God, what is wrong with me? After all Final Crisis and countless Grant Morrison Batman stories, I wanted a bit of a break from that monolithic saga to cover something forgotten and lost in comic book history. So, obviously in the festive spirit, I’ve opted for self-torture and chosen an inept miniseries that’s only remembered by collectors and fans for stealing the title of a much better one. I still don’t know why they called this story The Brave and the Bold. Oh wait! Sales! Regardless, I guess I still haven’t completely finished Mike Grell’s run on Green Arrow which I reviewed nearly three years ago as I missed this out and Shado: Song of the Dragon (a much better story). I’ll get to that someday. For now, think of this as a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking as it’s surrounded by treats and better stories. Actually, scrap that metaphor. This is just crap…
The Brave and the Bold (vol 2) 1-6 was published from December 1991 to June 1992. It was written by Mike Grell and Mike Baron with art by Shea Anton Pensa and Pablo
Marcos. I’ve read the story in its original issues.
Right, we all know who Green Arrow, don’t we? And the Question. It makes sense for those two to team up once more as they did in Annuals written mainly by Dennis O’Neil. But just who is the Butcher? He appears on the cover of the first issue as the centrepiece, as if we’re all meant to cheer with happiness that this inane creation has returned. I found out (by glancing at his DC Database entry) that the Butcher is a Native American whose parents were murdered by terrorists. To fight back, he works with the US Government to take out terrorist organisations. The character was actually created by Baron and Pensa for a five-issue miniseries in 1990. Bear in mind that I hadn’t read that before this, and that I knew nothing about the Butcher. Anyway, like many other Green Arrow tales written by Mike Grell, issue one of this doomed series begins in the woods, where Oliver Queen monitors a group of terrorists at a camp just… being evil, I guess. Although working with an Irish Republican Army terrorist (now we really are in a Mike Grell story) to smuggle weapons into the country, a Native American with a French accent isn’t too thrilled about his treatment of animals. Either way, Green Arrow is spotted but he manages to make his escape. The next day back in Seattle, we’ve got a mystery on our hands as Dinah Lance finds that a customer of hers, Hester, was killed recently, but the flowers were ordered afterwards. As if some kind of calling card, Dinah then learns that the order was from Montreal, Canada, and that Hester was murdered in an IRA-fashion and scalped. While the first few issues succeed in creating a mystery, the problem as a whole is that nothing else really happens early on. I’m not sure who was involved in writing the dialogue, but it certainly isn’t Mike Grell as the issues are far too wordy. And that is a huge problem when there isn’t much plot. In the end, they’re just empty words with little meaning. Sure, you get some interesting moments between Green Arrow and Black Canary like you do in most of Grell’s run, but it’s nothing that really affects the story. Anyway, back with the terrorists, the Native American with the dodgy French accent is revealed to be the Butcher working undercover, and he manages to escape and meet with Green Arrow. We learn a bit about the Butcher’s background, but it still remains vague, and it’s glossed over too quickly. He doesn’t really tell Green Arrow anything new either, just that an IRA man is working with some angry Quebec terrorists. Either way, it’s enough for Green Arrow and the Butcher to head over there. Now, we’ve got to shoe-horn the Question somewhere into this mess, and it turns out that he has been investigating the IRA for some time and he’s shocked to hear that they worked together to kill Hester. This gives him the incentive to actually turn up, I guess. Back with the heroes, they fight against the IRA terrorist and a Native American named Mohawk, who goes crazy with a rocket launcher and seemingly murders Green Arrow and the Butcher. But we all know better than that. But obviously not enough to stop reading. The problem so far isn’t so much the story, but mainly the fact that it’s dull and confused. Too much dialogue is written for too little events and that just bores me to oblivion. Strangely though, the second part is actually one of the better parts as the Question investigates the mystery of Hester, and how his company is run by a man named Youngblood, distantly linked to Native Americans. By looking on that magical 1990s device known as a computer, Vic and Tot find that Youngblood’s lumber company has links to Seattle, Los Angeles, Dublin, and Montreal. Saw those last two coming. Now, this is where I began to get confused. The rest of the issue follows a Native American travelling home to Quebec. The attitude to Native Americans hasn’t changed and he rescues a bar maid friend from being raped by locals. After that, he heads to the place he once called home, the place where his traditional Native American parents reside. Now, this is all well and good and, I don’t know why, but I kind of enjoy these moments. The problem was that I thought that this guy was the Butcher. I don’t know why, but I thought this was the Butcher returning home and we’d learn more about him. But no, it turns out it’s just a random kid who proves to be important later on, annoyingly. Byron, the kid, returns home and spends most of the time arguing with his father about their differing attitudes towards their tradition. Byron’s father is a staunch believer in the Native American lifestyle, and his wife is forced to watch as her son challenges his father about it, especially since the ground they live on might be sold to a property development company. Okay, fair enough. That drama is going on and I guess its something. While Byron and that bar maid was he was hanging around with earlier are captured by the IRA terrorist and Mohawk, Green Arrow and the Butcher meet with the Question after a scene I can’t really be bothered explaining. Either way, they decide that the best route forward to (continued)
take care of the gun-smugglers is to go directly after Youngblood. As Vic Sage and the Butcher head to Quebec, they drive through the desolate land constructed by Youngblood’s empire. Vic does get an interview with Youngblood, but it proves to be pointless, and he doesn’t say much about Hester’s death, or any possible links to the IRA. That’s what we like to see, a scene that doesn’t add anything to the story. All it does is lead to a cliff-hanger in which the Butcher and Vic are nearly killed by a log-filled truck. Oh yeah, that makes the fourth issue incredibly quick as the inner-Mike Grell materialises. For most of it, it’s just the heroes escaping from some of Youngblood’s men before surprising them. The villains escape and yet again, the heroes are left with nothing. Four issues in, and the mystery hasn’t advanced much at all. Green Arrow does learn that a flower shop in Montreal received the order for Hester and he believes that the man behind it may be Angus Running-Dear, the father of Byron, the only one of the Tribal Council to vote against Hester’s development plan for scared ground. Green Arrow asks Byron’s mother, who lies and says that the order was placed by a white man. But, when Green Arrow leaves, she reveals all to her son and how she sent a wreath to Hester in an attempt to win over his sympathies so he would back down from buying the land. But this was before Hester died and now her acts are linked to his murder. Am I the only one who thinks that’s a desperate idea? I mean, it just sounds idiotic as a plot point. But the point of it is so Byron can become enraged enough to begin a revolution, so the Native Americans fight back against corporations taking their land. That’s an interesting idea and one that fits into Mike Grell’s Green Arrow world, but I think that it could have been set up better, as the reason for starting it over flowers is just embarrassing really. Either way, the penultimate issue begins with Green Arrow, the Question, and the Butcher realising they have a revolution on their hands. Using his journalist credentials, Vic Sage meets with Byron for an interview which, like the previous one, is virtually pointless. He just explains that he wants Native Americans to finally join the 20th century and be treated as equals. Gasp! Communism! A lot of the drama of the last two parts focus on Byron, but to be honest, I don’t really understand what happens. It’s partly down to the less-than-clear artwork, but it also doesn’t help that too many things happen that really matter. For instance, Byron gets into some fight with a Native American gentleman. I don’t know who he is, or what his problem is. I know what the problem with the story is though. If you create characters that aren’t interesting or that you don’t really give a hoot about, then you won’t be bothered by any of the revelations or important moments that happen. That’s the biggest problem with this miniseries, there are too many characters in a boring story. Anyway, Green Arrow breaks into Youngblood’s mansion and discovers that, as expected, he is working with the IRA in the gun-smuggling plot and his plan is to send guns to the Native Americans and Byron to move any attention away from the smuggling. With the weapons, the Natives can really begin their revolution. It’s a clever idea when you think about it and one that could have been used on a much better and enjoyable story, but it was not to be. However, before he can think about his next move, Green Arrow is confronted by the IRA terrorist. With that, we’ve reached the final issue of his hellhole. Despite Youngblood having an entire army behind him, Green Arrow manages to take some of
them out and he escapes with his life, along with Youngblood’s secret plans. He is not a happy bunny. Meanwhile, the revolution has hit the news and the Butcher, and the Question slowly learn about Youngblood’s plans. They tell Byron that he has been had by Youngblood, who has just bought the land after his father, although disagreeing with the plans, follows the will of his council. So, Youngblood has shifted any blame and criminality from himself to Byron, who will face his final battle as the IRA are on their way to kill all the Natives and steal their weapons for their own cause. Green Arrow orders Byron to leave with the media to explain himself to the world, leaving the Butcher and the Question to fight against the IRA, Mohawk, and Youngblood’s men. Thanks to the Question somehow finding an RPG, the battle ends quickly. The conclusion to the story is actually one of the more enjoyable parts (and that’s not just because it ends). As Byron reveals that he was had by Youngblood and presents his plans to the public, the villain himself watches the broadcast. He reaches for his gun, pointing below his head before pulling the trigger. Well, we won’t be seeing him again. Despite a dark ending where virtually all the villains are killed, it doesn’t excuse the mess that the six issues deliver. In many ways, the problem is that the story isn’t as much of a three-way thing as it should be. Undoubtedly, the main hero is Green Arrow. He’s there in most of the action and proves to be the most important. The Butcher doesn’t do very much at all and as we don’t learn anything much about him, he’s inclusion just feels pointless. The same goes for the Question, who doesn’t even turn up in the first issue and does very little in the other issues. Baron and Grell could have produced a good team-up story here, but because it feels so disjointed and a chore to read, it fails miserably. In terms of the story, some aspects work better than others, but the ones that do really should have been spent on a more deserving story. It also doesn’t help that the plot here has clearly been written by Grell. It just shows, whether it be the inclusion of the IRA, the abused fighting against companies, or terrorism. There’s nothing wrong with any of these stories per se, but when a writer just reuses them, and they lose that unique streak that made them interesting in the first place then it just isn’t going to work. Overall, this miniseries really is a mess, and it isn’t just the plot that’s awful…
You know, I think it’s best that when you hire somebody to draw a comic book, they should have some experience or skill in doing that job. Clearly, the editors threw that rule out of the window when they acquired the ‘talents’ of Shea Anton Pensa. Words cannot describe how crap this guy is. For starters, nobody looks human or vaguely similar. It’s not just the scratchy and awful inks which aid in making everyone look like car-crash victims. His failure in anatomy and realism makes for some of the worst art I’ve ever seen. His storytelling is entirely clumsy and messy as well. Pablo Marcos is brought in for the last few issues to basically sort the thing out and while his inks do radically improve the finishes of Pensa’s pencils, the dull and awful storytelling is impossible to disguise. So yeah, overall, it’s not great…
VERDICT
Overall, the Green Arrow/The Butcher/The Question is a dreadful miniseries that really doesn’t deserve to have the same name as the title which launched DC’s silver age and spawned teams like the Justice League and the Teen Titans onto the scene. It’s totally disjointed and the plot, although it has some good moments, lacks any unique content and therefore delivers a dry and uninteresting story. As somebody who’d never heard of the Butcher before, I didn’t know anything more about him after I finished reading and I’m not at all interested in reading anything else he’s been in. Perhaps the story would have been just an inch more engaging and interesting if it was drawn by somebody who could actually, I don’t know, draw. Shea Anton Pensa truly is one of the worst artists of the 1990s, and believe me, there’s lots of competition. Overall, avoid this at all costs…
Story: 1.5/10
Art: 3/10
Next Week: Time and the Batman (Batman 700-702). Written by Grant Morrison with art by Tony Daniel, Frank Quitely, Scott Kolins, Andy Kubert, David Finch, and Richard Friend.
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