REVIEW CORNER: The Brave And The Bold # 118

Writer: Bob Haney

Artist/Letterer: Jim Aparo

Cover Date: April 1975

Rating:

For this week’s “Review Corner” I’ll take a look at The Brave And The Bold # 118- A comic that sparked my interest due to my good friend

(Who’s a huge fan of this story) talked about it and ever since then, I’ve been wanting to review this so I feel like now’s a perfect time to do so.

The story kicks off with both Batman and Commissioner Gordon talking to a prisoner name Dubek so that he can talk about his former employer, The Joker, or stay in solitary confinement but the story gets kicked into high gear when Wildcat (As Ted Grant) agrees to a boxing match with Dubek and here is where The Joker gets his plan going by putting a rare disease into Dubek’s water bottle and to cure everybody, there’s a dog named Spot who’s been used to make enough vaccine to cure everyone. I enjoyed The whole “race against time” concept this story produced and I also enjoyed what a terrific writer that Bob Haney is, as his stories truly shaped DC back in the early 1960s/70s; Now that the dog’s runoff and then captured by a local dog pound has both Batman and Wildcat teaming up to stop the spread of the virus, And I’m my opinion, this is by far one of the best Batman/Wildcat team-ups to date mainly because of the emotional punch this story has.

I also enjoyed the bit where Batman and Wildcat had to duke it out…..to the death, wearing those Cestus boxing gloves from ancient Rome and The Joker’s more sinister than ever but then you’ll be shocked due to a scene where Joker gets a bit by Spot and has him thrown in the river and with Batman’s quick thinking by telling Joker that Spot may have infected him with the virus after he bit him, then dives into the river to save him, and I believe that was the only time we saw a glimpse of humanity in The Joker. Granted, he only did that to save himself, but this issue will always remember that one act and had the reader look past the monster beneath the smile and laughs.

This issue of “The Brave And The Bold” showed us what a great title it is when it came to showcasing wonderful team-ups and balancing it with some terrific stories, especially this story where it pulled you in the direction of “Will they live? or/ Who will die?!”; That kind of storytelling on comics is very rare, and I might I add I was blown away by Jim Aparo’s art (Which is always stunning) but this comic is one of those rarities that no one should pass up. And special thanks to

for turning my attention to this story.

That’s it for me. I’ll be back with another review so thanks for sticking around and I will see you all next time.