Today´s post is a rather quick one. I just wanted to talk about a few things concerning variant covers and spoilers. Normally I stay away from spoilers for my readers but today I´m going to make an exception. So if you don´t know what is happening in CIVIL WAR right now you should not read the rest of this post.
I know I originally started this blog to sing the praises of comic books and how glorious the life of a comic reader can be. But sometimes there are things than make me loose my cool. Like CIVIL WAR - THE RETURN.
Question : When is a variant cover not a variant cover ?
Answer : When the regular cover is no cover at all.
That´s right. The regular cover to CIVIL WAR - THE RETURN is just a blank piece of paper with the title on it and the credits. Wait. I think I see the sailboat now. There is the emblem of the hero who is returning but since it is printed in bright yellow it is virtually invisible. No kidding. You can´t see it in the pic I posted because of the low resolution but it is there in bright, invisible yellow. Wow, an invisible cover.
I understand that Marvel doesn´t want to spoil who exactly is returning but when DC was running THE RETURN OF SUPERMAN they managed to keep the secret without selling blank pages. And won´t all the readers who had to pay 3 bucks but didn´t get the beautiful Ed McGuiness cover be pissed ? I mean you pay full price for a comic and get a blank cover. That´s not right. And it´s not as if people who buy this comic don´t find out who is returning.
I don´t know. Which cover do you like better ?
Speaking about spoilers I want to mention CAPTAIN AMERICA 25. I know that it is a special issue. You probably know already what is going to happen because it has been all over the news. But that´s not my problem. I don´t want to comment on that. I want to ask why Marvel has to make a variant cover by Ed McGuiness and a regular cover ? Just let Ed Mc Guiness do the normal cover.
And I just know that I´m not going to get the Ed McGuiness variant because my comic dealer has the uncanny ability to only get variant covers when it´s not important for me. When I still had RED SONYA on my pull list I only got the covers I wanted once out of five times. The last two issue of ASTONISHING X - MEN I got were variants but I would have prefered to get the regular cover. Just when you think the comic industry has learned from it´s mistakes you have to get worked up because of the same things.
I mean with MANHUNTER 26 they made the Arthur Adams cover as a regular cover. Can´t we all learn from this ?
The last thing that annoyed me was the cover to 52 issue 37. I mean it´s one thing to spoil something but come on. Do you have to spoil the whole story on the cover ? For me that destroyed the whole mystery of the identity of Supernova.
So next time we will return to the greatness that is comics.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
Today I´m going to experiment a little. Normally I´m first writing all the text and add the pictures later on. Which is because I almost never get the post done in one setting. And normally that´s the best because when I go in for the second time I change the text, add some new passages and throw the paragraphs all around. And normally I don´t place all the pictures on the same side. But today I´m going to make it all different. I have seen that in my earlier posts I had much more pictures and on other blogs I have seen in the last few days it´s the same. So today I´m going to put more pictures on the post and I´m going to post as much pics as I can in the next minutes before I have to sign off for today. And I´m going to do the rest tomorrow.
Happy International Women´s Day ! Isn´t it nice to get one day because you´re part of some group just so that the collective conscience can rest easier and the rest of the world can ignore you for 364 days before having to deal with you again ? It makes you just feel so special, doesn´t it ? But all sarcasm aside isn´t it time to salute the women who have not only taken over the world ( here in Germany quite visibly ) but who will make it all better ? Which for me means an excuse to post more drawings of hot babes which is something my blog is seriously lacking.
Today we salute not only all women around the world, no, we also give a shout out to all the women in comics. Now I´m not a big believer in sinchronicity but I doubt that it is pure coincidence that I have been collecting and reviewing pictures for my big post on THE biggest ( and I´m not implying anything here ) superheroine of them all : Power Girl. At least in my opinion.
POWERGIRL 101 - WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT POWER GIRL BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK
Since I have quite the backlog on reading material to write about there are also some topics that I wanted to comment on, first and foremost among them how much we all love Power Girl.
Come on, you can admit it.
See ? I´m holding my hand up. Which may be in part because it´s too late to deny it. If you have read some of the postings on this blog or if you are one of my three loyal readers you may have already noticed that I get a little excited ( some may even say carried away ) when it comes to Power Girl. Now a lot of comic readers may think that is only because of one reason : her powergirls. Which was the reason that on DAVE´S LONGBOX the big Power Girl post was the climax of BOOB WAR WEEK ( which by the way could use a sequel, how about it Dave ? ) which analyzes the big mystery.
The many costumes of Power Girl
I just realized that in the last paragraph I used both the words climax and anal-yze. But that is the power of Power Girl that everything suddenly has a second meaning or is seen in a new context. You start to second guess what you just said a moment ago out of fear that you might have committed something that may be sexual harassment. In his BOOB WAR WEEK CLIMAX Dave writes about Power Girl´s " Magical Cleavage Window " and it really seems that Power Girl has magic powers ( which may be the reason that in one of her origin stories she was related to Arion ). Most of that powers seem to stem from her costumes of which she had quite a lot. In her first appearance Power Girl had this hole in her costume which later turned into a white body with the mother of all cleavages. Those were the times brother.
This was the costume that is for me the " classic " one because at that time I was reading JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE and it´s still one of my favorites. I had just begun to foray into the vast world of american comics when I discovered that there were 2 monthly Justice League books. The first story I read was a two parter story in both books with zombies. The art was done ( in the Justice League Europe issue ) by Bart Sears who at that time was one of the premiere babe artists and defined the look of Power Girl for years to come. He gave her a muscular body with big breasts - and the rest is history. It´s strange to be reminded how much was happening at the time I began to read comics that still play a big role in the comics of today. Anyway, Bart Sears was lightyears away from the kind of artwork that got the new WARLORD series cancelled and he later on changed Power Girl´s costume to a skintight gold and white thing that seemed to be sprayed on.
When is a circle not a circle ? When it´s an oval.
Later on Power Girl had a blue and white costume with a pointy magical window which in most cases was drawn rather tiny. The only comic I know of where that window takes on gigantic proportions that almost make her things pop out is in the last issues of GREEN LANTERN - MOSAIC. And before you ask, no that issues were not drawn by a babe artist . But you can buy the issues nonetheless, in fact buy the whole series. You may be able to find it in the dollarbin and it´s one of the best ( if not THE best ) Green Lantern series there is. Which I can´t say often enough and in fact I already did on several occasions. Here´s a link to an earlier post where I explain what MOSAIC is all about.
Back to the costumes. Here are twolinks that show the many costumes of Power Girl...well, in a superdeformed version.
Later on Power Girl had the white costume without window when she appeared in the pages of Chris Claremont´s SOVEREIGN SEVEN which did not work at all. If that was supposed to save the book from cancellation there was one big flaw : only the magic of the boobie window could have saved the book. So later on the window returned but strangely the circle of the costume turned into an oval that just kept getting bigger and bigger. Which awesome power was responsible for that ? Which unseen force was at work here ? Scientifics all over the world were baffled....well, I have my own theory here.
The gravity of gravity or The difference between flying and defying gravity
It seems that there is a point where all suspension of disbelief fails. There are some things that comic readers can believe but there are others that are just too big. Like a science fiction movie with a woman as president of the United States. Or a version of windows that actually works. Or Power Girl´s breast size.
An alien escapes an exploding planet with a rocket ship and just happens to land on the same planet where her cousin was shot to because her father is also a rocket scientist like Jor - El and has decided to send her to the same planet as Kal - El to grow up together and keep him company ?
Okay. I can believe that.
The alien gains special powers like flight and invulnerability in our atmosphere and decides to use her powers for the betterment of mankind ?
Okay. That also sounds good.
She´s a woman, is humanoid looking in fact she looks identical to earth women and doesn´t even have a different skin color like other alien races in the DC universe ?
Okay. I´m still with you.
And she has really big breasts and a cleavage window.
Say what ? Okay, that´s taking it a little too far. Isn´t that totally unrealistic ?
See what I mean ?
And that seems to be the big question. Scientifically speaking you can define the power of flight as the ability of one person / individual to defy gravity. You can further argue that if that person / individual can defy gravity than logically the whole body can do it. This also must include every part of the body. The head can do it, the leg can do it, the hand can do it.....even the nose can do it. Now since Power Girl´s breasts are INDEED a part of her body ( and a rather big part ) the only logic conclusion is that her breasts also defy gravity. In every way possible. At least according to science.
So the real question is not why Power Girl´s powergirls defy gravity...the real question is why her boobs defy gravity in this particular way and why the boobs of other superheroines who can fly don´t. Now that I think of it we really don´t know if Wonder Woman´s boobs do it because they are always pushed into that corsage. Or it could be because Wonder Woman was made out of clay. She doesn´t have clay feet but maybe.......Hmm. And what about Starfire. She definitely defies gravity. Maybe there is more to this idea than I thought.
How big is too big ?
What is the reason that Power Girl´s powergirls lead to such big debates ?It´s not like there are no women with big boobs out there. We know that they are. Some got them the natural way, some had a little help from medicine and science but we have seen them. Even if it´s only on the big screen, on tv or on the internet. I have seen them, I´ve taped them and I have studied them for endless hours as part of extensive scientific research. You really can see them everywhere : on the streets, at work, in the gym, on television....it´s not like you are constantly surrounded by big chested women. ( And if you are send me your address....or at least some photos. ) But it´s also not the case that there are no women with a big " personality " excisting in our universe.
And I´m going to post some pictures of really big breasted women to prove it when I make the extra post of " WHO COULD PLAY POWER GIRL ? " which will probably get me into some trouble. Like maybe some of the pictures I put on this post. But I just didn´t want to post the same pictures that everyone posts. And to tell you the truth for the most part I have no idea where I got them from anyway. Which is one of the reasons I mainly stick to covers from solicitations or pages from previews. But there are just too many awesome graphics depicting Power Girl out there not to post them especially with only three people reading this besides me.
The history of Power Girl
Power Girl first appearance was in All Star Comics 58 a comic starring the JSA of Earth 2 and here Power Girl was the cousin of Superman like Supergirl was on Earth 1. Unlike the much tamer version of Supergirl Power Girl was much more aggressive, much more outspoken and also...more grown up. Her fighting style was more agressive and she was constantly fighting with Wildcat who kept making sexual remarks about her....which at that time was the norm. But even if she was more of an original concept than Supergirl who was really just Superman with a skirt she didn´t connect really with the readers. Which may prove that female versions of known superheroes get a bigger response because of the franchise they belong to than new characters.
The real problems began after CRISIS ON INFINITE WORLDS. When DC merged all the universes together they did not only keep Supergirl but also Power Girl who should have merged with her Earth 1 counterpart. Now they could have gone and invented a new origin story for her like they did for the Huntress but instead they invented at least a dozen different new origins. It seems that DC was more interested in keeping the character than in doing a quick briefing to define her new origin. Instead whenever a writer worked on Power Girl he just invented a new origin, or if they wanted to write a story they always said " Hey, I got an idea. How about a new origin for Power Girl ? " or just wrote a new one if they couldn´t remember the old one. Which lead to one of the most convoluted comic histories besides Hawkman.
As a result of that her powers kept on changing depending on which writer did the story or what was called for in the story. Always a character out of place she was on different teams. On Earth 2 she was a member of the JSA and later of INFINITY Inc and after the crisis she was with the Justice League Europe and later the newly formed JSA after a short stint with the BIRDS OF PREY.
With INFINITE CRISIS her origin is finally cleared, she´s not from the Legion of Superheroes, she´s not related to the atlantean sorcerer Arion, she´s not whatever.....she´s the Earth 2 version of Supergirl. Big surprise. I really expected a little more especially in the JSA CLASSIFIED story about her.
Since Power Girl was mostly seen by her male teammates as a blank canvas to project their sexual fantasies on she never had many romantic relationships. The only thing resembling some kind of interaction was Flash constantly trying to hit on her. And of course her interaction with Guy Gardner ( who should really co star in her ongoing series ). In the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE there was a storyline about Power Girl being pregnant where she said that she wasn´t sure who was the Father : Hal Jordan or Aquaman. You heard right. Aquaman. It seems that the guy who is mostly known for being the least interesting Justice Leaguer scored where most other failed. This really gives a different meaning to the words : to boldly go where no man has gone before.
I mean Hal Jordan really is not so surprising. Not only do the heroes with the color green in their name get more chicks than the other heroes ( just think about Green Arrow´s track record ) but if Hal is known for one thing than that his " little black book " has the size of the New York phone book. And since Power Girl seems to have a certain attraction to older men it´s not too surprising that something happened between them.
But Aquaman really came out of left field. Maybe it´s got something to do with being a king and ruler of a sunken underwater kingdom. I mean he scored with a hot redhead like Mera so maybe he has unknown superior pick up powers. Or maybe his telepathy not only works on fish. And who knows how much the fact that it probably took place underwater played a role. Maybe there is some super scoring secret that is only shared by male leaguers of the old guard. But the really shocking fact was that Power Girl mentioned that they BOTH could be the father which means that for that possibility she must have done it with both at the same time period. Whoa. That´s what I call action.
Power Girl in her own books
Now if what is always said about comics is true it is really surprising that Power Girl has no ongoing series that is number one in the sales charts. I mean, all comics are read by drooling fanboys who are only looking for big breasted girls in skintight costumes with lots of exposure and wardrobe malfunctions. She´s in the top five asked about comissions with female characters and judging by the extensive drawings of Adam Hughes and other artists she seems to be quite popular with the creators.
Well, IF size really matters Power Girl has that in spades. She can mix it up with the biggest of the comic hotties and besides Big Barda and Starfire she´s right in the top spot where cup sizes are concerned. So what´s the missing ingredient ? I think it is because in most comics with Power Girl in risque situations like in JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE when she wore a bathing suit ( not a bikini, that would have been too much for the impressionable minds of male comic readers ) or when she was stranded on an island and had to wear a makeshift string bikini made of coconuts that didn´t really cover too much of her buxom beauty....whenever she´s in a situation where her physical attributes take center stage the comic is drawn by someone who draws really ugly women. It seems that is just part of the big conspiracy in comics to prevent babe artists and comics with hot chicks to inhabitate the same universe. At the moment DC comics is trying to bend universal law by having Terry Dodson on WONDER WOMAN and Adam Hughes working on ALL STAR WONDER WOMAN which hopefully ends successful and means that there is a Power Girl series by Arthur Adams or Ivan Reis on the horizon.
Well, it´s time to wrap up this post since I´ve written longer on this post than any other. There are still a lot of things left to say like who could play Power Girl in a movie but that will be in one of the next posts. This time I tried something different with posting the pictures first but for the next post I´m going to return to my usual method. Like life blogging is a experience in progress and I guess it will take a while till I have figured out the perfect method.
It´s always difficult to make this posts short especially when three of my favorite topics are concerned : comics, hot chicks and superheroes. Check out the links I posted for more information and if you think I´m totally off base or you agree or just are miffed write me a comment on the comment section of this blog. It would be nice to get some comments besides the usual spam.
The videos of today are something of a premiere because not only are they comic related but they actually have something to do with the topic of my post. Normally I just post some clips that I think my readers have not seen or might find interesting. This time though, since I´m trying to make my ultimate Power Girl post, I just have to post these two fanfilms.
The first one called POWER GIRL - THE CLASSIFIEDS. For a fanfilm it is pretty good and the actress portraying Power Girl brings the right qualities.
The second one is called I´M POWER GIRL, DAMMIT ! and shows Kara taking a phone call while battling BIZARRO.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
If you are an avid reader of my little blog you may have noticed that this is still the third part of the Green Arrow trilogy. I know I hoped to finish this on the next day, which would have been almost two weeks ago. There has been a lot of stuff happening. First of all we had to take down the Leni Riefenstahl exhibition at the museum in Kornwestheim and prepare everything for the new Gert Fabritius exhibition which took a lot of time and some extra hours. We had a really good reception of the vernissage and now I have some free days. Which for a normal person would mean time to relax. And which for me means I caught the flu and I have to prepare for a job interview. Nevertheless I wanted to write something new in my blog which means first wrapping up this thing. Now there were some problems with the computer in the past but thanks to NERO I can, once again, burn some data on discs. So my harddrive will not explode and I can save all the pictures for this blog. So let´s get right to blogging because last time I left you with a kind of cliffhanger. We are coming now to the third part that I named " the brutal " for two reasons.
Reason number 1 : The movie " The good, the bad and the ugly " in it´s original form was called " Il buono, il malo e il bruto " which correctly translated means " The good, the bad and the brutal ". So this is the correct form.
Reason number 2 : The Green Arrow issues I´m writing about are not bad. Quite the opposite because they brought me back to this title. But they could be described as brutal so I took a little artistic liberty and remained true to the original title. Keepin it real, baby !
So first I want to talk about the art ( what a surprise ) which I would say is not for everybody. I mean, I´m a big Scott McDaniel fan and even I have sometimes trouble to understand what is going on in every page. So, like Kirby McDaniel is more of an aquired taste but one you can easily fall into. Because despite the fact that you may like or dislike the sharp and edgy lines or his sometimes minimalistic approach there is one thing you see on every page : this artist is pulling out all the stops. The art just seems to explode on every page sweeping you away in a kinetic tidal wave. His sense for effective layout and design is without question and the bold lines just emphasize the blockbuster action taking place. And the wonderful inks by Andy Owens just add to it all like the icing on a cake. Wonderful !
Sadly the first two issues ( number 60 and 61 ) have paper with a high percentage of wood ( that´s not what I meant. Get your mind out of the gutter, pervert ! ) so the colors are waaay too dark and you often have trouble to see the pictures clearly - a phenomenon every german comic book reader knows and which in Germany is called " the MONSTER effect " named after the Panini comics MONSTER editions. Despite the fact that these editions have been coming out for more than three or four years it seems that nobody except the readers ( and sometimes not even all readers ) have noticed that the printing in these comics is too dark. Back to Green Arrow, beginning with issue 62 DC switched to glossy paper that bring out the brilliance in the coloring and all is good in Sherwood Forrest. Yes, as a guy who worked in a printing company I haven´t stopped commenting on these things because it just bugs me when I see things that could have been avoided with minimal effort. I mean if you can´t be bothered to look at the proofs before giving the O.K. to start printing you´re not even trying. That´s not something that says : I care about my readers. Back to topic.
Despite the brilliant art the real kicker is the story. It all takes place ONE YEAR LATER and since I´m writing about the last 11 ( ! ) issues there is probably not much left to spoil for me. But nevertheless for all who have been living under a rock last year or never heard of Green Arrow here is the obligatory spoiler warning : the following part may or may not contain information you may not be aware of and which could be declared as " spoiler " which may result in ruining a complete stroyline or even worse, a whole series for you. This may lead to depressions, suicidal tendencies, killing sprees and buying issues of YOUNGBLOOD. So if you want to save your life from a future bleaker than the New Warriors you should skip the rest.
Now that we got that out of the way the new storyline opens up with a new status quo : Star City was almost destroyed during INFINITE CRISIS and Green Arrow is trying to rebuild his city. But not as a superhero. To manage this herculean task Ollie enters an arena even more dangerous than superheroics : politics. While in issue 60 it is still unknow where Green Arrow spend the last year one thing is very clear : he´s back and he is the just newly elected mayor of Star City. And that means desaster for everyone else. Because Oliver Queen and politics just go together like white and rice. As a superhero Green Arrow is one of the coolest guys but as a politician he´s so brilliant it´s almost scaring. Always one to complain about " fatcats " and trying to " stick it to the man " Ollie knows all the dirty tricks and uses them very efficiently now that he himself has become " the man ".
And the first thing on his agenda is stopping the STAR CITY WILLOWBEIGH PROJECT which basically is a conglomerate of capitalist fatcats who want to turn an " unmanagable " part of town into their own version of Las Vegas. This part of the town was damaged the worst during INFINITE CRISIS and the only people left there are the poor who couldn´t afford to move anywhere else. And instead of trying to help those people the city decided that everyone was better off if they just built one great wall around it. Well, as a guy living in Germany I know what a wall can do to people - none of it good. Now Ollie is not one who will take this lying down so he tries to save the city he loves in his own way. Meaning refusing the plans of the STAR CITY WILLOWBEIGH PROJECT which results in the bad guys behind this hiring Deathstroke to kill the new mayor of Star City. Now if you read IDENTITY CRISIS, which by the way is one of THE best stories involving the JLA and Green Arrow, you may remember that during the fight of the JLA against Deathstroke Ollie stabbed him in the eye with a broken arrow. Or rather where his eye used to be, which still hurts like hell.
Now Deathstroke is known for two things. Being an unstoppable, relentless killing machine ( hence the nickname " Terminator " long before Arnold took the name to unparalleled heights of badass ) and carrying grudges. So this one he would have taken for free. Which does not mean he does it for free. But the torture is gratis.
In issue 62 the great showdown between Green Arrow and Deathstroke takes place. And what makes the storyline so enjoyable is that the writer Judd Winick does not draw on the Robin Hood parallels so much and turns it more into a western. There is a new sheriff in town ( which is the title of the first issue ) who won´t play by the rules of the black hats so they hire a hitman to take him out. Which leads us to the showdown to see who is the fastes gunslinger in town. It all reminds me of my favorite westerns.
Of course there is more to the whole than a pure western story. It also is a political thriller or comedy depending on the situation. One of the funny aspects of the story is how Oliver Queen tries to build up his city. After the relevation that Oliver Queen is the new mayor on the last page of issue 60 ( which you already have guessed if you have seen the cover of the issue ) the next issue opens up with his first press conference. During which Ollie tells the press that he will hold mass weddings every Friday on the steps of city hall. That in itself is not really newsworthy. But it seems that the new mayor has found that the city carter of Star City states that the mayor can legally marry any two " persons ". And since it does not specify gender this means gay people too. But come on, if you can´t have gay marriagee when your mayor´s name is Queen when can you have them ? The only contingency is that the couple that wants to get married must cohabitate in Star City for two weeks prior to the ceremony. Which in turn means that now a lot of people will spend time and money in Star City. This in turn could put some pressure on the governor which is just what Ollie wants - to get attention, to get people talking and not being ignored anymore. It´s just brilliant.
Now you may think that Green Arrow is no match for Deathstroke, right ? And that´s also what Deathstroke counts on and which eventually is his downfall. Because not only does Ollie manage to outmanouver the hired assasin because he knew he was coming, he manages to outfight him. One of my favorite moments in this issue is when it dawns on Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke that he is going to loose. " This is not the same man. This is NOT the same fighter. You bastard. That´s where you were for a year. You retrained yourself. You got better. " Eventually Slade tries to flee but being surrounded by dozens of special forces there is just one option left for him : surrender.
By the way, my favorite moment of this issue is when Ollie explodes abomb in his office that Deathstroke overlooked. " Didn´t find that bomb when you swept the room, right ? It´s smaller than a pin head and nearly undetectable ! I got it from Kord Industries ! You remember Ted Kord ? He was a friend of mine that you bastards murdered ! " That moment is just totally Airwolf. Nice to know that a few remember the Blue Beetle.
The next issue centers on the ramifications of Deathstroke giving himself up. Green Arrow knows he´s just planning something but who knows what ? Brick makes an appearance in this issue who as far as I could find out was one of Ollies villains but who now has taken over THE GLADES which is the part of Star City that´s behind the aforementioned wall. Now Ollie is kind of turning a blind eye to the situation as long as Brick keeps up the order and keeps it all clean. Keeping the order in the hood. But a new drug that turns up on the streets of Star City that turns normal citizens into some kind of monsters forces the mayor to take a more hands on approach. Issue 64 shows Green Arrow and Brick side by side fighting against more monsters you can shake a stick at while finding a freaking truck load of the new drug responsible for it. Also, the plot with Deathstroke thickens as he is doing everything in his might to get convicted, even plead guilty.
Now there is something that I have to get off my chest about Slade Wilson a.k.a. the Terminator. There is one big flaw in this character and that is his origin. It is often mentioned that he is faster, stronger and more intelligent because as opposed to the average man who only uses 10 percent of his brain Slade uses 100 percent of his brain. Now this particular origin was written when science thought that we were just able to use 10 percent of our brain capacity and that there was an untapped 90 percent that never got used. Maybe you remember those scientology ads : " You´re just using 10 percent of you brain. " Now a few years ago scientists found out that the different parts of the brain have different functions. Big deal. We already know that. But the real discovery was that for different things the body uses different parts of the brain. So there are parts of the brain that are not used very often but that does not mean they are never used. So it´s not so much that people only use 10 percent of their brain. It´s more like they DO use all 100 percent but only 10 percent at any given time. You have to think of it like a computer. You are not always operating with 100 percent of the capacity. What´s more the theory along those lines is that if anybody would use all 100 percent at once he would probably go insane.....or die...or develop superpowers. Who knows. But I think it´s high time for DC to correct the origin. I hoped they would use the whole ONE YEAR LATER to do that but that did not happen. I know it´s just nitpicking but it still bugs me when I read it. It´s just an outdated scientific fact and should have no place in comic books.
Okay, back to issue 64. At the end of the issue it looks like Green Arrow and Brick are between a rock and a hard place with no way out. Enter Speedy, Green Arrows female sidekick who makes her first appearance since the beginning of the storyline. The next issue while it does not reveal where Speedy has been does have a lot of things taking place : a political discussion of Ollies behaviour as mayor which the writer uses to present the pro and contra with a strong statement at the end. Now I am sure that I do not like all stories by Judd Winnick because I seem to recall at the back of my mind some really bad comics with him as a writer. But like in his just brilliant BARRY WEEN series he´s playing at the top of his game here. The fight against the monsters gets wrapped up and we finally find out why Slade was so keen on getting arrested. Which leads directly into the second part of the stroyline : what happened to Green Arrow during the missing year ? I don´t want to spoil too much about this part of the story because there should be some surprises left in the story. And believe me Judd Winnick throws the reader a lot of curve balls. So let me just say, that at the end of INFINITE CRISIS Ollie came to the realisation, that he is not prepared for what is coming, for what is needed to get Star City back on it´s feet. So he goes back to his roots and retrains himself. And he does it in the most hardcore, grueling and....yes.....brutal way imaginable. Think MORTAL COMBAT but with arrows and weapons.
Issues 66 to 68 chronicle Green Arrow´s journey through hell and back again to emerge as an unstoppable fighting machine. There are many pitfalls and some lines that he has to cross and more than once the reader asks himself if he does not go too far to achieve his goal. But being the thickheaded, stubborn pain in the ass that Oliver is he always goes the full nine yards. And the final test is a real kicker. The next part beginning in issue 69 has Batman guest starring reuniting the old BRAVE AND THE BOLD TEAM right in time for the comeback of the series. Bruce Wayne, playboy millionaire pays Star City a visit doing some charity work while his alter ego the Batman is hot on the trail of the Red Hood. So while Bats and Green Arrow are teaming up Brick and the Red Hood are doing their own version of ACTS OF VENGEANCE. Batman and Green Arrow have a lot of history together and the story pays reference to that as well as the fact that despite that they don´t always see eye to eye tere are some common elements. Ollie knows only too well that having a sidekick can lead to a lot of troubles and can relate to Bruce´s problems with the resurrected Dick Grayson. The last part of this has not come out yet but so far it can uphold the quality of the story that has been published so far.
So what´s the final verdict ? For me, personally, these are by far the best issues of Green Arrow I have read in a looong time. Combining the political topics of Mike Grell´s original series with a more modern visual style and superb dialogue they deliver the best of two worlds. If you never have read Green Arrow or if you haven´t read it in a long time you should give the book a chance. I know that because of my backlog it´s difficult to get the single issues but the first trade of it has been released and I´m sure the rest will follow through.
As we reunite with all readers who skipped the spoilers and bought the comic just based on my recommendation I want to present my personal rating of all the Green Arrow material we discussed so far. First we have what I would call the essential reading : the best, the gold mark, the must have. In this category falls...of course....the GREEN ARROW - LONGBOW HUNTERS miniseries and the following series by Mike Grell. Additionally I would like to include Kevin Smith´s first story QUIVER. Of all the resurrections in comics this is one of the better ones which just proves that it is always better if somebody comes up with a story for a resurrection. As opposed to when a company decides to bring back a character and a writer has to come up with a way to pull it off. Like in GREEN LANTERN - REBORN. And of course I just have to include IDENTITY CRISIS which is not part of the Green Arrow franchise but Oliver is one of the main characters on whom the story centers. He plays a big part and the characterisation by Brad Melzer is just spot on.
The second category is what I would call the booster pack into which fall the comics that while not essential still have a great quality level and are just an entertaining read. This category definitely covers the issues after number 60 of Green Arrow but also the stories after Quiver by Kevin Smith and the first two stories by Brad Meltzer. While they were not my all time favorite stories they still display an intuitive understanding of Green Arrow. And you just have to cut the mastermind behind IDENTITY CRISIS a little slack, right ?
And in the last category we have all the stuff you really don´t need to read and which I try to ignore. All the stories with Connor Hawke, the issues of the series after Mike Grell left till he gets blown up and all that weird crap. Try to avoid these issues unless you like to watch train wrecks. Finally this concludes the Green Arrow trilogy and we can go on to other things in my next post.
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Now it´s back to comics again. I don´t know if I will do an all video post again. I thought it would take less time but as it turned out that took just as long as a normal post about comics. So if I ever do another one depends on your comments ( you know that you can post comments, right ? ) or if I ever feel like it.
In my first post about Green Arrow I started to rant a little and I didn´t get to say all the things I wanted to say. So before we come to the ugly part of the Green Arrow series there are a few things I have to get of my chest about Mike Grell´s series. First of one of the best things in the series was the relationship between Green Arrow and Black Canary. Or more between Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance. Because Black Canary does not appear in the series for a very long time. Judging by the readers response a few readers thought that it took Dinah too long to get back to her alter ego. For my taste it takes her just long enough. When a person has a traumatic experience like Dinah had during LONGBOW HUNTERS it just takes time before they become comfortable again going around doing their superheroing thing. The transition from not being able to cope with it at all to the point where she becomes confident again was done very gradually and efficiently.
There are also some people who complain about the intimate scenes between Ollie and Dinah but this is a normal, adult relationship. Maybe there was a time where it was not possible to show what happens between a man and woman but that is definitely in the past. As long as it´s in good taste and not just there as reader service. Speaking about good taste : one of the most difficult tasks in comics is talking about important political or environmentally issues without becoming preachy and pointing fingers. Not so on this book. Mike Grell pulls it off with such ease it´s amazing. Not for one moment you have the feeling of some guy preaching on his soapbox.
Another underlying theme of the series ( beside the Robin Hood mythology ) is the art of archery and what makes a hunter. While the esoteric side of archery are more explored in the issues that continue the story of Shado the theme of Oliver being more a hunter than a normal superhero who is just reactive makes up some of the best issues. Because Mike Grell ( who to my understanding has some experience with archery ) sees the potential in this uniqueness and plays off it with scenes where Oliver uses his knowledge as a hunter to catch his prey - which for the most part is human. So intead of waiting for his opponent to strike he starts by studying him. Finding out what he hunts and why. Finding out where he hunts and when. And then finding out where he eats and sleeps. And then he just lays a trap and waits for his prey to get caught. Which not only makes total sense but when you begin to think about it you ask yourself : why has nobody ever thought of this before ? And this is how you recognise pure genius.
Speaking of Shado : her story is one of the best part of the book not only because of the story itself. But also because of the interaction between her and Green Arrow, her becoming the Ying to his Yang. They have really different approaches to shooting arrows which in turn shows how much philosophy can be behind it. The only thing that bugs me is that I never found out what happened to the child Shado and Ollie have.
So if you find any of this issues in the dollarbin just do what I did : grab as much of them as you can find. It´s totally worth it. This series has carte blanche in my book. It´s all good.
But, like we learned on Star Trek : Next Generation, all good things must end. Case in point : Mike Grell´s tenure as writer on Green Arrow. And let me tell you this : after Mike Grell leaves, the series turns into a complete different beast. Although Jim Aparo took over the art chores the stories were not of the same quality as before. The low point of the whole series was that terrible story that killed of Green Arrow. Now, I don´t possess the particular issues but to my knowledge Ollie was strapped to a bomb on an airplane. And the only way Superman could have saved him would have been to cut one of his arm off the bomb with his heat vision. Which for Green Arrow seemingly was a far worse fate than death. Because life would be too depressing for an one armed archer. So the plane exploded and that was the end of Green Arrow.
Is it just me or do superhero archers die in the worst and most ridiculous manner ? Okay, let´s take a closer look.
Hawkeye : when the Avengers have their worst day ever because the Scarlett Witch has a mental breakdown, who turns out to not possess the mutant power to affect probabilities but much rather the mutant power to rearrange reality because suddenly Dr. Strange destroys years of continuity proclaiming chaos magic as a total sham, a lot of Avengers bite the dust and Hawkeye flies to an alien spaceship that explodes because his quiver is on fire igniting all his explosive arrows and he is just to stupid to take the damn thing off to save his life.
Green Arrow : when terrorists manage to attach Oliver Queen to a bomb on an airplane, rather than getting his arm cut of Ollie goes down in a blaze of glory.
Yup, looks like not only DO writers hate archers, their demise always include pretty stupid stories, superheroes behaving totally out of character and flying things blowing up. And in the case of Green Arrow insult is added to injury because it´s Superman letting Ollie die. And that´s something I will never buy in a million years. Especially Superman would not let Ollie die. I mean we´re talking about the big blue, the one who cherishes life like no other. If he really could not have argued Green Arrow to let him be saved ( which I really doubt ) he would have saved him from himself. Because sometimes things look so bleak that the person in question doesn´t see a way out. And if you are a real friend you prevent that person from doing something really stupid. Like getting blown up by a bomb. Which Superman would have done.
And what about Ollie himself ? Somehow I can´t believe he would throw away everything he has - his friends, his relationship with Dinah and his whole life - just because he may never be able to shoot an arrow again. What about his sons ? What about Roy Harper ? There are other things in life even for a guy like Oliver. And it´s not like there are not other characters in the DC universe with artificial limbs, body parts or whole bodies. I mean, what about Cyborg from the Teen Titans ? You are bitching about loosing an arm ? One lousy arm ? Cyborg has two mechanical arms, two mechanical legs....man, that dude is missing half of his face...half of his brain now that I think about it. You never heard him going : dude, that´s just too much. Pull the plug, man, I´m just no use to anyone.
There are a lot of people who have lost a limb or two. Like soldiers or cancer patients or people who just had some sort of traffic accident. It´s not the end of the world and it is not the end of life. The whole idea just sounds so stupid to me. Like some people who think that they will not be granted access to the afterlife if they are missing body parts. It´s just another example that comics can be fantastic but when they are bad they can be really bad.
And yes, if you haven´t guessed it already we have now gotten to the " bad " part of the Green Arrow series. Because dying was not the end of the Green Arrow title. It seems that at that time a few superheroes were replaced by hollow, boring pretenders who only seem to have in common that they were younger than the originals. So like Kyle Rayner replaced Hal Jordan the same thing happened on the Green Arrow book where Oliver Queen was replaced by Connor Hawke. Who I always thought was the son of Green Arrow and Shado. Turns out that is not true and besides Dinah and Shado there was ( at least ) a third woman Green Arrow has exchanged body fluids with. Damn, this Oliver Queen fellow should have been called Horny King instead. Who knows how many illegitime children of him are on the planet right now ?
Connor Hawke grew up in a monastery ( probably to ensure he does not turn out like his old man ) and took over the mantle of Green Arrow when he got news of Ollies death. I never read many of the books, mostly because that sounded too much like ARCHER & ARMSTRONG from Valiant comics - only without Armstrong. The whole " naive young and innocent guy who grew up in a monastery where he became a martial arts master gets out in the real world and all the ladies fawn over him because of his boyish charms " spiel has been done to death in this series. So it didn´t make much sense to me to buy a comic that does the same thing - without Barry Windsor Smith doing the art. In my opinion you can skip the whole part with Connor Hawke and get right to the next highlight : Kevin Smith.
Known for cool indie movies and huge deadline problems on series like Daredevil and Spider - Man / Black Cat Kevin Smith resurrected the whole Green Arrow franchise. He brought Oliver Queen back from the death and rescued the comic book from comic limbo. The first two storylines by Kevin Smith are pure comic gold. Even with Phil Hester´s art. But to make up for this we got beautiful covers by Matt Wagner. Of course that could also not last for long. After Kevin Smith left Brian Meltzer took over who obviously has a deep love for Green Arrow despite the fact that I didn´t enjoy his issues much. To me the first story for Green Arrow by Brad Meltzer was just a nice roadmovie in comic book format with a really annoying ending. I don´t want to spoil too much ( yeah, good luck with that. the issues came out five years ago ) but when I read a long story only to find out in the end that the main character is a dick I feel cheated. That is not what I want to hear. Sorry.
So after that the stories became worse, the art became worse and I left the book. Until ONE YEAR LATER. Normally my younger brother is the one who buys all the comics by Scott McDaniel and I get to read his copies. But after the last three stints of McDaniel have become shorter and shorter he just felt it wasn´t worth the trouble so I got the issues because the story really intrigued me.
My brother really likes his art but for only six or five issues it´s just not worth it to put it on the pull list and then to put it off the pull list. Well, life is what happens while you are making other plans. So far Scott McDaniel has drawn 10 issues and the newest issue in Previews also announces art by him. Which would be more than a whole year. Yepp, just to spite my brother. But that will be part three of the big Green Arrow retrospective and I will cover that in my next post.
As a verdict the Green Arrow issues by Kevin Smith are required reading for any Green Arrow fan, the issues by Brad Meltzer are more of a hit and miss thing so you should check them out and see if you like them.
Now if you don´t want to have gaps in your collection you can buy the following issues but I cannot recommend them. The issues I read I can´t recommend because they are just too bad and the ones I didn´t read I can´t recommend because I just don´t know if they are any good. Maybe I missed some pretty intruiging stories with the return of Dr. Light to his old status and wanting revenge but who knows ? The covers by Mr. Jeanes look pretty cool - that´s for sure.
The Connor Hawke issues on the other hand have only interest for Green Arrow completionists.
So that´s all for today. In the next post we will examine what happens when superheroes tread on really dangerous ground : politics.
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Today´s post is a rather quick one. I just wanted to talk about a few things concerning variant covers and spoilers. Normally I stay away from spoilers for my readers but today I´m going to make an exception. So if you don´t know what is happening in CIVIL WAR right now you should not read the rest of this post.
