Spotlight:: World's Finest Comics #98

Issue: World's Finest Comics #98

Title: "The Unmasked Archers"

Credits: Ed Herron (script) Roz and Jack Kirby (art)

Cover Date: December, 1958

Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Roy Harper are hanging out at Queen's club when the Police Commissioner (presumably of Star City, though Ollie's Base of Operations is as yet unnamed) tells him that the next night the club officers will be named.

Just then, the duo notice the Arrow Signal in the sky. While ducking into a room to change, they see a newspaper headline: Oliver Queen and Roy Harper are Green Arrow and Speedy!" With their secret IDs blown, they decide to finish this one mission, then hang up their bows.

Arriving on the scene, the archers use fan arrows to drive away the smokescreen the criminals were using to hide themselves, and then a (I swear I'm not making this up) fountain pen arrow to mark the car to make the crooks easier to follow.

Afterward, Ollie and Roy present themselves to the Police Commissioner to turn themselves in. The Commissioner think s they're joking, as apparently the newspaper was a fake, designed as a joke on Ollie as part of his club initiation. Now the pair must play along, allowing the Commish to believe they're just dressing up in a costume as part of the initiation.

Soon, they're called on the thwart a train robbery. Ollie must act as though he;s just a guy in a costume, while at the same time foiling the robbery. He shows up and fires off an arrow, missing by several yards. This convinces the Commissioner that he's just Oliver playing along with the joke, but the arrow ricochets over the train and launches a net, capturing the crooks.

The Commissioner is fully convinced by the Arrow-plane flying overhead. Obviously Ollie can't be GA if Green Arrow is flying s plane over their heads. We later find out that Roy had used a Balloon Arrow shaped like the plane to simulate the silhouette across the moon. (Why Roy didn't just fly the actual Arrow Plane overhead is a mystery).

Thoughts: Wow, this story was a bunch of convoluted nonsense, even by Silver Age standards. Nothing about it really makes sense, from the strange club initiation to the Balloon Arrow trick. I guess we can just chalk it up to Silver Age weirdness and a need to compress the story into 4 pages.

Up next: Green Arrow's origin story!

Spotlight:: World's Finest Comics #97

Issue: World's Finest Comics #97

Title: The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus

Credits: France Herron (story) Jack Kirby!! (art) Roz Kirby (art)

Cover Date: October, 1958

Synopsis: As a jeweler puts some of his inventory in the safe, he's suddenly attacked by a giant mechanical tentacle, which steals the jewels! Luckily, Green Arrow and Speedy are patrolling nearby in the Arrow-Plane., which speeds after the flying mechanical beast! Unfortunately, our heroes are unable to stop the machine because it releases a cloud of smoke and escapes in the confusion. GA and Speedy do manage to recover the jewels with a well places rope arrow, however.

Later, the Archers Extraordinare get word by way of arrow signal that the evil machine is robbing a train. They rush after it in the Arrowcar, and although they drive the beast off, they're captured and placed in a cell. Luckily GA managed to sneak an "acetylene arrow" on board, which he uses to melt through the bars. Then, using their (sigh) "aqua-lung arrows" they make it to the surface in time to foil the machine's inventors and their plan to rob a cruise ship!

Thoughts: Well, more silly arrows! We have a rope arrow, a short-circuit arrow, an acetylene arrow, an aqua-lung arrow AND firecracker arrows. Add that to the giant flying metal octopus, and you have a recipe for Silver Age silliness at its finest! Plus, Jack Kirby art!

Admin note: We'll be pausing our overview of the O'Neil/Adams run of Green Lantern/Green Arrow until Heroescon in late June. We got up to 83, but 84 and 87 are currently missing from my collection, and rather than go back and cover them later, I'd rather continue in order.

Spotlight:: Green Lantern #82

Issue: Green Lantern vol.1 #82

Title: How Do You Fight a Nightmare?

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

Cover Date: March, 1971

Synopsis: Green Arrow pays a surprise visit to his beau Black Canary, bringing her a dozen roses he just "happened" to have with him. Suddenly, a pair of strange, harpy like creatures attacks!

After a goof with a gas arrow drives them from the room, Ollie and Dinah notice that the harpies have disappeared. Concerned about all the weirdness, Ollie decides to call in Hal Jordan (with a telegram, which I found delightfully quaint).

Hal flies out in response to Ollie's summons, but notices the same harpy creautres from before. He follows them to a disco (more 70's fun!) but they vanish to reveal The Witch Queen! She villain uses her sorcery to trap Hal in another dimension.

Meanwhile, Ollie and Dinah investigate the florist where Ollie purchased the roses from earlier. As Dinah reminisces about the flower shop she owned with her husband (a career she would return to later) a fist punches Ollie through the window.

The culprits turn out to be a trio of massive Amazon warriors. They attempt to take Ollie with them, but Dinah gives them a good old fashioned ass-whupping. The women show their respect for Dinah by explaining what's going on and leaving Ollie alone. The Amazons are from a prehistoric culture that was exiled to another dimension by a scorned man. Ever since, they;ve been distrustful of men. They were contacted by the Witch Queen and told that the men they were after (including Ollie) had been abusing women. Now that they know the truth, they lead the pair back to the area where the Witch Queen contacted them.

Meanwhile, The Witch Queen gets a visit from her brother: Sinestro! It turns out that the staff she used was not magical, but powered by Sinestro's yellow power ring! Before Sinestro can recover his ring from the staff, Ollie fires an arrow through the center, pinning it to the wall. Sinestro challenges Ollie physically, but one punch sends the intergalactic villain to the floor. Dinah takes out the Witch Queen just before she tackles Ollie, much to his chagrin.

It turns out that only one male may be present in the dimension of the Amazons, so Dinah follows the lady warriors back to their home to rescue Hal. They get there just in time, as Hal is about to be executed for the crimes the Witch Queen accused him of. The Amazons vouch for him and Dinah,and the two return to Earth. Ollie finds the incident hard to believe, but Dinah and Hal assure him he's not imagining things!

Thoughts: Kind of a blah issue. Again, not sure what they were trying to say, other than demonstrating once again that Black Canary (and other woman) are fully capable of taking care of themselves. Also, I found it strange that they chose to use Amazons, since the DCU already has Amazons running about...

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 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:: Adventure Comics #251

Issue: Adventure Comics 251

Title: The Case of the Super-Arrows

Credits: France Herron (scripts) Jack Kirby! (art)

Cover Date: September, 1958

Overview: The issue begins with mysterious people from the future sending a gift to the past, specifically a set of "super-arrows" to one of the 20th century's greatest crime fighters, Green Arrow! GA and Speedy run out to test the new arrows, and they prove quite effective in nabbing the bad guys.

Unfortunately, a mishap with the "hypnosis arrow" leaves GA and Speedy helpless before a group of criminals. The crooks know opportunity when they see it, and grab the future-tech for themselves. Armed with the super-arrows, the gang commits caper after caper, with GA and Speedy helpless against them.

Finally, Green Arrow comes up with a scheme to put an end to the super-crime wave. He and Speedy challenge the crooks one last time, armed only with regular old pointy arrows. The crooks try taking them out with yet more super arrows, but GA and Speedy's keen aim allows them to use their pointed arrows the destroy the super-arrows mid flight. Without their edge, the crooks are easily defeated. GA decides that the super-arrows are best left for later study, and locks them up the Arrowcave's vault.

Thoughts: Everything about this story screams "Silver Age," from the big-headed future people, time travel, seriously goofy super arrows, to bombastic dialog; this story has it all. Plus, check out that art credit! Yup, the man, the myth, the legend, Jack Kirby contributed the pretty pictures for this story. I had no idea he'd ever drawn Green Arrow, and finding that out warmed my geeky heart.

(Looking forward in the Showcase: Green Arrow, I see that Jack Kirby had quite the run on GA stories. Woot!)

Spotlight:: World's Finest Comics #95

(sorry about the image guys, I only own the Showcase for this one)

Issue: World's Finest Comics #95

Title: Green Arrow vs. The Red Dart

Credits: Unknown (script) George Papp (art)

Cover Date: July-August 1958

Overview: This story introduces a new chracter, the Red Dart. GA and Speedy meet up with the Red Dart when he shows up to assist them in catching an escaped criminal. After using his "trick darts" (I swear I'm not making this up) to capture the crook, Red Dart introduces himself and offers his assistance as a hero to GA. Ollie accepts, and Red Dart assists them on several more cases.

It is only later that we find out that Red Dart is secretly working with the criminals he's supposedly foiling. By posing as a hero and getting in Green Arrow's good graces, he hopes to throw him off the scent of what he's really doing: robbing a gold shipment from the central bank.

Green Arrow and Speedy arrive to foil the robbery, and initially welcome Red Dart's help. However, in the middle of the fight, Red Dart switches sides and uses his "rain dart" (again, not making this up) to defeat GA's smokescreen Arrow. Apparently prepared this possibility, Ollie counters the dart with an umbrella arrow. Silly trick arrows aside, Green Arrow reveals that he knew Red Dart was on the side of evil all along, due to hi use of prison lingo and presence of gold assaying chemicals on his hands.

Red Dart and his compatriots go to prison, and all is well in GA's home city (not yet Star, as far as I can tell).

Thoughts: Wow, tons of Silver Age silliness in this issue! Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of it, but even I had to groan at the rain dart and umbrella arrow. This story is in Green Arrow's Showcase, so if this sounds fun, check it out for yourself!

Spotlight:: Adventure Comics #250

Issue: Adventure Comics #250

Title: The Green Arrows of the World!

Synopsis: Green Arrow hosts a convention of of crack archers from around the world, including archers from "The Jungle," Mexico, France, and Japan. A slight wrinkle appears in Ollie's plans when the British archer is waylayed by a dastardly Brit who has sworn revenge on GA for sending him to jail! The villain uses the costume he stole from the British archer to infiltrate the convention and trick GA into trying out his "Big Ben Arrow."

GA gets wise to his scheme just in time, unmasking him with an amazing shot and forcing him to flee.

Our villain, Limehouse Larkin, is delayed briefly by the Japanese Green Arrow, and finally captured by GA with the use of several trick arrows that are certain to find their way into a Friday feature soon! The story ends with GA revealing how he saw through Larkin's disguise: Larkin had shown him a British wanted poster advertising a reward of 10,000 DOLLARS, instead of pounds! Silly criminals and their lack of knowledge of international currency!

Thoughts: Wow, this story was a ton of fun. Between the ridiculous, over-the-top characterizations of the Green Arrows of the World and the silly trick arrows (a jujitsu arrow, really!) you can't help but be entertained by the sheer fun and silliness. Of course, you'll notice that GA gets no cover space on this issue which is unfortunate, but typical.

Next week: Green Lantern #77!