They’re Watching You

 

The Brave and the Bold #6

The first storyline of DC’s new team-up book wraps up. The evil (and very big-eyed) Luck Lords have used their mastery of the Book of Destiny to conquer time and space, even defeating the Legion of Super-Heroes in the distant future. Meanwhile, in our present, Green Lantern, Supergirl, and Adam Strange are trying to avoid the Luck Lords and get the Book away from General Mondath, but they’re continually thwarted by Mondath’s ability to use the Book to predict and counter their attacks. The trick, they decide, is to let Supergirl use her telescopic and X-ray vision to read the book from a few dozen miles away to locate Batman, then Adam uses the planet Rann’s Zeta beam teleportation technology, amplified by GL’s power ring, to extract Bats from where he was trapped in the future and bring him back to the present. Why? So he can find the only four people in the universe who have slipped off Destiny’s radar and so are completely invisible to the book. Can they help defeat the Luck Lords before everyone runs out of borrowed time?

I gotta tell you, this is hugely, hugely complicated. Holy moley, all the back-and-forth time travel, all the complex schemes, all the plot twists, all the narrow escapes. But wow, is it ever worth it. This is a white-knuckle ending, right down to the wire, almost as good as some of Grant Morrison’s old “JLA” stories a few years ago.

Lots of really great moments, too — tons of great fight scenes, Supergirl paralyzed by all she’s learned about the future from the Book of Destiny, a big splash page of most of DC’s time travelers, all the wild Rannian super-scientific weapons. This is wonderful end to a wonderful storyline.

Verdict: Big thumbs up. Mark Waid’s writing and George Perez’s art make this an unbeatable combo. I hope they keep this title running a long time.