Comics Fondle

I know Waid was intentionally not going for a direct relaunch of The Brave and the Bold (i.e. Batman and a guest hero), but come on. If Waid wanted to do a Challengers of the Unknown series, he just should have owned up to it.

I was two or three issues into this clump when I realized it–the story’s not about the characters in each issue, it’s about the Challengers reading about these characters, which isn’t the same thing at all. The result is a bad story, where Waid tries hard to invoke Silver Age nostalgia, but does so at the expensive of the reader’s time. Whereas the first arc felt like a tour of DC’s failing series with a powerhouse (at the time) creative team, this one feels a lot like… a Challengers of the Unknown bookended anthology series.

There’s one issue–the one with the Blackhawks–I can’t even remember. I couldn’t even remember it as I was reading it. A lot of the problem comes from Waid just turning in boring issues. Wonder Woman and Power Girl should have been an interesting team-up, but wasn’t. The Flash in the Doom Patrol’s haunted mansion sounds just like it reads. The Superman and Ultraman issue, also boring. Waid flashbacks and flash-forwards without giving the reader any idea of the time period.

The Teen Titans issue… doesn’t work, the less said about the failure the better.

Even George Perez’s art is boring, but I really do wonder if it’s due to Waid’s scripts. When Jerry Ordway takes over, things do look up.

The final issue knocks it down, quality-wise, a few more steps. A team of heroes fight a guy who looks like Dum Dum Dugan, only dressed like a Greek god. It’s real bad.

Then the Final Crisis hints start….

It’s kind of funny how Waid’s new MO is to start strong, then crash and burn. First Legion, now this one.

D+