Line #19 ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brave_and_the_bold_v1_124.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Issue #124, where the villains attack Batman by attacking the comic's writer and artist... Just a normal day for Batman!]]
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4	''The Brave and the Bold'' was a Creator/DCComics [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comic book series that ran from 1955 to 1983. It is best known for its incarnation as a superhero team-up comic, in which various DC superheroes joined forces with each other (but mostly with Batman) to fight menaces too big to face alone.
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6	The original concept for ''The Brave and the Bold'' was an AnthologyComic of historical adventure stories, featuring the likes of Myth/RobinHood, the ComicBook/VikingPrince, and the Silent Knight. From issue #25 it became a try-out title for new potential series, beginning with the debut of the original (pre-Amanda Waller) ComicBook/SuicideSquad, and going on to introduce the ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, Cave Carson, the Silver Age ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} and Hawkgirl, and "Strange Sports Stories", all of which went on to achieve at least occasional recurring status.[[note]]Even ''Strange Sports Stories'', which was a short-lived anthology series in the 1970s.[[/note]]
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8	It became a team-up comic with issue #50, which featured an alliance between ComicBook/GreenArrow and the ComicBook/MartianManhunter. (Although with occasional lapses back into being a try-out title, such as #57, the debut of ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}}.) Issue #54 featured a team-up between ComicBook/{{Robin}}, [[ComicBook/TheFlash Kid Flash]] and [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} Aqualad]], which led a few issues later to the formation of the ComicBook/TeenTitans. ComicBook/{{Batman}} appeared in the title for the first time in #59, teaming up with ComicBook/GreenLantern, and from #67 on, he was in every single issue. The series ended with its 200th issue, a double-sized special featuring a team-up between Batman and ... [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Batman]].
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10	The tone of the team-up stories could vary considerably. Some were straightforward Batman stories (you wouldn't think a crossover between ''Batman'' and ''House of Mystery'' would work, but in #93 Denny O'Neil made it), but many, to put it bluntly, carried the torch for the kind of Silver Age wackiness that made Website/{{Superdickery}} what it is today, into the Bronze Age. (Exhibit A: #108, in which Batman accidentally sells his soul to the Devil to save a child, then teams up with Sergeant Rock[[note]] With absolutely no explanation of why Rock is still a young-ish man in 1973[[/note]] who reveals the "Devil" is actually Hitler! But also actually the Devil!). Most of these (and the majority of the series, in fact) were written by "Zaney" Bob Haney, the man so famous for his cheeky defiance for continuity, common sense and logic that even his editors once claimed his stories might take place in their own alternate universe, "Earth-B(ob)". Needless to say, Haney's stories have developed their own fans, not hindered by the fact that he worked with Neal Adams and Jim Aparo doing career-best work.
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12	A limited series titled ''The Brave and the Bold'', by Mike Grell and Mike Baron, ran from 1991 to 1992 and teamed up ComicBook/GreenArrow, ComicBook/TheQuestion, and creator-owned character The Butcher. A new ''The Brave and the Bold'' ongoing ran from 2007 to 2010, which removed Batman's ex officio status and returned to being a series where any combination of heroes could team up. The spirit of the Silver/Bronze Age Bob Haney original is arguably better carried on and very faithfully adapted by the animated series ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''.
13	----
14	!!The Silver/Bronze Age version of the comic provides examples of:
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16	* AvengersAssemble: Featured in issue #28, the debut of the Justice League of America.
17	* BackForTheDead: Issue #187, "Whatever Happened to What's'ername?", features a team-up with the ComicBook/MetalMen and the return of a character who had fallen victim to ChuckCunninghamSyndrome in ''Metal Men'' over a decade earlier. Three guesses what happens to What's'ername in the end.
18	* {{Cernunnos}}: Cernunnos makes a prominent appearance in ''The Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman''. He's a large, bearded and horned humanoid, who resides in Tir Na Nóg along with his fellow Celtic deities. He attempts to keep peace between the two factions of gods, the Fomorians and the Tuatha dé Danann, but when his efforts fall on deaf ears he turns to Diana and Batman for help and, later, to help uncover the murderer of the Formorian king Elatha. [[spoiler:While he's killed during the crossfire between the two sides, the story ends with him being reborn as a horned child.]]
19	* ClearMyName: Played with in #59, as Time Commander claims he escaped jail to prove he was convicted in his civilian identity of a crime he did not commit, going so far as to claim he's "a modern [[Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo Edmond Dantes]]." He steadily maintains his desire to be cleared of that crime throughout the story, but we never learn if he was actually innocent. His crimes as the Time Commander that didn't have anything to do with clearing his name render it a moot point.
20	* ContinuitySnarl: All the damn time, to the point that some issues are considered to be set in a tongue-in-cheek {{alternate continuity}}, nicknamed "Earth-B" after writer Bob Haney. The above example of ComicBook/SgtRock (a military hero from World War II) teaming up with Batman in the modern day to fight Satan/Hitler is merely the tip of the iceberg. Some stories don't blatantly defile continuity, but still have pretty implausible premises, such as ComicBook/{{Kamandi}} (the last surviving human from a post-apocalyptic future) somehow arriving in present day Earth and getting mind-controlled by Gotham mob bosses, or Catwoman inexplicably murdering people even though she has a ThouShaltNotKill rule of her own. There's also a story where Batman gets possessed by a demonic spirit and it's revealed that his parents dabbled in occult magic; suffice to say, that little nugget has never come up again.
21	* EmergencyImpersonation: In issue #196, Batman and Ragman swapped uniforms so they could double as each other. Batman was injured, so Ragman went first.
22	* EnemyMine: Occasionally, the team-up partner would be a well-known ''villain'' rather than a hero. Indeed, Batman ''twice'' teamed up with ''ComicBook/TheJoker'' to solve murders that Joker had been framed for.[[note]]Though the first time, it turned out to be a FramingTheGuiltyParty gambit.[[/note]]
23	* EyeRemember: In issues #188-189, during a team-up between Batman and Rose & Thorn, Batman comments that seeing the image of a killer in a dead man's eyes is myth, but nonetheless checks. Sure enough, he sees an image of the killer frozen in the victim's eye. No explanation is ever given.
24	* HorrorHost: Cain, the host of ''House of Mystery'', introduces and narrates issue #93, in which Batman [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane might or might not be receiving spectral assistance]] in his latest investigation.
25	* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: In issue #191, when Batman and the Joker turn the real villain (the Penguin) over to the police, the Joker says "Let's take him downtown and book him!" Then he turns to Batman and says "Gee...I always wanted to say that!"
26	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Played literally in #115, where the Atom shrinks down and jumps on Batman's brain to control his OnlyMostlyDead body. Includes the revelation that Batman punching criminals is ''[[ReflexiveResponse literally]]'' a reflex for him.
27	* MindScrew: The series as a whole could occasionally fall into this territory, owing to the ''laissez-faire'' writing style of Bob Haney. Ignoring Haney's usual disregard for continuity, many of his ''Brave and the Bold'' stories could just be plain weird, even by Silver/Bronze Age standards. The page image at the top? That comic cover is not merely a fake-out to draw attention like something out of Website/{{Superdickery}}; the terrorist villains actually jump through the fourth wall to threaten the artist into killing off Batman in the story itself. No, they never explain how that works, just roll with it.
28	* MuggedForDisguise: Issue #166 has a female mercenary being hired to impersonate ComicBook/BlackCanary. The real Black Canary is held bound and gagged in her undies while the impostor dons the heroine's trademark fishnet outfit in order to fool Batman.
29	* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Issue #63 (from 1965) revolves around this trope. Basically, ComicBook/WonderWoman and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} both get new boyfriends that don't approve of what they do and would be disillusioned if they saw them at work. This leads the two to bend over backwards trying to save lives without losing their boyfriends by lying to them about their actions. Finally, they give it up and return to fighting crime, as they realize that it is what they need to do.
30	* NoOneCouldHaveSurvivedThat: The [[VigilanteMan vigilante hero]] Nemesis (real name: Tom Tresser) had a backup feature in B&B for a few years, even teaming up with Batman a few times in the main story. For issue #193, they teamed up again to look for [[ItsPersonal the murderer of Nemesis's brother]]. At the end of the story Nemesis pilots a helicopter full of explosives into the villain's headquarters. Upon seeing the resulting devastation, Batman practically says the trope word-for-word [[note]]"It's a sure bet nobody survived this!"[[/note]] Nevertheless, Nemesis turned up hale and hearty a few years later in the pages of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad''.
31	* NotMeThisTime: In one [[EnemyMine Batman-Joker team-up]] story, Batman is investigating the murder of the Penguin and suspects the Joker, only for Joker to prove he couldn't have committed the crime. [[spoiler:It's revealed that the Penguin actually faked his death to kidnap a cardinal.]]
32	* {{Superdickery}}: Many instances, including the particularly unusual version in the page picture, where the villain ''threatens the artist'' to make him draw Rock shooting Batman, and thus, kill him.
33	* TheNounAndTheNoun
34	* TeamUpSeries: Batman teaming up with others, in the TropeCodifier.
35	* TotallyRadical: The ComicBook/TeenTitans in their introductory stories.
36	* WeirdCrossover: Bob Haney had a fondness for teaming Batman up with various incongruous characters, often from different genres entirely. His favourite guest to bring in was undeniably ComicBook/SgtRock, a trigger-happy military hero from World War II who really has no business being in a superhero book, not least one co-starring [[ThouShaltNotKill Batman]].
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38	!!The 21st-century version of the comic provides examples of:
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40	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Subverted, Issue #16 has ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} complaining about them, she longs to see a boy scout for a change. Then she bumps into Superman who heard everything she just said.
41	* AuctionOfEvil: Issue #16 has Superman and Catwoman investigating an underworld auction where one of the items being sold is the location of the cave containing the Clayface protoplasm.
42	* BadGuyBar: In ''The Lords of Luck'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} needs to hire ComicBook/{{Lobo}} to take her to Rann, and her "guide" insists on stopping by every seedy bar he knows along the way.
43	* BarFullOfAliens: On their way to planet Rann in ''The Lords of Luck'', Supergirl and Lobo stop by several alien bars.
44	* CoveredInKisses: The cover to issue #16, a Comicbook/{{Superman}} - Catwoman team-up.
45	* DumbassHasAPoint: After hours of trying to explain how to deal with a black hole, it's Dumb Bunny who figures out they need to "put it on a diet," as in, make it use more energy than it absorbs.
46	* GoingByTheMatchbook: In "The Lords of Luck", the first story arc in the revival, a matchbook found on a corpse leads Batman and ComicBook/GreenLantern to the casino where he worked.
47	* EpicFail: #35 shows that it takes a pretty special kind of fuck-up to make the Inferior Five look competent in comparison when the Legion of Substitute-Heroes admit they accidentally destroyed Earth.
48	-->'''Dumb Bunny''': ''Somebody'' here got hit in the face with the stupid train. And this time it wasn't us.
49	* HurlItIntoTheSun: Used by ComicBook/WonderWoman in issue #7 in an attempt to dispose of the MacGuffin.
50	* ItsAllMyFault: In #27, Robbie Reed uses the H-Dial and takes on an identity with precognitive abilities. He sees something terrifying, which is revealed at the end to have been the death of the next person to use the dial. He tells Batman he left the dial in his hotel room because he was scared of potentially dying, and now feels horrible that someone else did. Batman reminds Robbie that he's still a child who shouldn't have to fear dying for ''any'' reason.
51	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Issue #31 had ComicBook/{{the Atom}} literally shrinking down inside of the Joker's brain at the request of some scientists. He is given a tour through [[MultipleChoicePast what may or may not be]] Joker's childhood after accidentally walking through the wrong synapses and absorbing some memories.
52	* MythologyGag: Issue #1 is a team-up between Batman and Green Lantern, just like the first Batman team-up in the original run.
53	* NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat: In #34, Lightning Lad finds a ball of pink fluff stuck in the machinery running the Time Bubble (which is revealed in the next issue to be from Dumb Bunny's costume). It's initially assumed the fluff belongs to Cosmic Boy since his costume's pink. When he vehemently denies it's his fluff, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl assure him that if it ''was'' his fluff they'd be okay with it.
54	* OnceMoreWithClarity: Issue #34 focuses on the Legion of Super-Heroes (specifically its founders) teaming up with the Doom Patrol to stop a black hole from destroying Earth in the 30th Century. Issue #35 features the Legion of Substitute-Heroes teaming up with the Inferior Five to try and stop the black hole before the Legionnaires do. #35 reveals several confusing moments in the previous issue were the result of the Subs running around in the background, and that ''they'' were the ones responsible for the black hole initially destroying Earth in the first place.
55	* PhilosophersStone: The MacGuffin in issue #7.
56	* {{Prequel}}: Issue #33 is a prequel to ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''.
57	* SelfMadeOrphan: In a look at ComicBook/TheJoker's childhood in Issue #31, as a child the Joker burned down his house with his bickering parents inside. This being the Joker, [[MultipleChoicePast who knows how accurate the story is]].
58	* StepfordSmiler: Elasti-Girl in issue #8, a CompressedVice she didn't have before this issue and didn't show afterwards.
59	* TeamUpSeries
60	* TomesOfProphecyAndFate: A story arc running over several issues had the Book of [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Destiny]] fall into the wrong hands.
61	* TheUnSmile: Elasti-Girl does this throughout #8, thoroughly creeping out the West Twins.

Context ComicBook / TheBraveAndTheBold