Challenge of the Weapons Master!

The Brave and the Bold #29

April 1960

In a Nutshell

Xotar, a criminal from the 120th century, travels 10,000 years into the past just to pick a fight with the Justice League. Once he learns which of his awesome future weapons can defeat the JLA, Xotar can return to his own time to battle the Intersolar Police. This turns out to be a bad plan.

As a rule, I’m not fond of stories where the good guys are just responding to a direct attack by the bad guys. I like my heroes to be proactive. To capture my interest, our heroes have to be voluntarily putting themselves at risk to help others. When all they’re doing is defending themselves, it’s hard to argue that they’re really making a contribution.

And of course, contribution is what this blog is all about. In the JLA’s battle with the Weapons Master, we have two choices. We can either say that everyone contributed, or that no one did. It’s perfectly valid to note that, if the JLA did not exist, there would be no threat here. So my first inclination is to say that none of the Leaguers did anything truly helpful here.

But that’s no fun. So I’m going to begrudgingly accept that preventing Xotar from defeating the Intersolar Police is a kind of accomplishment.

Roll Call

  • It is Snapper Carr who summons the League this time. a reasonable response to finding himself in the clutches of Xotar’s indestructible robot. Snapper spends the rest of the issue pinned to a chair by Xotar’s Gravitic Ray, which establishes an interesting pattern. To date, every Leaguer who has assembled the team has then sat out the rest of the mission.

The response rate is improved this time, as only Superman fails to answer the call. The book teases the Man of Steel’s absence as something of a mystery.


  • Having trapped the League in his Gravitic Ray, Xotar splits them into smaller groups to test his super-weapons. The Flash has to go it alone once again, but still manages to overcome Xotar’s Microscopitor shrink ray.
  • Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter destroy Xotar’s De-Evolutionizer with the aid of a small mirror J’onn fashions by hand out of beach sand. I would have simply borrowed a mirror from someone, but that’s why I’m not a super-hero.

  • Xotar next frees Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Batman to confront his Magneto-Bubble weapon, but only two of them accept the challenge. Batman excuses himself to see if he can track down the missing Superman.
  • With his first three weapons defeated, Xotar reassembles our core team of five heroes to confront his Illusion-Maker. Just when our heroes appear to be on the brink of defeat, Batman arrives with Superman, whom he deduced had been traveling through time when the signal alert went out. Superman quickly destroys the Illusion-Maker, and sends Xotar back to his own time to face justice from the Intersolar Police.

This means that Batman’s first official contribution to the team as a Justice Leaguer was to run off and fetch Superman.

I did not know that!

During this mission, Aquaman notes that the Martian Manhunter can not use any of his other powers when he is invisible. I have never heard of this limitation referenced anywhere else, and wonder how long it will take before we see that rule broken.

The Scorecard

There’s no movement in the chart this week. Everyone contributed, so the rankings remain unchanged.


Team Member


Tenure

Cover Appearances

Story Appearances

Contribution Rating

Aquaman

2

2

100%

2

100%

2

100%

Flash

2

2

100%

2

100%

2

100%

Green Lantern

2

2

100%

2

100%

2

100%

Martian Manhunter

2

2

100%

2

100%

2

100%

Snapper Carr

2

0

0%

2

100%

2

100%

Wonder Woman

2

2

100%

2

100%

2

100%

Batman

2

0

0%

2

100%

1

50%

Superman

2

0

0%

2

100%

1

50%

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