Ollie Watch: August 20th, 2008

Batman and the Outsiders #10: Can anyone tell me if Ollie is still on this team? I haven't been keeping up with the series, and he's not on the cover. Makes me wonder...




















Justice League of America vol. 2 #24: Join Black Canary and Animal as they team up with the rest of the JLA to fight a new villain for control of Vixen's Tantu Totem!

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol. 2 #10

Issue: Green Arrow vol. 2 #10

Title: Here There be Dragons part 2

Credits: Mike Grell (scripts) Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano (art)

Cover Date: November, 1988

Synopsis: Dinah surprises Ollie in bed with a birthday cake and card. Ollie grouses about his age (44) but makes a birthday wish regardless. Anyone who's ever read any Green Arrow before can probably guess what he wished for...

Dinah leaves the planning to llie for the day, as it is his birthday. Ollie chooses to go to the zoo, where they enjoy a day filled with exotic animals and chili dogs. After a while, they notice that they're being followed by a pair of suits...

The pair ambush their pursuers, who turn out to be Eddie Fyers and an anonymous CIA agent. While Dinah and Eddie spar in the background, the CIA mook tells a story about how the Phillipino government buried the nationl treaury in secure locations during WWII. A map to the treaure troves was recently discovered, and then stolen.

Coincidentally, known agents of the Yakuza have been uying up property in the Phillipines, ostensibly to build hotels, but for some reason they never get past the excavation phase... But recently, the excavations have come to an abrupt stop. Rumor is, a certain lady with a dragon tatoo has stolen the only copy of the map.

The agent demands that Ollie, who knows Shado best, track her down, or he'll turn him in for tax evasion of the income from his mission in the first few issues. Ollie reculantly agrees, tracking Shado down to Honolulu, and then to a houseboat. Just as Ollie is approaches the boat, he ends up with an arrow in the chest! THE END

Thoughts: Another neat issue, with some really sweet action involving Shado and her attackers. Its also kind of nice to see Ollie get in hot water for the shady mission he performed earlier in the series. The CIA agent also points out that Ollie's mask does very little to hide his ID, and the only real reason no one has figured it out until now is that no one knew to try. I'm a big fan of little bits of realism like that.

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol. 2 #9

Issue: Green Arrow vol. 2 #9

Title: "Here There be Dragons"

Credits: Mike Grell (scripts) Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin (art)

Cover Date: October, 1988

Synopsis: Dinah and Ollie have spent a year in Seattle, and the place is starting to feel like home. ON the way back to their apartment, Dinah asks Ollie if he ever thinks about "her." He denies it, but the fact that he knew who she was talking about proves him a liar.

As Ollie lies in bed, he can't stop thinking about what he had to do to rescue Dinah the previous year, and that draws his thoughts back to the other person who was there: Shado.

We then cut to Shado, as she reports in to her Yakuza masters. She has killed everyone she was tasked with, except for one...the one that Ollie killed.

The "Oyibun" is not happy with Shado, for she has violated his orders by allowing another to kill one of her targets. First, he demands a demonstration of her abilities. She obliges, firing an arrow at her master's chest, which is stopped by a swinging pendant.

He then demands her prized jade ring...and the thumb that she wears it on. Unwilling to let his best student be ruined for petty reasons, the master holds off the Yakuza guards long enough for Shado to run away. She stops and looks back, witnessing the Oyibun execute her master. In response, she put an arrow through his skull, then leaves...

Thoughts: This was a surprisingly GA-lite issue. He appeared in only a few panels, with most of the action focusing on Shado and her dealings with the Japanese Mafia. Still a good issue, though, with Ollie haunted by the fact that he took a life, and Shado facing the consequences for letting him. Good stuff!

Ollie Watch: July 22nd, 2008

Ollie Watch: 7/22/2008




Green Arrow/Black Canary; Road to the Altar:

Follow Ollie and Dinah from proposal to wedding night and beyond in the first trade collecting Green Arrow/Black Canary issues!

If you've been wanting to catch up on the happenings in the GA/BC universe, here's a great place to start!

EDIT: I don't really like that cover, though. I looks like Canary really has to go to the bathroom or something.

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol. 2 #7

Issue: Green Arrow vol. 2 #7

Title: "The Lean Season"

Credits: Mike Grell (GA scripts) Ed Barreto (GA pencils) Dick Giordano (inks) Sharon Wright (BC scripts) Randy Du Burke (BC pencils
(This issue was a bit unusual in that normal artist Ed Hannigan was out with the flu, necessitating the Barreto fill-in. Additionally, the Black Canary portions of the issue were scripted and drawn by a different team, specified above)

Cover Date: August, 1988

Synopsis: Ollie stops to get Dinah's car washed at the local "Handee Wash." There, one of the employees accidentally busts in on her manager...making copies of all the keys his customers leave him. Later, Ollie gets a lead on some Tong drug activity, leading him to book a cruise to Alaska. Meanwhile, Dinah meets up with an old acquaintance, who happens to be the employee who burst in on her boss at the car wash earlier. She tells Dinah what she knows over lunch.

DInah decides to investigate, hiring a cab to follow the woman's boss. He ends up on a ferry to...Alaska! She returns home, only to find that her car has been stolen!

Later, Ollie is wandering the decks of the cruise ship when he comes across Dinah's car on the car deck. He suits up as Green Arrow, deciding to hide in the trunk and surprise the thief. As he's emptying out the spare tire, he finds several kilos of coke hidden in the trunk...

Thoughts: Not much actually happens in this issue. It serves more as a framing device for future story lines. I think the two writing/two artist teams worked out well and integrated smoothly, however.

Spotlight: Green Lantern #81

Issue: Green Lantern vol. 1 #81

Title: Death be my Destiny!

Credits: Neal Adams (pencils) Denny O'Neil (scripts) Dick Giordano (inks)

Cover Date: December, 1970

Synopsis: Continuing from our last issue, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary accompany their Guardian friend back to Oa for trial. Despite their best efforts, he is soon found guilty of imperiling a world to save one person. He is stripped of his immortality and sentenced to spend the rest of his days on Maltus, the Guardian's planet of origin.

The quartet arrive on the planet expecting to find it sparsely populated but instead find it covered in a seething sea of sentients.

Consulting the planetary archives (and interviewing its keeper) they discover that several decades ago, a strange comet passed over the planet. The dust from the comet seemed harmless at first, until the Maltusians ceased being able to have children. As the population aged, a revolutionary scientist named Mother Juno colleced gene samples from the populace. Using these, she was able to artifically create new people for the planet.

Un fortunately for the Maltusians, she refused to stop, even after the crisis was over and they were able to have children again. The planet has grown more and more crowded, until water became strictly rationed and fresh food was barely a memory.

Determined to help the Maltusians, the four head to Mother Juno's lab. After a long fight against her specially bred guards, she is defeated not by the superheroes, but by her own people, who have followed our heroes to the lab.

Our Guardian friend decides he can do much good for the Maltusians, and refuses GL's offer to go back to Earth with them. He is content to spend the rest of his (now limited) life easing the suffering of his ancestral world.

Thoughts: Well, this was certainly an improvement over the last issue! At least this time, the book had a clear plot and you could tell exactly what the authors were trying to tell you. The overpopulation theme seems a bit more...big picture than what they were going with before. I mean, individual racists are one thing, but an entire planet suffering from too many people is another. My favorite bit was probably Ollie using a Sap Arrow (the kind you knock someone out with not the kind that comes from a tree) to defeat one of Mother Juno's over-sized guards.

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol. 2 #5

Issue: Green Arrow vol. 2 #5

Title: "Gauntlet"

Credits: Mike Grell (scripts) Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano (art)

Cover Date: June, 1988

Synopsis: A young gay couple comes into Sherwood Florist (Black Canary's flower shop) to purchase a rose to celebrate their 8th anniversary. Dinah congratulates them, and they leave for a walk in the park. Soon after, they're ambushed by wrench wielding assailant. One of them is killed, the other put in critical condition.

The cops, finding a receipt from the shop on one of the victims, arrive to ask Ollie and Dinah if they saw anything. Dinah takes one look at the photo and heads for the bathroom, while Ollie questions the cops to get a better read on the situation.

Apparently there's been a wave of gay bashing in the city, and the cops are hampered by an unwillingness of witnesses to talk. Some are scared, some are indifferent, and some feel that the victims deserve it.

Meanwhile, Dinah's assistant, Colin, tells her he can't work for her anymore. He's been forcibly recruited into a new gang, and they've put him through "The Gauntlet," injuring him severely. Dinah encourages him to go to the police, but Colin insists they can't help.

Ollie decides to go undercover and wanders out of a gay bar and into the park. As soon as he's out of sight of the street he's ambushed by a group of thugs. He fights them off, only to discover that one of them is none other than Colin, Dinah's assistant!

Thoughts: I'm still not entirely sure Green Arrow is the right guy for this venue, but the story sure is interesting. I suppose he has earned his social issue cred in his previous adventures with Green Lantern, so it would make sense for Ollie to be the one to investigate a string of hate crimes. I was dubious of Dinah's reaction to the crime scene photos at first, since she's a veteran crime fighter and has presumably seen worse, but it considering her recent experiences, it may have hit a little too close to home. Overall, I'm interested to see how it turns out.

Dossier:: Black Canary

Real Name: Dinah Laurel Lance

Alias: Black Canary, " The Blonde Bombshell"

First Appearance: Flash Comics #86

Modus Operandi: World class martial artist, costumed crime fighter, florist

Powers/Equipment: Deadly sonic scream capable of stunning or even killing opponents. Custom motorcycle.

Backstory: The history of Black Canary is a convoluted one. Originally a Golden Age, WWII era member of the JSA, Dinah grew disillusioned with her home dimension after the death of her husband. After a crossover adventure with the JLA, she decided to stay on Earth 1.

Here, she became a long time member of the JLA, eventually falling for her dashing teammate, Green Arrow. The two became an item soon after.

The story gets a little more complicated after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Now, the WWII Black Canary and her modern counterpart separate people. In this case, a mother daughter pair. Young Dinah grew up surrounded by super-heroics, and dreamed of taking up the mantle herself one day. Her mother objected, but Dinah soon found herself helping to found the JLA.

One day, while attempting to break up a drug smuggling ring, Dinah was captured and tortured. Her lover, Green Arrow, eventually rescued her, killing her captors in the process. This event would haunt both of them for years to come. As a result of her injuries, Dinah lost her Canary cry, becoming a normal (if exceptionally dangerous) person for the first time.

She and Ollie stayed together for some time, but eventually broke it off after she caught him making out with a Green Arrow groupie. She struck off on her own, joining up with her childhood "aunts" and "uncles" in the JSA. She moved from that to a long stint in Oracle's Birds of Prey organization. (During this period Dinah was exposed to a Lazarus Pit, restoring her Canary Cry).

Eventually, after the death and rebirth of Oliver Queen, the two got back together as a couple. Recently, Ollie asked for Dinah's hand in marriage, and she accepted. Although their wedding interrupted by a super villain attack, and she ended up killing a shapeshifter posing as Green Arrow, the two are now a happy couple. Currently, she's assisting Green Arrow in recovering his son, Connor from unknown kidnappers and serving as the first chairwoman of the Justice League of America.

Spotlight: Green Lantern #79

Issue: Green Lantern vol.1 #79

Title: Ulysses Star is Alive!

Credits: Denny O'Neil (scripts) Neal Adams (cover, art)

Cover Date: September, 1970

Synopsis: Our story begins with two well dressed gentlemen about to shoot a Native American man in the woods. Green arrow and Green Lantern arrive just in time to stop them, and are justifiably curious as to what is going on. The suits explain that they have a claim to the reservations timber reserves, and this man had been fighting them on it. GA and GL argue over what to do, and both decide the other is wrong.

Green Lantern decides to head to the city, where Abe Star, son of the chief mentioned in the title was last seen. He is said to posses the last copy of the agreement between the natives and the government, granting them sole rights to the timber on their reservation. GL arrives just in time to see the man's apartment building burn to the ground. He is only barely able to save him, and learns that all his documents went up in the fire. Still determined to prove Ollie wrong, to prove that breaking the law is not necessary to get justice, Hal flies to Washington to visit a friend in Congress...

Ollie decides on a different tack. Dressing himself up in a glowing yellow native costume (where do they get these things?!) he pretends to be the ghost of Ulysses Star, the last great chief of the tribe. He manages to get both the tribe and the lumberman to believe that he is a vengeful ghost. The lumberman decide to attack the next morning anyway.

The fight goes down at the border of the contested forest. The natives have Black Canary (still on the reservation, recovering from the events of last issue) on their side, but are outnumbered by the burly lumberjacks. Just then, "Ulysses Star" shows up, tipping the balance back in favor of the natives. Before anything can be resolved, Hal arrives and breaks up the fight. Ollie is incensed that Hal is interfering, and they get in a knock down, drag out fight. Nothing gets resolved, however, as a log slips off its moorings and whacks them both on the head.

The story ends with the native leader heading back to Washington with Hal's friend in Congress. No one is confident that anything will be done soon, but they decide they must try. The two suits from the beginning of the story are dragged off in cuffs, having been implicated in the apartment fire from earlier in the issue. Hal, Ollie and the Guardian discuss the nature of man and his seeming inability to give up violence, and the issue ends,

Thoughts: I really liked how this issue detailed each hero's approach to solving the problem, with Ollie going for theatrics and direct violence, and Hal choosing to find evidence and work within the system. It turned out neither approach really worked without the other, and I think it made our heroes realize that neither of them were wholly in the right. I also liked that Black Canary is still around, giving aid to the needy and fighting for what she believes in. The kid's got spunk.

Now, I know that O'Neil and Adams were going for relevance and cultural sensitivity here, but you can tell from this issue that they were still products of their time. I mean check out that cover! That's not offensive or anything! But hey, at least they were trying...

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol. 2 #3

Issue: Green Arrow vol.2 #3

Title: The Champions

Credits: Mike Grell (scripts) Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano (art)

Cover Date: April, 1988

Overview: The issue opens with an attempted robbery on a bus. A certain beautiful, dark-haired lady slips out the window, circles around, and ambushes the perps as they exit the scene. One of them takes a swipe at her with a knife, she tells him to bring it on.

We then switch to Ollie practicing his archery with a toaster (don't ask) as a bedraggled Dinah Lance saunters into her flower shop. Even though she's beat all the hell, she feels great. Previously, she had been concerned that she would freeze in a fight (because of her recent brutal beating) but she handled the situation without even thinking about it. Her catharsis complete, she decides to take care of the other thing that's been on her mind, and she and Ollie move off to get biz-zay.

After the deed is done, Ollie decides to go on patrol. While out, he spots what looks like a mugging, but turns out to be an ambush. The assailants drag him off to the office of one "Mr. Joshua." Mr. Joshua tell GA that he needs help. An explosion occurred on the International Space Station (man, they were building that thing in back in the 80's too...). Certain...tactical research was occurring on the station at the time of the blast, and a pod containing the results has crash landed on an island off the coast of Washington. The pod contains a deadly bioweapon that is designed to attack specific DNA, only Mr. Joshua isn't sure what kind of DNA. It could wipe out the common cold, wheat, cows...or humanity. Mr. Joshua also reveals that the Chinese have sent an agent to get the pod, and he needs Ollie to get to it first. Ollie accepts, but only because he knows what might happen if the Chinese get a hold of a weapon that potent. Nervous about working for a foreign power (did I mention that Mr. Joshua doesn't work for the US government?) Ollie leaves for San Juan island, and adventure!

Note: The agent that the Chinese hire to find the weapon turns out to be Eddie Fyers (according to Mr. Joshua's file), who becomes a major supporting character to the Arrow Family.

Thoughts: This issue continues the grim and gritty theme that Grell started in Longbow Hunters continues in this issue. Mr. Joshua taps Ollie as his agent partly because of his training and willingness to kill. There are light moments, such as Black Canary's continued recovery and Ollie's adventures with the toaster, but the darker themes still prevail.

The highlight of the issue for me wasn't even part of the issue proper, it was in the back where the letters page would normally go. As the title was still new, there are no letters, but there is a kick ass publication and character history for Green Arrow, written by GA's current editor, Mike Gold. If you like Green Arrow and ever have a chance to pick up this issue, those few pages in the back are definitely worth the price of admission.

Spotlight:: Green Lantern #78

Issue: Green Lantern vol. 1 #78

Title: "A Kind of Loving, A Way of Death!"

Credits: Neal Adams (cover, pencils) Denny O'Neil (script)

Cover Date: July 1970

Overview: As Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and their Guardian companion continue their journey, we make a brief segue to that Blonde Bombshell, Black Canary. We meet up with Canary as she confronts a small gang of bikers on an isolated dirt road. The bikers decide that they really like Canary's chopper, and that they should go ahead and take it from her. This turns out to be a giant error, as the issue points out, Black Canary is one of the world's greatest martial artists. She quickly drops the entire gang, but one of the bikers recovers enough to run her down.

The scene then switches back to Hal and Ollie, as they come upon an Indian Reservation. Starved, they grab some beans from the town's only restaurant, just in time to stop the very same bikers from taking what they want and killing the proprietor. Ollie uses a net arrow to capture one of the toughs who tried to escape on his bike, but notices something odd about his ride. It is the very same motorcycle that Superman made for Black Canary! (The editorial note tells us this happened in JLA #75) After interrogating (read: beating the crap out of) the dastardly biker, they get the story out of him. Just as they're leaving, the owner of the restaurant they ate at makes a snarky comment about the white man's abuse of his people. Unaware of this aspect of humanity (which both Ollie and Hal are ashamed of) the Guardian decides to stay behind while Ollie and Hal go looking for Black Canary.

They manage to track her down near the road the bikers left her on, but all is not right. She seems enthralled by a strange man name Joshua. After failing to convince her to come with them, Hal and Ollie back off to try and decide what to do. Hal and Ollie have a brief falling out (and fistfight) when Hal suggests that Dinah might just not like him anymore. Furious with Hal, and himself for losing control, Ollie runs off, only to find Joshua and his followers at the firing range. As his followers (all women, natch) practice their shooting, Joshua rants and raves about how white people cannot coexist with people of other races. Being a horrible racist is bad enough, but he then instructs the women under his thrall to attack and wipe out the nearby Native American village.

GA sets off a flare arrow to summon help, but is struck down by a bullet grazing the back of his head. Hal arrives in time to disarm and capture most of the women, but Joshua and Dinah manage to escape. They find a wounded Ollie on their way back, and Joshua orders Dinah to finish him off. She tries, but a flood of memories wash over her: her husband Larry, who was killed by Aquarius, her time with the League, and finally, her love for Oliver Queen. Now free of Joshua's influence, she drops the gun, while Hal drops Joshua.

Ollie recovers, and comments that even though Joshua used his powers to enthrall Canary and the other women, that he must have found something within them to work with. The potential for bigotry is within all of us, and it is up to us to resist it. Dinah helps Ollie back to the truck, while Hal reminds the reader that Joshua was not the first of his kind, nor will he be the last.


Thoughts: Alright, so this issue was a bit heavy handed. You can tell that Adams and O'Neil were really trying on this one. Their message is a good one of course, but it got in the way of the story in several places. Green Lantern fans will definitely rejoice in this issue, as this is the first of the O'Neil/Adams run where Hal does NOT blindly trust authority to the point of absurdity. It was great to see Black Canary, and the splash page of her memories was the high point of the issue for me (see below, almost reminds you of Ditko, eh?). I like that we're reminded yet again that Black Canary (and by extension, women in general) are not helpless damsels in need of rescuing. BA drops those bikers like a bad habit. It was only when one of them ran her over that she got into any trouble.




Also: Get a load of that cover! Nothing says 1970 like Hal Jordan back-handing a hippie!

Next week: Another Adventure Comics story (I don't own Green Lantern #79...yet, its on the way)

Ollie Watch: Feb. 20th

Out This Week:

Batman and the Outsiders #4: Ollie joins the Outsiders(?) in the fourth issue of the revamped series. (?)

Justice League of America #18: Keep an eye out for supporting GA characters Black Canary and Red Arrow as they battle the Suicide Squad!

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol.2 #2

Credits: Mike Grell (cover, script) Ed Hannigan (pencils) Dick Giordano (color)

Cover Date: March, 1988

Synopsis: This issue picks up immediately after the last issue ended. GA is still trying to figure out how someone could survive an arrow to the chest, while Dinah comforts Dr. Green inside.
The police (and Ollie) rush to the Muncy mansion, determined to find evidence that the perp was indeed Al Muncy. Despite a tourhough search of the place, the cops find nothing. Muncy mocks both the police and Ollie, standing by and sipping beer straight out of the faucet (his family does own a brewery!).

The police conclude that the perp Ollie shot was likely a junkie looking for a fix and hoping that the Doc may have left something laying around. As much as Ollie and Lt. Cameron desperately want to nab Muncy, the evidence at the scene suggests it couldn't have been him (the footprint they found was from a larger, heavier man than Muncy).

Just then, GA has a flash of inspiration. Rushing back to the mansion, they find a partial suit of armor and a mocking note from Muncy. Green Arrow remembered the suit from earlier... when it had also included a chainmail shirt (explaining how Muncy could have survived the arrow AND why his footprints were those of a heavier man). They also find the secret passages and tunnels that the Muncy family used for bootlegging during Prohibition.

GA and Lt. Cameron down the villain...straight to Cameron's house. Muncy has Cameron's daughter and plans to kill both her and Cameron just to prove he can. Luckily, GA intervenes and puts an arrow through Muncy's wrist. Muncy manages to escape in a super sweet classic car back to his brewery. Again he mocks GA, telling him that there's another exit from the tunnel system and that he'll never find him. Muncy jumps into the elevator into the tunnels and flips the switch...and goes straight into a giant pool of beer. Earlier we'd seen GA open a valve, but were given no reason. Now we see he used it as a lethal (but probably delicious!) trap.

Thoughts: Well, Ollie kill another guy at the end of this issue, and doesn't seem to upset about it either. I can handle the grim Ollie who killed because he had to, but he seems to do it a bit too casually for my tastes in this issue. Lt. Cameron even gets on him about it, pointing out that if the perp from earlier hadn't been wearing armor, he would have been a dead man. If it turned out to be Muncy, no one would shed too many tears, but if it was some kid looking for a fix...well, Cameron promised trouble. I like that Dr. Green and Dinah spend some time talking about their mutual pain; Dinah seems to draw a great comfort from it.

I still enjoyed reading this issue. It was well written and paced, I'm just not sure of the characterization that Grell is using for GA at this point.

Spotlight:: Green Arrow vol.2 #1

In 1987, the comic book world shook with an unprecidented event: Green Arrow, after having existed for four decades, finally got his own series. This prestige format mini-series, Longbow Hunters, diverged radically from previous protrayls of the Emerald Archer. Rather than a social crusader in Star City who used goofy trick arrows, Ollie was now a grim, gritty Seattle resident who used your regular old arrow almost exclusively. Following that 3-issues series (which met with great critical and commercial success) DC gave the green light for an ongoing series written by Mike Grell and drawn by Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano.

The first issue of the series starts off with Ollie foiling a mugging, then gets right into the grim part of the equation. Black Canary, who was brutally beaten and possibly raped (although DC editorials later said she wasn't) is having understandable intimacy issues with poor Ollie (who killed her attacker). The couple decides that they need to seek professional help, and do just that. Enter Dr. Annie Green, psychologist to our super-couple, and also the only witness to a 20 year old crime. At 10, Annie was brutalized by someone she identified as Al Muncy, heir to a brewery fortune and an accused serial killer. Mr. Muncy has been granted a re-trial after all these years, and now Annie Green is all that stands in his way...or does she. While Muncy is under house arrest, surrounded by dozens of policeman, someone hand delivers a package to Dr. Green's office; a package containing a piece of the dress she was wearing all those years ago. Later that night, Black Canary sits with the doctor while Ollie patrols outside. He spots a masked intruder, who runs off after Ollie sinks a shaft into his torso. GA finds the arrow on the ground, bent out of shape and with no blood on it... DUN DUN DUN.

That storyline concludes in the next issue, and you'll find out how it ended next week. As for my thoughts, I had a great time reading this book, although I must say that the new grim, gritty Ollie takes some getting used to.

Overview/Review: Green Arrow/Black Canary #2

Well kids, I finally had time to read issue #2 of the new GA series Green Arrow/Black Canary. This issue sees our hero still trapped on Paradise Island, surrounded by unfriendly Amazons. After a failed (nude) escape attempt, Ollie resigns himself to wait for rescue.

As if on cue, Black Canary and Speedy arrive on a yacht and are greeted on the dock by Hippolyta and another group of Amazons. After beating the ever loving crap out of a particularly mouthy Amazon (who insults Mia for being "unclean"), Dinah pretends to consider the offer the Amazons made her in the previous issue.

Of course, this is all a diversion. While Mia and Dinah distract the main body of Amazons, Connor sneaks into the area where Ollie is being held and takes out his guards in a flurry of poisoned (but non-lethal) blowdarts. After lending GA his underwear (an event which Ollie firmly states they will never speak of again) Ollie and Connor make a run for the coast. Of course, Ollie was expecting to run to the waiting Justice League and is not happy with Connor when he finds out that he came alone.

The discussion is cut short, however, when the Amazons again catch Ollie in the act of running off. The issue ends with an ultimatum from Hippolyta (Dinah must chose to stay with them before the day is finished) and Connor and Ollie surrounded by angry warrior women.

Overall, I liked this issue more than I liked the previous one. Dinah comes off as much stronger and more collected in this issue, plus Mia actually gets more than one line. Dinah pummeling the Amazon over her insults was also gratifying. People tend to forget that BA is one of the DCU's most accomplished martial artists, and just because you live in a mythical land full of lady warriors doesn't mean you're better in a fight than a superhero. Ollie was also in particularly good form with multiple funny one liners. And of course, the scene where we find out that Connor lent Ollie his underwear is hilarious.

Score: 3.5/5 Boxing Glove Arrows

Overview/Review: Green Arrow/Black Canary #1

Well cats and kittens, Green Arrow's last series may have ended at #75, but he's back baby (sort of!). While it would be incorrect to say that GA's last was canceled this is the first regular gig he's had in several months. We've had a series of 1 shots in response to the indecent proposal (to Black Canary) that occurred at the end of Green Arrow. The events of THOSE issues have lead directly into this one.

As everyone knows by now, Dinah and Ollie's wedding night did not turn out very well at all. The end of the JLA Wedding Special had Ollie trying to stab Dinah to death and getting himself perforated for his troubles. This issue follows directly after.

While the cover implies that we should be surprised by the team on the cover, I don't see how anyone could be (especially since the cover image was avaiable online several months before this ish was released.) Obviously, with Ollie dead, the titular Green Arrow is his son, Connor Hawke.

Most of the issue consists of GA's supporting cast dealing with his death. Dinah is pursuing Star City's criminals with reckless abandon and extreme force. Connor and Mia are doing their best to keep things together while also dealing with Dinah's increasingly erratic behavior and her disturbing instance that Ollie is not dead.

Various other characters and heroes in the DC universe try to help Dinah deal with her grief and find closure, including the Amazon community on Paradise Island. All of them encourage Dinah to move on, until a certain Caped Crusader shows up and deems the entire situation nonsensical. Bats concludes that none of Ollie's enemies would have arranged his death and then failed to take credit, and that he knew nothing important enough to warrant an anonymous death (Bats checked...somehow).

After a rather gruesome autopsy, we find out that the body we'd taken for Ollie (which has so far passed test available to the League) turns out to be none other than evil shapeshifter Everyman, late of Luthor's Infinity Inc. and recently seen in company with the Amazons. Dinah realizes, in retrospect, that Athena and the Amazon's offer to come away with them was a bit fishy, leading to the final scene, which has our friend Ollie in a cage covered in cuts and bruises, and surrounded by Amazon warriors. With a truly classic Oliver Queen one-liner, the issue ends.

My feelings on this particular issue are mixed. I wouldn't have minded a regular series starring Dinah and Connor, but on the other hand, I'm immensely relieved that Ollie has escaped (or gotten better from) death once again. I'm having trouble seeing where this series will go once Dinah and the gang free Ollie from Amazon custody. Certainly it seems unlikely that they'll settle down together and live happily ever after, so there will have to be some further conflict. Perhaps they'll separate on the grounds that their relationship, coupled with their careers, would be far too hazardous for both of them. After all, look where its gotten them at this point!

I'm also torn on the character portrayals. While I found Connor's characterization spot on (sensitive, trying to keep conflict to a minimum while easing Dinah's pain) I think Dinah's was way off. I know she just lost her husband (by her own hand) but I think Dinah is one of those people who would take a loss like that in stride, especially since this isn't the first time Ollie has gone and died on her. Couple that with the fact that she was acting a bit loony tunes through most of the issue, and I think the writers missed the mark a bit. Perhaps she'll redeem herself in future issues (#2 is out, and will be reviewed once I've read it).

Overall, I liked it, and I have high hopes that this will become an even more interesting book once half of its title cast gets more than one panel!

Score: 3/5 Boxing Glove Arrows (I need to get a graphic for that!)

PS: Something I've been wondering. Did Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance get married, or did Green Arrow and Black Canary? There's an important distinction there, since the latter two don't legally exist...