THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 121 (1975)
by Bob Haney & Jim Aparo
Yet another team-up with Batman. All these appearances during the Metal Men’s hiatus seem to have worked, since after this one they restarted publication with Metal Men #45.
And it’s also a bicentennial issue! Because what better way to celebrate a nation’s 200th birthday than having a man dressed like a bat and a bunch of robots endanger two historical documents?
This train ride is supposed to celebrate America’s greatest accomplishments: space exploration, crime and robots. Wait, one of these things is not like the others…
Aaaaand the Metal Men immediately skip the celebration because they received a clue about Doc Magnus.
“Hello, I’m professor Bruce Wayne Lookalike and these are my assistants, Female Suspect and Male Suspect, nice to meet you Batman”.
Yeah I’m sure having Batman curate the exhibit was the best possible choice.
As a reminder, but the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are currently on the train. But don’t worry, Batman’s got this!
Who could possibly be behind it?
I WISH!!!
Please don’t do anything racist please don’t do anything racist please don’t do anything racist…
With Batman tied up, the US Government follows the Gordon Doctrine:
Phase 1: call Batman
Phase 2: if phase 1 fails, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s when the Metal Men show up! I didn’t cut a single scene with them, by the way: they left to follow a subplot which doesn’t actually happen, and then they come back.
While I’m tired of the modern inclination to make Batman so competent at everything he’s basically a god… I’ll take that over a Batman that is seemingly useless.
Come on, he can’t even free himself from some ropes!?!?
Even the Metal Men are being more useful! THE METAL MEN!!!
Well, at least now that he’s free, Batman’s got this. It’s not like some regular people are going to give him any OH COME ON!!!
I can’t believe I’m writing this but… maybe Batman should leave this to the Metal Men.
However it turns out that not only Batman completely failed to protect the Declaration from those Native Americans… he ALSO failed to spot a bomb planted by terrorists!!!
So they agree to a truce, the Metal Men look for the bomb…
…which is actually behind a painting
The bomb explodes harmlessly far away from the train, and Batman vows to help support the rights of Native Americans.
Yeah right, like these guys are not going to jail.
Metal Men significance: 0/10
Once again they are BARELY in the story.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
As typical for Haney, Batman is a glorified government official here.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Pretty bland. The comic doesn’t take any position whether the Native Americans are right or not, they’re basically walking stereotypes (not overtly racist, but still), the Metal Men are superfluous, and this is one of the least effective Batman I’ve ever seen.
Should this have been part of the main series?
Not really, considering their series started again after this, and with good stories.