posted May 05, 2003 08:16 PM            

Ideally this would be a yearly series. So we start with three volumes that collect Viking Prince, Silent Knight, et al--eight issues per volume.

This gives us a Joe Kubert library of a sort, but with added work from Irv Novick, Russ Heath, etc.

Then with volume four we get a team book kind of B&B archive, which skips Justice League and Hawkman, but includes Suicide Squad, Cave Carson, and Strange Sports Stories (there's a team aspect in all of these). This team theme goes for two volumes (about nine issues per volume) and phases into the team-up theme.

With volume six, the team-up theme continues, skipping past Teen Titans, for three volumes, with a mix of heroes, but a lot of Batman by the third of these.

And with volume ten, we're into the rest of the run of the title featuring all Batman team-ups.

In this way we don't get multiple archive titles (The Brave and the Bold Team archive, The Brave and the Bold Team-Up archive, The Brave and the Bold Anthology archive, Batman: The Brave and the Bold archive) and everything comes to those who wait.

Since the Neal Adams illoed team-ups are all likely to be reprinted in that special hardcover Batman edition this year, a steady chronological reprinting puts those far enough in the future for the B&B archive that there won't be any overlap in the present.

The first volume of B&B could be tied in with things like the current Hawkman series, and with tributes to Joe Kubert.

The team issues of B&B allow us to glimpse some of DC's other teams, and the Strange Sports Stories get reprinted (whereas it's not likely they would be in any other collection).

posted May 06, 2003 08:44 AM            

Is it right to cut issues out that have or may go in their own Archives ( Metamorpho or JLA for example )? Or do a complete reprinting?

posted May 09, 2003 04:58 PM            

With Justice League, Hawkman, and soon Teen Titans, they've been archived in their own series. This isn't yet the case for the Element Man.

I expect it wouldn't be until about the sixth or seventh volume that a B&B archive would get that far. And if we assume that DC launched this series in 2004 and put out one every year thereafter, it would be around 2011 before the Metamorpho question became an issue. So I suggest that if at that time Metamorpho still hasn't gotten his own archive--THEN his two debut issues in B&B should be reprinted in that volume. But if Metamorpho has gotten an archive series by then, then there's no need to duplicate those issues in the B&B archive.

posted May 09, 2003 08:13 PM               

As others have pointed out, the JLA and Hawkman issues are already reprinted.

Cave Carson has 5 issues. If DC decides to archive them, I expect a collection with the 3 issues of CC in Showcase, making a regular sized done-in-one volume.

Suicide Squad has 6 issues. A short archive, ala the upcoming Challengers volume 1, is most likely.

That leaves 5 issues of Strange Sports Stories. If DC decides to archive this, they will likely package it with the first several issues of the 70s series. I feel that's not a great fit, but so be it.

At issue #50, the superhero teamups begin, and I expect DC to archive those as the Silver Age B&B archives. They will likely skip the issues archived elsewhere. Metamorpho will end up in his own volume sometime in the next few years.