The Brave and the Bold
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- For the Tortoise and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album, see The Brave and the Bold (album).
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The Brave and the Bold is a DC Comics comic book, published from 1955 to 1983 and revived in 2007. The focus of the comic has varied over time but most commonly (and currently) features team-ups of characters from across the DC Universe.
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The first volume of the series ran for 200 issues from August 1955 to July 1983. Originally an anthology series featuring tales of adventure from past ages (Silent Knight, Viking Prince, Robin Hood), it was reinvented (beginning with #25) as a try-out title for new characters, and again (beginning with #50) as a venue for team-ups between established characters. Batman team-ups predominated, featuring in The Brave and the Bold #59, #64, #67-71, #74 and then every issue to the end of the run.[1] The final issue, #200, tied the title's Batman-team-up present with its new-character-introduction past with a story introducing the Batman-led superhero team the Outsiders.
Characters and teams that made their first appearances in The Brave and the Bold include:
- the Silver Age Suicide Squad (#25)
- the Justice League of America (#28)[2]
- Cave Carson (#31)
- the Silver Age Hawkman (#34)
- the Teen Titans (#54)
- Metamorpho (#57)
- Nemesis (#166)
In 2005 an archive edition, The Brave and the Bold Team-Ups Archive, was published containing the first 'team-up' issues. Other issues have appeared in the following collections:
- Showcase Presents: Justice League of America vol 1. (#28-30)
- Showcase Presents: Hawkman vol 1. (#34-36, #42-43)
- Showcase Presents: Green Arrow vol 1. (#50, #71, #85)
- Showcase Presents: Haunted Tank vol 1. (#52)
- Showcase Presents: The Teen Titans vol 1. (#54, #60)
- Showcase Presents: Metamorpho vol 1. (#57-58, #66, #68)
- Showcase Presents: The Brave & The Bold - Batman Team-Ups vol 1. (#59, #64, #67, #69-71, #74-87)
The series won Alley Awards in 1962 for Best Single Comic Book Cover (#42 by Joe Kubert), in 1965 for Best Comic Book Cover (#61 by Murphy Anderson), and in 1968 for Best Full-Length Story ("Track of the Hook" in #79 by Bob Haney and Neal Adams).
- In 1991-92, a six-issue miniseries titled The Brave and the Bold featured Green Arrow, the Question and the Butcher.
- In 1999, a six-issue miniseries by Mark Waid titled Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold featured the Silver Age versions of the Flash and Green Lantern. Each issue featured a self contained story, without any real regard for continuity. These served to highlight the differences and similarities that brought the two unlikely heroes together to become close friends and allies.
- The Brave and the Bold was a two-part episode of the first series of Justice League.
A new volume of The Brave and the Bold began in April 2007 and is ongoing.
The first arc involved Batman and Green Lantern, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Lobo, and the Legion of Super-Heroes working together to find the Book of Destiny, with Supergirl learning the entire team, with many side trips, is tasked with fixing The Book of Destiny, which was lost by Destiny and the Lords of Luck are using it to manipulate events so they can win. The characters succeed in locating "The Men Who Were Not There", the first-ever people to escape from the Book's predestined events, and their escape subsequently caused potentially-disastrous ripples all across reality.
Issues #7-8 are solo issue team-ups, with #7 featuring Wonder Woman & Power Girl and #8 with The Flash & the Doom Patrol. #9 will relate back to the first arc on The Book of Destiny, featuring the Metal Men, the Blackhawks, the Newsboy Legion, and a new Atom and Hawkman team.