Next up on “Wanna-be Batman Month” (which isn’t a good title
since most of these guys aren’t wanna-bes) is a guy who actually started out as
a copycat: The Green Arrow. He first appeared in More Fun Comics in 1941. He
was obviouly influenced by Robin Hood with the get-up and skills. Mort Wesienger
(his creator) even pulled stuff from a movie serial called The Green Archer.
The Batman part comes with everything else. He was a rich playboy, had a kid
sidekick, and had a lot of crap that was based on his name. Let’s see, there’s
the Arrow-Cave, the Arrow-Car, and the Arrowplane. If he also had some
Arrow-Shark Repellant and we could call it a day.
He got retooled in 1969 to be more of his own character. He
lost the money, grew a cool goatee, and became one of those annoying liberals
you try to get away from. By the way, I also run away from the annoying conservatives
because I’m just that guy. Anyway, this new attitude and look stuck with him for
the longest time until the New 52 where… I don’t know what going on there. All
I know is that his book (like most books these days) tends to have rotating
teams.
After the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Green Arrow was
reshaped into a grittier version of himself by Mike Grell. Green Arrow: The
Longbow Hunters started that shift. In the mini, Oliver and Dinah (Black
Canary) relocated to Seattle, WA and serious stuff happened. His new series
after that mini-series kept Oliver in that direction. I picked up the trade
Green Arrow Vol. 1: Hunters Moon some time ago. Today’s issues are from
that trade. Green Arrow #1 and #2 were written by Mike Grell. Pencils are
handled by Ed Hannigan and inks are brought to us by Dick Giordano.
Green Arrow #1 and #2
Writer: Mike Grell
Pencils: Ed Hannigan
Inks: Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin
Colors: Julia Lacquement
Letters: John Costanza
Editor: Mike Gold
“Hunters Moon Part One”
The story starts out as Green Arrow fights some thugs in a
park. He takes them out with ease. Meanwhile, Lt. Jim Cameron is lamenting with
his wife about the coming re-trial of a child killer. He’s worried since he’ll
have to find the only survivor, Annie Green, and have her relive her messed up
experience with the man. At Oliver’s and Dinah’s house, he prepares a bath and
asks Dinah to join him. Dinah wants to join but her torture during "The Longbow
Hunters" left her shaken. She realizes she needs help, so she and Oliver start
to look for a therapist.
They find one therapist and she does what she can with
Dinah. Stuff hits the fan when the therapist finds a disturbing package in the
mail and runs out of the office. Ollie chases after her and it’s revealed that
she is Annie Green. She was kidnapped and tortured by the child killer, Al
Muncy, when she was about 10 years old. She later tells Dinah that she even
can’t stand the touch of a man because of that. After she tells them what
happened, Ollie suits up and heads over to Muncy’s estate. The guy is pretty
nonchalant about his crimes. GA pretty much threatens him to not mess with
Annie and leaves.
Outside Muncy’s estate, Green Arrow runs into the cops and
Lt. Cameron. He tells them of the package Annie got and they say that Muncy has
been in his house all day. Green Arrow realizes something’s up since the letter
was delivered by hand. After his talk with Lt. Cameron, Green Arrow leaves and
heads over to Annie’s house for a stake out. Later on, Oliver notices a masked
man trying to climb into Annie’s room. He shoots the guy point blank but that
doesn’t stop the perp from fleeing the scene. Part one ends with Oliver
wondering how this masked man was able to deflect and bend one his arrows.
“Hunter’s Moon Part 2”
This part picks up with Ollie wondering how the masked man
ended up deflecting and bending his arrow. After he checks on Dinah and Annie,
he heads back to Muncy’s house for answers. He says he didn’t do it and the
cops kept all of the exits in check. Ollie and Lt. Cameron do find a foot print
outside the estate but looked liked it belonged to someone bigger. Cameron also
chastises Arrow on how he tried to take out the masked man. Cameron tells Arrow
if he kills anyone, he’s coming after him too.
Later, the two check up with Annie and Dinah. Cameron knows
that Muncy was the masked man but he can’t prove it. Arrow and the cops end up
going back to Muncy’s place to search the house for any hidden exits. They find
that Muncy is missing and they notice some chainmail missing from armor. Arrow
realizes it was used to deflect that arrow and the added weight was what caused that footprint outside. Since the place used to be an
illegal distillery, Arrow is able to find a trap door that leads underground. In
the distillery, he finds more evidence and decides to flood the place by
opening a valve.
Outside, Cameron finds out his daughter has been kidnapped. With Annie’s help, Cameron finds out about Muncy’s old
hideout. He, Dinah, and Annie head there and find Muncy with Cameron’s
daughter. Muncy’s about to shoot Cameron when Green Arrow disables Muncy with
an arrow. Annie grabs Muncy’s gun and tries to shoot the guy but she runs out
of bullets. Muncy escapes in his car with Green Arrow hanging on the back.
Muncy tries to escape back into his distillery and uses a lift to go down. What
he doesn’t know is that the place has flooded and he drowns in a pool of beer.
The story ends with Dinah and Ollie visiting Annie and telling her that she needs
to start building bridges in trusting others.
…………………………………………………………
I thought these were some good issues. The whole trade in
general is pretty good. The stories go for a dark, grim, feel and there aren’t
any dastardly evil supervillains here. The bad guys are realistic and really
messed up. Muncy (or Muncie, his name changes for some reason) was definitely that. I know it would be harsh to say but I
hope he didn’t escape his beer pool. If anything, it kind of feels like the TV show, Arrow, in the early seasons. Ollie and Dinah were pretty cool and I did like their
little subplot that involved what happened back in "The Longbow Hunters." Ollie
doesn’t play around here this time around and looks like he could off somebody.
I also liked Lt. Cameron and how he and Ollie played off of one another.
The artwork is gorgeous. That’s really the best word for it.
The pencils, inks and colors work together to create some really nice to look
at. Ollie’s new costume (he started to wear it in "The Longbow Hunters") is
pretty cool and it's probably my favorite of the ones he’s had. It all has to do with
that hood, I guess. Everything from the introspective scenes to the action
scenes looked good. After I read this, I had to look up the artist, Ed Hannigan,
and see what else he’s done. The only negative I could really give the arc is
that it feels rushed toward the end. Other than that, It’s good.
This was a good read even though it touched on a messed up
subject. I’d recommend that you check out the trade but I wouldn’t give it to
anyone younger. The series was aimed for an older audience (it said so on the
issues’ covers). What’s funny and weird is that a lot of what happens in the
trade could pass for what’s in mainstream comics these days. We’ve come a long way in 28
years. I’m not saying that’s good or bad but I did want to mention it. Well, I’m
out but I’m not done with the Emerald Archer yet. I’ll
come back to him soon. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
NEXT TIME: MIDNIGHTER!
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