Comic Review: The Brave and the Bold v3 (#1-6): Lords of Luck
I get back on the horse by reviewing a 2007 Mark Waid joint that explores the entirety of the DC Universe. Time to start a new volume of DC Team-Up series The Brave and the Bold.
This six-issue story opens with Hal Jordan and John Steward talking about past team-ups with other heroes before John leaves the story. As Hal arrives at Earth's orbit, he sees a murdered man floating in space.
Hal calls Batman for some assistance to figure out who this dead body floating in space is; only for Bruce to tell Hal that there is a clone of the murdered man in the Batcave as well. Green Lantern goes to the Batcave to help solve the mystery of the man who died twice!
Only for Bruce to reveal that it there are more like 40 corpses that are the same as the dead man. Batman explains the corpses are clones/echoes of the man, who share any damage that happened to the original.
As Batman explains that this case will take the duo to Las Vegas, a giant yellow creature shows up and attacks the pair. Having read the story, I am still confused why this scene exists other than to give the issue an action scene. The creature is beaten by Batman's giant penny and dinosaur; and the pair leaves for Vegas.
Bruce and Hal do some fun undercover work at a casino (in their civilian identities) to discover that the dead man's partner was the casino-themed supervillain Roulette. And she has something that catches the eye of two aliens.
Green Lantern and Batman fight these villains, but they escape in two different directions. Before the pair split up, Roulette reveals that the stolen item was The Book of Souls: a book that in can see events that haven't happened yet... and in the wrong hands can rewrite the future.
Anyway, Green Lantern and Batman split up to stop these alien thieves. The story alternates between POVs, but for clarity's sake, I am going to start with GL's half and then go back to Batman's part.
So, Hal calls for back-up as he has to chase to the thief to a casino planet in order to retrieve the book. He gets the underage Supergirl as his team-up partner, and oh boy, this sucks!
Okay, Hal has some terrible moments in his character's history of being in ... uncomfortable relationships, that I can't get into here, but we try to forget about that so Hal can be a major hero. Except for this story where Hal as to remind himself that Kara is underage while she is flirting with him.
Eh... and it is a shame because it ruins what is otherwise a solid issue. The casino world having safeguards against people who try to scam the planet with stuff like time travel and mind-reading. It makes for fun setting for this adventure as our heroes try to reclaim the book.
Hal uses his ring to track the energy The Book of Destiny is putting out and arrives at a colosseum. In order to track the book, Kara dresses up as a little girl and challenges the champions. GL realizes that the only person who would bet for the "little girl" to win would have to have future knowledge (Aka the Book of Souls).
Hal tries to retrieve the book, only for it to be stolen away by Rannian spy at the last minute. GL goes into the Zeta Beam with the Rann native leaving Supergirl behind.
Kara does manage to find a way off the planet.... Lobo. Lobo takes Kara to Rann, only for them to be trapped in a maze dimension. In the maze the pair come across Destiny, from Sandman! He tells Kara that the Book of Souls from him and some gods are trying to rewrite the universe. However, Destiny tells Supergirl that the universe can be saved by men (who Hal and Bruce know) that have cheated fate.
Lobo drops Kara off with Hal... only to find that he and Adam Strange are being attacking. With the triple suns overcharging Supergirl, the trio finds Rannian thief... who is using the book to fight a war against the Thanagarians (Hawk-people). This man refuses to give up the book, and to make things worse, the Gods of Luck appear convincing the Rannian rebel to use the book to kill the heroes.
Meanwhile, Batman is chasing the other thief to El Paso; Texas where he calls local hero, Blue Beetle, for assistance. They attack the criminal; but the crook has a gun that alters probability to make the unexpected happen...like causing a snowstorm in the Texas desert. The crook manages to escape.
Bruce realizes that the crook is likely to sell the "magic" gun to get away while Jaime realizes the person who would buy it is local magic crime lord La Dama. And they happen to be right, as the issue cuts to that happening...
Only for Epoch and the Fatal Five (classic DC villains who time travel) to arrive to get the "magic" gun for their own purposes. And an all-out brawl happens with Bruce eventually fusing together with the robot villain Tharok after being hit by the probability gun.
The duo defeat Epoch, but the Fatal Five still remain. With Jaime outmatched by the Fatal Five and Batman fighting Tharok for control, Bruce decides to shoot himself with "magic" gun just to make sure Blue Beetle survives.
Out of anything that could have happened, Bruce is dragged to the future of the Fatal Five and encounters the Threeboot Legion of Superheroes. And I don't have the word-count to explain the Legion of Superheroes here. So, we will continue with the racap.
Brainiac 5 manages to defuse Batman-Robot hybrid and discovers that Batman time-traveling to the future is causing rips into the time-stream. And this Legion lacks time-travel technology, so they can't just return Batman to the present to fix everything.
Bruce manages to steal Brainy's ring and escapes into the future. Batman has some fun fights with Legion of Superheroes members, but he is cornered by Phantom Girl. But this is all part of Batman's plan as the magic gun can only works against those who are threatening the holder. But before Batman can returned to the past, he is ambushed by the Lords of Luck.
Now we get an explanation of the villains' plan. The Lord of Lucks plan to put the Tharagarrians and the Rannians in a forever war by using the Book of Souls, so they keep making more dangerous weapons. Using the energy from these weapons they plan to reboot the universe. And the Rannian general can't be stopped in the present because he can counter anyone who stands against him with future knowledge.
This is where our plotlines converge has Lantern, Supergirl, and Adam Strange almost die when they try to take book back. Kara remembers Destiny words that fate can only be changed by those who already defied it. So, Supergirl uses her extra powerful X-Ray vision to read the Book of Souls from miles away.
Meanwhile, Hal and Adam Strange combine their powers to make an ultra-powerful Zeta Beam to return Batman to present-day Rann. Bruce and Hal realize the heroes that have defied fate are... The Challengers of The Unknown, who are summoned to save the day.
And then we get a great ending scene of The Challengers saving day by overwhelming the Rannian forces. The villains can't get a read on the reckless actions of the Challengers, and they lose control of the Book of Souls. The Luck Lords are sent to be trapped in space; Adam Strange gets sad after reading the book, and The Challengers on The Unknown become the protectors of the Book of Souls.
As a whole this story is fun but there is enough there that pulls this away from greatness. There are some human moments in this; like Kara who wants to find out what happened to her family. But there some dumb moments like issue 2 and Lobo is very pointless in the end. I did cheer out loud when the Challengers of the Unknown were revealed to be Heroes in the end.
An overstuffed tale but the core of it is solid:
6/10
