THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 136 (1977)
by Bob Haney & Jim Aparo
After soooo many Batman team-ups, this is the last Bob Haney story featuring the Metal Men.
Will the story FINALLY start to make sense?
Just a reminder of why we are here: Bruce Wayne has been kicked out of his own company by Ruby Ryder and her robotic zombie lover.
Man, Peter Parker really let himself go!
Batman has to be saved by the Metal Men, AGAIN. Look, I may not like the idea of Batman being invincible, but maybe let him succeed at SOMETHING every once in a while!!!
Still, the Metal Men buy Batman enough time to try getting inside in another way.
Only to discover that Ruby Ryder, being the scenery-chewing supervillain that she is, has an interesting choice of security system: SNAKES!!!
Now don’t be shocked, but Batman utterly fails to save himself and is simply thrown out.
Will SOME competent superhero bother to show up in this storyline!?
I’m asking because Batman is COMPLETELY STUMPED.
Now… I’m not the biggest Green Arrow fan, but he RIGHTFULLY calls bulls##t!!!
So Green Arrow, NOT BEING A COMPLETE IDIOT, decides to investigate on his own.
And yes, she doesn’t recognize him.
The sole mention of rubies is enough to fool Ruby Ryder, because I guess that’s her thing now.
While they don’t find precious stones beneath the building, they DO find the secret lab of the scientist who created Ruby’s lover.
Something Green Arrow would’ve been aware of if Batman didn’t completely leave the case!!!
And that’s when Batman arrives with the Metal Men, because Doc Magnus bribed his way through apparently is also an expert on history.
Which leads the Metal Men to a fight with a monster excavator!!!
Will the Metal Men manage to stop that metallic behemoth?
Of course not!
If you’re thinking this is a trap set by Ruby Ryder… nope! It’s just a mechanical monster that the original mad scientist left just laying around.
Green Arrow is the ONLY hero who gets to accomplish anything in this story, and at this point are you even surprised?
But the resulting explosion causes some parts of the building to fall, and Ruby is saved by her lover at the very last moment.
Wait wait wait. That giant mechanical monster is from the Civil War!?!?
So the scientist’s will is rendered null by the fact that he was insane at the time.
…and Batman is surprised that Tin is still alive, despite the fact that the Metal Men are constantly dying and coming back to life.
Because THIS Batman is an idiot like that.
Much to my surprise, this is the last appearance of Ruby Ryder. She had so much potential for an entertaining villain but she was completely wasted here.
Batman has one more team-up with the Metal Men, in a GOOD story, but before we reach that they’ll have their first team-up with Superman in their first appearance following the cancellation.
Metal Men significance: 0/10
Once more they are BARELY in it.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Even that bulldozer is nothing compared to the typical Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
If possible, this is even worse than the previous part. Batman continues to be a doormat, the Metal Men are barely in it, and we need to involve Green Arrow to get the slightest amount of heroics!
At least last time Ruby provided some entertainment by chewing the scenery, but she’s not around all that much this time.
Should this have been part of the main series?
This shouldn’t even be in the BATMAN canon!!!
Issues when not a single Metal Man dies: 27