Hypnosis in Media

“Batman — The Brave and the Bold #4”

“The Bride and the Bold”

Won­der Woman assists Bat­man by tak­ing on the supervil­lain­ess Gigan­ta while he deals with her part­ner Mouse Man. Watch­ing the whole com­bat from Mount Olym­pus are the chil­dren of Aphrodite (one of the Greek gods who are the patrons of the Ama­zon), Har­mo­nia and Eros. Because Eros is dis­gust­ed with the way Won­der Woman always fights, he decides to pro­vide a lit­tle love in her life, hit­ting both her and Bat­man with his Arrows of Love. Under their influ­ence they decide to get mar­ried, but Bat­man changes his mind about the arrange­ments as they are about to enter the Gotham City cour­t­house and decides for a large pub­lic wed­ding ceremony.

Such an occur­rence angers Talia, the daugh­ter of Ras al Ghul, who is infat­u­at­ed with mar­ry­ing Bat­man her­self. In her anger, she gath­ers togeth­er as many of their old foes as pos­si­ble to make an attack on the cer­e­mo­ny. The fight fea­tures a pletho­ra of old Won­der Woman and Bat­man foes, includ­ing stal­warts as the Jok­er, the Pen­guin and Two-Face on one hand, and the Angle Man and the Chee­tah on the oth­er, as well as a host of less­er-known foes. For­tu­nate­ly, the guests of the wed­ding include a num­ber of heroes as well as sev­er­al Ama­zons, all of whom are both annoyed at the inter­rup­tion and glad of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take out some villains.

All of which annoys Eros even more, until his moth­er Aphrodite her­self appears to chas­tise her son by explain­ing that every­thing Won­der Woman does, even fight­ing to pro­tect the inno­cent, inspires love. With that, she and her son return to Olym­pus, leav­ing Bat­man and Won­der Woman free to final­ly stop pre­tend­ing. Yes, nei­ther of them were under Eros’ spell, at least then. Bat­man freed him­self from the spell when they were at the Gotham City cour­t­house, where he saw the image of the woman he tru­ly loved, Jus­tice, and he used Won­der Wom­an’s mag­ic Las­so of Truth to free her, too. They still kept up the cha­rade in order to lure out the supervillains.

And, at the end, Super­man won­ders whether there ever will be anoth­er woman in Bat­man’s life. Sure enough, on the final page, as a wor­ried Mouse Man escapes and won­ders how all this got start­ed by his lit­tle caper with Gigan­tia, Cat­woman appears and says “Come here, Mousey. Let’s talk.”

Adden­da: The issue also fea­tures cameo appear­ances by the fol­low­ing: com­e­dy char­ac­ters Sug­ar and Spike as flower chil­dren; Rob­by Reed (of “Dial H for Hero”, as evi­denced by his sig­na­ture say­ing “Socka­m­agee!”); Ultra, the Mul­ti-Alien, as one of the heroes; and Vic­ki Vale, who has a long-time crush on Bat­man her­self. Oth­er minor vil­lains include Byr­na Bril­liant, the Blue Snow Man; the Human Eras­er; the Crim­son Cen­tipede; Paper­Man; Egg Fu; and Cat Man.