The Brave & The Bold #216 - Batman and Air Wave - homage to Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt #10

Much faster than I expected, here's the latest Golden Age Team-Up Project commission - The Brave & The Bold issue #216, pairing Batman with the Golden Age Air Wave, in a Bambos Georgiou-drawn cover adapted from Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt #10, original art by E.R. Cruz.

1948 - and Bruce Wayne's planned relaxing morning is interrupted by a radio report warning the residents of a Gotham suburb to stay indoors, as a police patrol has spotted Solomon Grundy making his way out of Slaughter Swamp and heading towards the city! Aware that his fellow JSA member Green Lantern is - in his secret identity as Alan Scott - attending a conference on the West Coast, Wayne dons his Batman costume, leaps into the Batmobile, and heads towards the swamplands.

Meanwhile, with his girlfriend Helen visiting family to plan their upcoming wedding, Larry Jordan is taking advantage of a well-earned vacation from the DA's office to upgrade the radio equipment he uses in his heroic guise as Air Wave - and as he adjusts his headset, he detects a form of carrier wave pitched at a level well above normal human hearing. Intrigued, and after donning his own costume, Air Wave is soon skating along telephone wires in the direction of Slaughter Swamp...

By coincidence, both heroes arrive simultaneously at the site of a pitched battle - with Gotham's finest unable to halt the implacable march of Solomon Grundy! A gas bomb from Batman's utility belt proves ineffective, but Air Wave, convinced that the carrier wave he's been detecting has some connection to Grundy's rampage, scavenges equipment from some wrecked patrol cars and quickly constructs a jamming device, while Batman tries to keep Grundy busy without being caught by the marshland monster!

The jamming device interrups the broadcast signal, and Grundy halts, seemingly confused - only to redouble his efforts to attack the two heroes! Caught unawares, Batman is temporarily knocked out, and Air Wave is sent flying by a punch from Grundy, crashing into his hastily-constructed equipment. With the jamming device destroyed - and both heroes incapacitated - Grundy returns to his slow but inexorable march towards the centre of Gotham City...

To be continued - next issue!

I couldn't resist using this cover as the source for this commission, given the visual similarities between Air Wave and Captain Thunder (mainly their antennae) - and the giant figure holding the two heroes pretty much had to be Grundy ... which led me on to another cover for his reappearance in issue #217, which you should be seeing in the not-too-distant future.