The Brave and the Bold #200
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Brave and the Bold #200 marks the close of one of DC's longest-running continuous series — 28 years and 200 issues — while simultaneously launching the next chapter of Batman's publishing history. The issue contains the first appearances of Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro), Geo-Force (Brion Markov), and Halo (Gabrielle Doe), three original characters who would anchor the Batman and the Outsiders ongoing series that replaced it on DC's schedule. By folding a team-debut preview directly into a milestone finale, DC's editorial team executed an unusually elegant transition: the death and the birth of a franchise inside a single cover. The Outsiders themselves represented a deliberate creative shift — Batman operating outside the Justice League's authority, leading a team of outsiders and rejects — a template that has been revisited by DC writers and artists in nearly every decade since.
In The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983), writer Mike W. Barr and artist Dave Gibbons explore the eerie duality of Brimstone through a haunting tale of two worlds and two selves. As one Brimstone’s spirit crosses from Earth-2 to Earth-1 in 1983, he finds himself pitted against a Batman he never expected—only to be defeated again, leaving his original body trapped in silence. Cover by Jim Aparo captures the story’s dark, otherworldly tension.
In "Smell of Brimstone, Stench of Death!", the dual legacy of Brimstone [Nicholas Lucien] unfolds across timelines, as the Earth-2 version of the villain, defeated in 1955 by Batman, Robin, and Commissioner Gordon, channels his spirit into his Earth-1 counterpart in 1983—only to face another Batman, this one from the present, and a new set of allies including Dr. Joan Lincoln and Rabbi David Kline. The story weaves a haunting tale of identity, where two versions of the same man—linked by spirit yet divided by fate—struggle in the shadows, unaware of the cost their collision exacts on both worlds.
In a meta moment straight from the pages of *The Brave and the Bold* #200, Bat-Mite takes a break from his usual antics to voice his frustrations directly to the editors—demanding his own series before he’s erased from the comic entirely. With a mix of playful defiance and genuine concern, he questions why he’s been left out, turning the spotlight on his own place in the DC Universe.
In Gotham, a hospital siege led by the fanatic Miklos threatens to end in mass casualties, but Batman and his newly assembled team, the Outsiders, arrive in time to stop the chaos. With Geo-Force, Black Lightning, Metamorpho, Katana, and Halo proving their worth in the field, the team faces off against the terrorists—though one of them, Simon, won’t survive the night. Commissioner Gordon watches from the sidelines, knowing this is just the beginning.
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Writer Mike W. Barr scripted both the lead story and the Outsiders preview; Dave Gibbons (two years before Watchmen) penciled and inked the 40-page main story with Gary Martin contributing additional inks, while Jim Aparo — the defining Batman artist of the era — handled the preview. Both stories were edited by Len Wein with Nicola Cuti as assistant editor, and colored throughout by Adrienne Roy. DC had decided to cancel the long-running team-up title due to declining sales and to redirect Batman into a team-book format, consciously pursuing an audience that had responded to Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's New Teen Titans. The 64-page square-bound anniversary format gave the creative team room to close the old series with a proper Earth-One/Earth-Two crossover featuring a villain called Brimstone, then hand off directly to the Outsiders preview — a structural choice that made the finale feel like a launch rather than a send-off.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Final issue of The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1, which began publication in August/September 1955 and ran for 200 issues before cancellation in 1983.
- First appearance of the Outsiders as a team: Batman, Black Lightning, Metamorpho, Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro), Geo-Force (Brion Markov), and Halo (Gabrielle Doe).
- First individual appearances of Katana, Geo-Force, and Halo — three original characters created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo specifically for the new team.
- The issue contains two distinct stories: the 40-page lead 'Smell of Brimstone, Stench of Death!' (Barr/Gibbons), a Pre-Crisis Earth-One/Earth-Two Batman crossover, and a 16-page Outsiders preview 'Introducing: Batman and the Outsiders' (Barr/Aparo).
- The series was cancelled due to poor sales and replaced on DC's schedule by the new monthly Batman and the Outsiders, developed by the same creative team of Barr and Aparo.
- Editor Len Wein and assistant editor Nicola Cuti oversaw the issue; the cover was painted/drawn by Jim Aparo with colors by Anthony Tollin; the book also includes a one-page Bat-Mite humor editorial written and drawn by Stephen DeStefano.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in Batman: The Brave and the Bold — The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 3 (DC, November 2021), in DC Through the '80s: The End of Eras (DC, February 2021), and the Outsiders preview was included in Showcase Presents: Batman and the Outsiders Vol. 1 (2007).
- The Outsiders team also received their own dedicated animated episode ('Enter the Outsiders!') in Season 1 of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series (Cartoon Network, January 9, 2009), with the team subsequently appearing across multiple episodes of that series and in Young Justice: Outsiders.
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Reprinted in Batman Sonderheft #34 (1984), Batman Sonderheft #36 (1984), Hercule #10 (1984), Showcase Presents: Batman and the Outsiders #1 (2007), World's Funnest #[nn] (2016), DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection #98 (2017), Batman and the Outsiders #1 (2017), DC Through the '80s: The End of Eras #[nn] (2021), Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Bronze Age Omnibus #3 (2021), Batman Presents #7
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