Brave and the Bold #119 - Jim Aparo and Manbat

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Friday, July 27, 2007

Jim Aparo Manbat and Batman

Brave and the Bold #119
Jim Aparo Artwork
Bob Haney Story
DC Comics, June 1975 cover date
Cover Price 25 Cents

The tale seems to be a riff derived directly from the Paul Robeson movie of 1933 "The Emperor Jones" - an extraordinary film.

In Bob Haney's story, an island dictator named Valdez keeps safe a "syndicate hitman" named Killer Krag. Bounty hunters, including Batman, head for the island of Santa Cruz to get the murderer back. Meanwhile, Dr. Langstrom, aka Manbat, decides to go after the bounty, too, seeing the $100,000 reward as a chance to further finance his "research."

Since Manbat is like a serious version of Batmite in that this character causes no end of trouble for Batman, the Bob Haney story soon gets complicated and Batman will have to go to unusual lengths in order to get them out of the inevitable trap and to fight until victory is achieved.

The Jim Aparo artwork retains the sleek embellishment that the artists work had developed during the mid-seventies. The sometimes clumsy drawing of Aparo's earlier work had been overcome, and he seems completely in charge of getting the story told effeciently and with some stylish panache. It is this period of his artwork which seems to be a superior example of a style which devolved toward cartoonish caricature a decade later.

Below: The "Emperor Jones" as played by actor Paul Robveson in the 1933 film.
Paul Robeson