Guess who got a new laptop this week? I'm back online! You may all groan now!
This one is a bit brief but I'm going for quality rather than quantity here.
- Green Arrow certainly had a bigger roster of villains than, say, the Atom or Aquaman. Off the top of my head were Clock King, Rainbow Archer, the Roper, the Red Dart, Camoflague King and Doctor Davis. Why didn't they make more than one or two appearance? It would have really sprouced up the feature.
- Beyond his origin, I was always disappointed that the themes and plots Jack Kirby introduce were never followed up on. Could the King have really made a Silver Age Green Arrow series work? And was DC afraid to let him try?
- I've mentioned this before but with Aquaman getting the spotlight in Showcase and J'onn J'onzz taking the lead in House of Mystery, why was GA always overlooked? Even with the new attitude, costume and facial hair, he never had his own book until the 80s.
- Even before the change, was the Emerald Archer more interesting in Justice League than his own strip? Or is it just me?
- With Speedy's revised origin, he won the right to be Green Arrow's partner but what justified Oliver Queen making Roy Harper his ward? And no one noticed that blond millionnaire Queen was now the caretaker of a red-headed youth at the same time the Blond Bowman started teaming with a teen ginger? What are the odds?
So what do you think?
And it's great to be back!
Replies
I dunno if this will help much, but I did a review on the old board of DC Showcase Presents: Green Arrow.
Cap later responded:
I always thought of Flash and Green Lantern as having a 'World's Finest' buddy relationship. A mag with them as a team/duo would have been a good idea, they were fun together guest starring in each other's books. Gil Kane and Infantino taking turn on the art.
Y'know the weird thing is that I never really considered Green Arrow that much of a Batman knockoff. Yeah there was the boy sidekick, being a millionaire, the Arrowcar, the Arrowcave, the Arrow Signal but the same could be said in various degrees about Doctor Mid-Nite, the Sandman and even Captain America. Green Arrow survived for a reason. He was included as one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in the Golden Age and the JLA in the Silver for a reason.
That reason was that Mort Weisinger created him! But then again, why wouldn't Mort have wanted a Green Arrow series or at least have put him in Action.
The Golden Age Who's Whose has a page on Green Arrow that traces his evolution, arguing that the characterisation of GA as a Batman knock-off is unfair. I thought the page's author pushes the argument too far, as the Batman resemblance is there from the beginning (millionaire secret ID, ward who is also the hero's kid sidekick, themed car), but I take the writer's point that some of the resemblances were added as the strip developed.
The Commander's column on the Green Arrow/Manhunter team is here.
Looking over this site, it appears that Batman and Green Arrow's similarities evolved at a similar rate. For instance, while I don't recall exactly when they started calling it a "bat-a-rang", I know it wasn't called that initially, and certainly there wasn't a "Batmobile" originally either. That being said, it seems to me as if the themed names started pretty quickly for both.
Luke Blanchard said:
When the author writes that his "specialty Batarangs didn't appear until 1957" I take it he means ones with gimmicks, as Batman was using boomerangs/batarangs earlier. The "Batmobile" name was used before the car became a themed car with a bat-head design. Wikipedia's "Batmobile" page says Batman's car was first depicted with a "bat hood ornament" in Batman #5.
The Batarang first appeared in Detective Comics #31 (S'39) though it was spelled "baterang" originally. Perhaps it was meant to be the equivalent of the Avenger's knife "Ike" as Batman used a gun as well in his first year.
The term Batmobile was first used in Detective # 48 (F'41) though Batman had his "roadster" since #30 (Au'39).
Besides what else would Green Arrow call his car, plane, cave and signal logically?
Personally, I liked the story in LOTDK where Batman had to develop the batmobile to cope with daylight, since the costume didn't work as well during the day...but he needed someway to get home, get around, and appear terrorizing in the rear view mirror. What was that arc? "Vigilanti"? It featured the return of Dr. Hugo Strange. I always enjoyed that arc.
Philip Portelli said:
Philip Portelli said:
The Bolter, the Ranger, the HQuiver, Notch Niche or Harold's Eyrie, and the Fletcher Fetcher?
*SIGH* I said logically! ;-)
Luke Blanchard said: