the Brave and the Bold #32 - DC

I'm sorry that I keep raving about J Michael Straczynski, but . . I think he's doing an incredible job here. And no . . before you ask . . I'm not the president of the JMS fan club. But . . I wouldn't mind joining . . if there is one. This issue JMS does an incredible job of bring Aquaman and Etrigan together. I also liked the way that this story was told . . from a third person's perspective. It seems that there's some yearly ritual where this demon like creature tries to cross over into our world from another dimension. Apparently Arthur and Etrigan's powers are the best impediment for it. So . . they've agreed that once a year, when the future of our world is at stake . . they'll work together and try to thwart the demon's conquest. The problem is . . finding out where and when it's going to happen. Luckily, for them, this year the entity has assembled an army of the dead, by reviving every person that's lost his life to the seas. That's hundred's of thousands. But that's not really the lucky part. In the process of building it's army, it also starts to try to draw even more soldiers for the various vessels on the seas. The lucky part comes when this one vessel is capsized, but one of it's passengers survives, Whitford. He eventually washes up on shore, and apparently at the feet of our 2 heroes. Since he knows where it happened, Etrigan casts a spell that allows him to breathe underwater so that he can take them to the site. Once there he witness' the true potential and power of Aquaman and Etrigan as they fight to save the world. The ironic part of this story is that it's framed by the scene of Whitford, after the incident, robbing a grave. Or so it appears. While underwater Whitford came face to face with a friend of his that he had lost to the seas years earlier, Philip. When the incident was over, Arthur tried to take the memory away from Whitford. But . . he still retains it . . like a dream. He just doesn't know if it's real or not. But when he digs up his buddy Philip, and finds him grasping the St Christopher medal that he yanked off his neck . . his confusion is verified . . and he knows that it was more than a dream. As well as JMS is doing with scripting this book, so to is Jesus Saiz doing a tremendous job with the art. I've always liked Jesus' style, but . . I feel like he's putting in some extra effort on this one. The pages and panels are beautiful. And if that weren't enough . . next issue features Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Zatanna. After that we have a two-parter where the Legion has come back in time to recruit some new members. The first part is with the Legion and the Doom Patrol, while the second half features the Substitute Legion and the Inferior Five. It looks to me that this series is just going to get better and better.