Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Comic Lust: Batman - Brave and the Bold - Featuring Mister Miracle & Big Barda!

Any of you that have been following my past blog incarnations may remember my sudden discovery and immediate love for the Jack Kirby-created DC Comics escape artist extraordinaire, Mister Miracle and his curvacious crusher of a wife, the lovely Big Barda. And if any comic book was going to peel me away from the 25¢ bin and actually commit to paying (gasp!) half cover price, it would be this issue of Batman: Brave and the Bold costarring the 4th World's cutest couple...



I love how they tried to keep it a mystery as to who this character might be in the magnifying glass. Let's see, the silhouette is standing on Aero Disks, Big Barda looks worried, the tagline says it'll take a miracle... Hmmm...


I actually really love these Brave and the Bold comics with their crisp lines and confident design aesthetic., I mean, just look at the above spread. Two pages and ten panels of silent, vibrant action. And seriously, how badass is Barda?

I won't go too deep into the story, here. It's your usual comic fare, someone is in trouble, help comes, there's a bad guy, the bad guy gets defeated. I honestly just bought this for the sheer joy of seeing Scott Free and Barda drawn in this style. Look at the follow tip of the hat to Kirby's cover for Mister Miracle #1...


This issue does give some serious nods to the entire New Gods world, and you gotta love that, especially since these comics were aimed at a younger audience as a tie-in to the animated series (which I also loved). I'm okay with this type of "gateway drug".


So, like I said, some 4th World hooligans show up, but it's nothing that Miracle can't handle with the help of his Mother Box (dang, I want one of these!) and a Boom Tube to clean it all up.



I know I'm probably the only person in the entire universe that would want this, but how cool would an ongoing new Mister Miracle comic be in this style? Or better yet, a cartoon! Ah... one can dream.