Super-Links!

—So it looks like Green Arrow is finally being cancelled. I’m not terribly surprised. The quality has been in a downward spiral since “The Archer’s Quest” concluded a couple years ago, and sales have been in the low thirty-thousands (half of Green Lantern's sales). While I’ve always like the character—both Oliver Queen and Connor Hawke—I’ve always believed that no monthly title is a lot better than a godawful one.

So that’s the good news. The bad news? Lying In the Gutters has long been rumor-pushing an upcoming Green Arrow/Black Canary series, and according to Newsarama, Winick threatened— I mean, clarified that, “I'm done, and DC is as well, with the monthly book Green Arrow. I'm not done, and DC is not done with Green Arrow. And that’s all I’ll say.” Could that mean Winick will be the writer of the new series, instead of the obvious choice of Gail Simone, who has not only been writing Black Canary for years, but also wrote a hell of a Green Arrow/Black Canary script for JLU? I sure hope not; the same panel report also noted that Green Arrow will end with a scene of GA giving Canary a ring, which is how “Archer’s Quest” almost ended. Can Winick do a better proposal scene than Brad Meltzer? My hopes aren’t high.



—But why not, Caleb? Well, there’s this. Again according to Newsarama’s Wondercon coverage, “Readers will see Shado, Connor Hawke’s mother in the series soon. Winick said that he likes the complicating dynamic that she brings to the title, that is, adding a mother to the father and son relationship of Ollie and Connor.”

So, did the writer make the mistake of calling Shado Connor Hawke’s mother, or did Winick? Because although Shado did indeed have a baby fathered by Oliver Queen, it wasn’t Connor. Connor’s mother is Moonday Hawke, whom Ollie met about 20 years ago at the ashram where Connor spent most of his life.

If Shado were Connor’s mother, that sure would make Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood #3 one damn weird comic book:

Note that the above cover image contained the blurb “Wicked Stepmother” on it, too, so even if you didn’t actually read the book but just glanced at the cover, it should be apparent whether or not Shado is Connor’s mom.



—So have you heard about this Civil War comic that Marvel has been putting out? Its ending left quite a few fans and critics somewhat unsatisfied, and with plenty of questions. Editor Tom Brevoort has taken to Newsarma.com to answer those questions, and it’s a pretty incredible undertaking—I'd say it's a Herculean task requiring more patience than any professional should be expected to have, except the thought of Hercules using a computer is a pretty silly one.

Anyway, the first two installments are up, and what’s most remarkable to me is that, as his first post-mortem on the last issue revealed, Civil War was a much better story in the planning stages than the finished stage. Brevoort includes references to things cut out, including pieces of Millar's script that explain who's dressed up like Dardevil and whether Tony Stark is being a monstrous douchebag or not.

There’s something telling about the fact that Brevoort and Marvel feel the need to so extensively explain what happened in the comic—it certainly doesn’t stand on its own as a story, or else they wouldn’t be doing this and Newsaramites wouldn’t have so many questions. And a great deal of them tend to be along the lines of, “Why does character A do this or that?”, or “Where did character B disappear to?”, and a majority of the answers seem to be along the lines of, “We planned on explaining that, but had to cut it out for space.”

Which seems…strange. The book sold like gangbusters, and anything with the words “Civil War” on the cover similarly sold well, no matter how wretched the interior product (see: Civil War: The Return), so what exactly was stopping Marvel from putting this thing out as a 12-issue series, or as seven 48-page issues? The fact that they put the tag “A Marvel Comics Event In Seven Parts” on the cover of the first issue? Or the fact that Millar was too slow a writer and McNiven too slow a penciller?




—It’s common knowledge that Superman is a dick, but did you know Batman can be a real dick, too? Rachelle at Living Between Wednesdays has evidence culled from a Silver Age story, and has lots of questions about the giant cake that Batman makes for Superman.




—The Onion’s A.V. Club comes up with a list of 13 sidekicks who are cooler than their heroes. Turns out only one comic book hero/sidekick couple make the list (although there are a couple of team’s who originated in other media but ended up in comics).

I’ve been thinking of more comic book characters to add to such a list, but I keep coming up empty. For the most part, superhero comics tend to get the equation right. Robin’s probably the coolest sidekick of them all, and even he’s no match for the coolness of Batman. Aqualad, Kid Flash, Speedy, Doiby Dickles, Tom Kalamatu, Jimmy Olsen, Woozy Winks, Zook, Oberon, Captain Marvel Jr.—none of them have much chance of ever outshining their mentors.