The Great Batman: Brave and the Bold Rewatch: Last Bat on Earth!

Season One, Episode Twenty-Two: Last Bat on Earth!
Written by Steven Melching
Directed by Ben Jones

Plot Synopsis

Teaser: Batman and Mr. Miracle are chained to a roller coaster car passing through a booby trap littered roller coaster. They progressively escape from such death traps as blades, hammers, and fire, all while undoing the chains that hold them. At the last minute, before they are about to crash into a spiked wall, they break free and land on stage; this has been a charity stunt to raise money for orphans, and Miracle's wife, Big Barda, and manager, Oberon, are waiting.

Episode: In a post-apocalyptic future, a tribe of tiger men in armor march to meet a similar army of gorillas. Watching from a distance is Kamandi, the last boy on Earth, and his friend and mentor, the dog-man Dr. Canus. They are waiting for the battle to begin so they can liberate the humans who both sides keep as slaves. The battle is joined, and the tiger king, Great Caesar,  urges his son, Tuftan, friend of Kamandi, into battle. The battle is brutal, and when Tuftan is lassoed, Kamandi jumps into battle to save his friend, and the two ride off on horseback together.

The tigers win the day, driving off the gorillas, but Caesar is disappointed that his son has abandoned him. Meanwhile, at the gorilla camp, the gorilla general is berating his soldiers, when a cloaked figure appears and says the loss is the general's fault. The figure removes his cowl and reveals his identity: Gorilla Grodd.

Back in the present, Batman finds himself in the lab of Professor Nichols, a scientist working on time travel. Batman finds Nichols tied up and gagged, and when Batman removes the gag, Nichols tells him that Grodd coerced Nichols into sending him to the future. Batman asks Nichols to send him after Grodd, and after receiving a beacon that will allow him to return, Batman goes after Grodd.

Back in the future, Grodd challenges the general to a battle to determine the leader of the gorillas and bests him, taking over the gorilla army. In the tiger encampment, we see tiger warriors gathering more human slaves as Kamandi and Tuftan attack. While they distract the guards, Canus tries to free the humans, but is captured in a net as is Kamandi, but before a tiger guard can smash Kamandi with a club, a batarang disarms him and Batman appears to aid Kamandi and his friends. Batman and Kamandi begin to defeat the tigers, but are forced to surrender when the guards threaten to kill the humans, Tuftan, and Canus unless they do.

In the city of the tigers, Batman, Kamandi, Canus, and Tuftan are imprisoned. Great Caesar comes down to tell them that Tuftan will be left imprisoned and the others will be executed. Batman tries to warn Caesar of the coming on Grodd, but Caesar scoffs until he hears the war chant of the gorillas: Grodd has arrived outside the citadel with his army. Grodd has come to the future with technology, including a power gauntlet for himself and other weapons, and after Caesar insults Grodd by calling him a monkey. Grodd has his soldiers fire a sonic cannon, which has an even stronger effect on the sensitive hearing of the cats. Grodd then has a huge ape named Tiny smash the tigers' gates and the gorillas attack.

In the jail, Batman uses acid to melt through the bars and escape with Kamandi and friends. Tuftan uses his knowledge of the city to lead them through the streets, but Grodd smells Batman and sends his soldiers after him, but Batman and company slip into the sewers and escape. Batman takes Kamandi and Canus to prepare his plan to stop Grodd, while he sends Tuftan on another mission.

Batman takes Kamandi and Canus to the Batcave, which has fallen into disrepair over the centuries, and is now populated by man-bats, who attack Batman for mocking them with his costume. Batman and Kamandi fight the man-bats, and when they defeat the leader, the man-bats leave. Batmanreveaks his plan, and begins preparing technology of his own to stand against Grodd's.

Grodd and his army march out of the city, only ot be met by an army of tigers, snakes, rats and other animals, led by Tuftan. Tuftan again goads Grodd by calling him a chimp, and Grodd unleashes the sonic cannon, but as Grodd orders the charge, Batman appears with the Batplane, which fires missles that destroy the sonic cannons, helping to level the playing field.

As the armies meet, Batman, Kamandi, and Canus escape the Batplane with an ejector seat, and the plane crashes into the mountain, raining rubble down on the gorillas. As they drift to the ground, the man-bats return, swearing allegiance to Batman, and joining the battle against the gorillas, stealing their clubs from them. The armies are warring when Grodd sends Tiny into combat. Kamandi takes some rope from Batman and goes to deal with Tiny while Batman goes to deal with Grodd.

Kamandi and Tuftan are able to die Tiny's feet together, and when he falls the assembled armies easily defeat him. Grodd is caught in the flight of his gorilla army, as they flee after their strongest member and their weapons are destroyed, leaving him for Batman to retrieve. With the battle over, Great Caesar thanks Batman and Kamandi, finding that humans are more than he thought, and after congratulating his son as well, he frees the human slaves. Kamandi says goodbye to Batman, who returns to his own time with Grodd, leaving Kamandi excited at the idea of maybe visiting Batman in his time someday.




Who's Who

Kamandi (Voiced by Mikey Kelley)

First Comic Book Appearance:  Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth (October, 1972)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Seven- Dawn of the Deadman!

Gorilla Grodd (Voice by John DiMaggio)
First Comic Book Appearance: The Flash #106 (May, 1959)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!


Mr. Miracle (Voiced by Yuri Lowenthal)
First Comic Book Appearance:  Mister Miracle #1 (April, 1971)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Twenty-Two- Last Bat on Earth!

One of the New Gods of New Genesis, Scott Free is the son of the leader of that world, Highfather. But as a part of the pact that brought about the cease fire between New Genesis and its opposite number, evil Apokolips, Scott was given over to Darkseid to raise as a hostage, while Darkseid's son was given to Highfather, Not surprisingly, Darkseid was not a loving father, and dumped Scott into one of his orphanages, to be raised at the not so tender mercies of Granny Goodness. But Scott never gave in, and eventually did what no one ever had: he escaped. He came to Earth, where he would take up the name of Mr. Miracle and be both a superhero and the world's greatest escape artist. He would be a member of the Justice League. He would make friends and marry Big Barda, another escapee from Apokolips. But above all else, he would be free. Mr. Miracle has many of the standard powers of a New God, including immortality and enhanced durability, but its his mind that is truly impressive. A master inventor, he builds his own traps to escape. He is the world's greatest escape artist, and emplyes otherworldly tech including the sentient computer Mother Box.

Big Barda (Voiced by Diane Delano)
First Comic Book Appearance:  Mister Miracle #4 (October, 1971)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Twenty-Two- Last Bat on Earth!

Big Barda was raised by Granny Goodness to be the leader of her Female Furies, the elite female warriors trained to, "Die for Darkseid." But a meeting with a young Scott Free changed all that, and after helping him and other rebels against the despotic ruler of Apokolips, Barda fled Apokolips for Earth. There she found Scott, and the two were married. Barda would travel with her husband, and would join the Justice League, both at his side and on her own. Barda is a powerful presence with a personality equal to her huge stature, but is at heart someone who loves life as much as she loves Scott. Barda is physically powerful, even by the standards of the New Gods, exceedingly strong and nearly indestructible.

Oberon (Voiced by Dee Bradley Baker)
First Comic Book Appearance:  Mister Miracle #1 (April, 1971)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Twenty-Two- Last Bat on Earth!

Oberon was the manager and assistant to the original Mr. Miracle, the human escape artist Thaddeus Brown, and when Scott Free came to Earth and inherited the mantle, Oberon stayed with him in those capacities, but also as friend and mentor here on Earth. Oberon is most often seen with Scott, although he did spend some time with Maxwell Lord as his assistant when Lord was leading the Justice League, but returned to working with Scott when that incarnation of the League folded. Oberon is a normal human, although he has an excellent knowledge of business and escapology.

Continuity, Comics Connections, and Notes

The creations of Jack Kirby, the King of Comics, feature heavily in this episode. Both Mr. Miracle and his supporting cast, and the world of Kamandi are Kirby creations. Last episode also featured Kirby creations, in that case Steppenwolf and members of the Female Furies. And next episode also guest stars Kirby creations, but we'll get to that next week,

Professor Nichols, the scientist who sends Batman and Grodd into the future, was a Silver Age character, who would appear in those stories to use "time travel hypnosis" to send Batman and Robin through time. Grant Morrison would revisit the character, as he did with many Silver Age concepts, during his extended run on the Batman titles.

Tiny has some King Kong-inspired moments in this episode, and it would be easy to assume a giant ape is just a generic concept. But Tiny is a character right out of the Kamandi comics, specifically issue seven of Kamandi's original series. There he could talk, though, so that version has some advantages.

Yuri Lowenthal makes his Brave and the Bold debut in this episode, voicing Mr. Miracle, but as another voice actor with a long list of credits, this is far from his only DC animated credit. He voiced Lagoon Boy and Icicle Jr. in Young Justice, and has voiced Red Robin in the direct to video Batman Unlimited features.

The Great Batman: Brave and the Bold Rewatch: Mystery in Space!

Season One, Episode 14: Mystery in Space!

Written by Jim Krieg

Directed by Brandon Vietti

Plot synopsis

Teaser: Equinox has kidnapped Gorilla Grodd and the Question and strapped them to an elaborate scale trap, telling Batman he can only save one of them, which the Dark Knight of course proves untrue.

Episode: Batman is standing on a shoreline awaiting a zeta beam to transport him to the planet Rann when he hears a strange sound he discovers to be Aquaman emitting the cry of a wounded beluga whale. But this isn’t the happy-go-punchy, bravado-filled Aquaman we’ve grown accustomed to. Big A is despondent, questioning the meaning of everything. At first, Bats stresses he can’t help because he has a solo mission to attend to (“It’s important I stress the word ‘solo,’” his inner monologue says), but the zeta beam ends up transporting both heroes into the middle of a firefight on an alien planet.

In the skies over Rann, they are met by Adam Strange and his wife, Alanna, who take them to their base in the capital where Alanna’s father, Saradath, welcomes them. The introductions are interrupted by a message from General Kreegaar, leader of the lizardlike Gordanians, who shows them a giant spiderlike mech approaching the city.

“All is lost. Woe is us. Perhaps it’s not too late to surrender,” Aquaman suggests, still mysteriously and uncharacteristically crestfallen.

Batman, Aquaman and Adam Strange lead an attack on the mech. Aquaman takes out Gordanian warriors with little effort, and little enthusiasm. Were this any other episode, he’d be laughing heartily and working on some kind of title for a future tale. Kreegaar turns the fight around, however, trapping the heroes in a thermal device meant to boil them alive from the inside. The heroes escape by using Strange’s jetpack to cut a hole in the floor.

Once back at the base, Strange deduces the Gordanians are after the Eye of Zarid, essentially a giant magnifying glass that can be used to fry an entire city. The Eye is located underwater. Batman, Aquaman and the Stranges get their scuba on and find the Gordanians attempting to free the Eye from beneath the waves. Batman suggests Aquaman do what he does best and summon the local sea creatures to their aid. But when they arrive and Strange talks about using them to draw fire, Aquaman shoos them away instead. That’s when he reveals what’s been bugging him all episode: Big A apparently failed to stop whalers from poaching beluga recently, and it’s left him feeling less than heroic.

As Batman tries to snap the King of Atlantis out of his funk, the Gordanians attack. In the midst of the fight, a zeta beam transports Adam to Earth, 25 trillion miles away. Alanna is captured, and the Gordanians free the Eye of Zarid, moving it toward the city. Adam teleports back to Rann just in time for Batman and Aquaman to relay the dire news. Adam sits down, feeling like a failure and declaring the war lost.

That’s when we get the king’s speech.

“What has gotten into you, man?” Aquaman asks Strange. “Alanna is alive! Rann is alive! You’re alive! And where there is life, there’s always hope!” (What could be move Silver Age than exclaiming every sentence?)

Strange: “But we’re outgunned.”

Aquaman: “So what? We don’t even use guns!” (Great line)

Strange: “But the Eye is invulnerable.”

Aquaman: “All the better to prove we are true heroes!”

Strange: “Alanna is their captive.”

Aquaman: “For now! This isn’t the end. It’s an opportunity! Most men wait their entire lives in vain for a moment like this! A chance to matter! A call to adventure! Adam, answer that call!”

I mean, I don’t know about you, but I want to go punch some lizard men in the face after watching that scene. But more importantly, Adam does, and that sets into motion a daring, utterly ridiculous plan.

The heroes steal Earth’s moon via zeta beam and drop it into orbit around Rann, creating an eclipse that depowers the Eye of Zarid and renders the Gordanians impotent. Strange rescues Alanna, Kreegaar screams as the Eye crashes to the ground and Aquaman rides triumphant aboard a pair of Rannian sea creatures, because that’s what you do when you’re a badass sea king.

“A fitting end to The Strange Encounter of the Reptile Men,” Aquaman declares, having truly become his old self again.

As for what happened while Earth temporarily had no moon, that’s never shown. Hopefully it wasn’t too catastrophic.

Number of times Aquaman says “Outrageous!”: Zero.

Who’s Who

Aquaman (voiced by John DiMaggio)

First comic book appearance: More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941)

First Brave and the Bold appearance: Season 1, Episode 3- Evil Under the Sea!

Adam Strange

First comic book appearance: Showcase #17 (November 1958)

First Brave and the Bold appearance: Season 1, Episode 14- Mystery in Space!

An archaeologist from Earth who is transported by zeta beam to the planet Rann in the Alpha Centauri system, Strange becomes the protector of that planet and marries one of its women, Alanna, daughter of chief scientist Saradath.

The Question (voiced by Nicholas Guest)

First comic book appearance: Blue Beetle #1 (June 1967)

First Brave and the Bold appearance: Season 1, Episode 14- Mystery in Space!

Created by Steve Ditko and acquired by DC in its absorption of Charlton Comics in the 1980s, journalist turned detective Vic Sage’s face is covered by a substance called pseudoderm, making it look as though he has no facial features. The Question is obsessed with conspiracies, and at times his philosophy has run the gamut from Ayn Rand-style libertarianism to Eastern zen. In later years, Sage would be replaced as the Question by Gotham police Detective Renee Montoya. The Question also served an inspiration for Watchmen’s Rorschach.

Equinox (voiced by Oded Fehr)

First comic book appearance: Justice League of America #111 (June 1974)

First Brave and the Bold appearance: Season 1, Episode 14- Mystery in Space!

Equinox is based on a DC Comics villain named Libra, who appeared in a 1970s Justice League story by Len Wein. Grant Morrison brought the character back as a big bad in 2008’s Final Crisis storyline, making him obsessed both with balance and godhood.

Gorilla Grodd (Voice by John DiMaggio)
First Comic Book Appearance: The Flash #106 (May, 1959)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

Gordanians
First Comic Book Appeearance: New Teen Titans #1 (November, 1980)
First Brave and the Bold appearance: Season 1, Episode 14- Mystery in Space!

The Gordanians are a lizard man species of intergalactic conquerors and slavers. They are often allies of the Citadel, another group of alien conquerors, and in the comics they have little connection to Rann, but are instead mostly seen as nemeses of the planet Tamaran, home of Starfire; they are the race that kidnapped and enslaved her before she escaped to earth to join the Titans.

Continuity, Comics Connections, and Notes

The title of the episode refers to one of DC Comics' classic sci-fi comics of the 50s and 60s, the one in which Adam Strange had a recurring feature for many years. 

The actor who voiced Equinox, another recurring character loosely based on a comic book character but technically original to the show, is voiced by Oded Fehr, an actor best known for The Mummy films, but who does a fair amount of voice work. He voiced Doctor Fate in Justice League Unlimited prior to his work on this series, and would go on to voice Ra's al Ghul in Young Justice.

In addition to writing for The Matt Signal, Dan Grote is now the official comics blogger for The Press of Atlantic City. New posts appear Wednesday mornings at PressofAC.com/Life. His new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He and Matt have been friends since the days when Onslaught was just a glimmer in Charles Xavier's eye. Follow @danielpgrote on Twitter.

The Great Batman: The Brave and the Bold Rewatch: "Terror on Dinosaur Island!"

Season One, Episode Two: Terror on Dinosaur Island!
Written by Steven Melching
Directed by Brandon Vietti

Plot Synopsis

Teaser: In Mexico for Dia de los Muertos, Batman and Plastic Man are pursuing Gentleman Ghost. Plastic Man is distracted by the bag of money Gentleman Ghost stole, leaving Batman to face Ghost alone in a cemetery, where the timely intervention of Fire helps save Batman from Ghost's trap

Episode: A cruise ship sails through the seas, filled with the wealthy. A couple in a tux and evening dress look out over the sea to see something flying towards them. What that something is turns out to be pterosaurs being ridden by gorilla soldiers. A pterosaur sets down, revealing Gorilla Grodd, telling the humans that their time is finished and the day of the ape is at hand. Grodd blasts one of the people on the ship with a raygun that seems to de-evolve him into a caveman form.

On the Bat-plane, Batman lectures Plastic Man about trying to make off with some of Gentleman Ghost's loot, saying that he stuck his neck out for Plastic Man in front of the law and the Justice League. Batman is tempted to use the ejector seat, until a distress signal from the ship calls for his attention.

On the ship, Grodd is angry that his "E-Ray" was not functioning as he wished. Deciding to leave, the pterosaurs attach cables to the ship and begin flying it off. As the Bat-Plane arrives, Grodd observes that Batman in the only human worthy of his intellect, and his arrival is, "unfortunate." Grodd and the gorilla soldiers not carrying the ship begin a dogfight with the Bat-Plane. Batman seems to be winning until Grodd uses his mind powers to enthrall Batman, and one of Batman's own missles strikes the Bat-Plane.

Using Plastic Man as a parachute, Batman and Plas land in Dinosaur Island, to be immediately confronted by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Plas winds up accidentally in the T-Rex's mouth, but once the dinosaur spits him out, he is able to swing through the jungle and wing off with Batman, out of the T-Rex's reach.

Batman looks out over the island, still displeased with Plastic Man, and Plas tries to get Batman to give him another chance to help, reminding Batman that he is partially responsible for common criminal Eel O'Brian becoming Plastic Man: O'Brian was a member of Kite Man's gang, and when Batman confronted the gang in a chemical plant, a Batarang knocked him into a vat of chemicals as he tried to make off with the money instead of simply escaping; this gave him his powers. Batman tells Plas that he has to make the best of his life now and walks off.

Finding Grodd's fortress, Batman and Plas see numerous yachts, and Plas again begins thinking about all the loot that Grodd must have. Batman tells him to focus, and they begin to make their way to the fortress, trying to avoid all manner of detection. They avoid cameras and lasers, but when they seem to be out of danger, Plas leans against the tree arrogantly, and triggers a panel on the tree that sets off an alarm. Soon, the heroes find themselves surrounded by gorillas riding Triceratops and pterosaurs.

Grodd tells Batman his evil plan, that he is going to use his E-Ray to evolve man into intelligent apes that he will rule. Grodd prepares to test the E-Ray on Batman, but Batman spooks the Triceratops Grodd is riding with a smoke bomb, and a Batman versus ape battle begins. Grodd attempts to mind control Batman again, but this time Batman is ready and blocks the mental attack. But the physically stronger Grodd still defeats Batman in hand to hand combat, and Plastic Man is shot across the island by two dinosaurs pulling and releasing him like a rubber band. Grodd sends a search party after Plas.

Alone, Plas remembers Batman saving him from the chemicals and being there for him as he recovered and helped him get out of jail, promising to help him rehabilitate. Plas swears he will save Batman.

Back at Grodd's fortress, Batman awakens to find himself chained to a chair. Grodd gives a speech, asking Batman to join him, but Batman scoffs, secretly working to pick the locks holding him. Plas arrives back at the fortress, and sneaks in. Grodd continues talking about how man is trying to destroy Earth, and baits Grodd and frees himself, again fighting ape soldiers.

Plas, arriving inside the fortress after an unfortunate incident involving shape shifting into a shovel and being used to clean the dinosaur pens, finds himself in Grodd's treasure horde. Unable to resist his base instincts, he shovels as much gold and gems into himself before heading off to find Batman. Batman is still fighting Grodd, and Plas arrives too late; finding Batman transformed into an intelligent ape.

Batape and Plas now face Grodd and his soldiers together, but Grodd has activated a device that will release E-Rays on every human within 500 miles, so the clock is ticking. Batape charges Grodd, while Plas fights off Grodd's soldiers. Realizing it's the only way to keep the apes off Batape , Plas begins using the gold and jewels he swallowed as ammunition, spitting them at the soldiers like he was a machine gun.

Batman is able to fend off Grodd, but too late to stop the massive E-Ray explosion. But the explosion does not have the effect Grodd anticipated. Batman, as well as the de-evolved humans from the cruise ships and yachts, are human again, and Grodd and his apes have been evolved into humans, to Grodd's dismay: Batman reversed the device while Grodd was distracted.

Plastic Man holds out a bag to Batman, telling him he rounded up all the jewels and gold, and offers to let Batman count. Batman tells him he doesn't need to because he trusts Plas. After Batman leaves the room, Plas take a large diamond out of his ear and deposits it with the rest of the loot. Finally, in prison, Grodd, now human, contemplates revenge while hanging from a bar like an ape, eating a banana.

Who's Who

Plastic Man (Voiced by Tom Kenny)
First Comic Book Appearance: Police Comics #1 (August 1941)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

Plastic Man is the jester of the super hero set. Crated by Jack Cole in the 40s, Plas's origin is portrayed pretty close to what it is in the comics in this episode, only remove him as the sidekick of a supervillain and make Eel O'Brian a typical 40s gangster. Plastic Man stories are known to be as surreal and twisty as the body of the hero, and his supporting cast includes a goofy, over-weight sidekick named Woozy Winks. While Plastic Man hasn't carried a series of his own in modern times, he is often a member of modern Justice Leagues, used regularly through the Grant Morrison/Mark Waid/Joe Kelly era of the title. Plas has defied the trend to make a character grim and dark, remaining light and fun, even thought his characterization has been deepened throughout the years. His powers allow him to change his size and shape into almost anything, even though the color must remain his normal color scheme of red, yellow, and black.

Fire (Voiced by Grey Griffin)
First Comic Book Appearance: Super Friends #25 (October, 1979)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

Beatriz da Costa was a model and secret agent for the Brazilian government before gaining super powers and becoming a member of the Global Guardians, an international team of superheroes. When the Guardians disbanded, Bea, who was going by the codename Green Flame at the time, joined the newly formed Justice League International along with her best friend, Tara Olafsdotter, the heroine known as Ice Maiden; the two would change their code names to simply Fire and Ice during their time with the League. The two were regular members of the comedic Justice League of the 80s and early 90s, and stayed with the team throughout that incarnation until it was replaced by Grant Morrison's JLA. Fire would appear occasionally for the next few years, usually in JLI reunion stories, but was used very well by Greg Rucka during his tenure on Checkmate, where Fire became an agent of the international peacekeeping organization. She has appeared in modern, post Flashpoint DC continuity as a member of the short lived Justice League International. Quick to anger, Fire's personality matches her combustive ability, able to project high intensity green fire and enrobe herself in it, allowing her to fly.

Gentleman Ghost (Voiced by Jonny Rees)
First Comic Book Appearance: Flash Comics #88 (October, 1947)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

Gentleman Ghost is the spectre of "Gentleman" Jim Craddock,an English highwayman who, after being hung, rose from the grave and became the Gentleman Ghost. In the comics, while Gentleman Ghost has fought many heroes, including Batman, Superman, Hawkman, the Justice League, and the Flash, he is most known for being a rival of the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, and the Justice Society of America, the original super hero team of the 1940s. Gentleman Ghost has all the typical abilities of a ghost, including flight, intangibility, and the ability to produce weapons from thin air that can damage the living.

Gorilla Grodd (Voice by John DiMaggio)
First Comic Book Appearance: The Flash #106 (May, 1959)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

Grodd is more than just a gorilla. A resident of Gorilla City, a city hidden in Africa populated entirely by super intelligent, telepathic gorillas, Grodd was the city's one criminal, often doing his best to conquer the city, and from there, the world. A principal rogue of the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, Grodd would also menace his successor, Wally West, on numerous occasions, and would often team up with other villains while fighting the Justice League. Grodd consistently believes himself superior to humans, and believes apes should rule the planet. Grodd was one of the principle antagonists of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon series, where he would lead different versions of the Injustice Gang and the Secret Society of Super Villains. Grodd not only has the physical strength and speed of an ape, but has a genius level intellect and a telepathic "Force of Mind," that allows him to mentally dominate others. You can read more about Grodd in this piece written by Dan Grote right before Grodd's first appearance on The Flash TV series.

Dinosaur Island
First Comic Book Appearance: Star Spangled War Stories #90 (April-May 1960)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

The name pretty much says it all. It's an island where dinosaurs still lived. Introduced in the war comic Star Spangled War Stories, Dinosaur Island was the setting for a recurring feature, "The War That Time Forgot." It has popped up over time in other DC Comics. ITs most notable appearance for me was as a setting in Darwyn Cooke's brilliant re-imagining of the dawn of the Silver Age, DC: The New Frontier.

Kite Man
First Comic Book Appearance: Batman #133 (August, 1960)
First Brave and the Bold Appearance: Season One, Episode Two- Terror on Dinosaur Island!

If there was an entry in the dictionary for Z-List villain, Kite Man would be the picture used to illustrate it. Charles Brown (yup, his name is Charlie Brown, nemesis of kite eating trees everywhere) was a criminal with a kite themed gimmick. And that's it. No backstory, no deep trauma. He's just a dude with a thing about kites who fought Batman a few times. He is so unmemorable that he was killed off twice over the course of a year by other villains, once by Deathstroke and once by Bruno Mannheim, probably because no one remembered he was killed off the first time.

Continuity, Comics Connections, and Notes

A fun episode, featuring two things that were thought to sell comics during the Silver Age: Apes and dinosaurs. The emotional arc of the episode, about Plastic Man overcoming his criminal tendencies, isn't played for laughs and is done smartly, but never bogs down the narrative.

The teaser for this episode, like the pilot, ties directly into the main plot of the episode, something that will grow less common as the series progresses.

To stop Gentleman Ghost, Batman says he uses Nth Metal knuckles and cuffs. Nth Metal is the anti-gravity material used by Hawman and Hawkgirl to fly, and is known to have anti-magical properties in certain stories.

Plastic Man mentions Superman at one point. Due to rights issues, Superman could not appear in these early episode of Brave and the Bold, along with his supporting cast and rogues, and neither could Wonder Woman. These issues would be worked out by season trhee, allowing DC's entire trinity to appear together.

Grodd is the first character on Brave and the Bold voiced John DiMaggio, one of the premiere voice actors in the world, best known as Jake the Dog on Adventure Time and Bender on Futurama, but it won't be his last. Next week's episode will feature the character that he is best known for on this show so come back to find out who.

An Annual Event: A History of Crossover Events in DC Comics Part 3

Welcome back to our final installment of the history of events in DC Comics. This final installment talks about the crossovers and theme years of the Annuals, the oversized comics that were published, obviously, once a year. Originally, this was done to get around certain publishing and postal regulations about magazines, but over the years, as these rules were relaxed and books could come out more than once a month, the annual faded from prominence. Annuals used to be a big deal, especially over at Marvel. Many landmarks happened in those massive Stan Lee-era annuals. The Sinister Six made it's first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, and Reed and Sue got married in Fantastic Four Annual #3 While I can't recall any such huge events in DC Comics annuals, you still got Alan Moore writing Batman in Batman Annual #11 and Superman in Superman Annual #11, so there are some pretty great stories in those earlier annuals.

But in 1991, DC tried to get some extra buzz going on their annuals. Marvel had been doing company crossovers in their annuals for a few years, and so DC decided to give it a try with...

Armageddon 2001, bookends (issues at the beginning and end of the series, with the crossovers doing the heavy lifting in the middle) written by Archie Goodwin and with art by Dan Jurgens, was a classic sci-fi dystopia story. In the year 2030 the world is ruled by Monarch, an armor clad conqueror who is said to once have been a great superhero who turned on his own, and wiped them all out in the year 2001. Matthew Ryder, a scientist in that time, travels back in time to find out who Monarch was and to stop him from becoming the despot. Transformed into a being of pure time energy called Waverider, he arrives in 1991 and goes about encountering as many heroes as he can, and by touching them, he sees their possible futures.

This is a really fun conceit, as it allows for all these stories of the heroes in the future, What If? or Elseworlds type stories, but they have a little more resonance because they are presented as actual possible futures. Of course, Waverider learns the classic time travel trope that if you interact with the past it can change things, so he has to touch some (more popular) heroes multiple times to see if he's actually created Monarch. The ending of the crossover is legendary, as the original ending, that Captain Atom was Monarch, was leaked, and so a quick change was made to make the much less logical ending that Hawk of Hawk & Dove was in fact Monarch. A great event was somewhat spoiled by this quick change, but it's still my favorite full scale annual crossover.

Some of the annuals are really solid stories. Superman Annual #3 is one of the early examples in the Modern Age of a trope that's gotten stale now, where Superman is corrupted and has to be stopped. Since it's 1991, it's one of the first comics to riff on the classic conclusion of Dark Knight Returns, inverting the final battle between Superman and Batman. Justice League America Annual #5 steps back from the darkness of the Breakdown story happening at the time to tell a series of very funny vignettes. New Titans Annual #7 introduced a team of Titans from the future who came back in time later to form the Team Titans, which must have seemed like a good idea at the time. And Flash Annual #5 tells the story of Wally West coming out of retirement and witness protection to save his son from old enemies in a story written by a fresh young writer named Mark Waid a year before his legendary run on The Flash would begin.

The 1992 annual event was Eclipso: The Darkness Within, bookends written by Robert Loren Fleming and Keith Giffen with art from Bart Sears. This story took Eclipso, a C-List villain from 60s villain who was the Hyde to solar scientist Bruce Gordon's Jekyll, and made him a world beater by revealing he's not just Gordon's dark side, but is in fact an ancient vengeance god who has been trapped on the dark side of the moon in a castle for centuries, and is now making a play for his freedom. To do this, the black diamonds that hold Eclipso's earthly essence begin to posses and control super beings so Eclipso can gather an army.

This series gives a lot of classic hero on hero action, as various heroes and their allies become possessed by black diamonds. The black diamonds in some cases don't possess characters but create monsters made of the anger of the holder. So if you ever wanted to watch Jim Gordon vomit up a smoke monster to go kill the Joker, you can check out Detective Comics Annual #5. I'm being glib, but it's actually a solid event, and Eclipso is made into a really solid threat.

There was also some very distinct fallout from this series. Eclipso remains a major part of the DC Universe to today, having an ongoing that spun out of this series that had some ripples. That series brought Amanda Waller back from limbo, was an early example of a DC trend where a squad of B- and C-list heroes raided Eclipso's fortress and were mercilessly wiped out, and had a great two part story in issues seven and eight where Eclipso fought Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London. He showed up after that series in John Ostarnder's The Spectre, Geoff Johns's run on JSA, and James Robinson's run on Justice League of America. He has appeared in a few places in the New 52 as well. The series also seemingly killed off Will Payton, the sixth Starman, setting the stage for Jack Knight to take the name, and making the quest for what really happened to Payton a key point on James Robinson's seminal Starman.

Bloodlines was... well, not either of these previous two events. Large, spinal fluid sucking aliens arrive on Earth and begun feeding on the populace. If you happen to survive the encounter, you get superpowers. Seemingly random powers; it's not a consistent set. This was an attempt to create a batch of popular new characters. It did not succeed in that. Instead of having bookends like the previous two events, Bloodlines culminated in a two issue mini-series called Bloodbath, written by Dan Raspler with art by Chuck Wotjkiewicz and Sal Velutto, where these New Blood heroes joined the other DC heroes to stop the parasites.

Of the 27 annuals, six individual titles were spun off, as well as a team called Blood Pack. Most of these were mini-series, and of the three ongoings, two ended pretty quickly. The only real breakout success was Hitman, the irreverent story of Tommy Monaghan,written by Garth Ennis and drawn by John McCrea, who debuted in Demon Annual #2, and whose series ran 60 issues plus an annual and some specials. Some of these characters, like Flash Annual #6 debut Argus, were pretty decent characters, but it seemed they couldn't escape the Bloodlines stigma. One favorite Bloodlines moment is in Hitman #1,000,000, a tie-in to DC One Million, where Tommy is pulled into the far future by hero fanboys, where he confronts Gunfire 1,000,000, the long distant inheritor of the title of a New Blood hero who could turn anything he touched into an energy or explosive weapon, who Tommy shoots and embarrasses, and who dies from inadvertently turning first his medpack into an explosive, and then, well, let's say his last words are, "Oh my God, I turned my ass into a hand-grenade--" Garth Ennis, everybody.

After Bloodlines less than stellar success, DC changed it's tactic. Instead of going with full on crossovers, it's annuals started having themes. The first years of themed annuals were all Elseworlds tales, where the heroes of the books were put in unusual settings and time periods. As with a lot of Elseworlds stories, these were hit and miss, but there were some highlights. Detective Comics Annual #7, from Chuck Dixon and Enrique Alcatena, told of Leatherwing, Batman as a privateer fighting a pirate version of Joker. This was actually a world adapted by Grant Morrison as part of the 52 Earths in Multiversity. Karl Kesel told a two part stories of the DC heroes in a dystopian future in Adventures of Superman Annual #6 and Superboy Annual #1. And the modern Batman learns he had a predecessor in Renaissance Italy in a story involving Leonardo da Vinci in Batman Annual #18.

Skipping a bit ahead, 1997 annuals were also Elseworlds themed, this time specifically called "Legends of the Dead Earth" which all take place in the far distant future where the heroes are legends in the same way the Greek heroes are to us, and we see some very interesting variants on classic themes and heroes, some very magical, some very sci-fi. The one that sticks out in my head is Aquaman Annual #2, where Peter David tells the story of two men meeting and sharing their conflicting versions of the history of Aquaman, only to reveal they both believe themselves to be his direct descendant and begin fighting, thus continuing the brother versus brother theme that pervaded David's entire Aquaman run from Atlantis Chronicles onward.

The year in between the two Elseworlds themes was for "Year One" annuals. This was a somewhat perplexing choice, as some heroes had long established early years (like Superman in John Byrne's Man of Steel, Batman in Batman: Year One, and Flash in Mark Waid's first arc on Flash called "Born to Run"), while many others had origins retold less than two years earlier in the zero issues that followed Zero Hour. But what this allowed was for the creators to get, well, creative. Mark Waid spent time in his annual focusing not on Wally West's first year as a hero, but his first year as the Flash after Barry Allen's death. Each Batman annual focused on the first year of a particular villain. The Superman annuals focused on various firsts for Superman, like his first trip into space and his first confrontation with magic.

But some annuals stretch farther to make for substantive changes. Since we watched Jean-Paul Valley become Azrael, Azrael Annual #1 focused on Jean-Paul's father, the previous Azrael, and fleshed out a character who only appeared on a few pages before this. The Superboy Annual revealed that Paul Westfield, the evil director of Project Cadmus, was in fact the human half of Superboy's DNA (later retconned by Geoff Johns to be Lex Luthor. Superboy probably should have been happier when he thought it was Westfield). And New Titans Annual #11 tried to clear up some of the time travel hi-jinks left over from Zero Hour concerning team members Terra and Mirage.

DC's final year of full Annual themes was Pulp Heores in 1998. Each of these annuals had a painted cover reminiscent of classic pulps and with pulp-like titles running down the left side of the cover (many drawn from old DC anthology titles), and a theme that went with that painted cover and title. Thus you got lots of adventure, detective, and western themed stories. Again, while most of these are not major continuity intense stories, they were a ton of fun. Hitman Annual #1 was "Weird Western Tales" and had a classic standoff tales with Tommy and his allies against a gang. Aquaman Annual #3 was "Suspence Detective" and has a Peter David story narrated like an old detective pulp, and has a very funny riff on Aquaman's old power limitation that he would die if he was out of the water for more than exactly one hour. Starman Annual #2, pictured above, was slightly different, as Jack Knight learns about the past love affairs of his friends and family as he has problems with his girlfriend, Sadie, and ends with a major revelation that would change the direction of the series.

The next three years had much smaller annual events. "Ghosts" and "JLApe" both only involved annuals for the big seven Justice Leaguers and the annual for JLA. The former featured the Justice League haunted by the spirits of people whose deaths they felt responsible for, so kind of a downer. The latter, though, featured the League fighting, and getting turned into, apes in a plot by Gorilla Grodd, so that was monumentally fun. The following year, 2000, was a series of Annuals called "Planet DC" that again tried to introduce new heroes, this time all from different nations. Most never appeared again.

Our final stop on this whirlwind tour is a bit more of a stretch. In 2001, DC started an event called Our Worlds at War, where a being called Imperiex was on his way to destroy Earth, and if he did so, it would bring about the end of all reality in a massive wave off entropy. The core of the series ran through the four Superman titles over the course of three months, with various other titles, including Batman and Young Justice, tying in. As there was no core mini-series, I left this out of the rundown of previous events, but thinking about it, I realized something. Many of the crossovers were oversized one-shots released over the course of those three summer months showing how the war effected other heroes. And that made me realize that those one-shots took the place of annuals that year, so I figured I'd include Our Worlds at War here.

Our Worlds at War was frankly kind of a mess. Imperiex's power set was nebulous, but so powerful that Darkseid actually teamed up with the heroes of Earth. Superman, the title that the series spun out of and was one of the core books of the event, had a narrative device where speeches by American presidents served as narration throughout, and cluttered up the pages on gorgeous Ed McGuiness art. And nearly all the character deaths and fallout, and there was quite a bit, was reversed almost immediately. While there was some very cool art and great space battles, this remains one of the more forgettable and somber events comics from DC.

In recent years, DC went back to publishing annuals, but kept them more tied to their parent titles, letting them wrap up big storylines or providing background to tie into the events of the ongoing. Thus the annual event and theme faded into the past, left for people like me to comment on in posts like this.

And that's it for our survey of event comics and the history of DC Comics. I hope you enjoyed it. But I hear some of you saying, "What about Marvel? Secret Wars is coming up and there have been plenty of Marvel events that are tying into that." Well to paraphrase someone intimately related to Marvel Comics, have no fear Matt Signal faithful! Next week, Dan Grote will begin a series of articles directly addressing Marvel crossovers (with me stepping in for one on the cosmic corner of the MU). So stay tuned for more.

5 Reasons You Should Care About … Gorilla Grodd

Contrary to what the show would have you believe, The Flash’s biggest long-game tease isn’t about the murder of Barry’s parents or time travel or Harrison Wells revealing himself as the Reverse Flash.

In the very first episode of the CW series, as the camera pans through the wreckage of STAR Labs after the particle accelerator explosion, we see an empty, open cage with a sign on it that says, simply, “Grodd.” That was when I knew I was going to like that show.

Since then, we’ve seen mostly brief glimpses – a hand here, a body cast in shadow there – until the most recent episode, when Wells sicced Grodd on Mr. Krabs General Eiling, revealing the 800-pound telepathic, talking gorilla in the room.

There’s a certain amount of ridiculous to the Flash’s rogues gallery. There’s nothing edgy about names like Captain Cold or Weather Wizard or Professor Zoom. The best thing to do is lean into it and accept them for what they are, little slivers of the Silver Age that, for whatever reason, stood the test of time. And it really doesn’t get more Silver Age Flash Villain than a talking gorilla who believes himself superior to man, uses a mind-control helmet and constantly tries to dominate the human race.

So here’s a love letter to comics’ greatest sinister simian.

The basics: Grodd was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino and first appeared in The Flash #106 in 1959.

1. He’s from a city of gorillas: Gorilla Grodd is from a village in Africa called Gorilla City, which is inhabited by hyperintelligent gorillas. They got that way after a radioactive meteor alien spacecraft crash-landed into their village.

2. Did I mention he’s got mind-control powers? Though all the gorillas in Gorilla City were supersmart, only two, Grodd and Solivar, are telepathic and telekinetic. It was Solivar who alerted the Flash to Grodd’s villainy, leading to decades of speedster-on-simian matchups.

3. The Rogues are his fault: Grodd first caused some of the Flash’s other villains to team up, breaking them out of jail to distract the speedster during a story in which Grodd’s brain had been transferred to that of a zoo gorilla named Freddy.

4. “He’s made no fewer than 18 attempts to wipe humanity from the Earth.” This fact, I confess, is from Wikipedia, and could be outdated or completely made up. But I do like the idea that someone’s keeping count. Does pale in comparison to the number of times Pinky and the Brain have tried to take over the world, though.

5. He killed his father and ate his brain: According to Grodd’s New 52 origin, when Grodd came of age, he challenged his father for control of Gorilla City, impaled him on his horned helmet and celebrated by eating his brain to consume all his knowledge and memories, because, y’know, that’s how that works. He later leads an invasion of Central City and gains access to the Speed Force.

Read this: The New 52 Flash Vol. 3: Gorilla Warfare, by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

Watch that: It’s a tie. Justice League Unlimited sees Grodd set up the Legion of Doom as a supervillain co-op in which he gets a cut of the profits of any and all nefarious deeds and ends up fighting with Lex Luthor for control of the operation (and tacitly is sleeping with a human witch). For a more light-hearted take, check out Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which is the perfect example of a show leaning in to the ridiculousness of the Silver Age. Grodd first appears in episode 2 of the series, in which he turns Batman into a gorilla.

Dan Grote’s new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He has been writing for The Matt Signal since 2014. He and Matt have been friends since the days when making it to issue 25 guaranteed you a foil cover.