“Yesterday’s” Comic> FCBD Young Justice Batman Super Sampler

Make sure you buy a few comics at Free Comic Book Day or these folks are coming for you! Support your local comic shop.

FCBD 2011 Young Justice Batman BB Super Sampler

DC Comics (July, 2011)

COVER ART: Mike Norton & Alex Sinclair

EDITOR: Jim Chadwick

Young Justice: “Face Your Fears”

WRITERS: Art Baltazar & Franco

ARTIST: Mike Norton

COLORIST: Zac Atkinson

LETTERER: Carlos M. Mangual

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Michael McCalister

Batman: The Brave & The Bold: “Let Me Tell You About Bruce Wayne…”

WRITER: Sholly Fisch

PENCILER: Rick Burchett

INKER: Dan Davis

COLORIST: Gabe Eltaeb

LETTERER: Travis Lanham

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Chynna Clugston Flores

Again we have a Free Comic Book Day sampler based on the TV tie-in comics. On the Young Justice side the team is sent to stop Psycho Pirate from taking a chunk of plutonium and zapping our young heroes with his Medusa mask, forcing them to experience their greatest personal concern. Kid Flash is able to break out of it and stops Psycho Pirate, freeing the others, but the Atomic Skull is the one who hired him. Together the team manage to recover the plutonium but Atomic Skull gets away.

I looked back to my old Free Comic Book Day review and this was my favorite read that year. Outside of the odd version of the Atomic Skull used here, which I’m not a fan of, and Kid Flash beating the Medusa Mask’s influence because of his metabolism and not breaking through his fear this is a really good story. I love the art and the exploration of the team’s personal issues, though this story takes place before Artemis was brought in so we don’t get to see her fears.

The Batman: The Brave & The Bold story has Batman and the Flash teaming up to fight Heat Wave and a version of Firefly I’m not familiar with. However, the focus is on a charity event in Gotham City that Bruce is forced to miss out on. His “friends” start badmouthing him for being late and calling him lazy and whatever (thanks to Bruce’s cover but I think they go a bit too far at times, like questioning his commitment to the charity) until Alfred comics to render his apologies and that Bruce will match and double whatever the gathering has collected. This was a pretty good story, the joke being what Batman and Flash are dealing with versus what they’re saying about Bruce, but that’s really all there is too it, an excuse to make rich snobs look stupid. I need a bit more than that.

Overall this sampler isn’t too bad, and unlike last week’s wouldn’t be reprinted in the main comics, though the Young Justice story would end up as part of a couple of trade collections. I like when a Free Comic Book Day comic is either an exclusive story or a reprint of a story long out of print. It makes the comic feel more special than just a cheap preview.