[A series on DC’s animated tie-in comics collections by guest reviewer Zach King. Zach writes about movies at The Cinema King and about comics on Instagram at Dr. King’s Comics.]

When The Batman Adventures flipped over to The Batman & Robin Adventures, not much changed, other than an implicit promise to include the Boy Wonder in a more active role. New #1s are sometimes moments to reset and reorient, but more often than not they’re superficial changes to the masthead.

And in the case of The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the fourth (yet still unnumbered) trade in the series, next to nothing has changed, and yet everything has changed. The book is still the same — gonzo Silver Age team-ups and a who’s-who cast to make you reach for your Who’s Who — but this volume takes a back-to-basics approach, evidenced by its Superman-centric opener and its decision to invest wholly in a single creative team. Sholly Fisch writes all six tales, and Rick Burchett draws them all; especially with Burchett as one of the unsung heroes of the DCAU, there’s a sense of this volume linking The Brave and the Bold with a much longer tradition.

As soft reboots go, you can’t do much better than starting off a new #1 with Superman himself. After a prologue starring the Joker, Batman and Superman parachute into the Bottle City of Kandor to investigate a series of thefts. Fisch wisely concedes that Kandor is Superman’s domain, but the locked-room mystery angle makes Batman’s inclusion a fun one. “I’ll explain any Kryptonian customs,” Superman suggests, “You analyze the clues.” Silver Age fans especially will enjoy this issue, littered with folks like Jax-Ur and Et-Rog (the rest of us, meanwhile, will be hitting Wikipedia to learn that, yes, Silver Age Jax-Ur wore a long-sleeved polo shirt).

While Superman might be a safe bet for a first issue, Fisch wastes no time in mashing up unlikely heroes with even unlikelier villains. Captain Marvel and Tawky Tawny team up with Batman to save Christmas from the Psycho-Pirate. In one arresting sequence, Burchett invokes no less than Mask of the Phantasm when Batman breaks through Psycho-Pirate’s spell of despair. Next up is a classic case of “How did no one think of this before,” in which the Mad Hatter tries to steal Jay Garrick’s helmet by going, of all places, “through the looking glass” with the help of Mirror Master. Lewis Carroll fans will delight in seeing Burchett’s rendition of the classic Wonderland characters, lacking only an Alice to distract Mad Hatter’s singular focus.

Throughout this volume, Fisch seems to be playing with classic Silver Age tropes — whodunits that the reader can solve, literary riffs — and in one of the book’s best stories, we get a wedding that couldn’t or shouldn’t have been when Cupid’s arrow literally strikes Batman and Wonder Woman. While the smitten heroes plan their wedding, a spurned Talia al Ghul unites the motliest of crews to crash the ceremony. Fisch pulls off a double punchline in this story: first, a delightfully corny reason why Batman could never marry Wonder Woman, and second, the identity of which villain gets the last laugh.¹ And while Fisch is unravelling the yarn, Burchett has a ball populating the various crowd scenes: Sugar & Spike turn up as flower kids, Steve Trevor stands with the bridal party, and Kite Man swoops overhead. (The only editorially false note comes when Killer Moth is called “Firefly” while lighting Martian Manhunter ablaze.)

Next, a story with the Manhunters seems to overstay its welcome, even though it involves Guy Gardner and Lobo butting heads. (James Gunn, eat your heart out. Keep your eyes peeled for a Zook cameo, though.) At just about the moment when my patience ran thin, the story concludes with Batman sighing, “They all deserve each other.” Much stronger is the following Manhunter tale, though this one stars J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter. Like the book’s first story, this one gets the reader in on the fun by posing a unique challenge — can Batman (or you) spot the Martian Manhunter in one of his disguises? It’s a good bit of fun to see Batman use his detective skills to suss out his old friend, and having J’onn observe the world’s greatest detective is a creative excuse for a team-up.

I’ve read this The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold volume a few times, having initially picked it up thinking it was the first volume in the series. (Collection editors, take note! Those numbers on the spine can be helpful.) Each time I read it, I’m impressed by the polish and the confidence in the storytelling; the wide sweep of Silver Age continuity is breathtaking, and there’s a genuine excitement in not knowing who’s on the next page. The animated series had a similar verve about it, and while there’s nothing as left-field as Kid Eternity or the Great Ten in this volume, the stories are a perfect match for Burchett’s line work: seamless, timeless, and accessible for new fans and diehards alike.

In the next volume, Fisch and Burchett keep the “All-New” attitude afloat with Help Wanted, which promises a Golden Age Batman, a Space Age Hawkman, and a thematic sequel to the last BTAS episode you’d expect.