Brave and the Bold #60

Once again, the Teen Titans retrospective must include another pre-official Teen Titans comic Brave and the Bold #60 from June-July 1965 told the story of “The Astounding Separated Man.

All the local teens have abandoned their usual hangouts for town hall to welcome Tommy Holmes as “Teen Mayor for a Day.” However, the adults aren’t as excited, believing that he won’t be able to run the town since his father is in jail.

But everything starts off fine until a giant hand destroys a roof. This causes Holmes to get on the ham radio and call The Teen Titans, a group Robin set up after the last issue to respond to kids’ cries for help. And so, the Titans show up to take on the Separated Man.

“The Astounding Separated Man” is another pretty average story. The cover, however, is really good, featuring the Separated Man holding Kid Flash while Robin holds up Wonder Girl who is throwing her lasso at him. And Aqualad is sitting on a marlin. The only bad thing about it is how Wonder Girl’s floating head to the left, as its kind of a creepy face.

The story itself isn’t too terrible, but isn’t all that great. The adults have a stupid bias against teen government and Tommy just because his dad was in jail. They can’t even get over it to focus on the present danger. Tommy’s also not a very good character as in the end, instead of thinking how the town will be rebuilt, he wonders how the adults will think of their government experiment. The writers were probably going for an Aesop about not making snap decisions, but it feels kind of forced. And the question has to be asked: how does one not notice a giant ear listening in to your conversations? Twice? This really makes Robin out to be quite the idiot.

However, the backstory and explanation of how the separated man showed up again was interesting and the fight was good. The Professor going back to serve the rest of his sentence shows a man should be honorable.

It’s decent.

Brave and the Bold #60: “The Astounding Separated Man” – 3/5