Jayme Lynn Blaschke's Unofficial Green Arrow Shrine

Green Arrow (Series II - current)

No. 1, February 2001: The Quiver Chapter One: The Queen is Dead (Long Live the Queen)

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Guy Major, colorist; Sean Knot, letterer; Michael Wright, associate editor; Bob Schreck, editor

Synopsis: Final Night grips the Earth, and Metropolis as the mighty Sun-Eater devours our parent star. Atop the snowed-in Daily Planet building, Batman and Superman discuss their rapidly dwindling list of options. Batman and Superman exchange some character-building patter as Supes complains how cold he is -- his super powers are fading due to the loss of the sun. They are arguing about the wisdom of sending current Green Lantern Kyle Rayner to seek out Hal Jordan, aka Parallax's aid when Superman suddenly feels "something" leave his body, almost on a cellular level. They discount the possibility of Ray Palmer, aka the Atom, being responsible, then forget the incident as more pressing matters are at hand. Across the country, at the (empty) grave of Oliver Queen at Ashram Monastery, Parallax appears, and seemingly resurrects Oliver Queen. Jordan says "Goodbye, old friend," and then vanishes as the Oliver-figure collapses, face-down, on the frozen grave amid strewn roses. Flash forward to the present, a year or six months later. Roy Harper, formerly know as Green Arrow's sidekick Speed, currently know as Arsenal, stakes out a drug deal in New York City. He reminisces about his days with Oliver, the joys and tragedies. The hero-worship and neglect. He then springs into action and thumps the bad guys. Over in Seattle, Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary and formerly Oliver Queen's long-time lover, stakes out an apartment with a case of domestic abuse looming. The domestic trappings conjur memories of her relationship with Ollie, particularly a sexual encounter that involved washing dishes, of all things. But the memories sour, with the tragedy of the events of The Longbow Hunters coming unbidden, the pain of discovering the Yakuza archer Shado had given Ollie a son, where Dinah could not. Then she remembers the pain of Oliver's kiss with Maryanne (Green Arrow 75, first series), and the even worse pain of his death (Green Arrow 101). She then takes out her anger and hurt on the wife-beating, drug-trafficking pimp when he arrives at the apartment under surveillance. Several hundred miles south, at Ashram Monastery in the Napa Valley, Connor Hawke, the multi-ethnic illegetimate son of Oliver Queen, meditates. For two years he traveled the world as Green Arrow, taking his father's place in the Justice League and the ranks of vigilante crimefighters. He prays for patience and the chance to know his father, who he'd barely met before Ollie's abrupt death. He considers himself foolish for trying to be Green Arrow. He prays for the ability to accept that he will never know his father. Now, in a Star City alleyway, an innocent pedestrian is accosted by would-be thieves. What can save him? Why, a bleach-bottle arrow of course, followed by a beer can arrow. Oliver Queen, shaggy, ragged and seriously unshaven, makes his grand return!

Yeah, But Is It Good? I think so. This one's entertaining and well-handled for the most part. Much has been made of the art chores being handled by Phil Hester (pencils) and Ande Parks (inks). Hester's style is sharp-lined, blunt and angular. In a lot of ways, it's reminiscent of Jack Kirby and Keith Giffen (especially on later issues of Legion of Super-Heroes). It's quite a significant departure from the exaggerated realism of Neil Adams or the somber sketching of Mike Grell that fans are most familiar with. Does it work? I think so. Parks' strong inking, producing sharp contrasts, is perfect for Hester's pencils. Unfortunately, the color was botched several times. Connor, part Asian and African-American, looks as pasty white as Michael Jackson. Green Arrow's Golden Age costume has red boots and gloves. There are other mistakes, but you get the idea. Pretty frustrating mistakes for such a high-profile issue. Will this art make longtime fans forget Adams and Grell? Get real. But I don't see anyone complaining. Well, okay. Me. I have one complaint: Connor again. In the Connor sequence, Connor doesn't look very.. ethnic. Hester didn't draw Connor with any ethnic features. Connor looks like your run-of-the-mill surfer, rather than reflecting the Korean/Black/Irish heritage that makes him DC's answer to Tiger Woods. If it's any consolation to Phil, Rodolfo DaMaggio's been the only artist I've seen so far that's managed to capture Connor in a visually convincing way. Kevin does a good job of writing the characters true-to-form, especially Superman and Batman, which is no surprise, since Kevin's been pretty keen on those guys for the longest time. You can see some of his fanboy nature creep out with the non-stop cameos and references to other heroes, which works well in this context and shows a deep grasp of the DCU. His depiction of Roy Harper jibes well with who he has become in both the pages of the Titans and his own Arsenal mini by Devin Grayson. Dinah Lance, likewise, was well done, and the soon-to-be-infamous "dishwashing seduction" struck me as something straight out of the Grell run. Of course, Grell's books had the "Suggested for Mature Readers" lable, and this one doesn't. The one character segment that didn't ring true, however, was Connor's. Admittedly, Kevin's never been a fan of Connor, so this is understandable. But reading the final pages, I was struck that there may be some misconceptions at work. Firstly, Ashram is a Buddhist monastary, not Christian. Kevin never overtly says one way or another, but Connor constantly praying to the "Father" for guidance (and the "Father" isn't the deceased Oliver, by my reckoning) sounds distinctly Judeo-Christian to me. Of course, the fact that the last image the reader sees in the Black Canary sequence is a cross necklace worn by the abused wife. That imagery naturally carries over to the Connor sequence and colors a readers' interpretation. Oh, and Biddhists don't pray anyway, they meditate. Also, while Kevin nails the hero-worship bit that Connor displayed in the early issues of Dixon's run on the title, Connor is also consumed with self-doubt and is somewhat whiney -- very much unlike the confident, determined hero that reentered Ashram at the end of issue 137. And the events of Green Arrow One Million, in which Connor comes to the conclusion that Ollie is alive somewhere, are completely ignored. Another thing I found curious was the use of Seattle as the backdrop of the Canary segment. Was Kevin deliberately using that city to evoke memories of the Grell era, or was he merely unaware of the fact that Sherwood Florist was destroyed at the end of Byam's unlamented Black Canary regular series, and that Dinah now makes Gotham her home base? This book is more of a prologue to the series than a true issue one, in my opinion. Kevin gets all the main players to take the stage, then gives a rundown of who they are, and what their connection to Oliver Queen is. This serves two purposes: All those bazillions of View Askew fans and other newcomers who don't know Oliver Queen from Adam are quickly brought up to speed on the character's history over the past 20 years. This is accomplished, and done so in a measured and skilled way that doesn't smack of "infodump" although that is essentially what this issue does. Secondly, it serves to reassure longtime fans that, yes indeed, Kevin has a firm grasp of at least most of these characters he's writing, and has an eye for "what has gone before." Homework has been done. Sages have been consulted. The writer is Up To Speed with the canon. That's due in no small part to the efforts of Scott McCullar, who was consulted heavily by DC and Kevin Smith on this project. Fortunately, Kevin gives Scott a big thumbs up on the lettercolumn page that lets everyone know what kind of effort he put into this book. Good for you, Kevin. Still, it's not a front-end credit, and that bugs me.

Significata: The relaunch of Green Arrow. After the first series ended in November of 1998 with the publication of One Million the official word was that Kevin Smith would take over the writing chores six months down the road, starting with a mini-series to be followed up with a monthly ongoing. That stretched to 27 months my my reckoning, but hey, who's counting? Arsenal, Batman, Superman, Shado, Connor Hawke, Hal Jordan and Black Canary all make appearances in one form or another. Hopefully, this will be the last time we readers are subjected to Final Night. Note to DC: If I want to read about a Sun-Eater, I will re-read the original Legion of Super-Heroes story rather than a threadbare remake. Or better yet, I'll re-read Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud from which the Sun-Eater concept was lifted. (Hey kids, to get really wacky, go track down some of the Lensmen books, and tell me if the stories in there don't remind you a whole heck of a lot of the Green Lantern Corps). Coper painted by Matt Wagner. Sherwood Forum is no longer called Sherwood Forum. It's now "Arrowheads." Progress, I suppose. sigh

No. 2, March 2001: Quiver Chapter Two: Long Time No See

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Guy Major, colorist; Sean Knot, letterer; Michael Wright, associate editor; Bob Schreck, editor

Synopsis: A huge party is going on in one of Star City's luxury high-rises, with booze, debauchery and drugs galore. A 15-year-old call girl arrives, and is roughly taken to a back bedroom where a city councilman takes photos of her as she undresses, then begins to rough her up. Green Arrow crashes the party, tearing through the councilman's hired goons and leaving the councilman tied up amid his stash of drugs and kiddie porn Polaroids for the police to find. Back at her flea-bag motel, the call girl, Mia, examines a card Green Arrow gave her for a youth rec center, and wonders if she really can escape her life on the streets. Her pimp, Richard, comes in and grills her for info about what happened at her job. He then demands some nookie from her, and when she doesn't give -- instead saying she's a kid and shouldn't have to turn tricks -- he gets nasty, and tries to cut her throat. Mia, in an abrupt shift of character, beats the crap out of him with some kung-fu moves, then takes a knife and severs the tendons in his thumb to prove to him she means business. Across town, Ollier returns to the penthouse loft of one Stanley Dover, the rich old man Ollie saved at the end of issue one. Stanley is funding Ollie's exploits and giving him a place to stay in gratitude. His next target, since the corrupt councilman is out of the way, is the deadly "Star City Slayer" serial killer. It quickly becomes apparent that Ollie's memory isn't wat it used to be, as he refers to the JLA satellite (destroyed years before by Despero), Black Canary and Green Lantern Hal Jordan in ways that make it appear Ollie doesn't remember the last five or so years have happened. He certainly doesn't remember dying, or how he came back. He doesn't remember The Longbow Hunters. He's especially puzzled by news reports of Green Arrow, Star City's hero, being "back in action" after so long away. Ollie jokes that he's going to marry Stanley since the old man is taking such good care of him, and Stanley makes an odd remark: "You're too old for me, junior. I mean, too young for me." Ollie then jokes about Stanley's sexual orientation. In Gotham City, Batman reviews the Star City news broadcast and realizes that Connor Hawke wouldn't be so flamboyant in busting up the city councilman's den of inequity, and begins to suspect Oliver is alive. Elsewhere, in some arcane dungeon, an mysterious cloaked figure sacrifices a young boy on a stone altar, and feeds the blood to some kind of monster bottled up in a giant jar, commenting that it's just a matter of time before they take on the world, "A boy and his dog."

Yeah, But Is It Good? Oh, geeze, this is almost impossible to answer without seeing where Kevin is going with things. Because, well, "Stanley Dover" is the name of the title character from the old DC series Stanley and His Monster, a humorous bit about a kid with a giant pink monster that got into all sorts of fun-loving mischief. Akin to Calvin and Hobbes, Stanley's parents thought the Monster was only make-believe. Phil Foglio did a miniseries on them in the early 90s, and Chuck Dixon used them briefly in his Conjurors mini. It was silly and cute, and in a Warner Brothers sort of way attractive to kids and adults alike. If Stanley Dover is the mysterious cloaked figure, feeding the formerly happy-go-lucky Monster the blood of young boys... shudder. The way this issue reads to me is that readers are supposed to assume Richard the Pimp is the Slayer, since he tried to knife Mia. This would be the red herring, to throw readers off the scent of Stanley. Stanley and His Monster may be obscure, but surely Kevin Smith knew astute readers would pick up on it? So is that yet another red herring, or at least a mis-direction, that Stanley and his Monster are not the killers, but instead victims of some sort in need of Green Arrow's help? And Green Arrow's death was broadcast fairly widely, so why would Stanley apparently be keeping Ollie in the dark about what the heck is going on? Ollie obviously doesn't remember he died, and Stanley is actively encouraging him not to remember. Best interests or ulterior motives? And is Ollie's memory loss temporary amnesia, or permanent? Did Parallax recreate the Ollie he remembered most fondly, from the "Hard-Traveling Heroes" days? Or is the trauma of resurrection just too much for Ollie to handle, and the memory loss a defensive mechanism? I, for one, hope it's not a permanent condition. Ollie experienced far too much character growth through the Grell years for it to be simply dismissed out of hand, and frankly, I'm sick to death of characters being "de-aged." The whole Justice Society, as well as the Atom, Green Lantern and even Green Arrow (Ollie being replaced by Connor) have suffered through this indignity, and I wish someone at DC would catch a clue and put a stop to this nonsense. At this point, I honestly can't say whether or not this is good or not until I see what Kevin is going to do with this setup. Kevin gets in a "Stan and Ollie" joke, ala Laurel and Hardy, but Mike Grell beat him to it, back in the Wonder Year mini. The only part of the book that really bothers me on its own, however, is Mia's character. The sex/drug/booze party to open the book was handled very well, and a cool introduction of the "classic" Green Arrow back in action (even if Phil Hester drew the 15-year-old girl as a 25-year-old pinup). What grates, though, is Mia's sudden and abrupt transformatin from a helpless victim to a kick-ass women's right's advocate, who deftly pummels the stronger, larger, knife-wielding Richard without breaking a sweat, then proceeds to lecture him about how making girls turn tricks is wrong, and that she should be singing "Sunshine Lolliepops" instead of "I Want Your Sex." The kicker comes when she takes his knife and cooly severs the tendon in his tumb with surgical precision, something which is lamely explained away by her saying "It happened to my mother once." That one registered about 12.5 on the BS Detector, I'm afraid. Mia's change was far too abrupt and confident -- such a dramatic change in character needed to unfold over several books, not several pages. I suspect we haven't seen the last of Mia, though, as no one in their right mind devotes half a book to a throwaway character. She'll be back, and I wonder what plans Kevin has for her?

Significata: Cover painting by Matt Wagner. The "Arrow Heads" letter col has several letters asking for confirmation that this series will be an ongoing rather than a 12-issue maxi series as had been reported elsewhere. Associate editor Michael Wright assures them that this title is indeed an ongoing one. The back cover boasts an ad for Corn Nuts (a nastier snack I've never come across). Inside, Twix candy bars has an ad for "new" peanut butter Twix. Of course, they originally introduced peanut butter Twix about 15 years ago, and it flopped. There's also an ad for the Farscape DVD series. Farscape is currently my favorite TV series, and I highly recommend the first disc, which contains the pilot episode and "I, ET." Very cool -- plus the commentary tracks are hilarious. Pre-orders on Green Arrow no. 2 totalled 68,200, which ranked no. 8 among all comics titles ordered for the month of March, although Kevin Smith reported online that DC is printing more than what was originally ordered for issue one (84,000 -- later upped to 101,000 with a 20,000 second printing) and that pre-orders for issue four are the highest yet. Very interesting.

No. 3, April 2001: The Quiver Chapter Three: The Old Man and the Sea

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Guy Major, colorist; Sean Knot, letterer; Michael Wright, associate editor; Bob Schreck, editor

Synopsis: Star City comptroller Harold Leeds is practicing putting in his office while chewing out police Lieutenant Van Buren over the phone for arresting city councilman Dreyfus in the previous issue. At the point Leeds demands the officer's resignation, Green Arrow shows up, not in an alltogether happy mood. He subdues Leeds, and demands to know why the city youth center was shut down months earlier. Leeds insists it was for the kids' safety, and the Star City Slayer's victims had all vanished from there. Ollie calls B.S., pointing out that the logical course of action would be to put a 24-hour police stakeout around the place. Turns out Dreyfus was behind the closure -- the councilman was skimming center funds into his own pocket. Before he can pack Leeds away to jail, Ollie is thrown for a loop when Leeds tells him Mayor Jack Major is dead (World's Finest 255) and police commissioner Elmer Durgin retired six months after Major's death -- six years ago! Ollie then sees a document signed by Mayor Wallace Hannigan dated 1999, and really gets loopy. Ollie cold-cocks leeds, then digs through his files, finding papers that discuss strategies to deal with the refugees from Coast City (Hal Jordan's old stomping grounds, destroyed by Mongul and War World several years back in the Superman titles). Ollie tries to digest this baffling information while playing kickball with some kids at the Youth Center, and Mia Dearden -- the teenage hooker from last issue -- shows up looking for a job. Ollie's baffled when she realizes he's Green Arrow right away, but gives her a job working with the kids and offers her a temporary bunk at Stanley Dover's place. Leaving Mia with Stanley, Ollie goes to a bus station and tries to buy a ticket to Coast City. He's laughed out of the place, and isn't too happy with that. Meanwhile, Stanley and Mia discuss Ollie. Mia wonders why Ollie seems a little out of step with the times. Stanley explains that he found Ollie delerious several months before, which was really strange, since Ollie was supposed to have been blown up over Metropolis (Green Arrow no. 101, first series). Superman may have been able to come back from the dead, but Ollie's a regular human, and the ordeal was a little more taxing on him. Ollie's got amnesia which blots out the last 6-10 years, and everything more recent than that disturbs him. Stanley removed all the modern computers and calendars, which troubled and disturbed Ollie, and replaced it with obsolete equipment from a decade before. As Mia and Stanley ponder how to help Ollie regain his memory, Ollie frets over why Coast City is gone, and no one seems surprised. Durgin's gone, and Major's dead -- Ollie starts to think the last trip he took with Hal to Oa lasted a lot longer than he remembers. Just then a forklift with a huge crate arrives on the docks below him, and Ollie cracks the skulls of a bunch of longshoremen. Smuggling children was the tip Ollie'd gotten, but the crate is only filled with bags of cocaine. Wondering who's coming to pick it up -- cocaine is usually shipped into the city, not out of it, Ollie finds himself under attack by none other than Black Manta. When Ollie fires back, he finds his arrow knocked out of the sky by a hook on the end of a cable. Aquaman has arrived, and is very surprised to see the archer fighting Manta is Oliver Queen.

Yeah, But Is It Good? After two issues of "Yeah, Kevin got it mostly right, but where is he going with it?" We finally get one where everything clicks. That V-8 is firing on all cylinders, baby! Very cool. I smiled at the end of this. All of those nagging questions from the first two issue, you know, the little plot loopholes and failings of logic like "Why doesn't he look at a calendar?" or "Doesn't he notice Star City's changed?" are finally addressed. Not fully and completely, mind you. We still don't know how Ollie made it back from the dead, even though it's pretty obvious Parallax played a role. We still don't know if the amnesia is permanent or temporary -- there are references to Ollie being an "Old timer" and also looking young but seeming older, so it's still hard to say officially at this point whether or not he's still in his mid-40s or has been "de-aged" in the resurrection process. Even Mia, with her tragically hip dialogue and apparent predestination to become Green Arrow's new "Speedy" sidekick didn't grate, although for the life of me I don't know why not. Some fans have wondered about Black Manta's continuity, since recently the villian was transmorgified into some killer sea mutant, but since I haven't seeen any of those issues, I'm content to have the classic "Challenge of the Super Friends" bad guy guesting. My one quibble is the layout on the last page. It just kind of peters out with Aquaman saying "Ollie?" Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Oh, well. The rest of the book was spot-on, though.

Significata: Cover painting by Matt Wagner. The first issue of Green Arrow by Kevin Smith that rocks on all levels. It's also ironically appropriate that Aquaman be the first Leaguer to see the not-dead Ollie. In one of the last issues before his most recent series was cancelled, Aquaman discovered who he thought was Oliver Queen back from the dead. Boy, did he feel dumb when he was informed that it was actually Travis Morgan, The Warlord. Dan Jurgens was the writer who gave us that Aquaman story, and, of course, he was the penciller on Green Arrow 27-28 when Mike Grell wrote of the first meeting between Ollie and Travis, and the silly mistaken identity shenanigans that ensued. Oh, yeah. I also had a letter published in the lettercol. Me and Scott McCullar had the forum to ourselves. Cool. I addressed my letter to "Sherwood Forum," which is the all-time best name for a Green Arrow lettercol, but they're calling this one "Arrowheads." I guess you just can't win 'em all.

Dear Sherwood Forum,
Was it just me, or did these last six months seem to take for-freakin'-ever? Well, no matter now, because Green Arrow is finally back. And that means Oliver Queen, too. Sure, he's a bit bedraggled and unkempt, and has beer cans taped to the ends of his makeshift arrows rather than boxing gloves, but then that only tells me that this will be an interesting ride.

Early on, I wasn't sure about the art since, obviously, Green Arrow has never been portrayed in this kind of Phil Hester style before. So far, it works for me nicely. When it comes to Oliver Queen, Neal Adams and Mike Grell cast long shadows, and it takes a strong artistic team to be able to escape those shadows. Phil and Ande may have turned the trick. Heck, I even love the new logo.

A few months ago, Kevin responded to some online speculation about a Green Arrow feature film, saying it was unlikely he'd ever do a superhero flick because he prefers stories where people sit around and talk to each other. Ironically, that's what we have in this comic -- lots of musings and reminiscing, background and scene setting. All of the major players in the Green Arrow mythos are brought onstage -- Superman, Batman, Parallax, Roy Harper, Dinah Lance and Connor Hawke. Kevin deals with them all competently, and shows a real grasp of the characters. The soon-to-be-infamous dishwashing scene struck me as something straight out of the Grell era, while Canary herself is still unmistakably a Bird of Prey. Arsenal is clearly the same conflicted sidekick-cum-hero we saw in his eponymous mini and in the Titans. Somebody's done his research. Only Connor's portrayal strikes me as a little wishy-washy (the less said about Connor's Zen Buddhist "prayer" the better), but as Kevin's interest lies in Ollie, that's not surprising. At least he makes the effort to give Connor his due, which is more than some would've done.

It suddenly strikes me that this isn't a first issue. Not really. The whole thing reads more like a prologue -- a prelude to what lies in store. Kevin spends this issue positioning all his chessmen on the board, but the game has yet to begin. Yes, the revisitation of the Parallax scene from Green Arrow 137 is intriguing and mysterious. The Batman/Superman dialogue during Final Night is spot-on, with Superman's brief "affliction" certain to provoke a healthy amount of speculation in the weeks and months to come. But those are just teases. We haven't seen Kevin's story. Not yet. He's stringing us along. He's playing coy. After all this time, the dirty rat's still making us wait. That's fine. I was here long before Green Arrow was a glimmer in his eye, and I'll be here long after he's finished his run and moved on to bigger and better things.

There's one thing that matters, and one thing only: Oliver Queen is back!

Sincerely,
Jayme Lynn Blaschke

P.S. Kudos for Kevin, Phil and Ande dropping by the various online Green Arrow forums. Mucho appreciated, guys! Don't be strangers!

No. 4, May 2001: The Quiver Chapter Four: Membership Has Its Privileges

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Michael Wright, associate editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Green Arrow and Aquaman tangle with Black Manta. Aquaman is still baffled by the sudden reappearance of the "dead" Oliver Queen. After a decent fight, Ollie prevents Arthur from killing Manta, and is disturbed by what he perceives as an abrupt change in Aquaman. After the cops cart Manta away, Ollie and Arthur engage in a "What happened to you?" exchange, which is amusing when it devolves into a fasion debate, but infuriating when Ollie insists on offering oblivious replies to Aquaman's continued questioning about Ollie's death, and how he survived. Ollie then goes into a silly rant about the evils of monarchy and how Aquaman should abdicate and hold free elections in Atlantis. Athur then teleports them to the JLA's lunar watchtower. Elsewhere, Mia has nightmares about her abusive childhood, and Stanley worries about how to use Green Arrow to solve his problems -- problems which have to do with his Monster, no doubt. And in a back alley, the Star City Slayer claims another young victim. And deep in a dungeon somewhere, the Monster cries in despair about losing the little boy it once loved... which would be Stanley Dover, Ollie's new benefactor. In the Star City Police impound, Batman examines the arrow damage to Black Manta's submarine, and concludes Oliver Queen is the only archer capable of making the shots that damaged the craft. On the moon, the League assembles in a grumpy mood, since Aquaman called them all in the middle of the night. He introduces them to Ollie. They're all stunned. Wonder Woman kisses him. J'onn J'onzz wants to scan Ollie's mind, but Ollie refuses. Ollie is suspicious of the Flash since he knows it's not Barry Allen, but relaxes when he finds out it's Wally West, Roy's friend from the Teen Titans. When Superman shows up, things get weird, since Big Blue saw Ollie blown to smithereens. Ollie gets more hostile toward the League as they press for answers, and they tell him Black Canary isn't there because she resigned to move to Seattle years before. Ollie refuses to believe it, and then runs into Kyle Rayner, the current Green Lantern. Ollie accuses the League of replacing the older heroes with younger versions, and Kyle makes it worse by butting in and showing him a picture of Connor Hawke. Of course, all the Leaguers stand around in menacing poses saying stuff like "You're confused" and "Trust us" which is what they always do whenever everyone is possessed by Starro or Brainiac or someone. Ollie pulls an explosive arrow out and threatens to blow the window out to the vaccuum of space, but just then Batman steps out of the shadows and sucker-punches him. Bats chides the League for their inept handling of Green Arrow, then takes the unconscious Ollie back to Earth to sort things out. While the rest of the heroes grouse about Bats' summary dismissal of them, J'onn wonders who will break the news to Black Canary. The issue ends with a shocked Dinah getting the word from Oracle that her ex has turned up alive.

Yeah, But Is It Good? A fun issue, tho not without it's problems. I have no quibble with the structure of this issue, which works well enough. But I think Kevin Smith tried a little too hard to have fun with the situations here. The exchanges between Ollie and Aquaman - especially the "Atlantis needs democracy" one - seemed forced, as if Kevin thought up a good joke (which it was) and used it even though the narrative didn't naturally flow in that direction. Wonder Woman kissing Ollie was way out of character for the Amazon. Zatanna, I could buy, since it's been shown before that the backwards-talking magic chick would like to take a tumble with Ol' Mister Green Shaft, but Wonder Woman? That was so out of the blue it could've been an ELO album. And Aquaman threatening to kill Manta on the spot didn't strike me as being in character either. Yeah, I know all about Kevin's dislike of Peter David's grittier Aquaman, and also that he was using this as a counterpoint to the edgier Grell version of Green Arrow. But even so, it didn't quite ring true. The Star City Slayer subplot, however, is very puzzling. Through four issues it seems to be vastly under-played, garnering barely half a dozen pages, total. If this is to be the major thrust of this book and Ollie's big test, then more care should've been made to give it more prominence. Of course, there is the whole "Stanley and his Monster" debate, but it seems pretty clear that Stanley is not the Slayer, despite the apparent fact that the Slayer is still obtaining his victims via the Youth Center which Stanley now funds. Stanley could still turn out to be the Slayer, but that seems unlikely, with a character as yet unidentified on-panel being the bad guy. A bigger problem, from what I see, is a tendancy toward drawing things out. Mike Grell fell into this trap around the time of "The Black Arrow Saga" and it hampered some otherwise fine stories. I see the same thing here - while Kevin has obviously got a complex direction he's going with these various plot threads, I really fail to see why the four issues thus far couldn't be condensed into three issue, and be all the stronger for it. Issues two and three, in particular, cover a lot of the same ground thematically. But that's just my opinion. Like I said before, this is a fun issue, and I found myself smiling the whole way through. Hester and Parks did a good job with the art, and even Guy Major's colors improved, although I still feel they tend too much towards the darker end of the spectrum and lack the contrast that Hester's pencils demand. The revalation to Canary at the end was the perfect cliff-hanger, and I find myself eagerly anticipating the next issue with Batman, in which we should finally get some of these nagging resurrection questions out of the way.

Significata: Cover painted by Matt Wagner. Wonder Woman observes that Ollie looks younger than when he killed Parallax during Final Night. Couple this with earlier references to the JLA Satellite, Roy's addiction to heroin and Ollie's insistence that he's just returned from a trip to Oa with Hal indicates this version of Ollie is pre-Crisis (he doesn't remember Barry Allen's death). Aquaman comments that Ollie's acting the way he did 10 years earlier, a statement which barely fits within the constrains of the 12-year timeline. Ollie makes a comment about "The black guy" Green Lantern, meaning John Stewart, who debuted in Green Lantern/Green Arrow no. 87, but also talks about "the redneck" Green Lantern, meaning Guy Gardner - but Ollie doesn't meet Guy until issue 116, and Guy doesn't go whacko until he's revived from a coma by the Guardians during Crisis. Black Manta, changed into some kind of mutant manta-man by Neron in Underworld Unleashed apparently is able to squeeze his manta body into his classic black wetsuit. There's a house ad here for Tor: Volume 1 which Joe Kubert's primal hero returns in a full-color, hardcover collection. There's also a house ad here for the upcoming Our Worlds At War crossover event. The back cover features an ad for the TNT series "Witchblade" starring Yancy Butler, based on the Top Cow comic of the same name.

No. 5, August 2001: Quiver Chapter Five: The Anatomy Lesson

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Michael Wright, associate editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Jason Blood, mortal host of the demon Etrigan, tries to buy an airline ticket in Gotham for Star City, then changes to a different flight. Shortly therafter, his original plane explodes in a ball of fire. Not-so-far-away, in the Batcave, Batman and Spoiler are running a battery of medical tests on the unconscious Oliver Queen. Batman is troubled by the fact X-rays show his wrist has never been broken (an Eclipso-posessed Black Canary did so in Green Arrow Annual no. 5) and his chest is lacking a scar where Shado almost shot him through the heart (Green Arrow no. 10, first series). Also, his back shows no burn scars from Ollie's run-in with Poison Ivy in The Poison Tomorrow. This Oliver Queen not only looks younger, but has none of the scars the one that blew up over Metropolis had. About this time Ollie wakes up and decks Bats with a well-placed right hook. Ollie argues with Batman and Spoiler leaves. Batman shows Ollie his obituary notice, then video of Ollie's confrontation with Parallax during Zero Hour. Ollie is disturbed by Hal's abrupt (to him, anyway) psychosis and death. Ollie invites Batman to return to Star City with him to help solve the mystery. Back in Star City, the 15-year-old ex-hooker Mia decides to try shooting the bow. Just as she starts practicing (badly) Arsenal and Black Canary show up, looking for Ollie. Batman flies Ollie back to Star City in the Bat-plane, and Ollie makes comments about the Arrow-Plane, Arrow-Car and Arrow-Cave. Batman asks if Ollie ever had a original though back then, an Ollie raises an eyebrow for the camera. They land amid the ruins of the old Queen Estate, which Batman hopes will job some memories in Ollie. Ollie grouses about losing his fortune to John DeLeon, and Batman discovers Ollie's memory cuts off right before he accidentally killed a criminal and took refuge in Ashram Monastery (The Flash no. 217-219, first series). Just as Batman is putting the pieces together, Etrigan shows up, hell-bent on killing Green Arrow.

Yeah, But Is It Good? The first four issues, as I may or may not have made clear, are uneven. Plodding sometimes, filled with witty banter and neat continuity references but not much in the way of plot development. Just a whole lotta laying of groundwork. Well, friends and neighbors, this issue's the payoff, at least for me. I love this one. One problem was the Jason Blood opening, which was shamelessly lifted straight out of the movie "Final Destination." Batman's extended banter with Spoiler was a bit cloying for me, and I felt half of that section -- along with references to Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel" story from JLA could've been dropped with no harm done to the narrative. But Green Arrow's interaction with Batman was spot-on. And Kevin brought a few things into continuity that I was really, really hoping he would. First, and most importantly, Kevin re-establishes that Ollie lost his fortune in a stock swindle by John DeLeon. The otherwise-great Denny O'Neil retconned this away in his "Peacemakers" story arc in Legends of the DCU, having been convinced by a non-Green Arrow fan that it would be more in fitting with the Robin Hood myth if Ollie gave away all his money. Well, that's just dumb on a lot of levels, and besides-- Ollie's business incompetence has become an integral aspect of his character. To just dismiss it thus... So for a number of years, myself and several other fans have argued for a compromise: Ollie sells off the munitions and related aspects of Queen Industries, and uses the money to set up the Queen Fund, a charitable foundation which would do good over the long haul. The Queen Fund then becomes the financial entity DeLeon robs Ollie of. Scott McCullar pitched this idea to Kevin while he was helping with research for this series, and apparently Kevin took it to heart. Another thing Kevin apparently took to heart was the fact that many fans believe Ollie is indeed aware of Batman's secret identity of Bruce Wayne, but doesn't let on because he doesn't really care about Batman's secrets (in the post-Crisis DC Universe, Green Arrow officially does not know Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person). This is supported by a number of instances in The Poison Tomorrow, Legends of the DCU no. 112-113, JLA 80-Page Giant no. 2 and "The Arrow and the Bat" arc from Legends of the Dark Knight. Here, we have Ollie once again engage in Bat-baiting with ambiguous comments that leave both the reader and Batman wondering "Does he know or not?" Batman comments: "'Where you're from?' You mean all those prep schools you attended?" To which Ollie replies, "Look who's talking," a verbal jab that, at least on the surface, would indicate Ollie knows Bats is Bruce, who also attended exclusive prep schools growing up. Very cool. There are also extensive continuity references to Ollie's past injuries and events in his life, many of which were supplied by Scott McCullar as Kevin was boning up on the more obscure continuity of Green Arrow. How do I know? Because Scott double-checked his answers with me to be sure he got everything. The only injury Batman doesn't mention is the one Ollie should still have evidence of if he is indeed a recreation of the Ollie prior to the events in Flash 217 -- a broken arm sustained in Green Lantern/Green Arrow no. 85, during the story "Snowbirds Don't Fly." I was also asked if I knew of any instances where Ollie may have met Jason Blood. There weren't any, unless you count Jason Blood as the Spectre in Kingdom Come, and even then they didn't actually meet, but were simply at the same place at the same time on several occasions. Notice to fanboys: Yes, I am well aware that in the Elliot S! Maggin novelization of Kingdom Come the Spectre is referred to as Jim Corrigan. But he is never given a name in the comic version. And then at the end, in the Kansas graveyard, when Norman McCay asks what the Spectre's "ordinary man's" perspective would, the Spectre pulls back his hood to reveal a red-haired man with a white streak running through it. My goodness! Jim Corrigan's not drawn that way, but Jason Blood is. And when Jason Blood answers "An excellent question" it contains high irony, seeing how he once embodied a demon, and now embodies the Wrath. Until I hear otherwise from Mark Waid or Alex Ross, I will continue to stand firm in my belief that the Spectre of the future is Jason Blood. ;-) There's also a clever reference to the old The Brave and the Bold series, in which Green Arrow and Batman teamed up on a regular basis.

Significata: Cover painted by Matt Wagner. Guy Major botches his colors several more times: Jason Blood's hair, historically red with a distinctive white streak through it, is colored a uniform gray; Arsenal, historically a redhead, is colored blonde; Shado, who has a red dragon tattoo on her arm is colored as if her arm is bandaged in linen; Green Arrow's green- gloved hands are colored as bare flesh. And there's that ever-present red feather in his cap, as opposed to the historical yellow-green one, but I've given up on that. Kevin sneaks in a reference to Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel" story from JLA, and lo and behold, guess what there's a house ad in here for? Yup, the collected trade paperback edition. The lettercolumn, while not as engaging yet as Sherwood Forum was, contains one irate letter from Thomas H. Calvin of Plymouth, California who's ticked by Arsenal's anti-NRA comments in issue one, and another from Sam Tweedle of Ontario who wants Kevin Smith to take Black Canary away from Chuck Dixon and Birds of Prey and put her back in fishnets. Amazingly (and this really, really boggles the mind) the neverending trick arrow debate has yet to rear it's head!

No. 6, September 2001: Quiver Chapter Six: The Hollow Man

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Green Arrow and Batman fight a losing battle against the Demon Etrigan, hoping to prevent him from killing Ollie. Finally, just as the demon is about to flamb‚ Bats, Ollie shoots a fire-extinguisher arrow down Etrigan's throat. This proves none-too-comfortable for the hellspawn, who is forced to revert back to Jason Blood. Unsure of why Etrigan attacked Ollie, Blood suggests they go to one of his "safe houses" to investigate further. Arsenal and Black Canary then show up. Ollie's surprised at how Roy's grown, but now accepts that his memories are quite lackign. Then Dinah approaches Ollie, and they kiss. Ollie calls her "Pretty Bird" and Dinah breaks down in tears, asking him to say it again. Back in the city, Mia interrupts Stanley as he's about to unload something from the trunk of his car, and he's upset when he learns that Canary and Arsenal have arrived looking for Green Arrow. As the heroes fly the Titans jet (supplied by Roy) to Blood's safe house, Dinah quizzes Ollie. He doesn't remember Eddie Fyres, Shado or Marianne. The hurt wells up for Dinah, but Ollie's just baffled, pointing out that he can't be held responsible for something he didn't do. Dinah feels he's ducking responsibility again, and the same communication problems that broke them up before come back into play. At Blood's safe house, he sequesters Ollie into a quiet room and begins a ritual to call forth abortives -- the lowest caste of demon from hell. They are forever trapped in the abyss unless a "husk" appears on Earth -- a soulless human -- they can posess in order to escape. Seriously bad stuff could then happen. Blood suspects Ollie is a husk -- Etrigan's earlier "Quiver" comments reenforce this -- and when the summoned abortives try to get at Ollie (who is protected within a pentagram on the floor) Blood's suspicions are confirmed. Since Ollie is not "real" as far as Blood is concerned, he summons forth Etrigan to destroy Ollie's husk. Batman hears the incantation, and realizing the double-cross, charges in with Arsenal and Canary. They battle the abortives, but are unable to stop Etrigan who vaporized Ollie with a blast of his fire-breath, saying "The husk has been sent to meet his maker."

Yeah, But Is It Good? By far the best of Kevin Smith's run. He hits a home run with Dinah and Ollie's meeting -- I mean, that was just so dead-on perfect that I got a lump in my throat just reading it. Yes, Dinah was swept up by her emotions and deep attachment to Ollie, but in the end she remained strong and determined not to let bygones be bygones. What can I say? After years of speculation on what would shake out at the reunion, Kevin gave us exactly what should've happened, with flawless characterization of Canary and Arrow. I wish I could say the same thing about the opening battle with Etrigan. Visually, it's impressive. It's exciting and enthralling and dynamic. Funny, too. But you know what? It'd have been a lot more effective if he hadn't recycled the "fire-extinguisher-puts-out-supernatural-fire" gag from his movie Dogma. If you haven't seen it, Linda Florentino douses Alan Rickman. It's funny there, and here too, I guess, if you haven't seen the film. And the thing he's doing with Stanley Dover -- hints are constantly dropped either way, one issue Stanley is obviously the Star City Slayer (is that a body in the trunk of your car, Stanley?) and the next he's lost little boy in an old man's body, trying to save his beloved Monster from whatever bad guy has him hostage. I've just about given up on figuring this one out, because there are enough clues to go either way on it. But what really sealed the deal for me with this issue was the conclusion. Dude, Green Arrow is dead again! I did not, repeat, did not expect Kevin to kill off the lead again, to let Etrigan succeed in his mission. Wow. Very, very cool. Kevin's done some unexpected things with this storyline thus far, but this is the first time he's flat-out thrown me a curve that makes my jaw drop. Good job. Etrigan's "meet his maker" comment is really put into perspective now with the already-released cover art of issue seven, which features Hal Jordan, aka the Spectre, quite prominently... And I've got to make note of Phil Hester's seriously creepy abortives. Those are some disturbed pencils, but if you've seen the work Phil's done previously on "That Hell-Bound Train" from Weird Business or "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" from Atomic Chili then you know he can draw "disturbing" with the best of 'em.

Significata: Cover painted by Matt Wagner. Hey, Matt Wagner painting the Demon on the cover of a Green Arrow comic-- how cool is that? The first issue in which I saw no glaring color errors by Guy Major. Late correction: On later review, being unable to truly believe Major didn't screw something up in some serious way, I was shocked to discover a glaring screw- up in coloring. Etrigan wears a red shirt. Long sleeves. It's been this way since Kirby started drawing him. Major colors Etrigan as yellow-chested, being shirtless. Nevermind that Hester draws Etrigan wearing a shirt, with billowing folds and such (notice Major managed to color the ends of the sleeves the correct red). Geeze, I hate to dog a guy non-stop, because for all I know he's got kids to feed, but geeze, Major is terrible! Green Arrow is killed yet again. The lettercol is filled with fans clamoring for the return of Connor Hawke. Go figure, eh? The issue contains a house ad for Chuck Dixon's prestige-format Nightwing special, The Target and the John Byrne Elseworlds mini Generations II which features the Golden Age Green Arrow in the ad.

No. 7, October 2001: Quiver Chapter Seven: Hard Traveling Heroes

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Ollie, apparently not so dead as the final panel of the last issue would have us believe, wakes up in total blackness to the sound of Hal Jordan's voice. Ollie grouses, and Hal warns Ollie to prepare himself for a shock -- Hal has undergone a few changes since last they met. Ollie brushes off the concerns, and then is dumbstruck when reveals himself in the giant form of the Spectre. Hal shrinks himself down to Ollie size, and Ollie promptly belts him one. Hal changes into his old Green Lantern uniform, and begins to explain the chain of events behind Ollie's resurrection. Ollie did get blown up over Metropolis (Green Arrow no. 101, first series) but just before Hal (then known as Parallax) faced certain death against the Sun-Eater (in the Final Night miniseries) he wanted to fix at least one wrong bring Ollie back to life. Parallax tracked down a fragment of Ollie's DNA that had embedded itself in Superman and was preserved by Supes' super-aura. From that, Parallax crafted a new Ollie, one that shared even the original's memories -- up to a point. Hal then takes Ollie to the Gates of Heaven, and they enter after a brief hassle with the Phantom Stranger. Once inside the pearly gates, they meet up with Deadman and swap some one-liners. Hal sends Deadman back to Star City to reign in Etrigan and bring Batman, Black Canary and Arsenal up to speed on what's happening with Ollie. Just then Robin jaunts by -- the dead, Jason Todd version of Robin -- and Ollie gets a bit snappish with Hal, believing himself to be dead. Barry Allen arrives, and Ollie's despondent on seeing another hero dead. Barry explains that it wasn't the Rogues Gallery that killed him, rather, he died during Crisis -- at which point Hal whispers to Barry "Our boy here was returned Pre-Crisis." Ollie then demands to know just what is going on, and Barry and Hal introduce him to the "Late Oliver Queen" who is target practicing at the moment. The dead Oliver grins at Ollie and says "What's the matter, chum? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Yeah, But Is It Good? A pretty darn cool issue. If the truth be known, I'd actually thought the pacing of the Quiver storyline would be structured a little differently -- with the Star City Slayer plot being resolved first, and the confrontation with Hal taking up the final two issues for a grand finale. Looks like I guessed wrong, and instead issues 7-8 and 9-10 are the reverse of what I'd anticipated. The pre-Crisis gag is, of course, a double-meaning, as it means both that Kevin is basing the current Ollie on the events of the Denny O'Neal run, which happened almost a decade before the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, and also pre-Crisis as a historical event in the DCU -- Crisis still happened, but the inhabitants don't remember the Infinite Earths bit. Therefore, since Barry died during that event, Ollie would have no knowledge of it. This is a good, satisfying issue, and the character interaction is excellent. Kevin Smith does a good job writing the Spectre and conveying Hal Jordan's personality at the same time. And Hester's pencils are very nice -- Phil seems very comfortable drawing this issue. Two things undermine this issue for me, however. Firstly, there are too damn many cameos and guest-stars. The whole Phantom Stranger bit, while cute, doesn't really go anywhere and merely serves as four pages of filler. Deadman's merely a plot device used to tie up dangling plot threads in issue 8. Eliminating them and giving Barry Allen some really meaningful role in this chapter of the story would've strengthened it overall, but as it is, the emotional impact is too diluted. The other flaw I had would really open up a can of worms had Kevin broached it, so I can't fault him for that. But with all the darkness in Ollie's life following the Grell years and such, wouldn't Oliver Queen have spent a good deal of time in Purgatory rather than waltz right into Heaven? Face it: Ollie, while being inherently good, has made bad choices and done bad things in his life, and has never been particularly pious or religious, either. But then, maybe Ollie's not Catholic, and gets to skip that step. Or maybe that's why he wasn't seen during all the "Dead Heroes" sequences of Day of Judgement. I dunno. Sure, it'd needlessly complicate the story, but when themes of religious mythology are brought to the forefront, these are the kinds of things I think of.

Significata: Hal comments that no non-metahuman could've survived the plane explosion over Metropolis in issue 101 of the first Green Arrow series, driving the point home that Ollie really did die and come back to life throught Parallax's manipulations. Of more significance is the edict from the Spectre, embodiment of the Wrath of God, that Oliver Queen is not a meta-human, thereby erasing (hopefully) once and for all the DC Editorial Departmant's wrong-headed notion that the only reason Green Arrow shoots arrows so well is because he has the metagene. Thanks Kevin -- that's two-for-two on stupid editorial decisions you've fixed for us. If nothing else, your run on this title was worth it just for that. Cover painted by Matt Wagner. Guy Major mis-colors Hal Jordan's Green Lantern boots as white, not green as they traditionally are. Cameo appearances by famous dead people include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and some strange John Candy/Chris Farley/Elvis conflation. Even though Nachie Castro is listed as the assistant editor in the credits box, Michael Wright continues to answer the letters in the lettercol. Most (heck, all) of the letters this month are gushing praise. I sure do miss the philosophical debates that highlighted the old Sherwood Forum.

No. 8, November 2001: Quiver Chapter Eight: When Ollie Met Ollie

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Rewind to the end of issue six, moments after Etrigan apparently vaporized Ollie with his hellfire breath. Arsenal and Black Canary are -- for all intents and purposes -- trying to kill Etrigan, and do it with extreme prejudice. Batman is cast in the odd role of trying to reign the other two heroes in against a foe that could slaughter them all. Etrigan's a moment away from killing Dinah when he pauses abruptly, and breaks out of his rhyming speech. He then plants a big old wet one on Dinah, who decks him angrily. After a few wisecracks from Etrigan, Batman figures out that Deadman has posessed the Demon (how's that for irony?). Deadman transforms Etrigan back into Jason Blood, and explains that Hal has Ollie and they're jaunting through the hereafter at the moment. Everyone then departs before Deadman loses control of Jason Blood and Etrigan. Meanwhile, back in Heaven, Hollow Ollie and Dead Ollie are engaged in some target practice competition, and Dead Ollie is winning, because of his greater experience. Dead Ollie talks about his life, and why he chose to die on that plane rather than let Superman dis-arm him (literally). There are subtle references to The Dark Knight Returns here. Once in Heaven, Dead Ollie was soon visited by Parallax -- who wanted to talk Ollie into letting him resurrect him. Ollie didn't want to go, but struck a compromise with Hal, one which a new Ollie would be created, one which had his future and idealism untainted. The Ollie brought back would be the one that existed before he accidentally killed a criminal (The Flash no. 217). After that even, Ollie's life began to go wrong in many different ways. In retrospect, Dead Ollie believes the only peace he could ever find would be in death. Dead Ollie refuses to tell him anything about the darkness in his life. Hollow Ollie is understandably a bit miffed about being a body without a soul, that Dead Ollie is the soul without the body. Hollow Ollie rightly feels that he's being forced to take on all the risk just so Dead Ollie's conscience will be soothed -- and Hollow Ollie doesn't like the prospect of dying, since without a soul, the prospect of no afterlife exists for him. In a strange, metaphysical way, his actions have no consequence. Just when Hollow Ollie brings up Etrigan's dire warnings about the consequences of a Hollow walking the Earth, Hollow Ollie abruptly fades from Heaven and reappears on Earth, his question unanswered. The Spectre reappears, and he and Dead Ollie get into it. Hal, apparently, is still prodding Dead Ollie to join with Hollow Ollie to make Green Arrow whole. Dead Ollie is having none of it, and disavows any responsibility toward Hollow Ollie. Dead Ollie points out the Felix Faust's son is soulless and manages OK. Starting up his archery practice again, Dead Ollie accuses Hal of still trying to play god. Hal accuses Ollie of once again skirting his resonsibilities. The scene ends with Ollie removing his last shot from the target -- one that hit way off the mark, indicating that Hal's parting shot scored a bull's-eye. Back in Star City, Ollie drops into his headquarters in Stanley Dover's penthouse. Stanley meets him and asks what's going on. Ollie says he's found out he doesn't have a soul. Stanley gets a weird look in his eye, then bashes Ollie over the head with a bow. Up the California Coast, in the Ashram Monastary, Connor Hawke awakes from a dream and suits up. A bald Eddie Fyres meets him as he's heading out the window, and Connor explains that Ollie needs him. Back in Star City, Ollie wakes up in Stanley's basement/dungeon, strapped to a stone table just like the one seen at the end of issue 2. Mia is also strapped down. Stanley starts babbling about being a real family -- Ollie, Stanley, Mia and Stanley's old friend... Stanley pulls away some drapes, exposing a spherical glass container containing a ragged, gaunt boy with a shaggy, purple demon hide strapped over his body.

Yeah, But Is It Good? This was exactly what I expected, but nothing what I expected. Everything up to the final revelation scene was foreshadowed, but the child wearing the monster skin? I completely, utterly and totally have no idea where this is going. Is the kid the real Stanley Dover, and his friendly demon, the Monster, dead and skinned? Is the old, psychotic Stanley Dover the real one, or a derranged imposter? Is the Monster really dead -- I thought high-ranking demons from hell couldn't be killed? In issue 2 it certainly looked like the Monster was alive in some fasion -- no way does that gaunt boy have that big, long, icky tongue hidden inside his mouth. Geeze, I have no idea how this is going to shake out! And for all of you scratching your heads and saying "What is Stanley and his Monster?" well, click on the Pics to the right and left for DC's official Who's Who entry on these two. One also hopes that Batman, Arsenal and Black Canary show up before Quiver is over, because having Deadman simply send them home lacks closure. When Ollie went up against Shado in The Longbow Hunters, Ollie was forced to admit that Shado made shots he couldn't, that despite his great skill and years of experience, his physical abilities were indeed eroding. If that holds true, then in the archery contest this issue should've had the Hollow Ollie winning out over Dead Ollie -- unless Hollow Ollie had not yet reached the pinnacle of his skill, and Dead Ollie hadn't yet declined below the ability of Hollow Ollie. I think about these things. Why do you think they pay me the big bucks?

Significata: Cover painted by Matt Wagner. Cover price: $2.50. Guy Major mis- colors Etrigan's shirt/chest again, and also screws up the colors on the flashback scenes (hint: the Golden Age Green Arrow wore red boots and gloves). Kevin Smith shows he really has paid an obscene amount of attention to continuity during Dead Ollie's flashback to his "darker times." Not only is the sniper death from The Flash 217 here and the subsequent crash of the Arrow-Plane, but Kevin also includes a bit from The Poison Tomorrow and the ill-fated Brave and the Bold mini by Mike Grell and Mike Baron, featuring Green Arrow, Jon Butcher and the Question. Shado is also shown, but she's not readily identifiable since someone (I presume Phil Hester) neglected to draw the dragon tattoo on her bare shoulder. All in all, it's a very effective sequence, although I doubt many people other than myself and Scott McCullar would (or could) fully appreciate it. Interior contains house ads for Joker: Last Laugh, the new Doom Patrol series and Batgirl: A Knight Alone.In the lettercol, James Baker of Bel Air, Md. makes a passing reference and compliments Phil Hester and Ande Parks for the "wonderful job with the drawings and colors on the series." Michael Wright promptly says to thank Guy Major for the "eye-popping" colors on this book. I really don't think Michael was being ironic, do you?

No. 9, December 2001: Quiver Chapter Nine: The Weird World of Stanley and His Monster

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Flying back to their respective East Coast cities aboard the Titans jet, Arsenal, Batman and Black Canary ponder the confusing reality of Ollie's apparent escape from Etrigan with the Spectre's aid. Arsenal complains that he suspects Ollie is training teenager Mia to be the new "Speedy," and gets in a good zinger at Batman's expense. Canary's emotional bitterness over her breakup with Ollie bubbles up, and Arsenal's unsettled issues with Ollie surface as well -- but Batman chastizes them that instead of complaining about Ollie, they should be grateful that he is alive. When Stanley Dover's name is mentioned, though, Jason Blood (who'd been sulking in the background the entire time) abruptly panics, and insists they turn around because Ollie is in great danger. A quick change of scenes shows that is true. Ollie is strapped to a slab in Stanley Dover's dungeon. Mia's tied down as well, and there's also the kid from last issue, with that patched-together Monster costume, trapped in a giant glass bottle. Old man Stanley begins the traditional "explanation of evil plans" and reveals in short order that he's a grade-A wacko. He explains how he and his wife got into Satanism back in the 1950s, but whereas he embraced it as a means to achieve eternal life, his wife merely thought it a lark. When she became pregnant, Stanley saw the unborn child as a blood sacrifice in a ritual to earn immortality. His wife fled, and an embittered Stanley traveled to Europe to study the dark arts. While in England, he encountered a certain Jason Blood, who dropped enough hints to lead Stanley to the Magdalene Grimoire, a book containing all manner of dark magic. While pinching the book, Stanley discovered a giant glass containment jar in a secret basement, a jar which contained a melatonin-challenged immortal known in fanboy circles as Morpheus, Lord of Dream. Stanley thinks "Cool! I've got to get me one of those," and so creates a containment jar and tries to summon and trap a demon known as The Beast With No Name. About this time Sheila Dover -- Stanley's daughter, now all grown up -- reenters his life after tracking him down. Her mother died years before, and she doesn't know what a jerkwad her pop is. Sheila gets married to Mitch, and they have a son they name Stanley. Evil old Stanley continues his arcane summoning rituals while baby-sitting little good Stanley, and lo and behold, the spells of binding take hold on little good Stanley instead of evil old Stanley. Years later, as little good Stanley's parents complain about the kid's imaginary playmate, evil old Stanley discovers the monster hiding in the closet. The Monster knows the old coot is bad news, and disappears, so gramps captures Stanley and imprisons him in the glass jar, feeding him the blood of kids killed by the "Star City Slayer" in an effort to draw forth the Monster in defense of the boy. But the Monster won't rise to the gruesome bait, as he knows the mean old man will be able to trap him and steal his power to gain immortality and do even more bad mojo. But now, with Ollie in his posession -- a "Hollow" body that he can claim as his own -- evil old Stanley will become "Green Arrow" and "solve" the Star City Slayer case by turning in the then-dead body of the old man (not to mention the dead, sexually abused body of Mia as well) and reclaim Green Arrow's position in the Justice League, so he can use the JLA's resources to track down the Monster once and for all. Outside, Batman, Arsenal, Canary and Jason Blood arrive, but are prevented from entering because of a "Blood Seal" evil old Stanley has cast over the house. The odd spell prevents anyone from entering who isn't a blood relative of those already inside. Arsenal injurs himself pretty convincingly trying to get in, but just in the nick of time who should show up but drumroll please... Green Arrow, otherwise known as Connor Hawke, the Tiger Woods of the DCU superhero community and illegitimate offspring of Oliver Queen.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Well, a more accurate title for this issue would be No, Mr. Bond -- I Expect You To Die, or In Which The Bad Guy Explains His Evil Scheme In Excruciating Detail. Evil old Stanley Dover isn't gay, he just pretended to be to trick "liberal" Ollie into thinking he wasn't a threat. Well, okay. The Stanley and his Monster bit, though, I'm still not convinced this was a good idea. It's pretty much the same feeling I had in issue 2, after the Stanley Dover reference clicked. What we have here is Kevin essentially rewriting the continuity of Stanley and his Monster. A grandfather had never been mentioned previously, and as near as I can tell, Kevin had Shiela Dover marry a guy that had her same last name to produce little Stanley. The original, humorous Stanley and his Monster stories from Fox and Crow comics, as well as the Phil Foglio miniseries, were silly, humorous things. Stanley's folks were happy but clueless. Stanely was happy and had a cool monster only he could see. Those personalities are significantly altered here, skewed by the lens of "reality." There is no mirth here, only horror. This story becomes very, very dark. Vertigo dark. In fact, some of the stuff here reminds me of Hellblazer from the early '90s, or the Corinthian issues of The Sandman which is pretty obvious, since Kevin referenced those very issues of Gaiman's with the Morpheus-in-the-bottle it. As it stands, the plot works. The confusing "what?" and "why?" questions are now answered, and all the disparate threads are coming together, in sometimes clever, sometimes convoluted ways. On a technical level, the plotting would merit a thumbs up, but on a thematic level... sorry, I can't do it. I think Kevin made a grave strategic error by committing to Stanley and his Monster so early on in the book. I think they were selected because of their relative obscurity, and by that Kevin could drop oblique hints and play with their continuity because readers wouldn't be familiar with them. And maybe that works with Kevin's View Askew fans, but most comic book fans, even if they hadn't ever read the Foglio mini or seen the brief Elseworlds appearance in that Dixon book a few years back, at least knew of Stanley and his Monster, and grokked that the characters were fun and innocent. The element of surprise was lost almost immediately, and most saw the writing on the wall. The plot works, but the players miscast. Instead of reacting to the horror and sadness of the characters' situations, readers instead are mourning the loss of one of the last bastions of innocence in comics (albeit one that was drifting aimlessly in comic book limbo, unused and unloved by DC's editorial powers that be). A character such as Klarion the Witch Boy would be more suitable to fill the Stanley role perhaps, with Teekle playing the Monster. There are other options as well, but what's done, is done. However issue 10 plays out, I'm afraid that Stanley and his Monster are permanently scarred and destined to be bit players in the darker regions of the Vertigo universe from here on out. But other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln? Well, I had problem with one big plot hole -- if evil old Stanley knew Ollie was a Hollow from the beginning, why the heck did he wait 9 issues before trying to posess him? Why allow Ollie to gather his allies about him and close in on Stanley, when he coulda offed him between issues 1 and 2 when Ollie was a raving, homeless lunatic? Reminds me of the big plot hole Kevin left at the end of Dogma. Maybe it comes from writing too much, too fast. Or maybe it's a lazy editor, I dunno. I will give kudos to Kevin for having Roy point out that Dinah's being far too harsh on Ollie for the kiss with Maryanne -- which most fans seem to have interpreted as Ollie constantly chasing skirt behind Dinah's back (he didn't, but circumstantial evidence has not been kind to old Ollie). And there is still no explanation regarding the Monster's "appearances" in earlier issues -- namely his tongue lapping up blood in issue two, and the Monster wailing because he misses his "boy" in issue 3. Are these mere red herrings, or did Kevin's storyline evolve from those early issues into something different than originally planned? I also had a couple of problems with the art. First up, Guy Major (you knew this was coming, didn't you?). Connor Hawke is a Heinz 57 -- part Korean, part Black, part honkie. Yet here his skin is colored as if he's a card-carrying member of the Aryan Nation. It's a common screw-up made whenever Connor appears, and it bugs the crap outta me. Far too many colorists have botched this one. The other raspberry goes to Phil Hester, who had done good work on this series for the most part. I complained early on in this run that Mia didn't look 15-- she appeared much older. Now the same can be said for little Stanley. Whereas he should be around 8 or 10, he looks here about 16 or 17. Phil does grownups well, but his kids need work.

Significata: There's an internal ad here for Smallville, the Superboy-without- the-costume series on the WB network. Oddly, the ad touts the series premire on Tuesday, October 16, but this issue didn't come out until October 24, so essentially an outdated ad was run by a lazy ad agency. It's a good show though, and I've enjoyed the two episodes I've seen thus far. There's also a somber Superman ad praising all the "real-life" heroes of the September 11 tragedy, where terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

No. 10, January 2002: Quiver Chapter Ten: Father's Day

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; Guy Major, colors and separations; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Mia wakes up on the stone sacrificial altar in time to hear Evil Old Stanley gloating over Ollie. Suddenly, an explosion blows open the dungeon door and Connor comes charging in, shooting Evil Old Stanley through the hand. Connor plugs Stanley's gun with an arrow down the barrel, so Stanley shatters a vial of icky bloody liquid, freeing equally icky demons which charge Connor. Evil Old Stanley goes back to transferring his soul into Ollie's soulless body. Husk Ollie seizes the opportunity to begin a mind-to-mind metaphysical argument with his absent soul, still taking target practice in heaven. The two, connected by some mystical bond, grouse back and forth about responsibility and duty and all manner of super-heroish things, but in the end it's Connor's endangerment -- despite a valiant fight, the hordes of demons are too much for the younger Green Arrow -- that convinces Ollie's soul to rejoin Husk Ollie to thwart Evil Old Stanley's plans. Reunified Ollie bursts free of his bonds and joins Connor in the fight, taking out the fleeing Evil Old Stanley with the infamous boxing glove arrow. Even so, the hordes of demons released by Evil Old Stanley are overwhelming the heroes -- the gate to hell has been left open -- so Connor contacts the JLA Watchtower to have Green Lantern Kyle Rayner destroy the building to shut the gate and seal off the demons. Just at the last minute, the demons abruptly disappear, and Connor calls off the strike on the building. Thus enters the huge pink Monster, who simply explains he closed the gate to hell, repelling the demons back from whence they came. The Monster frees Good Little Stanley from his glass prison, and the little tyke immediately wants to build a fort with "Spot." Mia takes Good Little Stanley up to his mother, and once he's gone, Spot grabs up Evil Old Stanley and gobbles him up. Very Brothers Grimm, that. Spot also says he's going to wipe all the horrors from Good Little Stanley's mind, so that he can go back to being a fun-loving innocent. Spot then points out that Evil Old Stanley had placed all his fortune in Ollie's name in anticipation of possessing the hero's body, and that Ollie is now a rich man once again. Finally, Spot says that as he is Stanley's protector, Ollie is Star City's. Ollie and Connor then head off, with Ollie wanting to get to know Connor better - even using the Casablanca line "I think this is the start of a bee-yoo-tiful friendship," which Ollie has used at least on one occasion before, when he hooked up with the teen-aged Hi-Tek in the pages of Detective Comics.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Writing comics is different from writing original movies or even screenplays. Comics are a shared universe. For better or for worse, characters have baggage and personality traits that have developed over many years, and, in most cases, many creators. Consentual reality is not an inaccurate description, which is why fans obsess so much over continuity. In this medium, character and continuity often take precedent over plot and style, although for truly good writing all elements are fully developed. In this, Kevin succeeded quite well with the final chapter of Quiver, and with the 10-part story as a whole. Connor Hawke, who was so portrayed so jarringly out-of-character in issue one, returns here as the more familiar earnest young hero who's constantly seeking spiritual balance. Connor also kicks some serious butt here. Ollie comes through in spades, and the mission of the story -- to bring Ollie back from the dead and reintegrate him into the DCU is accomplished. Even so, the overall final chapter manages to fall somewhat flat. My biggest criticism of issue 9 was the unrelenting dark Vertigoish territory the story had entered, which is not necessarily the best place for a Green Arrow story to go, and probably the worst place for a Stanley and His Monster story to go, ever. Issue 10 reads like Kevin realized this just a little too late. He'd written himself into a very dark corner, and the solution -- having "Spot" merely wipe Stanley's memories, is a Deus Ex Machina kind of cheat. Pain and suffering don't matter, because they can be wiped away with a little bit of benign magic. That's a big pitfall with magic -- if anything can happen, nothing matters. But I hardly see why even such supernatural intervention is necessary, since Stanley immediately wanted to play and build a fort and other stuff with his Monster, despite the apparent trauma of being tortured by his grandfather in a giant glass jar for weeks with nothing to eat or drink except the blood of little kids horribly murdered in front of him. Ouch. There's really no explanation of why Spot was absent for so long, or why he chose that precise moment to confront Evil Old Stanley. Sure, reasons can be assumed and inferred from previous issues, but it still remains rather vague (and I though the Monster had lost all his magical powers once cast out from hell?). I had no problem with the reunification of Ollie's body and soul, since from the first time it was revealed the body was soulless it was inevitable that this would be the climax. It also alleviates a personal gripe of mine, that the Ollie traipsing through the pages of this book for the better part of the past year had no recollection of any of the wonderful Grell years, or those fun Conway-penned Justice League adventures. Coming into money again is a bit convenient, but we'll have to wait to see how that plays out. And Mia, who seemed an ironclad certainty to become some sort of new "Speedy" by the end of this arc is pretty much inconsequential, spending the entire issue tied to a stone table in her underwear. All of the problems here seem to lead to one inescapable conclusion: This conclusion is not the one Kevin originally planned. From issue one on, "Quiver" was announced as a 12-issue arc. The "monster" imprisoned in the glass jar was very clearly not of human descent as shown in issue four -- the "Monster" cries in despair about losing the little boy it once loved. I can only conclude that the original plot hinged on Evil Old Stanley -- whether he was intended to be evil or not is uncertain -- was indeed little Stanley Dover aged quite a bit past his prime. Somewhere along the line -- my guess is issue six or seven -- Kevin had second thoughts about this direction and developed a new conclusion to the tale. Whether this is good or bad, I can't say, since I don't know what was originally in store. As to whether Kevin joins the likes of Mike Grell and Denny O'Neil in the future as the great Green Arrow scribes, well, that's up in the air, too. He's shown that he can nail the characters and deliver plot twists and excitement. He's shown he cares about the characters and the fans. He's shown that he's willing to correct his mistakes and address perceived flaws in his writing. The following shorter story arcs that are promised from him, be they in the pages of Green Arrow or Secret Files will be the most telling. Until then, the jury is still out, but I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store.

Significata: The conclusion to Kevin Smith's "Quiver." Not as good as Grell or O'Neil's best work, but still light-years ahead of the drek that was Crossroads. Painted cover by Matt Wagner. This is actually the second cover painted by Wagner, who originally had Ollie and Connor posed before a dark blue autumnal background. A cool image to be sure, but inappropriate for the swirling mass of demons they were to face in this issue. Hey Matt, if you ever get tired of that unused cover cluttering up your studio, I'll be glad to help you out there! Cover price $2.50. Connor is colored once again like a bleach-blonde surfer, not reflecting his mixed ethnicity. This issue contains 10 ads for computer games, most of them Play Station. The only exception is an ad for Hasbro's Risk, which is still played on a board with dice (or, this version is at any rate).

No. 11, February 2002: Ultimate Speedy

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; James Sinclair, colorist; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Richard, the pimp who did bad things to Mia in issue 2, is fleeing down an alley with arrows flying all around him. Ollie corners him and Richard is forced to turn and confront Mia, clad in a superhero getup and armed with a hand-held crossbow. She calls herself "Ultimate Speedy." Then the alarm rings and Mia wakes from a dream. She stumbles off to breakfast where Ollie burns away her tongue and most of her esophagus with a spicy batch of "Egg McChili." After putting that fire out, Mia starts another one by engaging in some serious lip- action with Ollie. The Ollie comes into her bedroom to wake her up, because she's overslept after the first alarm and is late for school. Ollie finds a crossbow behind her bed, and after overhearing her mention "Speedy" gets concerned about Mia's intentions. He brings it up with Connor, who's helping out at the youth center. Connor points out that Young Justice and the Titans do okay, and they're kids -- or started out as kid sidekicks. Connor argues that Ollie's a youth magnet, surrounding himself with youngsters to keep from growing up. Connor accuses Ollie of being a wanna-be dad, and Ollie tells Connor to shut up and get a girlfriend to settle down with. Connor tells Ollie to follow his own advice. That prompts Ollie to battle with himself over making a phone call to Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary, and his former better half. He never manages to make the call, and after Mia gets home from school, Ollie suits up and goes on patrol. He jumps a mugger, but once it looks like the mugger's partner is about to do Ollie some serious damage, Connor appears from the shadows and takes out goon no. 2. It's an excellent show of teamwork, and shows how much their relationship has improved. Ollie and Connor beat up baddies all night, and when they get home in the morning, they find Mia doing target practice. Ollie and Mia have a long talk -- he says he won't train her to be his partner because it's so much more dangerous being a hero these days. Ollie admits all the heroes who had kid sidekicks -- Batman, the Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and himself -- were all pretty stupid, endangering kid's lives the way they did in the fight against crime. Mia admits that she has a huge crush on Ollie, and agrees to abandon the hero-notion-- at least until she's 21.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Kevin Smith has written as close to a perfect Green Arrow story as anyone can get. Unfortunately, because there are no evil invading aliens or megalomaniacal super-villains bent on global domination, this story will likely be overlooked. Which is a damn shame, because Kevin has put together a quite story with an incredible depth and resonance. In just five panels taking place in a static alleyway, Kevin redefined the relationship between Ollie and Connor, establishing for the reader with just two words, "Thanks, Kid..." what must've taken Ollie and Connor weeks to work out. Outstanding. The whole issue of kid sidekicks was deftly handled as well, and using Mia as the vehicle was quite saavy on Kevin Smith's part. Since Mia first arrived on the scene, the Internet buzz has centered on her becoming the new "Speedy." Kevin toyed with that anticipation in the first four pages, then played with Ollie's reputation as a ladie's man the next two. The show-stopper, though, the part of the book that worked the best and literally forced me to set the issue down and take a breather for a moment was Ollie's struggle to call Dinah. Despite their breakup in Green Arrow 75 (first series) it's accepted fact that Ollie remains hopelessly in love Dinah. That his memories of happier times are painfully fresh in his mind after his resurrection in the "Quiver" story arc makes his emotional turmoil all the more poignant. He last saw Dinah two weeks before, and still hasn't called her. He's run through all his excuses, and is finally facing the reality that he is scared. He fights killers every day without flinching, walked out of heaven and has stood up to the most powerful beings in the universe. But the possibility of Dinah rejecting him is a pain too much for him to face, so he avoids the issue completely. It reminds me of that old Hank Williams song, Kaw-Liga: She may not be able to answer "no," but she can't answer "yes" either. This scene was just so perfect, it's scary. There was more tension in each scene with Ollie standing still, staring at the phone than I've seen in any comic in a long time. I hope writers out there are paying attention. There's a lot of dialogue in this issue, a lot of exposition and contemplation, but it doesn't read like a lot. In fact, the issue slips by quickly, much like the old Grell stories used to. The art also contributes a lot to this story. Hester and Parks have done a great job thus far on the series, but "downtime" issues in which there aren't spectacular battles are harder to draw and make interesting. Here they rise to the challenge. Very smooth, very crisp art here. And brace yourselves people, but Connor has suddenly recovered his ethnicity! His features are less "generic white American" and wonder of wonders, Connor now has a darker skin tone reflecting his mixed Caucasian/African/Asian heritage. Kevin even gets good mileage out of this with a well-placed "Tiger Woods" joke -- one that wouldn't have worked with Connor's earlier whitebread portrayals. Special kudos go out to colorist James Sinclair, who obviously went out of his way to make sure he got all the little details right.

Significata: Gorgeous Matt Wagner painted cover. Inside, Ollie's cap feather is now blueish-white rather than red. In the Arrow Heads letter column, "Fergie" writes via AOL and mentions seeing the Fansite's very own Scott McCullar at Wizard World Con, on the Green Arrow panel. But no one ever writes in to say they saw me on panels at AggieCon, ArmadilloCon or the World Fantasy Convention. I guess Scott doesn't smell as bad as I do... There's an internal ad here for the Sci-Fi Channel's Babylon 5 movie, "Legend of the Rangers." I saw it. It wasn't bad. I mean, it didn't compare to season 3 or 4 of the original series, but it was better than the entirety of "Crusade." The proposed spin-off series could be good. Of course, since the movie ran on January 19 and shipping delays held Green Arrow up until January 24, I doubt the ad helped their ratings much. Another internal ad, this one from OnStar promotes a contest in which people could win a role as an extra in the next Batman movie. Since there is no Batman movie in production, and indeed, not even a script that Warner Brothers is happy with, it could be a long wait for the winner.

No. 12, March 2002: Feast and Fowl

Creative Team: Kevin Smith, writer; Phil Hester, penciller; Ande Parks, inker; Sean Konot, letterer; James Sinclair, colorist; Nachie Castro, assistant editor; Bob Schreck, editor.

Synopsis: Black Canary is preparing for a date with Green Arrow in the JSA mansion when the Star-Spangled Kid comes in and informs that Ollie has arrived, and is waiting in the library with Hawkman. Dinah panicks, knowing how those two used to fight, but finds them laughing up a storm, making fun of Batman. Green Arrow, in costume, has to borrow some civilian clothes from Hawkman for his date, which segues into an exchange that reveals even the heroes aren't clear on Hawkman's convoluted continuity -- did he die or not? Ollie and Katar, er, Carter, have a poignent discussion about loves of their lives being reluctant to rekindle past relationships. At a ritzy restaurant, Dinah brings Ollie up to speed on her social life -- which Ollie promptly begins making fun of when he discovers she dated Ra's A Ghul. That leads to an uncomfortably intimate moment, to which Dinah warns him that the "date" is strictly hands-to- yourself. The mood lightens, but then Ollie gets posessive when he learns she's been dating Dr. Midnight. Dinah rebukes him, and a humbled Ollie spills his guts in a moving declaration of his love and devotion. If Dinah never wants to get back together, that's fine, and he'll respect that, but he will wait until the end of eternity for her to change her mind. And then the Riddler attacks. In a silly, sprawling fight chok full of one-liners, Ollie and Dinah shred the Riddler's gang, with Ollie using a harp and shish-kebab skewers as a makeshift bow and arrow combo. With the bad guys taken care of, and the adrenaline coursing, Ollie and Dinah jump on each other like dogs in heat and end up sprawled in bed at her place. There's another reference to oral sex, a truly awful "Sherwood Forest" pun in reference to said oral sex, and the admission that Ollie pulled Dinah's hair thinking it was a blonde wig. Meanwhile, over in Philadelphia, a female hero named Virago is not long for this world. In a strange sequence, she darted, paralyzed and then executed by an evil dude going by the name of Onomatopoeia. He looks like some freaky cross between Rorschack from The Watchmen and those Black Circle baddies from Giffen's LSH run. Skip back to the JSA mansion. Ollie is grabbing his things and sneaking out early in the morning, before Dinah can wake up. He's afraid she'll say it was all a mistake when she wakes, and he can't stand to face that kind of rejection. But he runs straight into Hawkman, who looks none too happy.

Yeah, But Is It Good? One of my favorite issues of Kevin Smith's run. It's another relationship issue, like no. 11, and that's what Kevin does best. Kevin, quite simply, nails Ollie's feelings towards Dinah, and her reactions to him are entirely natural to her character and all their shared history. That's not to say the witty banter doesn't come off as a little forced at times, and the dynamic between Ollie and Carter just isn't natural -- but that's not Kevin's fault. It's Katar Hol, Thanagarian space-cop who Ollie has always fought with, and all the retrofitting in the world won't make Carter Hall fit the bill. Onomatopoeia's entrance is quite effective, but Virago is obviously a disposable "hero" from panel one. My one complaint about the art is that Phil Hester renders Dinah with a very square-jawed, butch look early on. But her facial expressions during dinner are top-notch, and I love the details he put into the JSA mansion backgrounds -- the portraits of members and former members are a very nice touch.

Significata: Painted cover by Matt Wagner. First appearance of Onomatopoeia, created by Kevin Smith and Matt Wagner. The wig-pulling reference made at least one online fanboy happy, as he'd been posting the scenario online since before even the first issue of the new Green Arrow series hit the streets. Kevin does read message boards, even if he doesn't always respond. Heck, rumor has it that he even reads these silly reviews of mine. But if that were true, wouldn't I be slobbering and begging for a part in his next movie? And speaking of movies (how's that for a segue?) the inside front cover features and ad for the news special edition DVDs of Mad Max and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I used to even have the Buckaroo Banzai novelization, but sadly I think 'tis long gone. There's also an ad for the uber-cool "Brotherhood of the Wolf" French period werewolf flick. Man, how can you go wrong with an Iriquois warrior throwing down with lycanthropes in the European countryside?