Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12 review

I'm about a week late with this but hey, it's nearly Christmas and I've been busy forgetting to post cards to folk. I do, though, want to give a quick plug for this issue in case anyone is off to buy comics in the next day or so and fancies a no-risk purchase, cos at $2.50, this is the proverbial steal.

Plug? Yup, I'm not even pretending this is a review,
it's an out and out recommendation for a comic that could be enjoyed at any time of year but, as it's so perfectly Christmas-themed, is best enjoyed right now. It's a terrific Batman and Adam Strange team-up featuring all kinds of goodness - Psions, shadow demons . . . yes, there's a definite Crisis on Infinite Earths vibe, right down to an almost-anti-matter wave destroying a planet or six. Batman gets rightly distracted when Earth becomes one of the lost worlds, but not enough to bog down this all-ages book. Like the stoic hero he is, he concentrates on what he can fix rather than what he can't.

What he can do is team up with Adam Strange, hero of Rann, to stop yet more tragedy hitting the universe. And of course, Alanna is along not just for the ride, but to play her part. Mrs Strange (Alanna is missing an 'N' here, for some reason - perhaps special guest villain Calendar Man nicked it) is on great form throughout, as are the chaps in Landry Q Walker's stylish romp. The story has physical and emotional action, comedy by the bucketload and a twist you can just about see coming and it's all the better for that. Illustrator Eric Jones marries dynamism to cute, pulling us through the story at the speed of a zeta beam.

Give yourself an extra holiday gift by buying this issue. And if you like it, the same creative team's Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade collection is out next week (individual issues reviewed elsewhere on this blog). Boy, I ought to be on commission, but it's pure selfishness . . . if I'm going to see more of these books, I need people to buy 'em. So buy 'em!