When is a team-up not a team-up? When one half of the team is doing all the work. In this case, handling the heavy lifting is the Atom who, in his other identity as Ray Palmer, is in Gotham Hospital one day when Batman arrives – on a stretcher. He is, to all intents and purposes, dead, his mission to save a young woman from evil hoods unfinished. But the Mighty Mite has a crazy plan that just might work.
Using the intimate knowledge of the brain that goes with being, er, a research physicist, he’s going to try steering the Catatonic Crusader through the streets of Gotham to apprehend the crooks and free the hostage heiress.
And after many twists and turns and much bashing of soft tissue, the quirky quest succeeds, Batman recovers and Ray returns to his lecture tour without telling his Justice League pal he’d given him a hand.
So far as we know the Atom never did mention this most subtle of team-ups to Batman. But readers of the infamous Identity Crisis maxi-series can likely assume he told his future wife, lady lawyer Jean Loring…
… but that’s a discussion for another day, it’s this issue of The Brave and the Bold Billy D and I are discussing on the latest episode of his podcast Magazines and Monsters. It’s The Brave and The Bob episode 79 because, yes, 1974’s ‘The Corpse That Wouldn’t Die’ springs, like the Atom from an elastic band, from the mind of prolific DC author Bob Haney. And you’ll note that the art and lettering is by frequent collaborator Jim Aparo at his best.
Join Billy and me for ‘Zany Haney’ Earth B shenanigans galore, you can find the show wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts, for example, just click on this link.
And if you want to read the story along with us but don’t have the original 100-page super-spectacular in which it appeared, it’s in at least four English language collections, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Bronze Age Omnibus #2. If you’d like to read it without breaking your back, and have a subscription to DC Infinite, Bob Haney’s your uncle!
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 