Green Arrow – Page 4 – Now Read This!

October 29, 2011October 28, 2011

Green Lantern and Green Arrow #1

By Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, John Broome, Gil Kane & various (Paperback Library)
ISBN: 0-446-64729-2 075

Until relatively recent times, comic strips – like rock ‘n’ roll or spray-can street art – were considered an outcast, bastard non-Art form continually required to explain and justify themselves.

And during those less open-minded times, just like the other examples cited, every so often the funnybook industry produced something which forced the wider world to sit up and take notice. In this slim paperback – in itself proof positive of the material’s merit because the stories were contained in a proper book and not a flimsy, gaudy, disposable pamphlet – some of the most groundbreaking tales in American comicbook history were re-presented to an audience finally becoming cognizant that a mere Children’s mediumâ€ might have something to contribute to the whole culture and societyâ€¦

This striking paperback book collection opens with an introduction from Samuel R. Delaney and is rather sensibly followed by the very first Green Lantern tale from Showcase # 22 (September-October 1959), providing much needed background – as well as few solid old-fashioned thrills for readers new to the character and concept.

After the successful revival and reworking of The Flash in 1956, DC (or National Comics as they then were) was keen to build on a seemingly resurgent superhero trend. Showcase #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comicbook (#108) with architects of the Silver Age editor Julie Schwartz, writer John Broome and artists Gil Kane & Joe Giella providing a Space Age reworking of a Golden-Age superhero with the magic ring.

Super-science replaced mysticism as Hal Jordan, a young test pilot in California, was transported to the side of a dying alien policeman who had crashed on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his power-ring, a device which could materialise thoughts, to seek out a replacement ring-bearer; honest and without fear.

Scanning the planet, it had selected Jordan and brought him to an appointment with destiny. The dying alien bequeathed the ring, a lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his noble profession to the astonished Earthman.

In six pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern’ established the characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would become the spine of DC continuity, opening a universe of wonder to wide eyed readers of all ages.

However, after a decade of earthly crime-busting, interstellar intrigue and spectacular science fiction shenanigans the Silver Age Green Lantern was about to become one of the earliest big-name casualties of the downturn in superhero sales in 1969 prompting Editor Schwartz to try something extraordinary to rescue the series.

The result was a bold experiment which created a fad for socially relevant, ecologically aware, mature stories which spread throughout DC’s costumed hero comics and beyond; totally revolutionising the industry and nigh-radicalising readers.

Tapping superstars-in-waiting Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams to produce the revolutionary fare, Schwartz watched in fascinated disbelief as the resultant thirteen groundbreaking, landmark tales captured the tone of the times, garnered critical praise, awards and desperately valuable publicity from the outside world, whilst simultaneously registering such poor sales that the series was finally cancelled anyway, with the heroes unceremoniously packed off to the back of marginally less endangered comicbook The Flash.

The main event of this pocket-sized collection re-presents the first two landmark stories, perfectly encapsulating everything Americans were already experiencing in the bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation on their own doorsteps. Everything was challenged on principle and with issue #76 of Green Lantern (April 1970 and the first issue of the new decade) O’Neil and Adams redefined the nature of superhero adventure with their â€œIssuesâ€-driven stories; transforming complacent and all-powerful establishment masked boy-scouts into uncertain, questioning champions and strident explorers of the enigma of America.

When these stories first appeared National/DC was a company in transition – just like America itself – with new ideas sought for and acted upon: a wave of fresh, raw talent was hired, akin to the very start of the industry, when excitable scarce-young creators ran wild with imagination. Their cause wasn’t hurt by the industry’s swingeing commercial decline: costs were up and the kids just weren’t buying funnybooks in the quantities they used to so perhaps it was time to see what the next generation had to offerâ€¦

O’ Neil, working in tight collaboration with hyper-realistic artist Adams, assaulted all the traditional monoliths of contemporary costumed dramas with tightly targeted, protest- driven stories. The comicbook had been re-designated Green Lantern/Green Arrow with Emerald Archer Oliver Queen constantly mouthing off as a hot-headed, liberal sounding-board and platform for a generation-in-crisis whilst staid, quasi-reactionary GL Hal Jordan played the part of the oblivious but well-meaning old guard. At least the Ring-Slinger was able to perceive his faults and more or less willing to listen to new ideasâ€¦

‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) is a true landmark of the medium, utterly reinventing the concept of the costumed crusader as newly-minted, freshly bankrupted millionaire Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen challenged his Justice League comrade’s cosy worldview when the lofty space-cop painfully discovered real villains wore business suits, had expense accounts, hurt people just because of skin colour and would happily poison their own nests for short-term gainâ€¦

The specific villain du jour was a wealthy landlord whose treatment of his poverty-stricken tenants wasn’t actually illegal but certainly was wickedly immoralâ€¦ Of course, the fact that this yarn is also a brilliantly devious crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones didn’t exactly hurt eitherâ€¦

The continuation ‘Journey to Desolation’ from #77 was every bit as groundbreaking.

At the conclusion of the #76 an immortal Guardian of the Universe – known as â€œthe Old Timerâ€ – was assigned to accompany the Emerald Duo on a voyage to â€œdiscover Americaâ€: a soul-searching social exploration into the dichotomies which divided the nation – and a tremendously trendy and popular pastime for the nation’s disaffected citizens back then.

Their first stop brought the trio to a poverty-stricken Appalachian mining town run as a private kingdom by a ruthless entrepreneur happy to use agent-provocateurs and Nazi war criminals to keep his wage slaves in line. When a young protest singer looked likely to become the next Bob Dylan and draw unwelcome publicity, he had to be eliminated â€“ as did the three strangers who drove into town at just the wrong momentâ€¦

Although the heroes provided temporary solutions and put away viciously human criminals, these tales were always carefully heavy-handed in exposing bigger ills and issues which couldn’t be fixed with a wave of a Green Ring; invoking an aura of helplessness that was metaphorically emphasised during this story when Hal was summarily stripped of much of his might for no longer being the willing, unquestioning stooge of his officious, high-and-mighty alien mastersâ€¦

It’s impossible to assess the effect this early bookstore edition had on the evolution of comics’ status – it certainly didn’t help keep the comicbook series afloat – butÂ this edition certainly gave credibility to the stories themselves: a fact proved by the number of times and variety of formats these iconic adventures have been reprinted.
Â© 1959, 1970, 1972 National Periodical Publications, Inc.

August 9, 2011August 22, 2011

Green Lantern/Green Arrow volume 1

By Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Dan Adkins & Berni Wrightson (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0224-8

After nearly a decade of earthly crime-busting, interstellar intrigue and spectacular science fiction shenanigans the Silver Age Green Lantern was swiftly becoming one of the earliest big-name casualties of the downturn in superhero sales in 1969 and Editor Julie Schwartz knew something extraordinary was needed to save the series.

The result was a bold experiment that created a fad for socially relevant, ecologically aware, more mature stories which spread throughout DC costumed hero comics that totally revolutionised the industry and nigh-radicalised the readers.

Tapping superstars-in-waiting Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams to produce the revolutionary fare, Schwartz watched in fascinated disbelief as the resultant thirteen groundbreaking, landmark tales – the first seven of which are reprinted in this superb colour collection – captured the tone of the times, garnered critical praise and awards within the industry and desperately valuable publicity from the real world outside, whilst simultaneously registering such poor sales that the series was finally cancelled anyway, with the heroes unceremoniously packed off to the back of marginally less endangered comicbook The Flash.

Once safely established and doubling up the die-hard fan-base, the stories resumed their traditional themes – crime, adventure and space opera – and Green Lantern gradually grew popular enough for his own solo title once moreâ€¦.

By the end of the 1960s America was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. Everything was challenged on principle and with issue #76 of Green Lantern (April 1970 and the first issue of the new decade) O’Neil and comics iconoclast Neal Adams utterly redefined superheroism with their â€œIssuesâ€-driven stories; transforming complacent establishment masked boy-scouts into uncertain, questioning champions and strident explorers of the enigma of America.

When these stories first appeared DC was a company in transition – just like America itself – with new ideas (which, in comic-book terms meant â€œyoung writersâ€) being given much leeway: a veritable wave of fresh, raw talent akin to the very start of the industry, when excitable young creators ran wild with imagination. Their cause wasn’t hurt by the industry’s swingeing commercial decline: costs were up and the kids just weren’t buying funnybooks in the quantities they used toâ€¦

O’ Neil, in tight collaboration with hyper-realistic artist Adams, assaulted all the traditional monoliths of contemporary costumed dramas with tightly targeted, protest- driven stories. The comicbook had been re-designated Green Lantern/Green Arrow with Emerald Archer Oliver Queen constantly mouthing off as a hot-headed, liberal sounding-board and platform for a generation-in-crisis whilst staid, quasi-reactionary GL Hal Jordan played the part of the oblivious but well-meaning old guard. At least the Ring-Slinger was able to perceive his faults and more or less willing to listen to new ideasâ€¦

The specific villain du jour was a wealthy landlord whose treatment of his poverty-stricken tenants wasn’t necessarily illegal but certainly was wickedly immoralâ€¦ Of course, the fact that this yarn is also a brilliantly devious crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones doesn’t exactly hurt eitherâ€¦

‘Journey to Desolation’ in #77 was every bit as groundbreaking.

At the conclusion of the #76 an immortal Guardian of the Universe – known as â€œthe Old Timerâ€ was assigned to accompany the Emerald Duo on a voyage to â€œdiscover Americaâ€: a soul-searching social exploration into the dichotomies which divided the nation – and a tremendously popular pastime for the nation’s disaffected citizens back then.

The first stop brought the trio to a poverty-stricken mining town run as a private kingdom by a ruthless entrepreneur happy to use agent-provocateurs and Nazi war criminals to keep his wage slaves in line. When a young protest singer looked likely to become the next Bob Dylan and draw unwelcome publicity, he had to be eliminated – as did the three strangers who drove into town at just the wrong momentâ€¦

Although the heroes provided temporary solutions and put away viciously human criminals, these tales were always carefully heavy-handed in exposing bigger ills and issues which couldn’t be fixed with a wave of a Green Ring; invoking an aura of helplessness that was metaphorically emphasised during this story when Hal was summarily stripped of much of his power for no longer being the willing, unquestioning stooge of his officious, high-and-mighty alien mastersâ€¦

The confused and merely-mortal Green Lantern discovered another unpalatable aspect of human nature in ‘A Kind of Loving, a Way of Death!’ when Black Canary joined the peripatetic cast. Seeking to renew her stalled relationship with Green Arrow, she was waylaid by bikers, grievously injured and taken in by a charismatic hippy guru. Sadly Joshua was more Manson than Messiah and his brand of Peace and Love only extended to white people: everybody else was simply target practiseâ€¦

The continuing plight of Native Americans was stunningly highlighted in ‘Ulysses Star is Still Alive!’ as corporate logging interests attempted to deprive a mountain tribe of their very last scraps of heritage, once more causing the Green Knights to take extraordinarily differing courses of action to help, whilst #80 added a science fiction gloss to a tale of judicial malfeasance in ‘Even an Immortal Can Die!’ (inked by Dick Giordano).

When the Old Timer used his powers to save Green Lantern rather than prevent a pollution catastrophe in the Pacific Northwest, he was chastised by his fellow Guardians and dispatched to the planet Gallo for judgement by the supreme arbiters of Law in the universe. His earthly friends accompanied him and found a disturbing new administration with a decidedly off-kilter view of justiceâ€¦

Adams’ staggering facility for capturing likenesses added extra-piquancy to this yarn that we’re just not equipped to grasp four decades later, with the usurping, overbearing villain derived from the Judge of the infamous trial of anti-war protesters â€œThe Chicago Eightâ€.

Insight into the Guardians’ history underpinned ‘Death Be My Destiny!’ when Lantern, Arrow and Canary travelled with the now-sentenced Old Timer to the ancient world of Maltus and found a world literally choking on its own out-of-control population. The uncanny cause cast unlovely light on the perceived role and worth of women in modern societyâ€¦

Ending this first of a two-set volume on a more traditional note, Green Lantern/Green Arrow #82 enquired ‘How do you Fight a Nightmare?’ (with additional inks from Berni Wrightson) as Green Lantern’s greatest foe unleashed Harpies, Amazons and all manner of female furies on the hapless hero before Black Canary and Green Arrow could turn the tide, whilst asking a few more pertinent questions about women’s rightsâ€¦

As well as these magnificent still-challenging epics superbly re-coloured by Cory Adams and Jack Adler this chronicle also reprints O’Neil’s effusive introduction from the hardbound. slip-cased turn-of-this-century ‘Hard-Travelling Heroes‘ edition, creator biographies and a illustrated feature ‘Legacy in Print’ which pictorially examines the multifarious collected formats in which these timeless tales have been collected.

July 5, 2011July 10, 2011

Showcase Presents Green Lantern volume 5

By Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Mike Grell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-224-6

Returning to the usual phonebook-sized black and white tome, this fifth collection starring the Emerald Gladiator of Earth-1 (re-presenting the contents of Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76-89 – barring the all-reprint #88 – and the emerald back-up strips from Flash #217-221, 223-224, 226-228, 230-231, 237-238, 240-243, 245-246) generated groundbreaking, landmark tales from Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams that totally revolutionised the industry, whilst registering such poor sales that the series was cancelled and the heroes unceremoniously shipped into the back of another comicbook. Gradually the emphasis shifted back to crime, adventure and space opera and Green Lantern grew popular enough for his own solo title once moreâ€¦.

By the end of the 1960s America was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. Everything was challenged and with issue #76 (April 1970 and the first issue of the new decade) Denny O’Neil and comics iconoclast Neal Adams utterly redefined superhero strips with their relevancy-driven stories; transforming complacent establishment masked boy-scouts into uncertain, questioning champions and strident explorers of the revolution.

‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) is a landmark in the medium, utterly re-positioning the very concept of the costumed crusader as newly-minted ardent liberal Green Arrow challenged GL’s cosy worldview when the lofty space-cop painfully discovered real villains wore business suits, had expense accounts, hurt people just because of skin colour and would happily poison their own nests for short-term gainâ€¦

Of course, the fact that the story is a brilliant crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones magnificently illustrated doesn’t hurt eitherâ€¦

O’ Neil became sole scripter with this story and, in tight collaboration with ultra-realistic art-genius Adams, instantly overturned contemporary costumed dramas with their societally-targeted relevancy-driven protest-stories. The book became Green Lantern/Green Arrow with Emerald Archer Oliver Queen constantly mouthing off as a radical, liberal sounding-board and platform for a generation-in-crisis whilst staid, quasi-reactionary GL Hal Jordan played the part of the oblivious but well-meaning old guard.

At least the Ring-Slinger was aware of his faults and more or less willing to listen to new ideasâ€¦

At the time this compendium of stories first appeared DC was a company in transition – as indeed was America itself – with new ideas (which, in comic-book terms meant â€œyoung writersâ€) being given much leeway: a veritable wave of fresh, raw talent akin to the very start of the industry, when excitable young creators ran wild with imaginationâ€¦ Their cause wasn’t hurt by an industry in rapid commercial decline: costs were up and the kids just weren’t buying funnybooks in the volumes they used toâ€¦

‘Journey to Desolation’ in #77 was every bit as groundbreaking.

At the conclusion of the last issue an immortal Guardian of the Universe – hereafter known as â€œthe Old Timerâ€ was assigned to accompany the Emerald Duo on a voyage to â€œdiscover Americaâ€: a soul-searching social exploration into the dichotomies which divided the nation. First stop brought the trio to a poverty-stricken mining town run as a private kingdom by a ruthless entrepreneur happy to use agent-provocateurs and Nazi war criminals to keep his wage slaves in line.

When a young protest singer looked likely to become the next Bob Dylan and draw unwelcome publicity, he had to be eliminated – as did the three strangers who drove into town at just the wrong momentâ€¦

Although the heroes provided temporary solutions and put away viciously human criminals, these tales were remarkably blunt in exposing bigger ills and issues that couldn’t be fixed with a wave of a Green Ring; invoking an aura of helplessness that was metaphorically emphasised during this story when Hal was summarily stripped of much of his power for no longer being the willing, unquestioning stooge of his officious, high-and-mighty alien mastersâ€¦

The confused and far-more-mortal Green Lantern discovered another unpalatable aspect of human nature in ‘A Kind of Loving, a Way of Death!’ when Black Canary joined the peripatetic cast. Seeking to renew her relationship with Green Arrow, she was waylaid by bikers, grievously injured and taken in by a charismatic hippy guru. Unfortunately Joshua was more Manson than Messiah and his brand of Peace and Love only extended to white people: everybody else was simply target practiseâ€¦

The plight of Native Americans was stunningly high-lighted in ‘Ulysses Star is Still Alive!’ as corporate logging interests attempted to deprive a mountain tribe of their very last scraps of heritage, once more causing the Green Knights to take extraordinarily differing courses of action to help, whilst #80 added a science fiction gloss to a tale of judicial malfeasance in ‘Even an Immortal Can Die!’ (inked by Dick Giordano).

His earthly friends accompanied him and found a disturbing new administration with a decidedly off-kilter view of justiceâ€¦

Insight into the Guardians’ history underpinned ‘Death Be My Destiny!’ when Lantern, Arrow and Canary travelled with the now-sentenced Old Timer to the ancient world of Maltus (that’s a pun, son: just type Thomas Robert Malthus into your search engine of choice or even look in a book) and found a world literally choking on its own out-of-control population. The uncanny cause cast unlovely light on the perceived role and worth of women in modern societyâ€¦

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #82 returned briefly to traditional yarn-spinning in ‘How do you Fight a Nightmare?’ (with additional inks from Berni Wrightson) as Green Lantern’s greatest foe unleashed Harpies, Amazons and all manner of female furies on the hapless hero before Black Canary and Green Arrow could turn the tide, whilst ‘â€¦And a Child Shall Destroy Them!’ crept into Hitchcock country to reintroduce Hal Jordan’s old flame Carol Ferris and take a pop at education and discipline in the chilling tale of a supernal mutant in thrall to a doctrinaire little martinet.

Wrightson also inked #84’s staggering attack on out-of-control consumerism, shoddy cost-cutting and the seduction of bread and circuses in ‘Peril in Plastic’ before the comics world changed forever in the two-part saga ‘Snowbirds Don’t Fly’ and ‘They Say It’ll Kill Meâ€¦But They Won’t Say When!’

Depiction of drug abuse had been strictly proscribed in comicbooks since the advent of the Comics Code Authority, but by 1971 the elephant in the room was too big to ignore and both Marvel and DC addressed the issue in startlingly powerful tales that opened Pandora’s dirty box forever. When the Green Gladiators were drawn into conflict with a vicious heroin-smuggling gang Oliver Queen was horrified to discover his own sidekick had become an addictâ€¦

This sordid, nasty tale did more than merely preach or condemn, but actively sought to explain why young people turned to drugs, just what the consequences could be and even hinted at solutions older people and parents might not want to consider. Forty years on it might all seem a little naÃ¯ve, but the earnest drive to do something and the sheer dark power of the story still delivers a stunning punch.

For all the critical acclaim and astonishingly innovative work done, sales of Green Lantern/Green Arrow were in a critical nosedive and nothing seemed able to stop the rot. Issue #87 featured two solo tales, the first of which ‘Beware My Power!’ introduced a bold new character to the DCU. John Stewart was a radical activist: an angry black man always spoiling for a fight and prepared to take guff from no-one. Hal Jordan was convinced the Guardians had erred when they appointed Stewart as Green Lantern’s official stand-in, but when a bigoted US presidential candidate tried to foment a race war the Emerald Gladiator was forced to change his tune.

Meanwhile bankrupted millionaire Oliver Queen was faced with a difficult decision when the retiring Mayor of Star City invited him to run for his office. ‘What Can One Man Do?’ written by Elliot Maggin, posed fascinating questions for the proud rebel by inviting him to join â€œthe establishmentâ€ he despised, and do some lasting good. The decision was muddied by well-meaning advice from his fellow superheroes and the tragic consequences of a senseless street riotâ€¦

Issue #88 was a collection of reprints (not included here) and the series went out on an evocative, allegorical high note in #89 as ‘â€¦And Through Him Save a Worldâ€¦’ (inked by Adams) pitted jobs and self-interest at Carol Ferris’ aviation company against clean air and pure streams in an naturalistic fable wherein an ecological Christ-figure made the ultimate sacrifice to save our planet and where all the Green Heroes’ power could not affect the outcomeâ€¦

Although the groundbreaking series folded there, the heroics resumed a few months later in the back of The Flash #217 (August-September 1972). ‘The Killing of an Archer!’ began a run of short episodes which eventually led to Green Lantern regaining his own solo series. The O’Neil, Adams & Giordano thriller related how Green Arrow made a fatal mistake and accidentally ended the life of a criminal he was battling. Devastated, the broken swashbuckler abandoned his life and headed for the wilderness to atone or dieâ€¦

The next episode ramped up the tension as a plot against the Archer was uncovered by Green Lantern and Black Canary in ‘Green Arrow is Dead!’ whilst ‘The Fate of an Archer’ saw Canary critically injured and GL track down Oliver Queen just in time to save her lifeâ€¦

Dick Giordano assumed full illustration duties with ‘Duel for a Death List!’ and the concluding ‘Death-Threat on Titan!’ (Flash #220-221) as the feature returned to its science fiction roots to concentrate solely on Green Lantern once more. In this pacy yarn aliens with an ancient link to the GL Corps began eliminating ring-wielders in preparation for a fantastic strike against the Guardians of the Universe.

Issue #223 continued the interstellar intrigue as an alien interloper attacked in ‘Doomsdayâ€¦ Minus Ten Minutes!’ whilst the next issue presented a clever, thoroughly grounded crime-caper ‘Yellow is a Dirty Little Color!’

In #226-Neal Adams drew his last GL tale ‘The Powerless Power Ring!’ before Dick Dillin, Giordano & Giacoia completed the trilogy in #227-228 with ‘My Ringâ€¦ My Enemy!’ and ‘My Enemyâ€¦ Myself!’ wherein atmospheric phenomena, bad mushrooms and invading aliens all combined to make the will-powered weapon a lethal liability.

Flash #230-231 featured ‘The Man From Yesterday!’ and ‘The Man of Destiny!’ (Dillin & Tex Blaisdell) as GL saved one of America’s Revolutionary heroes from aliens who had shanghaied him centuries previously, whilst #233-234 ‘World That Bet on War!’ & ‘And the Winner is Death!’ (Dillin, Terry Austin & Giordano) pitted the Emerald Avenger against gambling-crazed extraterrestrials who used soldiers from Earth history as their games-piecesâ€¦

With Flash #237-238 and 240-243 new art sensation Mike Grell came aboard for a six part saga that precipitated Green Lantern back into his own title. Beginning with ‘Let There Be Darkness!’ (inked by Bill Draut) the watchword was â€œcosmicâ€ as the extra-galactic Ravagers of Olys undertook six destructive, unholy tasks in Green Lantern’s space sector. After thwarting their scheme to occlude the sun over planet Zerbon, destroying the photosynthetic inhabitants, the hero picked up a semi-sentient starfish sidekick in ‘The Day of the Falling Sky!’(Blaisdell inks) whilst preventing the artificial world of Vivarium from collapsing in upon itself.

‘The Floods Will Come!’ brought the Olys to planets Archos, where they attempted to submerge all the landmasses and drown the stone-age dwellers thriving there and Jotham, where the Ravagers almost extinguished the sun in ‘To Kill a Star!’

Earth was the target in ‘All Creatures Great and Small!’ as the Olys used their incredible technology to shrink all mammals but no sooner had Green Lantern negated that threat than the invaders’ de-evolutionary weapons were activated in ‘Dust of the Earth!’ (Austin inks).

Luckily a hominid GL was even more formidable than his Homo Sapiens selfâ€¦

The buzz of the O’Neil/Grell epic assured Green Lantern of his own series once more, but before the re-launch Flash #345-346 presented one last two-part, back-up bonanza as Dillin & Austin illustrated the eerie mutation of vegetable-themed villain Jason Woodrue who transformed himself into a horrendous monster in ‘Perilous Plan of the Plant Master!’ before subjecting GL to ‘The Fury of the Floronic Man!‘

From challenging tales of social injustice back to plot-driven sagas of wit and courage, packed with a shining, optimistic sense of wonder and bristling with high-octane action, these evergreen adventures signalled the end of the Silver Age of Comics. Illustrated by some of the most revered names in the business, the exploits in this volume closed one chapter in the life of Green Lantern and opened the doors to today’s sleek and stellar sentinel of the stars.

October 25, 2010October 30, 2010

Green Arrow/Black Canary: The Wedding album

By Judd Winick, Cliff Chiang, Amanda Conner & AndrÃ© Coehlo (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1841-6

Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, a cross between Batman and Robin Hood and one of DC’s Golden All-Stars. He’s been a fixture of the company’s landscape – often for no discernable reason – more or less continually since his debut in More Fun Comics # 73 in 1941. During those heady days origins weren’t as important as image and storytelling so creators Mort Weisinger and George Papp never bothered, leaving later workmen France Herron, Jack Kirby and his wife Roz to fill in the blanks with ‘The Green Arrow’s First Case’ at the start of the Silver Age superhero revival (Adventure Comics #256, January 1959).

As a fixture of the DC Universe since the early 1940s GA was one of the few costumed heroes to survive the end of the Golden Age, consistently adventuring in the back of other heroes’ comic books, joining the Justice League during the Silver Age return of costumed crusaders and eventually evolving into a spokes-hero of the anti-establishment during the 1960’s period of â€œRelevantâ€ comics, courtesy of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams.

Under Mike Grell’s 1980/1990s stewardship he became a gritty and popular A-Lister; an urban hunter who dealt harshly with corporate thugs, government spooks and serial killers rather than costumed goof-balls.

And then he was killed and his son took over the role.

And then the original was brought backâ€¦

Black Canary was one of the first of the relatively few female furies in the DC universe, following Wonder Woman, Liberty Belle and Red Tornado (who actually masqueraded as a man) and predating Merry the Gimmick Girl. She was created by Bob Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, debuting in Flash Comics #86, August 1947. She disappeared with most of the other super-doers at the end of the Golden Age, only to be revived with the Justice Society of America in 1963.

Originally an Earth-2 crimefighter transplanted to our world, she has been ruthlessly retconned over and again, and (currently) Dinah Laurel Lance is the daughter of an earlier, war-time heroine. However you feel about the character two consistent facts have remained since her reintroduction and assimilation in Justice League of America #73-75 (see Showcase Presents Justice League of America volume 4): she has vied with Wonder Woman herself for the title of premiere heroine and she has been in a stormy romantic relationship with Green Arrow.

The affair which began during of the Summer of Love finally reached a dramatic culmination a few years ago when the couple at last named the day, and this fearsomely dramatic and cripplingly funny tome gathers those unforgettable moments in a celebratory chronicle that will warm the hearts and chill the souls of sentimental thrill seekers everywhere.

Reprinting Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special and issues #1-5 of the monthly Green Arrow and Black Canary comicbook, the saga begins with a hilariously immature retelling of the path to wedlock from scripter Judd Winick and Amanda Conner: spats, tender moments, hen-nights, stag-parties and a tremendous battle as a huge guard of dishonour comprising most of the villains in the DCU attack the assembled heroes when they’re â€œoff-guardâ€.

Naturally the bad-guys are defeated, the ceremony concludes and the newlyweds head off to enjoy their wedding night.

And then in circumstances I’m not going to spoil for you Green Arrow dies againâ€¦

Obviously it doesn’t end there. For the start of their new series and the story-arc ‘Dead Again’, by Winick and Cliff Chiang, Ollie Queen is only seen in flashbacks as the Black Widow Canary goes on a brutal crime-crushing rampage. ‘Here Comes the Bride’ finds her slowly going off the rails and only Ollie’s son Conner Hawke seems able to get through to her where friends like Green Lantern, Superman, Oracle and even Ollie’s old sidekicks Speedy and Red Arrow tell her to move on.

As usual it takes the ultra-rational Batman to divine what really happened on the wedding nightâ€¦

In ‘The Naked and the Not-Quite-So-Dead’ Dinah and Mia Dearden – the new Speedy -infiltrate the island home of the miscreants who have abducted and imprisoned Green Arrow (notice how vague I’m being; all for your benefit?) where Ollie is already proving to be more trouble than he can possibly be worth. Conner is also on hand and whilst attempting to spring his wayward dad also falls captive to overwhelming forcesâ€¦

‘Hit and Run, Run, Run!’ ramps up the tension as the heroes all escape but not before one of their number is gravely wounded by a new mystery assailant, and in ‘Dead Again: Please Play Where Daddy Can See You’ it’s Ollie’s turn to fall apart as his wounded young protÃ©gÃ© fights for life.

The book concludes in the heart-warming ‘Child Support’ with another series of poignant flashbacks describing Green Arrow’s history and his extended family of sidekicks before Dinah leads Ollie back from the brink of utter despairâ€¦

Green Arrow and Black Canary are characters that epitomise the modern adventure hero’s best qualities, even if in many ways they are also the most traditional of â€œOld Schoolâ€ champions. This is a cracking example of Fights ‘n’ Tights done right and is well worth an investment of your money and time.

July 20, 2008July 19, 2008

Green Arrow: Year One

By Andy Diggle & Jock (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-727-3

Green Arrow is one of DC’s Golden All-Stars. He’s been a fixture of the company’s landscape – in many instances for no discernable reason – more or less continually since his debut in More Fun Comics # 73 in 1941. During those heady days origins weren’t as important as image and storytelling so creators Mort Weisinger and George Papp never bothered, leaving later workmen France Herron, Jack Kirby and his wife Roz to fill in the blanks with ‘The Green Arrow’s First Case’ at the start of the Silver Age superhero revival (Adventure Comics #256, January 1959).

This latest tweaking of his origin comes courtesy of Andy Diggle and Jock (better unknown to all as Mark Simpson) and massages the well-worn tale of a wealthy wastrel who finds purpose after being marooned on a desert island into a comfortably modern yet unsettlingly dark and violent contemporary milieu.

Adrenaline junkie/trust-fund millionaire Oliver Queen makes a fool of himself at a society bash and is compelled to join his bodyguard Hackett on a boating trip only to discover that the man he trusts his life with has stolen all his money and intends to kill him now to get away with it.

When the murder-attempt goes awry Ollie washes up on a tropical island where the early days of privation and thirst only worsen when he discovers the place is a huge drug factory complete with slave workers and a sadistic crime queen named China White.

He built a bow to catch fish: now that he has a new reason to live can he use it to stay alive?

This modern retelling is sharp and edgy as you’d expect from these extremely talented creators and in this modern spin actually benefits the character under revision. An excellent addition to the legend of one of DC’s most enduring, endearing characters.

June 5, 2008June 1, 2008

Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage

By Judd Winick, Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-446-3

The wonderfully flawed and ever so human Green Arrow reaches new heights and depths in this trade paperback collection of his monthly exploits culled from issues #60-65 of his eponymous comic adventures (which are technically from volume 2, in 2006). Set in the One Year Later continuity zone, it sees the ultimate social and political rebel as the crusading Mayor of his beloved, beleaguered Star City on the anniversary of the cataclysmic bloodbath that nearly destroyed it.

Despite the appallingly unsatisfactory deus ex machina contrivance that apparently reset everything at the end of the last volume (Heading into the Light: ISBN 1-84576-344-0) the city is still recovering from devastating damage and loss of life. The most troubled parts of the metropolis have been enclosed behind a gigantic wall and left to rot. In this no-go area the Gangsta super-villain Brick runs things as a dystopic private kingdom, but on the outside unscrupulous Big Money Interests are making plans to take over, and they’ve hired relentless assassin Deathstroke to make sure things proceed smoothly.

Determined not to abandon the helpless, Oliver Queen fights to free these disenfranchised under-folk, rebuild the lives and prosperity of the citizens on the healthy side of the Wall, and prevent the city becoming a bought-and-paid-for asset of corporate raiders. And in his spare time Green Arrow will root out corruption and abuse in the Reconstruction and find out just who is supplying mutagenic medical supplies to the poor, desperate S.O.B.’s trapped in Brick’s kingdom.

This rousing thriller has lots of added bite in the post-New Orleans/Hurricane Katrina world and the portrayal of the hero as social activist has never been better expressed. There’s plenty of high-octane action to counterbalance the realpolitik message and corporate intrigue, and the revelation that costumed adventuring produces even stranger bedfellows than politics is handled with style, aplomb and great big explosions. Magic Stuff!

February 25, 2008February 23, 2008

Green Arrow: Heading into the Light

By Judd Winick, Ron Garney, Tom Fowler & Paul Lee (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-344-0

Collecting issues #52, 54-59 of the monthly series this is a non-stop action bath, meant as part of the build-up to the Infinite Crisis, so all your enjoyment centres can focus on the craft and skill of the creators, because by the end of the book it won’t matter since that mega-crossover event will unmake and cancel out everything that has gone before.

The plot concerns the hunt by Green Arrow and Black Lightning for serial rapist and super-psycho Dr. Light who wants to torture and kill the loved ones of all the heroes he can find. This is because he is a very psycho super-psycho, but also because he was lobotomised by the Justice League (see Identity Crisis, ISBN: 1-34576-126-X) and since his recovery has been a bit tetchy.

The hunt escalates into an all-out battle with imported super-villains Mirror Master and Killer Frost as well as old rival Merlyn, an assassin who hates being the World’s Second Greatest Archer. Whilst they occupy the good guys Light stalks Mia, (Green Arrow’s latest sidekick) who he thinks of as just a teen-aged girlâ€¦

The action is intense, and the dialogue wonderful, but the story won’t appeal or even be understandable to new readers and the power of the cliffhanger ending is negated by the Cosmic Reset button of Infinite Crisis. The next volume will begin with the first One Year Later story-arcâ€¦

After a sterling run of truly superb costumed-hero adventures this total surrender to mindless violence makes for a dreadfully unsatisfactory conclusion, but writers Judd Winick and J. Calafiore, plus artists Tom Fowler, Ron Garney, Ron Lim, Paul Lee, Dan Davis, Rodney Ramos and Bill Reinhold can’t be blamed for that. Page by page and scene by scene this is great stuff, but the imposed conclusion renders all their fine work irrelevant. This is one for completists only, I’m afraid.

February 9, 2008February 9, 2008

Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence

By Kevin Smith, Phil Hester & Ande Parks (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-56389-976-0 (hardcover) ISBN 1-4012-0045-1 (softcover)

After returning from the dead (see Green Arrow: Quiver – ISBN: 1-84023-509-8) our reinvigorated hero tries to re-establish himself both as a do-gooder and more importantly with his extended family – especially Mia Dearden, a street kid he saved from prostitution and took into his home. But as he resists the pressure to make her his next sidekick (from both her and his son Connor) The Riddler comes to town intent on mischief, and a new bizarre serial killer stalks the streets hunting costumed heroes.

Onomatopoeia only speaks in sound effects and is a ruthless, flamboyantly sadistic, seemingly unstoppable force. So when he fails to kill the junior Green Arrow he invades the hospital where the critically wounded Connor is undergoing emergency surgery to finish the job, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake.

Sharp, darkly funny and chilling by turns this tale (collected from issues #11-15 of the monthly comicbook) breaks out of the usual mould in many ways, perhaps as much due to writer Kevin Smith’s other commitments as from any sense of narrative novelty, but it certainly doesn’t harm the result. Particularly delicious are the scenes with on-again, off-again lover Black Canary and heroic polar opposite Hawkman.

A little more mature in both themes and the treatment of interpersonal relationships (and surely no bad thing for that?) this is a superior superhero saga and a strong advocate for the argument that costume dramas don’t have to be all Fights and Tights.

January 10, 2008January 10, 2008

Green Arrow: Quiver

By Kevin Smith, Phil Hester & Ande Parks (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-509-8

Green Arrow has been a fixture in the DC Universe since the early 1940s and was one of the few costumed heroes to survive the end of the Golden Age. He carried on adventuring in the back of other heroes’ comic books, joined the Justice League and became the spokes-hero of the anti-establishment during the 1960’s Relevancy period in comics publishing, courtesy of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams. Under Mike Grell’s stewardship he became a headliner, an urban hunter who dealt with corporate thugs and serial killers rather than costumed goof-balls. And then he was killed.

This revival, from the unconventional Kevin Smith (yes, Silent Bob!) and the wonderful art-team of Phil Hester and Ande Parks, brings him back from Heaven in the most refreshing manner I’ve seen in nearly five decades of comic reading. Collecting issues #1-10 of the monthly series this gloriously enjoyable refining of Green Arrow embraces the fundamental daftness of superhero comics to revitalise them. Replete with guest-stars, jam-packed with action and intrigue and wallowing in fun thanks to the sly, snappy dialogue of Smith, this is a costume-drama in a thousand and I’m certainly not going to spoil your fun by giving away any details.

Buy it, read it, love it!

July 12, 2007July 12, 2007

Green Arrow: Moving Targets

By Judd Winick, Phil Hester & Tom Fowler (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-234-7

This big compilation collects almost a year’s worth of adventures featuring mainstream comic’s most libertarian vigilante and his crime-busting family, reprinting issues # 40 â€“50 of the Green Arrow monthly magazine. The setting is the immediate aftermath of a colossal battle that united superheroes, cops and criminals in a last-ditch attempt to free their city from the clutches of an army of demons (see Green Arrow: City Walls ISBN 1-84576-039-5). As the dust settles the various factions go back to work and a new and particularly ruthless gang-boss known as Brick not only rises to the forefront but succeeds in taking over the slowly recovering city.

The eventual confrontation between hero and mobster only leads to further catastrophe as Brick, who refuses to play by any of those old-fashioned clichÃ©d rules that inexplicably infest these kinds of conflicts, declares total war on the Archers’ nearest and dearest and even hires in other heroes’ villains to perform the dirty work, leading to an all-out battle with guest-stars galore.

If you’re a fan of out-and-out super-hero action this series should be at the top of your reading list. Witty, stylish writing, genuine warmth between the leading characters, strong emotional resonances among the cast and guests and superb breakneck action in an always fresh and challenging attempt to shake up and shake off the accepted conventions is the Standard Operating Procedure. It’s not often you can read a comic book and truly feel that no character is actually safe. You should give it a shot.

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