With Oliver Queen’s untimely fate in Green Arrow (vol 2) 101, it could have so easily been the end. After saving Metropolis from a group of eco-terrorists and sacrificing himself, editor Scott Peterson could have ended the title there and Chuck Dixon would have to cope with writing just three other titles a month. But the title didn’t end there. It became somewhat fashionable in the 1990s for the major heroes to go through some traumatic or game-changing event, usually with the same result being that a new character becomes the main hero. This happened to Batman with Azrael, Hal Jordan with Kyle Rayner, and even Superman himself, with the big man himself having four impersonators in the aftermath of The Death of Superman. It was clear that Green Arrow wasn’t resistant to this trend, and Connor Hawke became the new Green Arrow… after knowing his father for just a few days it seemed. Not too surprising I guess, since Batman chose Azrael as his successor after teaching Nightwing in the ways of vigilantism. Regardless, how much does a new protagonist change things? Well, quite a lot…
Green Arrow (vol 2) 102-111, and Green Lantern (vol 3) 76-77 was published from November 1995 to August 1996. All stories were written by Chuck Dixon (with the Green Lantern issues by Ron Marz), with art by Rodolfo Demaggio, Robert
Campanella, Jim Aparo, Bill Sienkiewicz, Paul Pelletier, and Romeo Tanghal. I’ve read these stories in their original issues.
Jaguar Moon/Gods and Tourists --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Rodolfo Demaggio and Robert Campanella
At the end of Green Arrow (vol 2) 101, Connor returns to the monastery to learn from Master Jansen that the land has been sold to a man named Keever, owner of the WinkyWorld company. This becomes Connor’s first mission as Green Arrow. It is also worth noting that this two-parter is an official tie-in to Underworld Unleashed, that year’s overarching miniseries in which heroes and villains have the choice to sell their souls to a devil named Neron, in exchange for whatever they desire. This story isn’t closely linked to the series, but it helps in understanding the main villain. Despite advice against continuing Oliver’s legacy from Eddie Fyers, Connor becomes Green Arrow and meets Keever in his mansion. But, as Green Arrow confronts him, the mansion is attacked by leopard-skinned warriors. This is what I like from Chuck Dixon. We are just thrown straight into it with no pointless introductions. After Green Arrow takes the warriors out, he learns from Keever that a man named Chama Sierra is angry over the construction of a WinkyWorld in Mexico. Therefore, Green Arrow makes a deal with Keever, telling him that if he solves his problem in Mexico, he must hold off his plans for the monastery grounds. Keever accepts and Green Arrow heads out. Meanwhile, Neron meets Chama Sierra, telling him that he can give him the power of a god. He accepts. When you look at Underworld Unleashed, nearly all the villains who Neron offers are known as recurring villains of many heroes. Chama Sierra is a completely new character and I think that was a missed opportunity. I think Dixon could have done something with an older villain to show how Neron has changed them. Anyway, Sierra receives the powers of a jaguar god named Tezcatlipoca and he tears apart his minions who attempted to kill Keever and Green Arrow, demanding the hero’s heart. The next day, Connor arrives in Mexico and quickly meets Officer Charro, who too is after Sierra because of his links to drug running. Connor tells her about the mission that Keever sent him on and the two decide to team up to take Sierra out. But, later at night (as if it wasn’t expected), Sierra’s warriors come to attack Connor in his hotel, ending the first part. It’s not much of a surprise and as we expect, Connor takes them out in four panels, before leaving and meeting Charro. Together, they break into the scared ground that is to become a WinkyWorld, where they are attacked once again, this time by Sierra himself in his jaguar god body. While Green Arrow and Charro hide in the pyramid ruins nearby, Eddie Fyers enters Connor’s apartment to find an assassin waiting. However, the assassin dies before Eddie learns why he wants to kill Connor, creating the new overarching story and not a moment too soon. Meanwhile, Sierra is burnt by one of the traps in the ruin and he escapes to America, where he confronts Keever. But Green Arrow gets there ahead of him and takes him out. Due to Connor’s efforts, Keever pulls out of Mexico and tells Connor to raise money for the monastery in six months to avoid it closing down for good. Connor leaves, knowing that that is the best result he could have got. Well, not before he meets with Eddie, who tells him about the assassin who was sent by one Moonday Hawke. Connor gasps as it seems his own mother wants him dead. As an introduction to Connor’s era as Green Arrow without Oliver, this is a very good start. I do think the villain is generic at times and I think it would have benefited if it was a more prestigious villain, but as usual, Dixon writes a complex, yet fast-paced and never-dull story which sets the scene for the story nicely. It also starts an ongoing story involving Connor’s mother, which is a dominant theme throughout the rest of the run.
Story: 9/10
Art: 7.5/10
Bad Blood/Open Season --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Rodolfo Demaggio and Robert Campanella
For this two-parter, each issue features a different hero that Connor teams up with, but the main story is the same in both. As Green Arrow and Eddie arrive in Greenwich Village, New York City, they are being watched by a group of tooled up assassins. Once they enter Moonday’s apartment, the duo finds a video of the man who hired the assassins to get after Green Arrow, telling him that his mother is safe, but that he isn’t. Suddenly, Eddie and Green Arrow leap through the window and they become the prey as the assassins continue their hunt. That is, until Kyle Rayner arrives in the form of Green Lantern and takes out the assassins. Together, Green Arrow and Green Lantern chase down one of the assassins who may know where Connor’s mother is. As they do so, Connor and Kyle acquaint themselves and how they are both relatively new heroes. As their hunt continues, Eddie confronts some of the beaten assassins and learns from them that they were hired by a man named Armitage, who meanwhile becomes furious that his name has been revealed and he slaps Connor’s mother, before begging for her forgiveness. At the same time, Green Arrow and Green Lantern capture the villain they were after, before Connor says his farewells and heads back to his apartment. There, he finds Eddie, who tells Connor that Armitage has married his mother and that they are in Gotham City. That ends the first part and honestly, it feels somewhat wasted. Sure, it’s fast-paced and exciting, but I feel it doesn’t progress the story much. The only impact of it is that Connor meets Kyle for the first time, an important aspect of the run as the two meet numerous times afterwards. Part Two begins with Armitage showing off a new destructive weapon to the gangs of Gotham. Black Mask decides to buy them all. Meanwhile from the rooftops, Batman and Robin watch the exchange, and the Dark Knight decides to follow Black Mask, telling Robin to tail Armitage. Meanwhile, Connor and Eddie meet Moonday, learning that she isn’t being held prisoner, but that Armitage is clearly abusing her. Suddenly, the man himself appears with his guards, but with Eddie’s help, Connor takes out the villains. But, as Eddie prepares to kill Armitage and Connor tries to stop him, Robin appears and somehow takes out Eddie. But, in all the drama, Armitage escapes and together, Green Arrow and Robin chase him. Like in the (continued)
previous part, Connor and Tim have their moment of acquaintance, in which Robin surprises himself in learning that he took out Eddie Fyers. I don’t know how he did, considering that Eddie is twice his age and trained in all sorts of secret service techniques. Anyway, Green Arrow and Robin take out Armitage, but Moonday isn’t very appreciative of it and the relationship between she and Connor remains frosty. Afterwards, Connor decides to stay in Gotham for a while, saying farewell to Eddie. The adventures of Robin and Green Arrow continue in Robin (vol 4) 25 (also by Dixon), but as it’s not related to the Green Arrow title, I’ve left it out. Regardless, the second part shines far more than the first, mainly because it actually feels like the story is moving forwards. As a villain, Armitage is still mysterious and we don’t know much about him, but we definitely will later on. Apart from that, it isn’t one of the more complex or game-changing stories of the run. It’s great for the action and goes along quite smoothly. What else would you expect from Chuck Dixon?
Story: 7.5/10
Art: 7.5/10
Enter The Roustabout/Viva Los Dragons --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Rodolfo Demaggio and Robert Campanella
Away from Eddie and Gotham, Connor finds himself now in a boxing ring in Las Vegas, working to get money to save the monastery. After successfully taking out the best boxers in the state once again, Connor wonders what he is doing with himself. He thinks back to his time at the monastery, training with Oliver in the way of the bow. Suddenly, a letter comes through the letterbox and Connor finds himself hired by the Grand Rahfi. Since the death of his father, the Grand Rahfi has become the ruler of a place in the Hindu Kush and when he grows older, he will lead his people to glory. But, in the meantime, the Grand Rahfi spends his time partying and somebody from his kingdom disapproves and for some time, they have sent assassins after him. Therefore, he has hired Connor to help protect him. Before Connor can even speak, assassins break through the windows and Green Arrow fights against them to protect the Grand Rahfi¸ named by the assassins as Satan. Anyway, in a close fight in which the Grand Rahfi is nearly kidnapped, Green Arrow rescues him. Due to his success, Green Arrow accepts the Grand Rahfi’s payment of three million dollars before meeting his two other professional bodyguards, those being Bruce Lee and Elvis Presley. No, not the real ones since they both died long before 1996. But this is where the rest of the story can be summarised as Green Arrow fanboying over his two favourite martial artists before more assassins arrive to try and kill Grand Rahfi. However, this time they send Seljuk, one of the toughest killers in the world. Bruce Lee and Elvis are taken down quickly, but it is Green Arrow who manages to defeat the assassin, before quitting in front of the Grand Rahfi, telling him that the world is no longer real and that he can’t live like this. Connor leaves, refusing to believe that the Elvis and Bruce Lee he met were fake. Meanwhile, Eddie Fyers opens a letter he has been sent and inside, he finds a photograph of himself and the rest of his platoon. At the same time in Metropolis, an eye-patched villain named Sterling escapes as he is hunted by a redhead named Thorn. Lastly, Connor travels to Idaho to meet his grandfather, Nathan Hawke. So apart from giving us a reason how Connor got the money to save the monastery, this story doesn’t add much of anything. Sure, I can see how it can be a fun break from the ongoing story in the background, but as somebody who isn’t that interested in Bruce Lee or Elvis, then I struggle to understand the cultural references or even why Connor is so amazed by what’s going on around him. Like always, it’s fast paced and never boring, but that is to be expected by somebody as good as Dixon. However, I don’t think this story was for somebody like me and therefore, I find it just about average. That being said, Dixon does set up the next story brilliantly at the end and we can look forward to more Eddie Fyers.
Story: 5/10
Art: 7/10
Metropolis Confidential/Trouble Town --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Rodolfo Demaggio, Robert Campanella, Jim Aparo and Bill Sienkiewicz
In a building somewhere in Metropolis, Sterling orders his top guard Claude to murder a hostage, learning from him that the mysterious redhead named Thorn is still after him. With that, Sterling orders his men to contact Ironhorse and tell him that his cover may be blown. Who is this mysterious Ironhorse? For now, it remains a mystery. Meanwhile, Connor speaks with Nathan about Moonday and Oliver, telling him that he feels lost since becoming Green Arrow and after meeting his mother. Connor even wonders why he was sent to the monastery in the first place. This is a recurring theme in the series as it is alluded to (and later confirmed) that Connor was sent to the monastery because his mother didn’t know how to raise him or have the money to do so. Sure, sounds like Oliver Queen is the kid’s father with a background like that. Anyway, Eddie arrives in Metropolis after receiving his platoon photograph and a note, unaware that Thorn is nearby. Arriving at Sterling Plaza, Eddie is attacked by her before she climbs the building to the penthouse. There, Sterling awaits the arrival of Ironhorse, but is surprised when Thorn strikes with the aim to kill them. That is, until she is captured by Claude and Eddie arrives just in time to save Sterling from another assassin. Sterling warmly welcomes Eddie, calling him Ironhorse. With that, the full picture Eddie was sent is revealed, showing that Eddie and Sterling fought together in the army. Meanwhile, Connor leaves Nathan and also heads to Metropolis, hoping for a meeting with the last person who saw Oliver Queen alive. I don’t mind that Connor takes a backseat here for the first part, especially since the Ironhorse story is far more relevant in the main story. Eddie has always remained a mysterious character and that is partly why I’ve always liked him, both here by Dixon and by Mike Grell. Revealing one aspect of his past works in creating an interesting story and as it’s only one aspect of his character, it contains the ambiguity and therefore, keeps Eddie as a good side character. As Part Two begins, we derail from the main story and Green Arrow meets with Lois Lane, asking for a meeting with Superman. Although she tells him that she will try and help, Lois asks Green Arrow to help her in finding out more information about Sterling. In a city that is full of evil businessman and borderline-supervillains all wearing dark suits, that is some coincidence. Meanwhile, Eddie and Sterling have a drink like long lost friends, with the latter unaware that Eddie has been teaming up with two vigilante superheroes recently. The next morning, Connor phones Master Jansen at the monastery, learning that the Grand Rahfi has saved the ground from WinkyWorld with his money, finally (continued)
explaining why that previous story was important to the run. Anyway, as Connor breaks into the Sterling Plaza building, Eddie thinks over an offer that Sterling has given him. Meanwhile, Connor finds Thorn and rescues her, only for them both to be found by Claude. A fight breaks out and, remembering his training, Green Arrow beats Claude. From there, Thorn and Green Arrow confront Sterling and Eddie, the latter shocked to find that Connor has followed him. In that moment, Eddie turns on Sterling just for the hell of it, or perhaps out of friendship, not something that Eddie would confess to. Anyway, with Sterling defeated, everybody just goes home. Yeah. Even though Eddie saved Sterling from Thorn and he still isn’t dead, everybody just leaves. The same goes with Connor, who doesn’t even question what Eddie was doing. Despite a quick ending that could have been longer if only the fight between Connor and Claude was shorter, it’s a good story that reveals more about Eddie’s past while keeping his mystery. Thorn herself is somewhat wasted here, particularly as the ending doesn’t really conclude the story well. Also, what happened with Connor meeting Superman? I guess that’ll come later…
Story: 7.5/10
Art: 4/10
Hard-Travelling Heroes: The Next Generation --- Written by Chuck Dixon and Ron Marz with art by Rodolfo Demaggio, Robert Campanella, Paul Pelletier and Romeo Tanghal
Ah, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Two heroes that only really teamed up to start with just because they were both green. In all seriousness though, most consider Dennis O’Neil’s and Neal Adams’s series from the 1970s in which both characters team up to be outstanding highlights for both characters. They’re not wrong and clearly, Chuck Dixon and Green Lantern writer Ron Marz wanted to do something similar. That, or the editor just wanted to make more money by having the two titles
crossover. Either way, it begins with Green Arrow taking out some thugs in an alley before Green Lantern appears. Together, they rescue a prostitute from a near-death experience before Kyle reveals that he has come to Connor in need of help. After helping Connor find his mother (Green Arrow (vol 2) 104), Kyle wants help in finding his long-lost father, who served in the military before going missing twenty years ago. Once the two heroes reveal their true identities to each other, Connor decides to help by involving Eddie Fyers, who remembers a soldier named Rayner in the military who now resides near Lincoln, Nebraska. Together, GL and GA head out there thanks to Kyle’s will-powered ring-created aircraft. On their journey, the two discuss GL’s fascination with women dressed in leather and how they both became heroes, with Kyle becoming the only Green Lantern in the universe after Hal Jordan (as Parallax) destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. Now is a good time to mention that this first part is in an issue of Green Lantern, a title I don’t normally read. While I understand the basics of the 1990s Green Lantern, what I can’t get to grip with is Ron Marz’s writing style. With Dixon, every story is fast paced, energetic and never boring. Marz seems to be the complete opposite. Even during battles, there are so many captions with pointless narrations and dialogue scenes are often overly wordy and tiresome. This seriously applies to the scenes between Connor and Kyle, but more on that later. Anyway, upon arriving in Nebraska, Connor and Kyle stop off for some burgers and once Kyle fails in chatting up a waitress, a huge fight breaks loose. With that random detour, Connor and Kyle finally arrive at where the latter’s father should be, only to find from those living there now that he moved to a town nearby called Desolation. On paper, an ending like that might seem bland and I guess to some extent it is, but Desolation was the town that Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen visited in Green Lantern (vol 2) 77, where they are attacked by a bunch of crazed Nazi miners. Or so I remember. But the point is that the town has never been normal and that is what Kyle and Connor are about to find out. However, when the two of them arrive in Desolation, they find it to be heavily populated, and rich due to everybody suing the old mining company and receiving major cash rewards. This is further evidenced when Connor is nearly hit by a car, before countless lawyers arrive and urge them to take the matter to court for money. After that somewhat comedic moment, security becomes weary about Connor and Kyle and they deny that Kyle’s father lives in the town. But Connor senses that they are lying. The police then arrive and attempt to arrest Connor and Kyle, only for them to escape in their heroic costumes. However, that only lasts a few seconds as they are confronted by Hatchet, a man as tall as he is wide with a conjured up minigun. The two heroes manage to take Hatchet down, before a man appears and tells the heroes that he sent Hatchet to take them to him. Kyle recognises the man to be his father. Halfway through the story and he’s only just met his father. Christ. You can see from the Dixon parts just how quick his issues are, and to some extent how detached from the main plot they can be. So far, most of the elements surrounding the main plot have been in the Green Lantern issue, but I guess that is to be expected since he is the main focus. Anyway, we enter the wordy third part with Connor and Kyle speaking with his father, Aaron, who takes ages in realising that Kyle is in fact his son. As Connor allows his “friend” to bond with his father, he speaks to Johnny Walden, who met the original Green Lantern and Green Arrow on their trip to Desolation. Meanwhile, Aaron explains that he started working in the intelligence corps and it was down to the government who refused to allow him to meet his son for the greater good of the country. He explains that he helped changed Desolation, but that he now needs Kyle’s help. Later, Aaron takes Connor and Kyle to a secret base which has the aim of creating the American dream. He believes that federal governments, foreign interests, the media, and the banks have tried their hardest to destroy the American dream and that it is his and their duty to restore it, with the help of Crackshot, a security expert with deadly assassin traits. Anyway, Aaron orders his son and Connor to send a satellite into space in order to start the Second American Revolution and while the heroes do so, they have a failing out as Connor thinks that Aaron is completely nuts. This is a scene in the story which just feels so forced to me and it’s been a problem with the whole story. As opposed to the friendship between Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan, the one between Connor and Kyle feels fake and forced. As opposed to Oliver and Hal, the two characters aren’t that different. Oliver could transform the way Hal saw Earth and the threats it faced from its own greed and selfishness. Hal could so the same with Oliver by presenting to him alien races and planets in need of help. Connor and Kyle just don’t have that chemistry and apart from the fact that they are both in their early 20s constantly in search of women, there really isn’t anything that can bond the two characters in an interesting way. Maybe most of my judgement here is down to Marz’s writing, which is more than enough to put me to sleep. Anyway, as Eddie searches for Connor and Kyle above Desolation in a plane, Kyle reports back to his father for more orders. Connor himself heads to his hotel room, supplied by Aaron. There, he is met by Crackshot, who has orders to kill him, but instead she kisses him. With that, the guards are called and in a moment of desperation, Green Arrow and Crackshot work together to fight the guards. They both escape into the swimming pool and somehow manage to take down a helicopter. By this point, we are back to Chuck Dixon and the story is no longer moving at a snail’s pace. Green Arrow and Crackshot are then rescued by Eddie, who has learnt that Aaron has links to a techno-theft ring, and he has bought particle beam technology, which he is planning to use for his “Second American Revolution”. They secretly break into the base and Eddie explains to Kyle that the satellite has a nuclear reactor and, what Eddie calls, a “death ray” installed on it. With that evidence, Kyle agrees that his father must be stopped, and he works with the heroes to achieve that. Kyle changes his mind incredibly fast. Before all that, he was blindly following his father like he’d known him for years, but now he is (continued)
completely against him and proving his beliefs wrong. That was a huge change in character. Regardless, Eddie manages to take out Hatchet, but as a result of the fight, Aaron’s machine is destroyed and the whole base explodes. Fortunately, everybody escapes, and Green Lantern destroys the satellite moments before it unleashes its nuclear weapon on America. However, when Kyle arrives back on Earth, he finds that his father is dying and in his last words… he tells him that he isn’t his father, but his uncle. Really. No words can explain how dumb this conclusion is. Oh well, it’s only his uncle and somewhere in Colorado, Kyle’s real father hears the news and salutes to his dead brother. That is such a cop-out of an ending and it’s something that really annoys me about the story. That effectively means that four issues have been wasted and Kyle is no closer to finding his father. What a waste. When I first read this story, I hated it. I somewhat enjoyed the Dixon ones for its fast-paced action, but the Marz issues just brought the whole thing down. The dialogue is still clunky, and the characters just don’t feel realistic. Upon re-reading I thought it was about average and nothing too great. But, when you actually think about, review the story and the clashing writing styles of Dixon and Marz, this is a total train wreck. Perhaps it would be better if the relationship between the main two characters was actually existent, but because it isn't, I can’t even applaud it for that. All I can say is that it’s a bad story with a villain echoing populists who shout empty words of patriotism like “Let’s Make America Great Again” or “Let’s Restore the American Dream”. What does it mean? Even those who say things like it don’t know, but at least Donald Trump never had a nuclear laser pointed down at the planet.
Story: 3/10
Art: 7/10
THE ART BY RODOFLO DEMAGGIO, ROBERT CAMPANELLA, JIM APARO, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, PAUL PELLETEIR, AND ROMEO TANGHAL
I’ve decided to throw in all the art at the end, mainly because it’s nearly all by Demaggio and Campanella. I think their style’s work much better together than Aparo’s and Fernandez’s ever did, mainly because the appearance is smoother and much more delicate. It does look fairly bog-standard and there isn’t enough to make it stand out as my favourite duo of artists, but they tell the story well enough. As ever, it’s good to see the return of Jim Aparo as he’s always been a favourite of mine, but with Sienkiewicz’s inks, the art moves to another level. Many retro fans of Aparo adore Sienkiewicz’s inks and while I’m not sure if I’m in the majority or minority here, but I loathe it. It completely ruins Aparo’s great layouts, all of which would usually have some motion in them. But Sienkiewicz’s inks completely destroy that, and the finishes look like he was given ten seconds on each panel. He completely swamps Aparo’s unique art and ultimately, that ruins it. Unfortunately, there is more Aparo/ Sienkiewicz to come. For the Green Lantern issues, we have Pelletier and Tanghal. It’s alright. Their art works for Green Lantern and Tanghal’s inks are detailed, something he must have picked up from inking George Perez on New Teen Titans. Other than that, I’ll give it a pass.
VERDICT
Overall, Green Arrow: Next Generation begins Connor Hawke’s era as Green Arrow fairly successfully. The Underworld Unleashed two-parter is a great introductory story, and the quest for his mother integrates Connor into the DC Universe well. I’m not exactly a huge fan of the Grand Rahfi story, but the Metropolis story featuring Fyers is very enjoyable. Unfortunately, the four-parter may be ambitious, but it falls totally flat and has so many noticeable flaws in it. Perhaps it could have been better with a different writer that wasn’t Ron Marz, but I doubt it since the relationship between GA and GL is nothing compared to Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan. But this isn’t the last time the two green heroes work together, but I can safely say that the worst of it is over…
Stories: 7.5/10
Art: 6.5/10
Next Week: Green Arrow: The Iron Death (Green Arrow (vol 2) 112-120. Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Rodolfo Demaggio, Robert Campanella, William Rosado, Dick Giordano, and Doug Braithwaite.
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