The Brave and the Bold #198 (1983)
by Mike W. Barr & Chuck Patton
cover by Jim Aparo
We’ve finally made it: this is the last story connected to the Karate Kid series, a sort of epilogue published a full five years after its end.
I have no idea why this exists… it’s not from the same team and I can’t imagine too many people were demanding an end. Especially not in a Batman story!
And it’s a pretty good Batman story too, both for the writing and the gorgeous artwork.
Specifically Batman is beating up and investigating a terrorist group called Black Heart.
One of the terrorists is looking for the girl who betrayed them, Katy.
Kind of hard to imagine how Karate Kid is connected to any of this, right?
He’s back to his old apartment to look for Iris, and we have the last appearance of his landlady.
Considering the Legion tends to have incredibly detailed information about the 20th century, I’m kind of surprised Karate Kid couldn’t just look that up. Although the people there are far more obsessed with Metropolis and Smallville rather than Gotham City.
The first connection with Karate Kid comes from the fact that Black Heart has hired one of his loser villains to go after Katy.
The Pulsar-Batman fight that nobody asked for is here.
Katy gets the opportunity to escape, but she’s been injured. Don’t feel too bad for her, though, she’s a real psycho.
And in an INCREDIBLE coincidence, she just HAPPENS to run into another Karate Kid acquaintance.
This is a pretty good story, but come on, this is ridiculous! I don’t have have a problem with Batman running into a Karate Kid villain when he’s there. Those things happen.
But two people that he knew from New York just happen to run into the same plot!? Come on!
Guess who finally decided to show up for the actual plot!
And the first thing he does is… get a cold from Iris. Because he was in such a hurry to get into his time machine that he forgot to take his meds.
Again: TIME MACHINE.
Karate Kid, ladies man.
Batman and Karate Kid run into each other when investigating Pulsar. I’m not entirely sure if this is the first time they meet; it feels like it, but I could be wrong. At the very least Batman knows about him thanks to the Robin team-up, and… well… he’s Batman.
Also: if you think that was a nod to the movie… nope! That came out in 1984, this is a 1983 story.
Believe it or not but Karate Kid getting a cold is a crucial detail, because the “handkerchief” he took from Iris is actually a piece of cloth from the man Katy assassinated.
I think Karate Kid isn’t using his Legion Flight Ring to avoid making Batman feel bad.
It doesn’t seem like he’s making any progress becoming his friend, though.
Honestly I could’ve skipped most of the recap because THIS nice panel sums it up nicely.
Batman gets to fight a couple of random terrorists while Karate Kid gets the supervillain, so he should get the most entertaining fight.
I completely forgot Pulsar went straight in his last appearance, mostly because I completely forgot Pulsar in general.
This is a much darker comic than Karate Kid’s whole series. Also of note: the fact that Pulsar’s family died makes Karate Kid even more of a failed hero.
Especially since Pulsar doesn’t even survive this story!
Heck, IRIS has a better show than him!!!
And so we have reached the true epilogue of the series.
SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t read the 80s Legion.
Iris doesn’t exactly take this well.
I suppose you could feel somewhat bad for Iris, but… Karate Kid hasn’t shown romantic interest to her once and she already knew he had a girlfriend in the future, so she’s being quite dramatic here!
Here we are, ladies and gentlemen. The truly last panel connected to the Karate Kid series.
So, to recap, here’s what Karate Kid accomplished in the 20th century:
1) the only friend he made has been mentally scarred and had her heart broken
2) the only other acquaintance, the landlady, barely remembers him
3) the only semi-decent villain he had lost his family and his life
4) the only 20th century heroes he met, Batman and Robin, barely tolerated him
Sounds legit.
Historical significance: 0/10
Last appearance if Iris “Diamondeth” Jacobs, last appearance of the landlady, last appearance of Pulsar, and epilogue to the Karate Kid series. Still not enough to warrant even a 1/10.
Silver Age-ness: 5/10
Holy forced coincidences, Batman!
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Absurd coincidences aside, this really isn’t a bad comic! The Batman plot is nothing we haven’t seen a bunch of times, but it’s well written and spectacularly drawn. Karate Kid is the sore point… he has absolutely zero chemistry with Batman and his “plot” is almost as weak as his own series.
It’s not surprising that this was a poor story… Brave & the Bold was on its last legs, it only had two issues to go before being replaced by writer Mike W. Barr’s “Batman and the Outsiders”. Barr was probably phoning it in at this point while preparing the new series. I can’t help you with “why Karate Kid?” Maybe it was an editorial mandate. Jim Aparo’s art was always a treat, though.
I kind of like the idea of a hero bungling it so badly that he doesn’t realize that his “friend” was really in love with him. But I agree that it doesn’t put KK in the best of light and doesn’t seem consistent with how he was portrayed in the Legion series. And poor Iris! She was the most interesting character to come out of the KK series. It’s a shame this was her final appearance.
B&B in general was always about Batman + Guest Star. And some of those stories had to be really contrived! I guess if you abandon logic and adopt a childlike mindset, some are kind of fun.