of the lesser-seen members.

And hey - he's giving us the whole Subs team next month, and they're as 'lesser-seen' as they come. So I can't complain too much.

I enjoyed it well enough... I agree it WAS a bit too talky... but there were some suprise funny moments too, and the art is SO nice.

And really, the reveal about the time bubble was worth the price of admission.

I'm REALLLLY looking forward to next ish!

Read the issue and I thought it was terrific! The fact that it was only the founders aside, I loved seeing the Legion team-up with the Doom Patrol and I loved the super-science nature to it. That was an excellent story that I would recommend everyone by, whether a Legion fan or not. Legion fans are getting a huge treat this month by having two 'previously unrevealed' Legion tales between this and Adventure.

While I wouldn't rank this as the best of JMS' B&B run so far, I would say it was right in the middle, like the GL/Dr. Fate team-up.

The best part was JMS's ability to give every single character within the issue a chance to shine. Saturn Girl reminds us why she's the leading lady of the Legion, Garth is heroic and shows off his leadership skills, Robotman is funny but when it matters he shows he's a true hero ready to make the ultimate sacrific, and Negative Man is incredibly quirky and weird in a cool way.

I'm looking forward to part #2 to see where the minor things will match up (like the pink puff ball, etc.).

The story was more plot driven but that's okay--B&B is a comic that should be more plot driven.

Jesus Saiz's artwork was stellar like usual. He really drew an attractive Saturn Girl! Very beautiful face. And his heroes looked very heroic.