The Brave & the Bold #8

Well, for starters, we have the Flash and his adorable family combined with the Doom Patrol, and if that's not a recipe for success, then I don't know what is. AND, it's written by Mark Waid and drawn by George Perez. I have REALLY been enjoying my comicbooks lately!

I really don't know that much about the Doom Patrol. Yes, I'm familiar with them, but it has flown more or less under my radar. Same with the Challengers of the Unknown. And it really doesn't matter at all, because Mr. Waid writes them all VERY well.

The main thrust of this, is that the Challengers have the Book of Destiny, and are taking turns reading it, because it has a tendancy to...take over whomever is doing the reading. Cue spooky music. Also, it has been revealed that Jai and Iris, the adorable moppets of Wally and Linda West are freaks of nature. I've said that about my OWN kids, but it seems to be even more applicable here. Their powers are unstable, their ages have been fantastically accelerated. It is obvious that Wally and Linda love their children, and are increasingly nervous and afraid for them as well.

Niles Caulder, the head honco or whatever he calls himself over at the Doom Patrol is interested in the West children. Actually, he seems to be a little on the obsessed side. Wally is leery of the good Doctor's interest, but still...they do need to see if there's anything that can be done to help the kids.

Cue MORE spooky music. They end up at a really cool, appropriately gothic castle, just dripping with atmosphere, creaky doors, and all. Caulder himself seems a little out there as well. Wally's nervous, Linda is nervous, the kids are certainly nervous. Fascinated...but nervous. Rita does offer to take them on a tour of the torture chamber however, and like ALL children, this melts their little hearts, and away they go. They are doing pretty well too, until all the odd things start to happen, like Rita's stretchy arms, robots and mummies, just for starters.

Meanwhile, Caulder is trying to convince Wally to turn the kids over to him for...study. Yes, that's it...study. Wally isn't buying what Caulder is trying to sell, but Metamorpho shows up, and calms Wally down a trifle. Then the rest of the Doom patrol and the kids show up, mid-brawl, and Wally, bless his heart, comes out with this little nugget of parentspeak:

"...I don't care WHO started it...I'm FINISHING it!"

Hee hee! Like I haven't said THAT a hundred times in my life!

So then they all have dinner, which is going reasonably well, till the Robot-Guy takes his brain out and plunks it on the table. HOW MANY TIMES do I have to tell you guys not to take your brains out at the dinner table?! The entire West family is just about ready to leave, and who can blame them? COMPANY manners people!

Still, somehow Caulder convinces Wally to let him put the twins in these cool pod-looking capsule thingies, with Metamorpho somehow connected, while he runs perfectly innocent scans. What could possibly go wrong?

Oops.

Metamorpho starts screaming and or vaporizing, the meters are redlining, and Wally can't get through the field to get the kids out. They have to do something, anything to contain the kids...NOW. Cliff, the Robot-guy can contain ONE of the kids, but only one, so Caulder tells Wally he has to chose which child to save. What a prince of a guy! Wally realizes that he can save BOTH kids, with the help of the Negative Man, and by God it works...at least long enough to stabilize the children and get everyone back into their own bodies...which turns out to be just as critical for the Doom Patrol as for the Twins.

So everything ends up just peachy. Except that Metamorpho is still missing, and the word "Megistus" is scratched into his capsule, which refers to the bad guy fighting Power Girl and Wonder Woman an issue ago, and Wally had time to actually think about which child he would save, and now he has to live with that.

This is fabulous.