What's this? A Brave and the Bold issue that doesn't suck for a change! Well colour me surprised !!
Being the Anti-Fanboy I don't hold onto every scrap of continuity, character, storyline that I read and enjoy what's in front of me right then and there, so when I came to pick up this issue I went from, okay The Spectre, I know him from a run I read back in what was probably the late 90's but he looks a bit different now to, who the f*ck is Xombi?!!!! My DC Encyclopedia didn't help, an omission that may have been corrected in later editions, I don't know so I turned to wikipedia and got a brief background on this dude and I'm thinking, interesting concept but I can see why it may not have lasted that long.
So, as I do when I first get my stack of comics for the week, I briefly flick through each comic and sort them out into the order I want to read them in, must reads at the top, if you're heading to the bottom of the pile then I suggest bucking your ideas up. Given it's recent run Brave and the Bold languished at the bottom of the pile. What a mistake that was.
This is a marked improvement in both storytelling and artwork for this title and I hope it continues.
In a nutshell The Spectre comes along to dish out some well deserved wrath on a particularly nasty serial murderer and thinking his job is done moves on. However this sick piece of work hasn't finished and starts killing ghosts and Vampires to pass the time instead. This doesn't go unnoticed and the Vampires draft in Xombi who is pretty much ineffectual and summons back The Spectre to finish the job.
As a stand alone issue this does a good job, the story is well paced but not without a leap of faith now and again but given the whole story lasts an issue, tension mounts to a certain degree. It may have been nice to see where this could have gone if given 2 or 3 issues to tell the tale.
The artwork with it's washed out colours and sketchy figures is an interesting avenue to take which may fit the world of Xombi but I prefer to see The Spectre big and bold !!!
Still, as a whole this is an almost return to form for this title and it may just creep up from the bottom of the stack next month.
