The first post-Gail Simone issue. It shows. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, but it lacked a certain something. Even the scenes with Babs and Dinah talking lacked their usual oomph. Sin and Barda were cute. And I liked Knockout and Scandal and appreciated the explanation of what's going on with the Secret Six. But there was a disjointed feel with the 2 separate storylines going. Gail handled that better, I think. But the big problem was the flat out error Babs makes when she say Ollie "fathered Connor with that ninja woman." Uh, no. Shado is not Connor's father and Dinah doesn't correct her, which lays the blame on the writer, Bedard, and the editor, Carlin. Yes, Ollie fathered a son with Shado, but Connor was born well before Ollie met Dinah, or Shado for that matter.
Green Arrow Year 1 4
This one also had me scratching my head a bit, going Huh? Now, I've been enjoying this reworking of Ollie's origin. The art's been nice, the story's been filled in with more detail and more character growth for Ollie, plus there's the nifty case he stumbles into with the opium trade and that brings me to the huh? moment. Because with all the retconning that's gone on, during the years I boycotted comics and since, one thing has remained constant. Roy got hooked on heroin while Ollie was off seeing the country with Hal, Ollie discovered this when he gets back (for a bit) and throws him out, after which Hal finds him and brings him to Dinah where he goes cold turkey. So, if Ollie now has the agony of his own withdrawal from opium in his background, is throwing Roy out his way of forcing Roy to go it alone the way he had to? Makes him an even colder bastard than previously because if Hal hadn't been troubled enough by the way Roy was talking to go look for him, who knows what would have happened to Roy. Unless, of course, they plan to do away with that, which would be a big mistake, in my not so humble opinion.
When you alter something in the past, even just to fill in details, that usually will affect more than that one character, but any or all other characters in that character's life. I wish writers and editors would take such ramifications into consideration when they run stories like this. I wish they'd ask the questions, starting with, "who/what else would this affect?" This one little bit in an otherwise excellent installment has ruined the series a bit for me. feh.
Countdown 36
So, Mary's gone off the deep end and someone's pushing. Mr. Action meets the JLA and Roy's body language was priceless. But Trickster and Piper are just too funny. They make a great duo. It's worth getting the book just for their banter.
The problem with a lot of comic book writers, is the "wouldn't that be cool if..." syndrome. As far as I can tell, they all sit around on their couches, drink beer and eat cheetos and try to come up with wilder and wilder ideas.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that's not REALLy the way that it works, but it just feels that way sometimes. As you say, the whole opium thing makes Ollie's treatment of Roy even worse, but Ollie has always been his own worst enemy in my opinion. Maybe because he had been hooked by the opium was the reason WHY he was so mad at Roy. Former smokers, drinkers what have you, are always the least tolerant when it comes to other people enjoying their former vices.
The whole bit with Shado was pretty egregious. Let's hope it was just a slip of the tongue, and Dinah was too stunned to correct Babs.
I really hope they don't kill Barda.
You're right, Sally. Ollie having gone through opium withdrawal could be why he was so harsh with Roy, but that's now after the fact. Clearly, it wasn't part of the equation when Ollie found Roy trying to shoot up. So, what do they do with this bit of retconning now? Do they work it into Ollie and Roy's history?
ReplyDeleteAnd they'd better not kill Barda. She's the only New Gods character I really like.