'DC Brave and Bold!: Female DC Super Heroes Take on the Universe' - the DC counterpart to 'Marvel Fearless and Fantastic!: Female Super Heroes Save the World', and in writing and presentation it is the inferior version of 'DC: Women of Action'. But it is still about loads of DC superheroines, so I dig it.
It has more heroine inclusions than in 'Women of Action'. There is a chapter on Amethyst (finally!), and chapters on ladies I'd been sparsely familiar with before, such as Miss Martian, Saturn Girl, Star Sapphire, Ice, Fire, Lana Lang (like when she was Superwoman), Jesse Chambers aka Jesse Quick aka Liberty Belle, Artemis (my kind of gal! why isn't she in more things?), and Elasti-Woman. Then there's the women I'd never heard of at all beforehand, such as The Flash of China/Avery Ho, Crush/Xiomara Rojas (she sounds really cool, but I can't find much about her online, and is she Lobo's daughter? he's not mentioned in this book), Tanya Spears (a or the new Power Girl?), Steel/Natasha Irons, Bluebird (she sounds awesome, more of her please), Soranik Natu, Red Arrow/Emiko Queen, Iris West, and Phantom Girl.Lois Lane and Etta Candy also rightfully receive their own chapters.
But there's no Amanda Waller, sadly.
'Brave and Bold!' has some problems, like how brief its character descriptions are for its limited one-page written chapters. As a result, some details about the heroines are vague, are missing important details, or are plain bizarre. Like, the book will let you know what languages a heroine speaks if she's multilingual, and how many, when other, omitted things about her seem more crucial (Catwoman being fluent in Mandarin trumps her relationship with Batman). It also seems to think that mentioning Batwoman's love of rock music, and that she plays the guitar (I did not know that...), should overshadow her tragic life and past. Same thing with Black Canary - her current incarnation as a rockstar leading a band is prioritised above nearly everything else about her.
Other examples of bizarre trivia are: Jessica Cruz's favourite food is pancakes (what about her PTSD?), Stephanie Brown loves waffles, Hawkgirl loves driving cars, Starfire tends to a garden, Etta loves the sitcom 'Friends' and chocolate, and Mera owns a dog named Aquadog who ironically can't swim.
Onto the subject of details that are not only frivolous but redundant when it comes to the simple act of looking at the artwork: the book ends its bio on Amethyst with, 'She has amazing purple eyes.' Well no shit - she's looking right at me with those purple eyes on the page next to that descriptor! Same with Frost's (not Killer Frost, not in this modern continuity, it seems) bio ending with her having blue lips, Zatanna's tuxedo and top hat closing off hers, and Tanya Spears's concluding that she wears her hair in buns.
I can't decide if the chapter on Power Girl (Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr) not acknowledging her (in)famous cleavage window, in neither her bio nor her art pic, is an act of feminist rebellion, of restraint, or is another example of publisher editorial truncation. Can it be empowering either way? In different ways?
Nitpick-but-not-really: Katana's chapter talks about her sword Soultaker A LOT...and in her art pic her sword is nowhere in sight. Oops.
Past comics history is not included in 'Brave and Bold!', unlike 'Women of Action', which can be counted as a DC women's history book. Instead, 'Brave and Bold!' is written to reflect the DCU's current comic continuity, retcons and all; in other words, the only info we get is how these characters are in relation to what is canon nowadays. We don't receive much on who Donna Troy and Cassandra Sandmark are in relation to Wonder Woman in their separate chapters (I know Donna's multiple choice origin story is a retconning and rewriting mess, and the book had to pick one, but still). And while Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are honoured with their own chapters as well, there is no mention whatsoever of them ever being Batgirl. Cassandra is Orphan and Steph is Spoiler, and these are the heroes they've always been.
To my relief, Barbara Gordon's time as Oracle is written in in her chapter. The Birds of Prey are referred to many times in the book.
Another similarity to 'Fearless and Fantastic!' is the omission of female villains, which doesn't feel fair and makes the book look kind of biased, basic and unnuanced.
'Brave and Bold!''s greatest sin is undoubtedly the exclusion of Harley Quinn. Harley. Fucking. Quinn. Although she is mentioned once in Batgirl/Babs Gordon's chapter, as an 'antihero'. Uh. Huh. At least others who would be considered "antiheroes" receive their own chapter - Catwoman, Huntress, Big Barda, Crush, and Frost.
But again, 'DC Brave and Bold!' is about DC's superwomen, so I can't write it off entirely. It contains good points, and excellent and beautiful artwork/cover art choices for its heroines. It clearly loves Batgirl (there are five art pics of her in the book, and her chapter knows and respects her well, mentioning her photographic memory and love of solving problems), and Gail Simone writes the foreword.
Need I say anything else, in this review which turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated?
I recommend 'DC Brave and Bold!' for any DC and DC heroines fan.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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