The Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman #5 Review

I'm late I'm late for a very important date!

Writer: Liam Sharp
Artist: Liam Sharp
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 20, 2018
Review by: Matches Balone

There’s a grave missing detail of Batman and Wonder Woman’s investigation into the death of King Elatha—it’s not only about who killed him, but also what it means. As one king dies, another must arise…long live the new king Balor Evil-Eye! Now Batman and Wonder Woman must fight alongside Tir Na Nóg and destroy its causeways to our dimension!


Issue 5 is by far the best one yet, but it has one little problem. . . IT'S TOO FUCKING LATE. Better yet, I actually have a lot of problems with this issue. For starters, from the start of the story, we have been teased about a great mystery that Batman and Wonder Woman had to solve to stop an impending threat, but we weren't properly introduced to this great evil until now and the mystery was solved in a very boneheaded way. Batman solved this case in a matter of seconds by simply talking with the boy who was originally accused of the murder. 

I'm not the world's greatest detective, but I've seen enough crime movies/TV shows to know most people start at the scene of the crime and interrogate any possible suspects. Why didn't Batman do this? Why did he decide to go site seeing with Wonder Woman? What was the point of visiting the Queen's castle? 

All the mystery and intrigue that was built up was simply thrown to the waste side, so we can finally have the big bad guy appear. What was the big mystery? Well, it turns out that King Elatha wasn't murdered but somehow escaped Tir Na Nog and entered our realm. He's also the one who stole Nuada's silver arm because he has a plan to open a gateway between the two worlds. This is another problem I have because after issue 2 the story had pretty much forgotten about Gotham City, but now once again it's a big deal just for the heck of it. 

The last problem I have is Balor. Yes he was alluded to in previous issues and yes technically we learned about his past and relationship to the king, but we never really got a good understanding of the character. In this issue, he's presented as a super powerful treat who's mastered magic and has a great army by his side, but we were never told he was banished with his army or that he can control magic before. Personally Balor just comes across as a generic super-powered bad guy because there needs to be one. 

Aside from these criticisms, the issues was still an awesome read not to mention it had fantastic artwork. 

Bits and Pieces:

This book is well worth the price for just the splash pages alone. I'm a little torn because half of me really liked the issue and was left wanting more, but the other half was annoyed because this issue single handily undermined everything that came before it. Just give me a cool fight in the last issue and let's call it a wrap.  

7/10