Trick Arrow of the Week: Mind Reading Arrow

You know, with all his liberal ideals and objection to magically induced mind wipes, you'd think Oliver Queen would be a little more respectful of people's civil rights. Apparently not:


Big Brother wears green!

Spotlight:: Adventure Comics #255

Issue: Adventure Comics #255

Title: "The War That Never Ended!"

Credits: Dave Wood (script) Jack and Roz Kirby

Cover Date: December, 1958

Synopsis: Green Arrow and his partner Speedy are on a Trans-Pacific flight, headed to Japan for the "International Crime Convention" (I want to see the Bonnie and Clyde cos-players!) when their plane has engine trouble and ditches in the ocean. In raft with no paddle, the duo drift away from the other survivors, fighting off a shark attack and washing up on a desert island.

Suddenly, The Emerald Archer and his sidekick are ambushed by a group of Japanese soldiers! When a typhoon destroyed their radio in June, 1945, the soldiers were cut off from the outside world. Convinced the war is still ongoing, and that GA and Speedy are enemy spies, the soldiers attack, detaining Green Arrow (Speedy manages to escape).

The Japanese major explains that after their radio was knocked out, a typhoon destroyed their heavy weapons. Spotting an American fleet on maneuvers, he demands Green Arrow use his engineering abilities to build them arrow-based artillery to attack the fleet.

GA complies, building them catapult powered Mine Arrows and Bomb Arrows. Just as the weapons are launched, Speedy commences with a rescue operation. The Japanese are defeated, and it turns out that GA weapons are harmless, and serve only to signal the fleet of his presence.

Finally convinced that the war is over, the Japanese major and his men honorably surrender to GA aboard the American ships.

Thoughts: Another "Japanese soldiers trapped on an island who don't know the war is over" story, but well done and fun. Some of the arrows are especially trippy, even for the Silver Age, especially the Bomb Arrow, which deployed a giant Green Arrow instead of exploding. How Ollie managed to pull that off while the Japanese soldiers were watching is another story in itself :)

Again, excellent art by Jack Kirby and his wife Roz, but that pretty much goes without saying.

Ollie Watch: August 11th, 2008

Out Tomorrow:

Green Arrow/Black Canary #11: The circumstances behind Connor's shooting will finally be revealed! (supposedly)

UPDATE: I just got back from the comic shop and read this book...the plot thickens...

Spotlight:: Batman Comic Strip

(Our weekly review of the Grell Green Arrow series will pause temporarily, as I have a gap in my collection. Until that gap is filled, we'll replace it with a new feature!)

Running in Amazing World of DC #4 and #5, this strip features Batman, Robin, and our resident hero, Green Arrow. This is going to be a long post, as I'm putting up all the strips before GA appears in the strip in the first post. Future posts will feature much smaller sets of strips.

Trick Arrow of the Week: Flare Arrow

Trick Arrow of the Week: Flare Arrow

In honor of the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, we at the Arrowcave present this week's trick arrow: The Flare Arrow! Famous for lighting the Olympic flame at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, this arrow, presumably purchased from Queen Industries, goes down in history as one of the coolest ways ever invented to light a fire!

I ask you to compare the following two images:

and

Eh? Eh?

Queen Industries, proud sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1941

New Blog Joins the Family

My good buddy El Jacone over at the Comic Book Bunker has started up a new blog about the Gliding Gladiator himself, Hawkman. So head on over to Being Carter Hall as El Jacone blogs his way through becoming a Hawkfan!

Quarter Bin Bonanza: Part 4

Quarter Bin Bonanza: Part 4

Well kids, the stars aligned once again for your truely to make the treck out into the comic buying wilderness known as the quarter bin. This time I was joined by fellow blogger Ljacone!

As Ljacone and his wife were staying at the Arrowcave for the weekend, we had a chance to go out hunting on Saturday. We ended up at the Lawrenceville location of Galactic Quest, which I'd been to before, but don't get to very much, and was a new experience for Ljacone.

The quarter bin hunting was pretty awesome, here's what I got:

Firestorm: I found about half a dozen issues of the second series I needed, which helps fill in some gaps. Unfortunately, the later issues seem to be really hard to find. A problem for another day I suppose. Issues 30, 33, 34, 45, and 53 found their way into my longboxes

Doctor Strange: Ljacone found 3 issues of the Sorcerer Supreme series in one of the boxes he was searchin through. This brings me within 5 issues of completing that run. I got 59, 60, and 62.

Defenders: Nothing in the bins this time, which is not at all surprising, since all the issues I need are within the first 15 issues or so. I did however locate issues 5, 8, and 9 in the regular back stock. They're in really good shape, and I got them for a good price since they were having a half off sale.

Namor: Just one issue this time, issue 34 of the second series. Almost done with this one too.

New Stuff

Martian Manhunter: I don't collect this character, since his appearances are almost all in expensive issues of Dectective or JLA, but I found most of the late 90's Ostrander run of Martian Manhunter in the quarter bin. I know Frank over at Idol-Head dislikes this series, but I figured I would give it a shot, sinceI like ol' J'onn, and he came cheap enough!

Sword of the Atom: I like Ray Palmer, and I found the last issue of his mini series in the bin. Now I just need to find the rest of them!

Random Stuff

Supergirl: I randomly found the issue of Supergirl (#10) which guest stars none other than Prez! This confirms that Prez was somehow President of the United States in DV mainstream DC universe. Should make for a good read!

OHOTMU: Book of the Dead. Sounds like fun!

Flaming Carrot Comics #26: When a cover advertises Zombies, Umpires, Turtles, and Fools, you kno it must be fun!

Tom Strong: Tom Strong is a good series, and I found 3 issues for a quarter each. No brainer folks!

All in all, a good run. I'm especially excited about the Supergirl issue (more Prez!) and the big chunk of Martian Manhunter I have waiting for me.


Admin Note: I apologize for sparse posting schedule last week. Somehow some bad Chinese food got past the Arrow-food tasters, and yours truly was struck down with super food poisoning!