Trick Arrow of the Week: Bolo Arrow

Trick Arrow of the Week: Bolo Arrow

This week's arrow is another that allows Green Arrow to subdue opponents without doing them any lasting harm. As you can see from the picture, the arrow is fired at the opponent, and upon impact releases a set of bolos that tangle in the legs of the victim, preventing him from running away. This is certainly less messy than the glue arrow, but also sacrifices some general utility as well. Still, has a job, and it does it well.

Plus, it looks darn cool!

Sorry Guys!

Sorry folks, no post today. Work was insane (it gets that way when you're gone for a week) and I have to run out of here in a few minutes for an appointment.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Hobo Ollie, complete with Empty Soda Can Arrow!

Animation Arrows:: Justice League: The New Frontier

Title: Justice League New Frontier

Review: Well, I'm sure most of my readers will be familiar with the plot of New Frontier, but just ine case: The plot follows the 3 characters which kicked off the Silver Age, namely Martian Manhunter, the Barry Allen Flash, and Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. They team up with existing 50's era heroes like Superman and Batman to defeat an ancient menance that threatens to wipe out humanity.

Now, having watched the movie and read the series, I have to give th film 2 big thumbs up. The story was very well animated, and the voices they chose were damned near perfect (and had some big names). I especially enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris's performance as Barry Allen. My only real complaint was the length. The story clocks in at a mere 75 minutes. Whole storylines had to be cut for time, including the Losers and virtually all of John Henry's story (he was mentioned in a newscast, but had no scenes). Not only is that a real shame for the missing story, but it can be downright confusing at times. At one point, Barry Allen makes the decision to fight "The Center" and arrives at Cape Canaveral to join the fight. At almost the same time, Green Arrow, Adam Strange, and the Blackhawks also show up to help out. And that's all the intro we get for any of those people. People who are not total dorks like me may not have known who the hell those people were, they're not even named!

Other than the run-time, I have very little else to complain about. The animation was top-notch, the voices were great, and the story, as we knew ahead of time, was awesome. I picked up the 2 disc special edition from Best Buy, which came with a little Hal Jordan figure, complete with tiny Lantern. The extras on the DVD made the extra few bucks a no-brainer. The one that stuck out in my mind was the half hour long special on the history of the Justice League, complete with character profiles and interviews with various industry icons (including Stan Lee!).

Green Arrow Goodness: Not much, really. GA shows up with Adam Strange and the Black Hawks to help fight The Center, then appears in a few crowd scenes. That's about it. He does have one super awesome scene though: At the start of the fight against The Center, the Air Force launches a massive air strike as a distraction for The Flash. Batman joins them in the Batplane, but gets in a bit of trouble when about half a dozen flying dinosaurs attack at once. Bats manages to fight most of them off, but just as the last one is about to take a bite out of him, Ollie shows up in the Arrowplane, and kills it!

Go get the film kids, you won' be disappointed!

Spotlight:: Green Arrow and Black Canary #4

Issue: Green Arrow and Black Canary #4

Title: Please Play Where Daddy Can See You

Credits: Judd Winick (script) Cliff Chiang (cover, pencils) Trish Mulvihill (colors)

Synopsis: When we last left our intrepid band, they were fleeing Paradise Island after having rescued Oliver Queen from the clutches of the Amazons. Before the victory celebrations could begin, a shot rang out, hitting Connor Hawke in the chest. As the issue opens, Ollie manages to keep his head long enough to summon Superman, who carries Connor off to the hospital at super-speed.

Connor is in surgery, but that isn't good enough for Ollie. He screams for someone else until he finally arrives: Hal Jordan. Ollie unceremoniously orders him into the operating room to save his son. Hal manages to calm Ollie down a bit and promises to do everything he can. Hours pass, and finally Green Lantern returns with news: his ring was able to fully heal Connor's body, but the bullet had some kind of poison on it which had destroyed Connor's brain. His body was fine, but Connor was now effectively brain dead. The issue ends with Ollie comforting his son, telling him that "Daddy's right here."


Thoughts: Well, first off, I'm kinda bummed that Connor is a vegetable now, because I really like his character. As for the rest of the issue, I liked it. I really think that Winick got Ollie's reaction down to a tee: angry, inconsolable, and uncompromising. I also liked the bit where Black Lightning expresses his concern about the fact that Green Arrow is shouting people's real first names, in public. It's about damn time someone pointed out that that's a bad idea. I'm anxious to see where Winick is going with this, as there's a kidnapping coning up, and a mysterious kidnapping+crippled/dead person usually = Ra's Al Ghul, and I loves me some Ra's.

Spotlight:: Green Lantern #77

Issue: Green Lantern #77

Title: Journey to Desolation

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

Cover Date: June 1970


Synopsis: As Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen and their Guardian of the Universe companion (does this guy ever get a name?) continue their journey to find America, they stumble across a mining town named Desolation, and straight into an ambush. Ollie and Hal bail out of the truck and engage their attackers in battle. Ollie makes short work of his opponents with his mad archery skills, but Hal's ring mysteriously fails him at a critical moment in the battle.

After questioning their attackers, GL and GA realize that the attack is a case of mistaken identity. The leader of the group, Jacob, explains that the group is made up of disaffected miners from the nearby town of Desolation. Desolation is ruled by a ruthless mine boss name "Slapper Soames" (you'd think he would have used some of his power to pick a better nickname...) who keeps the townsfolk in conditions little better than slavery. The miners have finally risen in revolt in response to Slapper's latest affront: trumping up charges against local troubadour Johnny Walden. Johnny will hang at down if nothing is done.

After a brief argument (where Hal again shows a naive trust in anything resembling authority, legitimate or not) Ollie and Hal agree to help the miners attack Slapper Soames and save Johnny Walden.

Unfortunately for them, Slapper has built himself something resembling a modern bunker, complete with artillery and hired thugs in the form of Nazi war criminals (must be a profitable mine...). Regardless, the battle is joined. Initially, the miners do well. After all, they have 2 highly skilled superheroes on their side. Things start to go south when Hal gets a message from the Guardians that his ring has been partially depowered (since he's not working his regular beat) just in time to get in the middle of a firefight and wander into a cloud of knockout gas (thanks, Guardians!)

Meanwhile, Ollie gets pistol whipped and brought into Soames' headquarters. Luckily for Ollie, he was only playing possum. He manages to defeat most of the mine boss's thugs before being betrayed by Jacob. Jacob, it turns out, is working for Soames. He's leading the miners in revolt only so Soames has an excuse to kill off the feistier ones, leaving the rest more docile than ever. Just as Ollie is about to be shot, Hal intervenes and melts Jacobs gun.

The bad guys defeated, Ollie laments that even with their victory, the miners don't really have much to look forward to... the end.

Thoughts: Alright, one thing right off the bat. As soon as Hal complained about his "power beam" not "going far enough," I made all kinds of jokes in my head involving erectile dysfunction drugs (if your power beam remains erect for more than 4 hours, contact your local Guardian immediately...). Aside from that, I thought the issue was great. I think part of it was that the situation they faced was actually a serious problem. Company towns like Desolation existed all over the Old West, even into the 20th century. Of course, I doubt situations quite like that existed in 1970. Still, the issue was well done, and managed to avoid sounding quite as preachy as the last issue.

Green Lantern's crisis of conscience continues, and continues to remain believable. His naive trust in anything resembling authority is a bit of a stretch, however. Green Arrow gets to demonstrate his usefulness in a fight in this ish (and his vulnerability to pistols in the back of the head) so as a fan of the Emerald Archer, I found that pretty satisfying. Neal Adams continues to please with his art, especially that incredibly melodramatic cover!

Thoughts anyone?

Trick Arrow of the Week: Glue Arrow

This week's Trick Arrow of the Week is Ollie's Glue Arrow. Filled with a fast drying, industrial strength adhesive, this trick arrow has a myriad of uses, including what is probably my favorite use of a trick arrow ever.

As shown in the picture to the left, Green Arrow had challenged invulnerable crime boss "Brick" to a duel. Unable to cause much damage to his rocky hide with traditional arrows, GA switched tactics, firing the glue arrow straight down Brick's throat. When the glue hardened, Brick had a slight problem, as even invulnerable people need to breath, and the glue was now blocking his airway. That's just the kind of brain over brawn thinking that made me like Green Arrow so much in the first place.

(Of course, being Ollie, he let Brick go, but not before reminding him who was the "bitch" in their little arrangement)

PS: Sorry for the late post guys. Infectious Lass paid a visit to the Arrowcave, resulting in your humble correspondent catching a nasty flu.

Dossier:: Mia Dearden

Name: Mia Dearden

Alias: Speedy II

1st appearance: Green Arrow vol. 3 #2

Modus Operandi: Teen-aged crime fighter, archer extraordinaire.

Power/Equipment: Access to same arsenal of trick arrows as Green Arrow, skilled acrobat and hand to hand combatant. Supremely talented archer.

Affiliations: Arrow Family, Teen Titans

Backstory: After running away from an abusive home, Mia found herself without support and easy prey for the dreges of society. She eventually found herself a "boyfriend," who also let other men have their way with her and collected money in return. Yup, little Mia had found her way into teen prostitution.

After a run-in with Green Arrow and his supposed ally Stanley Dover, Mia became part of the Arrow Family. After training herself in the use of the crossbow (and showing serious talent at it) Ollie finally relented and trained Mia to be the new Speedy. It was around this time that MIa also found out that her days as a prostitute came at a price: Mia is HIV positive.

After a recent run-in with a newly-resurrected Jason Todd, Mia finally gave in the Ollie's cajoling and joined the Teen Titans.

A classic hooker with a heart of gold, Mia has finally found herself a home she can be proud of.