The Brave And The Bold #30

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #30 (1960)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky

The first fight against Amazo, if he actually manages to wake up from the cover.

We begin with several vignettes of the Justice League members losing their powers for a few moments. This is so early in the Silver Age that only Flash is fighting a supervillain.

The Justice League is summoned, and for once both Superman and Batman show up!
Also Snapper Carr because this comic hates me.

That’s because someone is doing a bunch of crimes by using the same powers of the Justice League.
I get why Green Lantern and Aquaman know it’s THEIR powers, but super-strength isn’t exclusive to Martian Manhunter!

With Batman in the room, naturally it’s Snapper that figures out what connects all these seemingly random crimes: they all involve long-lived animals.

Is it just me or is Superman rubbing his invulnerability on everybody’s faces?

And so the team splits up with the forced excuse of looking for the oldest animal of several species.

And that’s the last time we see either Superman or Batman in this comic! Their targets are the ONLY ones that are not actually related to the plot. Why even include them!?

Wonder Woman tracks the oldest man in the world, who has been getting busy thanks to some “spirit dolls”.

He is, of course, the first target of Amazo. Who is polite enough to introduce himself.

He can duplicate the powers of Green Lantern, but she defends herself with her yellow lasso.
Unfortunately she has no defense about super-breath.

As powerful as he is, Amazo also has weaknesses. All of them, in fact.
If copying Martian Manhunter’s powers means he’s weak to fire, though, shouldn’t the fact that he also copies Aquaman’s powers kill him if he stays out of the water for 60 minutes?

Of all the times a character in the Silver Age decides to shut up instead of narrating absolutely everything, NOW she tells him!?!?

This gets Wonder Woman captured. We then move to Green Lantern, who protects an island to prevent Amazo from getting to the world’s oldest turtle.

Amazo solves this by turning yellow, yes, but in a ridiculous way.
Since he has Martian Manhunter’s powers, why didn’t he just shapeshift!?!?

Green Lantern has the good idea to summon a rainfall (HOW!?!?) to wash away the gold, but unfortunately he still gets defeated.

Even that is more dignified than Aquaman being defeated by a fishing rod…

…or Martian Manhunter being defeated by the Lasso of Spinning Very Fast.

Flash does manage to track the creator of Amazo, Professor Ivo, but he’s still defeated.

Now Professor Ivo is going to transfer everyone’s powers into Amazo, planning to do the same with Superman. Wait, if he has Kryptonite, why didn’t he give it to Amazo!? He didn’t have any way to know he would not run into Superman!!!

In a surprising twist, Professor Ivo actually does manage to create his immortality elixir!!!

Ivo could easily kill the JLA now, but instead he orders Amazo to make them forget their identities.
By using Green Lantern’s power battery… never mind how the heck he found THAT…

Unfortunately, soon it turns out that Green Lantern still has his powers… and Amazo doesn’t.

How? He just inhaled chlorine!!!

Sounds legit. Assuming you don’t know anything about chlorine and sniff it daily.

And so we end with Professor Ivo being condemned for 500 years in prison.

It’s a bit of a cliché, but that’s actually a good ending.

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Historical significance: 7/10
Amazo is a recurring enemy, both for the Justice League and for DC at large.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
The resolution is firmly based on the weakness to yellow.

Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
The JLA doesn’t come off as particularly competent here, plus Amazo himself is quite boring.

 Ridiculous Flash feat of the day

Martian Manhunter power of the day

How close is this to the modern character?: 8/10

This Amazo is utterly devoid of personality out of his powers, so he’s pretty accurate; he’s a bit too subservient to Ivo, but he’s close.

Professor Ivo will actually keep his immortality, but he’ll grow to regret it because it has the side effect of making him look… well it’s not consistent, but it’s never GOOD.
All of these are supposed to be Professor Ivo.