Brave and Bold

Can I tell you all how much I LOVE DC's new Brave and Bold series?

I have a secret. When I settle down on the couch to read the week's comics, I sort them by how excited I am to read them. The one's I'm most excited about are As; the ones I'm less excited about are Bs; the ones I think are a bit dull and maybe buy out of habit are Cs. Then I read them in that order: The As that same night, Bs over the next few days, and Cs I may not even get to before the next week.

The Brave and the Bold is one of those comic magazines that I snarf up enthusiastically and it always makes the A pile because it is executed brilliantly.

Until recently the art was by George Perez, now Jerry Ordway, but both of them are solid artists who are excellent at telling a story, draw the human form well and create wonderful compositions on the page. They are at the top of their craft in the super suit world.

But Mark Waid's stories for this book have been even better! Mark respects each and every hero who dances across the pages of the book, understands what makes them unique and intriguing and lets them show us these traits. Plus he has strung together a dozen or so pairings - some odd, some not so odd - into a great, unified, nonstop story from the very first issue until the twelfth.

I know that Marvel Team-up used this same concept a few years back, but the stories there didn't move nearly so fast.

If excellence alone drove sales, this would be the best selling book by any company. I hope this never ends!