Even though I didn't find the last issue of J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz's new run on Brave and the Bold lackluster (read our review of Brave and the Bold #27), I was surprised to come away from the new issue feeling much more satisfied than I did last month. Perhaps it was Barry Allen fighting the Nazis, or the heavy thematical content that Straczynski again laces the issue with, or maybe it was the simple fact that Saiz draws a hell of a comic book. Whatever the reason, after finishing this issue I found myself eager to see what other kinds of stories JMS will be tossing our way with his stint on the book.
Issue #28 very much reads like a classic Silver Age Brave and the Bold story, complete with a bizarre science experiment that displaces our hero, only to have him team up with the unlikeliest of allies. In this case, when assisting with a science experiment in Belgium, The Flash is accidentally transplanted smack dab into the middle of World War II with a broken leg, specifcally the Battle of the Bulge. Teaming up with Blackhawk and his team, Barry must adapt to his new war-time environment to survive long enough for his leg to heal and run himself back to the future.
Speaking of Back to the Future, JMS uses a plot device in this issue that I absolutely am infatuated with in any book, film, or television show in which it appears. Hooray time travel! Barry's displacement to WWII lasts weeks upon weeks for him, lasting the majority of the issue, but when he returns to his present time, it's been mere seconds. To me, this is a fascinating concept. Thinking fourth dimensionally, the character's stature has changed drastically in a mere moment while the rest of his world is none the wiser. This aside may be irrelevant to the overall plot of the story, but it was an element I enjoyed greatly and thought it should be mentioned.
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The issue succeeds because of Stracynski's ability to draw upon the potential of using a displaced man from the present, who knows the history of the world to follow WWII, to great effect in tying together two very different time periods by war. War is quite the touchy subject, especially in today's world. Come to think of it, this issue is really heavy in its thematics, more so than any one-shot book in recent memory. One particular moment that really resonated with me came when Barry truly realizes that, for the time being, he's stuck in a warzone. Not wanting to go against his superhero ethics code of never taking a life, he strips himself of his Flash getup and dons the duds of an American soldier, saying "The Flash doesn't kill. The Flash doesn't carry a gun. But Barry Allen, American, can do those things in the uniform of his country, which is at war." It's quite an inspiring moment found in the least expected of places, a superhero comic. One can only hope that JMS' run will be full of more moments like this.
However, the same problem that plagued issue #27 rears its ugly little head here once again, and that is the figurative beating over the head with JMS' "moral". Delivered in the same exact preachy tone, at the same exact beat of the issue, JMS takes the good thing he had going with the patriotism and the heroics, and pushes it up one notch too far. The imagery of the scene would have been vocal enough, but the effect is ruined from the lack of subtlety.
Luckily, the shortcomings are very few and far between, and Brave and the Bold #28 gets to be another rock solid entry into the superhero team-up genre.
