Brave and the Bold #6

Brave and the Bold #6
(The first time I typed that, it came out Boild! Hah!)
VERY VERY GOOD. Sure, it's nonsensical. Sure, the Challengers weren't a big surprise - I was wondering when they'd finally show up. The main thing is, this here's a modern age comic with silver age overtones. The plot is silver agey, the characterization is silver agey, the incidentals and details (a giant firing gun?!!) are silver agey, hell, even the art is silver agey! It's great! This is probably very similar to what All-Star Superman would be like if it were in-continuity. A wonderful wrap-up to this first arc ending a whirlwind tour of many corners of the DCU including the mainstream superhero universe, Waid's 31st century, Rann, Lobo, the Challengers of the Unknown, and even Destiny of the Endless! All that's missing here is a visit from John Constantine.
Great stuff, and it leaves me wanting more, always the best sign of a VERY GOOD comic book.
Why not EXCELLENT? Strangely enough, for the very same reason that I lauded the book above: Silver age weirdness. Sure, it's all good, but in this modern age of readers with deeper scientific backgrounds, more education, and more inquisitive minds, it's not fair to throw in all the weirdness and not explain it sufficiently. In the Silver Age, they often had copius editor's notes explaining the science of the concepts used in the stories. Sure, it was often overly simplistic or wrong, but at least they made an effort. In this story, the characters all seem to understand the internal logic of the concepts involved, but the same is never made clear to us. Still, it's fun, and the lack of explanation, is sorta retro - in a way - so it gets that high rating.