I'm sitting down and reading a stack of the new The Brave and the Bold. I have an interlocutory remark: George Perez's art sure is pretty.
I took a break after reading #8. I read it back when it was new, and rereading it just refreshed my opinion: This is a truly repugnant book, written deliberately to make virtually everyone in it appear to be as pathetic or unpleasant as possible. Good job, Mark Waid. I sure can see why everyone's such a big fan, especially of your Flash work.
June and Linda are ineffectual, as is Larry. Rocky, Red, Wally-Flash, and Niles Caulder are assholes. Cliff enjoys scaring kids. Rita is creepy and venal. The kids are ... not written well. They're doing their best, I guess, with weird powers and surrounded by adults who are assholes. But they're not individualized or interesting, nor am I drawn to care, except to sympathize that they don't have better adults.
And, of course, it is the kids' weird powers that is at the core of the so-called story. It is nonsense, dressed in histrionics. Wally goes from loathing and fearing Caulder to agreeing to subject the kids to his experiments in between two panels, making me wonder nothing so much as "Why, among all possible writing choices, did you choose to write this?" The experiment is, at least, consistent with Caulder's characterization -- ill-prepared, reckless, and mad. And, of course, when it goes wrong, the blame lies anywhere else than with Caulder, and in fact the participants are eager to blame innocent Metamorpho, yanked away by the metaplot.
Come to think of it, Metamorpho is the only character in this comic who is any way worth the ink it took to print him. He volunteers to help the kids by catalyzing the experiment, and he does so willingly and cheerfully. Him, I want to read more about.
Anyway. I quite enjoyed the first arc, featuring the book of <spoiler>. That was fun, and a nicely plotted story. The next arc, featuring the alchemist Megistus, started iffy, with an overly-exaggerated Power Girl, and then hit a brick wall with #8, which as noted above is deeply loathsome, and which you have now had the benefit of my ranting about.
[Edited to add credit where credit is due.]
Posted by Greg at November 14, 2009 10:00 PM
350 words about how poorly written this story is, and no mention of the writer's name?
Wow, that's quite an oversight on my part. It is, of course, Mark Waid, whose baby the new B&B was until he was distracted by the next shiny thing to come along.
I will go surreptitiously fix that.
Waid has struck me as somewhat burned out these past 10 years. He seems to be focusing more on writing about how he can write dark stories above all, rather than writing comics that people actually want to read.
Dom
-so many fallen idols from the past. :(
I love in issue #12 where it's heavily implied the villain is not a villain at all, and actually wanted to prevent "a crisis." You stay passive aggressive, Mark!