BRONZE AGE MINUTE: The Brave & the Bold #87

Cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano

Title: “The Widow-Maker!”
Synopsis: When Bruce Wayne becomes the target of a murderous race car driver, Batman takes the wheel – with help from Diana Prince.

Writer: Mike Sekowsky
Penciler: Sekowsky
Inker: Dick Giordano

Review: As the 1970s dawned, the comics industry was about to move into a new era of more sophisticated, “adult” storytelling. Writer Mike Sekowsky clearly did not get that memo. While his art on this Brave & the Bold outing certainly has the look of an early era Bronze Age book, the silly car race plot is reminiscent of many a Saturday morning cartoon. Other elements of this story haven’t aged well, either, including Bruce Wayne’s ugly chauvinism and I Ching, Wonder Woman’s strangely jaundiced “guide to some of the mysteries of the East.” This one is definitely a product of its time.

Grade: C+

Cool factor: While terribly dated, there’s always something cool to the “depowered” era Wonder Woman.
Not-so-cool factor: The Bat-racing helmet has got to go.

Notable: Also includes a one-pager by Jack Sparling titled “A Matter of Life and Death!” and a text feature by Marv Wolfman titled “The Greatest Hero of Them All (No. 1).

Character quotable: “I can’t let a woman and a blind man rescue me …” – Bruce Wayne, with the internal monologue of a Bat-Pig

Copyright ©2022 Off the Wahl Productions, all rights reserved. Each week, T. Andrew Wahl offers up a Bronze Age Minute for Scoop. For daily reviews like this one, check out Wahl’s website, offthewahl.com.