With another Green Lantern/Green Arrow crossover taken care of, we charge directly into another! But this time, things are different. With DC, heroes come in generations. The first is those golden age heroes who started it all, with Alan Scott, Jay Garrick and co. The second features the Justice League of America, and the monolith heroes such as Superman and Batman. The third entails their sidekicks and those who would form the Teen Titans, such as Robin, Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash, many of whom became the star hero once they became older or found that there was a vacancy after an untimely death. The fourth becomes slightly hazier, but it’s the young heroes from the 1990s such as Tim Drake, Superboy, and Young Justice which define this generation. The fifth (and most recent) is still in development, but what matters is that there is one aspect of them all which is common. There’s always a Green Lantern (Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner), and there’s always a Flash (Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen). And I guess if you look at it in a rather strange way, the same applies to Green Arrow. Think about it. Oliver Queen features for the first two generations, with Speedy/Arsenal as the second, Connor Hawke as the third, and Mia Dearden as the fourth. Yeah, it doesn’t work completely, but you get my point. Therefore, perhaps it makes sense that three heroes, all of whom have widely different powers and attributes, should team up once in a while to defeat the villains that haunt the DC Universe. Or, in the case of Three of a Kind, just stumble into a plot by accident…
Green Arrow (vol 2) 128-133, Green Lantern (vol 3) 96, and The Flash (vol 2) 135 was published from January to June 1997. The stories were written by Chuck Dixon, with Ron Marz, and Grant Morrison with Mark Millar writing their respective titles, with
various artists, most commonly Doug Braithwaite and Robin Riggs. I’ve read these stories in their original issues.
Deadly Comrades --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Doug Braithwaite, Robin Riggs, and Sal Buscema
With Connor now living in San Francisco, he and Master Jansen find themselves in more trouble. Not long after a thug is killed because of a citizen fighting back against his protection racket orders, those who hired the dead criminal need to search for another one. They find the perfect candidate in Mater Jansen, who they find beating up a group of robbers. From there, Jansen is hired by Nicola Sharaf, who disguises his work as a common decency to help the community. Jansen being from a monastery from the middle of nowhere, falls for it. Meanwhile, now out of prison, Connor arrives back at his apartment and finds that as the landlord, he has to hire somebody to clean up all the mess caused by the Silver Monkey. (Green Arrow (vol 2) 127). Anyway, Connor learns of Jansen’s new job and the next day, Sharaf gives Janssen his jobs. Blindly, Jansen follows Sharaf’s orders until he reaches a restaurant, where he notices the owners are terrified of Sharaf’s name. Idiotically, it is only then when Jansen realises what he is doing and he turns on Sharaf, only for him to be shot and captured by his goons. I really don’t know how it took this long for Jansen to realise that he was following the orders of a criminal. It’s definitely the biggest flaw of the story. After learning what happened to Jansen, Connor decides that it is time to become Green Arrow. Part Two begins with Sharaf and his men torturing Jansen, demanding to know who sent him and who he works for. But they don’t get an answer. Instead, they chain Jansen to the celling and throw him underwater to torture him further. Nearby however, Green Arrow interrogates one of Sharaf’s men and finds the warehouse where Jansen is being held. There, Green Arrow fights back against the gangsters, but as he does so, Jansen hallucinates Oliver Queen as he nears his death. Fortunately, Connor rescues Jansen and just as Sharaf prepares to kill them, another group of mobsters arrive and kill Sharaf, telling him that he has caused too much trouble by getting Green Arrow involved. With that, Green Arrow and Jansen escape through the water and Connor finds bad news in that his insurance company doesn’t insure costumed superheroes. Overall, there isn’t really much to say about Deadly Comrades. I suppose it proves that living in a monastery for several decades makes you incredibly naïve, but it also makes Jansen into a far larger side character for the run and a character that Connor genuinely cares about. That said, I don’t really get why the ending has to feature another random set of gangsters killing Sharaf as I think a different ending in which Jansen has to decide whether to kill him or not for what he has done would be far greater in terms of character. But all in all, it’s another fast-paced Dixon read that may have problems, but it is far from bad or even average.
Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Three of a Kind --- Written by Ron Marz, Chuck Dixon, Grant Morrison, and Mark Millar with art by Paul Pelletier, John Lowe, William Rosado, Sal Buscema, Paul Ryan, and John Nyberg
For a run that has crossed over only really with several issues of Green Lantern (vol 3), this is the first of two larger crossovers with other titles (the other being The Brotherhood of the Fist later). It starts with Green Lantern (vol 3) 96, before going into Green Arrow (vol 2) 130, and finally The Flash (vol 2) 135. It begins like all great comics, with three supervillains, Hatchet, Heatwave, and Sonar, breaking into a weapon storage facility in Iraq, killing all the occupants and collecting their target, a strange metallic coffin. On the JLA Watchtower, Martian Manhunter hears the news before Wally West, Kyle Rayner, and Connor Hawke all leave to go on a cruise ship vacation. However, ironically, they miss the ship. But, thanks to Wally’s powers, they catch up and on board, Kyle tries to chat-up a waitress, but she completely blanks him and instead falls for the mostly disinterested Connor. As the hours pass, the three heroes talk about recent events and their daily lives. This aspect of the story I really like as, although it is written by Ron Marz, it does feel like in these scenes that the three characters are friends, and it appears genuine. Sure, there are scenes, such as the very beginning, where the three of them seem to have an argument over nothing and that does feel rather fake, but scenes where the characters just simply talk work very well. Later, the three heroes sit in the bar where there are asked to leave by three villainous tough guys. However, Green Lantern afterwards realises that they are Hatchet, Heatwave, and Sonar. But the same applies vice versa. In their hero identities, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Green Arrow confront Hatchet, Heatwave, and Sonar, but the heroes quickly give in due to the large number of civilians nearby.
It is then that Hatchet presents the heroes with their stolen coffin and inside lies a comatose Doctor Polaris. Part One starts the story very effectively and as you read on, you will realise that each part reflects the writer’s style of storytelling. For example, this part is far more character orientated with scenes of discussion between the heroes, while the following part by Dixon is far more action packed and fast paced. Then, there’s the Morrison and Millar conclusion, which reflects their totally unexpected and unique style of writing, but we’ll get that soon. Part Two begins with Sonar causing havoc on the cruise ship while Hatchet guards the three heroes. However, Green Lantern uses his power of concentration to monitor Heatwave and Sonar, who talk about the need to take Doctor Polaris to the magnetic north to recharge him. Suddenly, thanks to a distraction from the waitress from earlier (who looks nothing like she did in the last issue), the heroes manage to take out Hatchet. As Green Arrow and Green Lantern fight Sonar, the Flash attempts to get the captain to abandon ship with the passengers, but the waters are too deadly. As the fight continues, Heatwave’s destruction causes a fire on board the ship which slowly melts Doctor Polaris’s container. Meanwhile, Hatchet awakens and, in an attempt, to kill the heroes, he fires his laser directly at them. However, it misses and severely pierces the ship’s hull. As the ship begins to sink, Green Arrow wonders if things can get any worse. Suddenly, he realises they can when Doctor Polaris strangles him from behind. With that, the action-packed second part ends and you wonder what the hell is going to happen next? How will the heroes get out of this one? But then, in traditional Morrison form, the third and final part starts days after the previous events and in court. Yeah, didn’t expect that one. On day one, the Flash, like all heroes, hides his civilian identity during the court case while he recounts the events of what happened previously. Day two begins with Heatwave’s call to the stand, where he admits that he and the other villains planned to use Doctor Polaris as their leader in order to make some money. However, the villains’ lawyer, Bernard Weinstein, fights against the charge that Heatwave was responsible for murder and defends the villains by naming them uneducated men. After the court session, the heroes learn about Bernard Weinstein, who has saved many villains from prison and worse, including Lex Luthor after his first and only arrest (The Man of Steel by John Byrne, I presume). On day three, Green Lantern is questioned by Weinstein and the hero retells the events that occurred directly after the ending of Green Arrow (vol 2) 130. In his rage, Doctor Polaris, destroyed the whole cruise ship in seconds and although Green Lantern tried to save as many as he could, Sonar fought back. Green Arrow was the one who managed to take Sonar out with a perfectly timed arrow. Although believing the story, Weinstein manages to make holes in Green Lantern’s story to the jury. On day four, a military scientist gives evidence to the court about Doctor Polaris’s condition while thanking the heroes for aiding America in giving them Doctor Polaris. The Flash then retells his side of the story, saying that while Green Arrow and Green Lantern were rescuing civilians, he followed Doctor Polaris to the north and managed to trick him using kinetic energy and Polaris’s magnetic powers, which sealed the villain in the wreckage of the cruise ship. Clearly evidence of Morrison’s and Millar’s love for Gardner Fox style sci-fi writing. Anyway, at the same time, Green Lantern managed to save most of the civilians, but many froze to death in the cold water. On the final day of the court, Weinstein points out that the three villains were unaware that they were after Polaris in a covert military operation in order to protect national security by capturing a deadly weapon like Doctor Polaris. With that, it seems as if the heroes have won the battle but lost the court case. Weinstein then brags, telling the heroes to look through their law books to find a flaw in his defence of the villains. He doubts it. However, the Flash, with his quick speed reading, does find a flaw and Weinstein (continued)
loses his first court case. What was the flaw? The cruise ship sunk in the US territorial waters of Alaska, which is the only state to have an attorney that can overrule a military court. After reading so many Grant Morrison stories, this one genuinely shocked me with that ending. In fact, the whole third part surprised me. I really wasn’t expecting it and on paper, after two action-packed parts, a court session would appear somewhat lame. However, Morrison and Millar manage to write it so interestingly in a way that I didn’t think was possible. All four of the writers here add something different to the story. Ron Marz writes the good relationship between the three characters and makes them all appear likable. Chuck Dixon adds the action and fast-paced drama into the mix. Grant Morrison and Mark Millar are the ones who add the strain of uniqueness to the story and ultimately, that is what makes it into a great story. All parts bring something different to the overall story and while the story gets better and better with each part, there are still some flaws. Most notably, it has to be Ron Marz’s slow style (as ever). However, Dixon’s style is radically different, as is Morrison’s and Millar’s. It’s difficult to look at this story as just a Green Arrow story. It’s a good-old fashioned team up story that features superheroes doing what they do best, fighting supervillains. Three of A Kind is a surprising story and one that reminds us that even in the dark times of the 1990s with blood, gore and other grim story elements, comic books can still be comic books.
To focus on the art for this large story with so many artists, all of them have very different styles and some of them work with some characters and some don’t. For Green Lantern, we have Paul Pelletier and John Lowe. Ironically, my one huge criticism of the art here is actually to do with the colouring, which is very glossy and of-its time. But the biggest problem has to be the skin tone of Connor Hawke. Throughout the whole Dixon run, it has been established that Connor is mixed race. However, the colouring here in Green Lantern makes him look like a pasty looking pale kid. I don’t know how they got that wrong, but it’s a huge mistake. Not only that, but the bad colouring distracts me from the rather plain and boring art, also of its time. For Green Arrow, we return to William Rosado and Sal Buscema, who, as ever, tell the story with action and great storytelling. It reflects the quick pace of the Green Arrow issues more than the other titles and overall, as expected, it works well. Lastly, we have Paul Ryan and John Nyberg on the Flash and overall, it’s alright. It’s very brightly lit and dynamic, so it’s a style that works for the Flash. But I find it’s plainness to be the biggest problem, as it fails to be unique or memorable. Overall, the art is pretty mixed here, but it reflects the mood and the usual storytelling of each title. Perhaps Ryan’s art would be far better in a solo Flash story and perhaps the same could apply to Pelletier as well.
Story: 9/10
Art: 5.5/10
Guns and Butter --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Doug Braithwaite and Robin Riggs
Anybody remember Crackshot? Because I didn’t. If you’ll recall the rather average story of Hard Travelling Heroes: The Next Generation (Green Arrow (vol 2) 110-111 & Green Lantern (vol 3) 76-77), Crackshot was a character who worked for Kyle Rayner’s father (who is rather annoyingly revealed to be his uncle instead) on one of his crackpot schemes. Well, for some reason, she appears here once again, this time teaming up with Connor to basically just take out some guys. She randomly appears in San Francisco, deciding to catch up with Connor and help him in his superhero business. For most of the story, Green Arrow and Crackshot fight against some gangsters and rescue a kidnapped child, with Connor’s goal to try and make her more human by repeatedly telling her not to kill anyone. Meanwhile, halfway across the world, Moonday Hawke continues her long journey across Europe with Milo, who continues to get into trouble, but, rather predictably, she always goes back to him. I still don’t know why as, putting it softly, he’s not the nicest guy in the world for all sorts of reasons. And the annoying thing is that this aspect of the title ends here. Yep. We never see Moonday again in this run and, to my knowledge anyway, I don’t think we see them again anywhere else. It is disappointing as I hate unfinished plotlines and now this one will have to join the countless other unfinished stories on the gigantic heap pile. Regardless, Guns and Butter is a pretty meh sort of read. I would try to find a better word, but average doesn’t really fit. It is neither good or bad, nor is it particularly important or notable. It’s just there and as there isn’t much of a concrete story to facilitate it, it leaves me empty.
Story: 4.5/10
Art: 8.5/10
Like a God --- Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Doug Braithwaite and Robin Riggs
One random day in San Francisco, Connor hopes that there will be no more disasters that will destroy his apartment and dent his wallet. Suddenly, a ball of fire falls from the sky and crashes into Connor’s apartment. Ingulfed in that flame ball is Eddie Fyers, given the return that he always deserved. Eddie explains, rather obviously, that he has come from out of space after a contact from DEA told him to investigate a drug exchange. Eddie was captured by the dealers, and he woke up on board their ship in
space. Eddie was then injected with syringes, which gave him superstrength and invincibility. I’m not really sure if a character like Eddie works with superpowers. Of course, that was never what he was about, but just giving them to him temporality seems unusual. Eddie has never been a character that I would imagine would work with superpowers. Anyway, in the apartment below Connor, a man who has seemingly been missing for days begins to break out of a strange alien shell. At the same time, the aliens from earlier arrive back on Earth with the intent to kill Eddie. Using his superpowers, he takes them out. Suddenly, a huge mighty fist breaks the floorboards open from below and a strange superpowered mutated human climbs up. In his rage, the mutated being challenges Eddie, with the superpowered beings battling it out. Meanwhile, Green Arrow fights the aliens, only to find that they are androids. Suddenly, the aliens are destroyed by Green Lantern, who arrives with the rest of the JLA, consisting of Superman (in his weird red variant), Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Zauriel. They tell Green Arrow that those metahumans given superpowers by the aliens only have hours to live. Now with the league involved, the heroes manage to take out the other metahuman, but not Eddie. He fights back against the heroes, but Green Lantern manages to trap him using his ring. Suddenly, a large group of metahumans appear and as many of the heroes fight them, Green Arrow attempts to get the information about where the alien’s ship is from Eddie. However, thanks to Zauriel and his power to allow him to detect sinners, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Eddie, find the ship and destroy it, reverting all the metahumans back to normal. With that, Eddie returns to normal and Green Arrow can get on with fixing his apartment once again. But, somewhere in the world, the Silver Monkey reports to his Sensei, who tells him that every member of the Cult of the Monkey must find and kill Connor Hawke. Aside from the great cliff-hanger ending which teases the next story, Like A God is a story that almost seems out of place in a Green Arrow title. That isn’t just because of metahumans with augmented superpowers, but also because of space travel and drug dealing aliens. However, that doesn’t mean it’s terrible as it’s great to see the return of Eddie Fyers, a character who has made the Dixon run so much better. It’s good that the JLA features just for one story as well, because it makes Green Arrow appear as a larger character within in the DC Universe. It’s sort of like the opposite of Crossroads, except this time it’s proof that Green Arrow is an important ally and can stand next to Superman without being scoffed at so noticeably. Regardless, I think the story falls short with-it exploring territory that Green Arrow should never enter. Space exploration is a prime example. When you take Green Arrow into space with the other heroes, you really wonder what the point of him being there is. He just feels somewhat useless, even if he is part of the solution here. But, overall, Like A God is an enjoyable read, not a great story, but one that is successful in reminding us that Green Arrow can be important sometimes when it comes to saving the world.
Story: 7/10
Art: 8.5/10
THE ART BY DOUG BRAITHWAITE, ROBIN RIGGS, AND SAL BUSCEMA
Ignoring the art for Three of a Kind, the usual pencils by Doug Braithwaite are very good and out of all the regular artists on the title, he is certainly the best in making the title appear more action packed and unique. His style of art is recognisable, and his storytelling works effectively with Dixon’s fast paced plotting. Riggs’s and Buscema’s inks are also good and, as opposed to somebody like Sienkiewicz, the inks aren’t scruffy or messy and therefore work well with the pencils.
VERDICT
Overall, Green Arrow: Three of a Kind is another strong set of stories that may have some flaws, but they are certainly enjoyable. Deadly Comrades is a good story that focuses well on Master Jansen, while Three of a Kind, as a story, is a fantastic and incredibly memorable story that actually benefits from having different writers. Guns and Butter may be a throwaway story that doesn’t add up to much, but Like a God is a decent finish to this set of stories which takes us into the final issues of the run and Connor’s final confrontation with the Silver Monkey…
Stories: 8/10
Art: 7.5/10
Next Week: Superman: The Earth Stealers. Written by John Byrne with art by Curt Swan and Jerry Ordway.
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