FW Team-Up: Batman and the Demon

Siskoid and Chris Franklin's coverage of The Brave and the Bold brings them to issue #109 (November 1973) as Batman gets into deep water and needs the Demon to fish him out! It's another Bob Haney-Jim Aparo classic, so cross yourself a few times before diving in!

Listen to the Team-Up below, or subscribe to FW Team-Up on iTunes!

Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental

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12 responses to “FW Team-Up: Batman and the Demon

  1. Wonder full show as normal .
    I’ve actually read the jack Kirby run of the demon .
    My favorite appearance . Of the demon is the brave and the bold episode with Sherlock Holmes .
    Also current favorite new Dc character Doctor fates side kick Salem the witch girl . Who I hope we on day we get to see fight the witch boy . Also raise your hand if you want a brave and bold style comic but done with these new golden age side kicks . Like lady bug and Salem the witch girl travel to the future to team up with the super sons . And lady bug could a have a crush on super boy .

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  2. Perfect demon team up .
    The demon is sent to a strange planet . In another universe to team up with rogue trooper classic version. And have to find a way to send the demon back to his earth . Also the demon can handle this worlds atmosphere but not Jason blood .

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  3. This was a really fun episode to listen too, and im glad there’s a place for these pre-crisis DC books. I forgot that this version of Batman existed before his grim phase. It’s so wild to read this kind of Batman story where he isn’t “vengeance!”. I half expected him to call someone “chum”.

    Jason Blood is a bit of a d-bag and a gaslightibg chauvinist, huh? His “women’s intuition/women’s lib” jab stuck out like a sore thumb.

    I found it very funny that Gordon and the GCPD figured out to case the docks without the use of a demon or magical ESP sidekick or dark knight detective.

    I dig the look Detective. In this one. It’s such a classic style for comics and it seems like it mixes that romance/horror anthology book you’d see in the early 60s with a more modern superhero book. Makes me wonder if Apiro started in those genres or was influenced by the artists that did.

    I agreed with a lot of the criticism and your rewite of some of the sticky plot points in the book. It definitely would have been better to make the monster of the week here have some kind of motivation. I was thinking he could have been a victim of a murder, and we could have seen Batman try to solve a 100 year old murder mystery while the Demon dealt with the supernatural aspects.

    But it was a fun story either way and even the ridiculous stuff you pointed out is fine, because…well…comics.

  4. Always love it when you cover an issue that I actually have (it’s one of the oldest books in my current collection), because among other things it gives me an excuse to go and reread it. And I really like this story, despite all of the legitimate criticisms you made in the show. But it’s just so bonkers in a good way, and also really busy – so much crap happens in Gotham that night (I particularly love the one-panel note that the GCPD was distracted by crooks pulling a heist at a gun shop).

  5. Great episode and a great issue!

    Like Siskoid, I love the Demon but don’t necessarily read everything. I own the entirety of the Kirby series. I love the Matt Wagner mini-series. Loved Demon Knights. Loved him in the Moore Swamp Thing. But somehow completely skipped everything in the 90s. My Demon skews to weird and mystic. That series looked like it was going to be satire and splatter.

    I also love The Demon in these team-up books because seeing the strange Demon interacting with the more straight-laced heroes is always good fodder. Not that this issue is the best ‘team-up’. I have read this one before but not in a while so glad to have you guys review it again.

    Perhaps the craziest thing of the issue is seeing the bad guy hanged on page at the end. Whenever I wonder ‘why does my brain work the way it does’, I am reminded of the bizarre imagery and stories that bombarded me in my youth!

    I am mad jealous that you guys are talking Creeper next time. The Creeper is flat out awesome! Can’t wait to listen!

  6. Sorry but my “Arthurian Lore” side is kicking in. While it might seem that Merlin living at Arthur’s birthplace might seem a little odd, there is a cave under the castle location, near the water, called “Merlin’s Cave”, so that’s probably where Haney got the idea. Since the cave fills up at high tide, I really don’t think it would be a good base of operations, though. 🙂

  7. This issue is such an Aparo tour de force. Depending on the artist, The Demon can look genuinely frightening–like he does here–or just merely weird (Kirby, Wagner, IMO). It gives this whole issue a horror movie vibe, a horror movie that just happens to have Batman in it. Just great stuff.

    An enjoyable listen as always.

  8. Always good to get a new episode, I had a look at this one in my B&B Omnibus V1 and it looks awesome. Jim Aparo really was at his best in the early Seventies.

    The thing about Jason displaying lookalike portraits is indeed weird… also, was he painted by an immortal artist? It’s always in the same style, there are no simplistic early medieval modes. Why no Cubist Jason?

    A wee note re: pronunciation – Tintagel has a soft ‘g’… it sounds just as it looks, ‘gel’.

  9. Yeah, great episode, great art, and great job pointing out the…idiosyncrasies of this story while still enjoying it for what it is. Thanks, Fire and Water Network All-Stars!

    (A hypodermic full of sedative? Against a super-strong, rock-encrusted member of the undead? Really, Bats? Really?)

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