THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 74 (1967)
by Bob Haney & Ross Andru
This is the last appearance of the Metal Men in another book during their first regular run, being published after Metal Men #28. There will be more appearances while the main series was doing reprints and a few published after the series ended.
Bob Haney managed to write two very good stories with the Metal Men before, even keeping things serious with the zaniness of Metamorpho. So you would think the Batman teamup would be done in the same style, except… we are fully in camp era when it comes to Batman, so beware.
We begin with a very weird jab at Spider-Man.
Is it weirder than Chameleon Boy doing something like that in Adventure Comics #350 the year before?
Silver Age Batman is of course a different kind of character from either the modern version or even the one from the 70s. But the one from the camp period is… something else.
So you might be wondering: how does Batman get involved with the Metal Men? Does the Joker try to steal a Responsometer™ or something?
Nope! It’s thanks to Gotham City hosting the First International Robot Exposition!
Also, Batman is totally being a robophobe here. Who’s to say robots can’t run for office?
That’s where Batman meets the Metal Men for the first time.
Well technically he “met” them in Metal Men #21, except not really.
Batman also meets Dr. Daedalus and his robot Icarus (subtle!), which is intended to be a robotic replacement for Batman. I really like the idea that Batman seems happy about the prospect of having someone else to help!
During the convention, there’s a spree of robot crimes in Gotham City. From theft…
…to copyright infringement, at least according to Marvel’s Stilt-Man.
Eventually Batman runs into one of the robot crooks and tries to stop it with the best technology the Wayne fortune can afford… a net.
Once Batman fails to stop the robot, Doc Magnus informs him and Commissioner Gordon than the Metal Men are among the few robots still behaving normally.
I don’t get to write “Metal Men” and “behaving normally” in the same sentence often!
Something has been affecting the Responsometers™ of every robot at the exposition. Wait, I thought the Metal Men were supposed to be the ONLY robots with a Responsometer™…
Commissioner Gordon will deputize ANYONE rather than do actual police work.
Of note for the Metal Men is the fact that Nameless is present, so Batman DOES meet her. That is going to be of tremendous importance to one of the very last pre-Crisis stories.
Sure the Batmobile and the Batwing get all the glory, but why don’t we see the Whirlybat more often? Is it because the Bat-Copter makes a lot more sense, or because it looks absolutely ridiculous?
Batman answers to a call from Tin, except when he gets there… turns out there’s no emergency.
This continues with the other Metal Men as well.
I can’t really fault Batman for falling for this, since the Metal Men have rather pathetic excuses and he barely knows them. So it’s once again time for the Metal Men to redeem their names, and for once they’re not the ones who started the problem in the first place!
In the previous stories, Bob Haney wrote Doc as a fundamentally good person. But I guess Kanigher must’ve objected because the Doc Magnus Awfulness Scale has been reset to default.
So the Metal Men are in jail and Batman is left alone fighting an army of robots. I wonder how he’s going to handle it.
After getting his cowl handed to him, Batman gets serious long enough to admit he’s been wrong this whole time. And he even acknowledges his robophobia! Good for him!
The world’s greatest detective, ladies and gentlemen.
Meanwhile the robots try to murder Doc Magnus, who has been trapped in the same airtight cell with the Metal Men. (?????)
I do like the fact that the Metal Men could’ve escaped from their prison at any moment but simply chose not to because they were trying to clear their names.
Icarus turns out to be the bad guy, because of course it is… but how does Batman figure that out? He says Icarus couldn’t have tossed the Metal Men’s prison… but how does HE know that Icarus is not super-strong like other robots?
Batman leads the police to Dr. Daedalus’ hideout (in the abandoned basement beneath City Hall, nice touch)… and we get one of the worst fight scenes I’ve ever seen.
Which is particularly disappointing because Ross Andru is a WAY better artist than this!!!
Now here’s something else I rarely get to say: the Metal Men show up to save the day!
And that’s the end, with Batman realizing his own bias against robots…
…and Tina getting some Bat-action!
Metal Men significance: 8/10
This establishes a friendship of sorts between Batman and the Metal Man. In fact he’s by far the hero who interacts with them the most in this continuity, which is all kinds of weird when you consider that he basically never meets them post-Crisis.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
While this is far from the most Silver Age level reached by Batman’s camp era, it’s still up there.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
A lot is going to depend on whether you stomach this version of Batman. A LOT. But even considering I really don’t like his camp stories… this was better than expected, and some stuff holds up. Mostly Batman realizing his prejudices. The basic plot could easily be done today: something screws with the minds of other robots, Batman assumes the Metal Men are also to blame because he doesn’t trust robots, and later learns to trust them.
Having said that, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, even if you take into account the narrative standards of the time.
Should this have been part of the main series?
Definitely. It’s nowhere near as good as the two previous Haney stories, but it’s far more grounded than most Kanigher stories. It would’ve been a nice breather in the middle of the typical Kanigher insanity.
Number of elements: 61
Despite the high number of robots, the total stays the same because none of them show elemental abilities or shapeshifting powers.
Issues when not a single Metal Man dies: 23