The Flash #29 - A Review

Still struggling with a newfound connection to the negative side of The Speed Force and destructive powers he can't control, The Flash is suffering mightily in the wake of his latest battle with The Reverse Flash. He will have little time to find his footing, however, as Shrapnel attacks Central City and his secret identity, CSI Barry Allen, is tasked with finding a crooked cop that is causing important evidence to go missing.


The Flash #29 proves an unintentionally excellent case study in how two different artists working on a single comic can prove detrimental to the work as a whole. Both Pop Mhan and Christian Duce are great artists and I've enjoyed their previous work immensely. Unfortunately, their styles don't mesh well together and the visual continuity of the book is virtually nonexistent.

Mhan's heavily detailed style doesn't suit the opening fight between The Flash and Shrapnel and most of the fine details are lost in too-small panels under heavy inks. Duce's work fares better, but suffers in that this issue is light on action after the Shrapnel fight. As a result, Duce never really gets a chance to show off, mostly illustrating the scenes of Barry discussing his case with his co-workers. The one constant to the artwork is Hi-Fi's colors look fantastic throughout.


While the artwork may be at war with itself, Joshua Williamson's scripts remain a bastion of harmony. The story steps away from exploring the ramifications of Barry's new powers, for the most part, focusing instead on Barry Allen playing detective. It is an odd thing, given his job, that so few Flash comics emphasize Barry's powers of deduction outside of a scientific environment and it is gratifying to see that element of Barry's talents come out when he is suddenly unable to use his powers reliably.

The Final Analysis: 7 out of 10. A great story with good art, which would have been better with only one artist working on this issue. 

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 16 - Suicide Squad

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

As Ollie prepares for the coming battle with Slade Wilson, Sara tries to back him up only to be pushed away.  Meanwhile, John Diggle is called away by Amanda Waller to assist with some ARGUS business.  An Afghan warlord who Diggle once saved is believed to have stolen a lethal chemical weapon and it's felt that Diggle may be their easiest connection to getting close to him.  Naturally Diggle is all too eager to help... until he is introduced to the rest of his team.

Enter Task Force X - a program that offers time-off to criminals in exchange for service in off-the-books operations.  Everyone on the team is a criminal The Arrow helped to bring down... including Diggle's own sworn enemy, Deadshot!  With the lives of millions at risk, can Diggle afford to hold on to his black and white morality in a world full of greys?


Influences

The 1980s Suicide Squad by John Ostrander, the 2001 Suicide Squad by Keith Giffen, Gail Simone's Secret Six and the 2005 Deadshot mini-series by Christos N. Gage.


Goofs

Why is a civilian like John Diggle allowed to walk into the cell-block housing Deadshot and the other Task Force X members?  Particularly after he told-off Amanda Waller and said he wasn't working for her anymore?


Performances

After spending the better part of Season Two on the sidelines, Diggle is finally given an episode in the spotlight and David Ramsey rises to the occasion.  Ramsey can steal a scene with one good line and the whole episode does a fine job of highlighting his talents.

This episode marks Michael Rowe's longest appearance playing Deadshot so far and it is the first episode where it feels like we really get a glimpse at the complex character that is Floyd Lawton.  Rowe captures both Lawton's death-wish and his dark sense of humor.  He said in an interview that the most interesting thing about Deadshot - and the main reason he loved playing him - was that there is something oddly likeable about Floyd and yet Floyd doesn't like himself at all.  To my mind, that sums the character up perfectly.

Though their parts this week are relatively small, Stephen Amell and Caity Lotz both capture Oliver Queen and Black Canary perfectly in this episode.  Pushing people away when he needs their help the most is vintage Ollie as is his desire to protect the woman he loves, even when she's perfectly capable of protecting herself and probably more capable than he is in a straight-up fight!  Lotz perfectly captures the comics' Canary's loving nature and desire to comfort her man, in spite of her frustration over what an ass he's acting like.


Trivia

Lyla texts Diggle and asks  her to meet him at Room 1141 at the Ostrander Hotel.  This is named in honor of John Ostrander - writer of the 1980's Suicide Squad comic and the co-creator (along with Len Wein and John Byrne) of Amanda Waller.

The nation of Kahndaq is mentioned during Diggle's briefing at ARGUS.  In the comics, Kahndaq is a fictional nation and home to the supervillain Black Adam.  It is in the Middle East, located between Israel and Egypt on the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula

Part of the episode takes place in Markovia.  In the comics, Markovia is located in Western Europe between France, Belgium and Luxembourg.  It is home to the hero Geo-Force.

The blonde woman with the squeaky voice on the Task Force X cell-block is credited as "Deranged Squad Female".  Given that she is played by Tara Strong, and that the woman claims to be a licensed therapist,  it seems clear the woman is meant to be Harley Quinn - a member of the Suicide Squad in the New 52 Suicide Squad series.

The robbery that Ollie goes to stop only to find the robbers already killed by Slade Wilson is located at 5th and Giffen.  This is in honor of Keith Giffen, who wrote the 2001 Suicide Squad comic.

Diggle's call-sign with The Squad is Freelancer. 

As in Gail Simone's Secret Six, Waller's call-sign is Mockingbird

As in Ostrander's Suicide Squad, explosives are used to keep the criminal members of Task Force X under control. 

The idea of Deadshot having a young daughter, whom he provides for using his earnings as an assassin was first introduced in the 2005 Deadshot mini-series by Christos N. Gage.  This series centered upon Floyd Lawton discovering he had a four-year-old daughter in Star City and - lacking anything better to do - deciding to turn his skills against the corrupt cops and dangerous gangs threatening the neighborhood she was being raised in.  His activities gained the attention of Green Arrow, who - finding out the reasons for Lawton's rampage - agreed to patrol the area more often in exchange for Deadshot agreeing to leave town.

Gail Simone would later pick up on this thread in her Secret Six book, where Floyd actually visited Zoe and made an honest attempt at being a father.  He would later decide it was better he not expose her to the dangers of his life and he told her mother as much over the phone.

Deadshot is depicted as having a death-wish and not really caring about whether he lives or dies.  This is consistent with his characterization in the comics, where the kindest thing to say would be that Floyd has issues.  Serious issues.

The detonation code for Deadshot's implant is BATB-25.  This is likely a reference to Brave And The Bold #25 - the first comic to feature the original 1959 Suicide Squad. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Amanda Waller: They're designated Task Force X.
Deadshot: Give me a break!  This ain't no task force.  Let's call it like it is.  Welcome to the Suicide Squad.

(To an arguing Diggle and Lyla)
Harley Quinn: Do you two cuties need some counseling?  I'm a trained therapist!

Diggle: A girl needs a father.
Deadshot: Nah.  Not this father.  Best thing I can do for her life?  Not be in it.

Ollie: I can't...I don't know how to stop him.
Sara: You start by letting people help you.
Ollie: But he's going to come after you!  You're alive... because Shado isn't.
Sara: And when he does do you think it will make a difference whether or not we're together?  Let him come.  I'm not the girl he knew on The Island.  I'm not that easy to kill.  Together?
Ollie: Together.

Lyla: What about us, Johnny?
Diggle: Last night the man who killed my brother showed more character than the woman charged with protecting the world.  Good and Bad, it's not so clear to me.  One thing I do know for sure- Black and White - is that I can't ever lose you again.


Continuity

Ollie and Sara are seen sleeping in the Arrow Cave at the start of the episode, indicating Moira's threat to kick Ollie out of her house in 215 was not an idle one.

Oliver makes contact with Alexi Leonov - his contact with the Russian Mafia in Starling City, last scene in 112.  By episode's end, Ollie with have cut all ties with the Russian Mafia and Alexi is dead by Slade Wilson's hand.

Waller's Suicide Squad is made up of villains Arrow was responsible for catching.  They include Bronze Tiger (last seen in 212 ), Shrapnel (last seen in 210 ) and Deadshot (last seen in 206).  We also see Amanda Waller for the first time since 212.  Shrapnel is killed after he attempts to escape.

We see John Diggle's current girlfriend/former wife Lyla Michaels for the first time since 206.

Ted Gaynor, whose death we witnessed in 111,  is seen in the flashback scenes.

The mask Slade leaves at the robbery scene is identical (if not the same mask) that we saw on The Island in the pilot episode.

By episode's end, Waller says they'll implant the kill-chips for the Squad members in their spines.

Ollie and Thea both hated swimming as children.

In the episode's final moments, it is revealed that Oliver Queen and Amanda Waller have some manner of prior relationship and that Oliver is aware Amanda knows his secret identity.  He also has some reason to hate Amanda but notes that she is much lower down on his list these days.

Waller reveals that Slade Wilson's assassin alter ego has been dubbed Deathstroke by ARGUS.


Location

The flashbacks for the episode - six years earlier - are set in RC South, Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The majority of the episode takes place in Markovburg, Markovia.


The Bottom Line

For once, the interplay between Ollie and Sara isn't the focus of an episode nor is it the best part.  Forget a Flash TV series next season - I want more Suicide Squad!  With Harley Quinn as a series regular!  And Clock King as a part of the Squad!  And blackjack!  And hookers!

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 10 - Blast Radius

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Five weeks have passed since The Arrow's altercation with a mysterious man in a skull mask and Roy Harper's exposure to Mirakuru.  As Oliver Queen scours the city looking for any clue to this mysterious new enemy and Roy copes with changes he can't begin to explain, a mad bomber begins to attack government offices around Starling City.

Sebastian Blood is determined to prove he is unafraid of any terrorist and plans to hold a unity rally, come Hell or High Water.  His courage has won him much public support - even the support of Oliver Queen and his family.  But there is one person who thinks Blood has something to hide... Laurel Lance!


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (The Island sequences), Green Arrow: The Wonder Year (Oliver Queen befriends a politician while working to protect him as Green Arrow) and the Marv Woflman/George Perez run of Teen Titans (details involving Brother Blood's past).


Artistry

The chase scene with Arrow perusing Shrapnel's van is one of the best bits of stunt work in the show's history.


Trivia

In the comics, Shrapnel was a super-villain made of living organic metal.  He could blow himself up and reconstitute himself at-will, essential being a living bomb.  Unlike the political zealot we see on Arrow, the comics version of Shrapnel was a mercenary/assassin motivated by money rather than any kind of political or philosophical ideals. 

Shrapnel is addressed as Mr. Scheffer by the woman who buys a train set from him.  This corresponds to Shrapnel's real name in the comics - Mark Scheffer.  

Shrapnel was the first super-villain Green Arrow fought in his own comic, following Mike Grell's departure from the series and DC Comics' decision to move Green Arrow back into the DC Universe at large after several years of basically existing apart from it.  I wrote a review of this story, which you can read here.

Sebastian Blood's aunt is being held at Saint Walker hospital.  In the DC Comics Universe, Saint Walker is the name adopted by Bro'Dee Walker - an alien who became the first Blue Lantern.

For the record, there is no Catholic saint named Walker.

The name given for Sebastian Blood's aunt is Maya Resik.  This is very close to Anna Resik - the first Mother Mayhem.  Mother Mayhem is a title given to the consort of Brother Blood, who is meant to give birth to the next Brother Blood, according to the traditions of The Church of Blood in the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans comics.

According to the bill Laurel finds on Sebastian's desk, one of the US ZIP Codes for Starling City is 98114.  In the real world, this ZIP Code is for Seattle, Washington - Green Arrow's home during the Mike Grell run on Green Arrow as well as his hometown in the New 52 DC Universe.

Shrapnel is identified as being a frequent poster on the web forums for an anti-government group called The Movement.  In the New 52 DC Universe, The Movement is a group of super-powered teenagers who use their abilities to fight corrupt government officials in the town of Coral City. 

One detail we learn of Sebastian Blood's background in this episode meshes fairly well with Brother Blood in the comics - he killed his own father.  In the comics, it was a tradition in the Church of Blood that their leader could only take command by an act of patricide. 


Technobabble

The Arrow uses both an explosive arrow and a bola arrow while chasing down an informant in the opening sequence.

The residue gathered by the police after Shrapnel's first bombing contains traces of nitroglycerin.  Quentin Lance says this indicates someone with some explosives training rather than an amateur.

Felicity says that Shrapnel's detonators operate on a cellular frequency past the 3800 MHz range approved for standard cellular transmissions.

Shrapnel makes use of grenades - both explosive and smoke - in his escape from the scene of the second bombing.  He is also capable of scrambling his cellular signals once he realizes how The Arrow is tracking him.   

Shrapnel claims to have planted fifty pounds of RDX explosives at the Unity Rally.  RDX is an abbreviation for Research Department Explosive, referring to an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications.  It is one of the most powerful military-grade explosives in existence. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie: Speaking of which, how's Roy?
Thea: Handsome.  Brooding.  The usual.  Why is my boyfriend such a topic of interest?
Ollie: Well Thea, his idol put an arrow in him.  I just... wanted to make sure there weren't any lingering issues
Thea: Oh my God!  Now that I think about it, he did something completely out of character this morning...
Ollie: What?
Thea: ... he showed up to work on time!

(To Ollie)
Laurel: Sometimes I feel like I don't know the real Sebastian.  He reminds me a little of you that way.

Shrapnel: Freedom?  Liberty?  Justice?  Long have the people of this city suffered under the shackles of a corrupt government.  Slaves to self-interested politicians and their lobbyist puppeteers.  I declare war on them all.

(As Arrow corners him and draws an arrow)
Shrapnel: Drop the bow!  I've got charges planted all over Starling!  I drop this stick they all blow! 
(The Arrow doesn't move)
Shrapnel: Did you just hear what I said?
Arrow: Yep.
(Arrow jerks the bow a little to the right, shooting an arrow to cut the wire to Shrapnel's detonator.  Shrapnel glances down in disbelief and looks up just in time to get punched in the face.)


Continuity

A news report informs us that the explosion at STAR Labs in Central City did not cause any damage nor did it release any radiation (209).

Barry Allen was reportedly discovered in a coma.  Felicity went to be with him and has spent much of the past five weeks away from Starling City, much to Oliver's annoyance (209).

Laurel is still popping pills and has started stealing painkillers from her father to get her fix.

Laurel investigated Cyrus Gold and notes that he was determined to have killed at least four police officers.  She also notes Sebastian Blood's connection to the Langford Institute, which burned down under mysterious circumstances (209).

Over the past five weeks, Oliver has apparently befriended Sebastian Blood and he trusts the man enough to hold a fundraiser for him at Verdant.

Blood calls himself a child of Starling City and notes his background as an orphan.  When pressed on this by Laurel, he claims that he entered foster care after his drunken and abusive father was shot and killed by his mother, after a young Sebastian tried to stop him from hurting her.  He claims Cyrus Gold was a preacher at the orphanage he grew up in and that he was the first person who could get him to speak following his witnessing his mother killing his father.

Laurel discovers that Sebastian Blood is paying the medical bills for a woman named Maya Resik.  Quentin investigates this lead and determines that Resik is Blood's aunt and that she's been in psychiatric care for years - hence why Blood became a ward of the state despite having a living relative.

Diggle is capable of using Felicity's computers to hack into the police and fire radio bands for Starling City, but he's not comfortable with computers nor is he as fast at it as Felicity.

Shrapnel publishes a 300 page manifesto after his first bombing.  Diggle notes that nothing was stolen from the site of the bombing, suggesting Shrapnel to be an idealistic terrorist rather than a thief.

Roy says he hasn't been sleeping much since he was kidnapped by Brother Blood's men.  He exhibits signs of super-strength (catching a collapsing lighting-tower before it can hit Moira Queen) and healing a wound deep enough to require stitches in a matter of days with no visible scars.  Thea notices both of these events by the end of the episode.

Quentin Lance asks The Arrow for the phone records of every cop in his preceinct in exchange for giving the Arrow a sample of the residue found after the first Shrapnel bombing.  He believes "the man in the skull mask" has a plant inside the police and thinks the phone records are the best lead they have to finding him

Shrapnel works at a souvenir shop, which he has wired with RDX and laser trip-wires.

Oliver's skill as an archer is such that he can shoot a grenade in mid-flight and cut the wire on a detonator at point-blank range.

Diggle is shot in the shoulder while trying to stop Shrapnel but is on the road to recover by episode's end.

By the end of the episode, it is revealed that the "crazy aunt" Sebastian Blood has been paying to have treated is actually his mother and she claims that Sebastian killed his own father.  This fact is discovered by Laurel, who travels to the Saint Walker hospital to visit with Blood's aunt.

Slade gives Ollie Shado's hood after they bury her.

Sara notes that she read the report on the effects Mirakuru had on those who were injected with it, saying it warped either their bones or their minds, changing them into someone else.

Slade is now strong enough to pick up Oliver, by the neck, one-handed.

At the episode's end, Slade disappears with the Mirakuru supplies as Ivo threatens Sara and Ollie not with death but with life as his guinea pigs if they don't hand over the Mirakuru. 


The Fridge Factor

After half a season of Laurel being the damsel-in-distress and the bad example, it's nice to see her old spirit returned as she investigates Sebastian Blood.


The Bottom Line

In many ways, this episode is a step backwards, being reminiscent of other villain-of-the-week episodes that had little baring on the ultimate plot of the series during Season One.  In nearly every other respect, however, this episode is a giant step forward as virtually every subplot on the show gets some forward momentum, from Ollie's relationship with Felicity to Roy's suddenly developing superpowers.  Best of all, Laurel is acting like her old self once again and has her own storyline instead of being a supporting player to everyone else on the show.  And while Shrapnel is a cardboard cut-out villain, Sean Maher does a great job with what he has to work with.  It isn't a great episode but it is a good one.

 

Off Target: Green Arrow (Vol. 2) #81

Let me take you back, dear reader. Back to a darker time. A time of strife and uncertainty.  A time of conflict when friend fought against friend.  A time of big guns, small ankles and many, many pouches.

I speak, of course, of The Dark Age of Comics.

The year is 1993 and Mike Grell, who had written Green Arrow for 80 straight issues, has stepped down.  During his time on the title, Mike Grell revitalized the Emerald Archer, keeping his adventures completely separate from the DC Universe at-large while telling more realistic down-to-earth stories.  And lo did The Powers That Be at DC Comics decide that it was time for this state of affairs to end.  Yea, it was time for Green Arrow to come back into the fold and begin fighting alongside his fellow superheroes once again!

To accomplish this task and maintain the high standards of quality forged by Mike Grell and editor Mike Gold would require an equally skilled creative team.  A writer who appreciated the nuance of the character of Oliver Queen and what made him conflicted yet also likeable.  An editor who knew all there was to know about the character, his morals, his mannerisms and everything that made him more than "Batman with a bow".  Sadly, that wasn't what we got and the next year's worth of Green Arrow suffered for it as an inexperienced editor balanced a team of one inexperienced writer and whatever Batman writers weren't too busy that month to create a mini-series largely forgotten today, save by those who like to tear apart terrible comics. 

Welcome to Cross Roads.

Not a bad cover, really but the person shooting at Ollie can't aim worth crap.
With all due respect to those involved, Green Arrow's new writer/editor team was - pardon the pun - green.  The editor, Scott Peterson, was head Batman editor Dennis O'Neil's assistant and had only been with the company for two years. The writer, Kevin Dooley, was an assistant editor under Andy Helfer but had little writing experience at that time.  Indeed, Dooley's Wikipedia page says that he "dabbled" in writing and his scripts for Green Arrow certainly come across as the work of an inexperienced writer.   

Ironically both would later go on to better things, but in the opposite roles.  Not one year later, Dooley took over the editing duties on Green Lantern as Emerald Twilight was beginning and Aquaman just as Peter David began his acclaimed run.  Peterson would later become renowned as the co-writer of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl comic and the Batman: Gotham Adventures comics based on Batman: The Animated Series.  But that was later.  Now, we are in for a world of pain...

There's a "heavy metal vs. grunge" joke in here somewhere, but I can't be arsed to make it.
We open on a picture of this ugly fellow.  He is Shrapnel.  He's a super-villain.  He is, if the narrative can be believed, the first super-villain who has ever shown up in Seattle.  As the name suggests, he is a living pile of scrap metal that can blow himself up and then reconstitute.  If you'd like to know more about the character, I'm sorry but that's all the background anyone has given him.  Really!  I checked three different websites and they all say his background is largely unknown.

Not that this currently matters to Oliver Queen, who is currently Sir Not Appearing In This Fight Scene.  At that moment, while the SPD is trying (and failing) to keep Shrapnel under control, Ollie is giving a young hoodlum a stern talking to about his use of CFCs - i.e. spray-painting his and his special lady's initials on to the side of a dark alley.  The hoodlum's response - despite recognizing Ollie as Green Arrow - is to defend his actions of those of a man in love and to insult Ollie as an outsider after Ollie does the "Not in my town" routine.The words do strike a chord with Ollie and after sending the hoodlum running off with a warning and a face-full of paint, Ollie does what so many goatee-sporting men in Seattle back in 1993 did - angst!

Mercifully, he does not pull out a guitar and start to sing about it.  Instead, we're treated to a 2/3 page recap of the high-points of the Mike Grell run.  I've decided not to include the scan here because it spoils a lot of good comics I'd like to encourage everyone to track down and read.  All you really need to know for our purposes is that things got complicated between Ollie and his long-time girlfriend Dinah Lance (a.k.a. Black Canary) and that he's been kicked out of their house and left wondering if he should continue as a crime fighter in Seattle or go someplace else.

Meanwhile, in the more action-packed subplot...


If you didn't know this comic was from 1993 before...
The gent with the pink mohawk/ponytail and matching pants is Albert Rothstein a.k.a. Nuklon - grandson of the Golden Age villain Cyclotron, godson of the Golden Age hero The Atom, founding member of Infinity Inc. and Worst Dressed Sentient Being for three years running at the time of this issue's publication. He later went on to much better things - a better costume, size-control powers and membership in the JSA - but at the time of this comic he was just super-strong, super-durable and apparently color blind.

"God, this sucks."  Ollie's actual internal monologue - not my critique of this issue.
Eventually, all of the ruckus makes enough noise to get Ollie's attention from the alleyway he's moping in. Arriving on the scene, he starts trying to piece together who the heck these two yahoos are and what they're doing in his town.  And in case you're wondering if we ever get an explanation for what either of these two was doing in Seattle, don't worry - we don't.

That lady on the front row looks a LITTLE too into this...

I have to take the art-team to task a little bit for this sequence of pages.  Generally, this fight is paced well, but there are several odd bits in the art besides the oddly smiling on-lookers.  For one thing, the sign Nuklon is using to hit Shrapnel changes in how it is bent between panels.  Nuklon himself is inconsistently drawn, with his mohawk becoming oddly wide in some panels and a yellow triangle patch with a black G or C (it's hard to say what letter it is, but it's definitely not an 'N'!) disappearing from the back of his jacket and reappearing throughout.  Even the coloring is weird, with Nuklon starting out in pink but shifting to dark red at various points through the comic.  If they're trying to shade his outfit, it isn't very effective.

Again - the actual internal monologue from the comic. NOT my commentary!

For his part, Ollie isn't very effective in dealing with this situation and he knows it.  His arrows can't hurt either super-human so his actions are limited to keeping the fight away from the crowd and breaking the fight up verbally.  And yet, despite all the destruction, Ollie still can't stop thinking about Dinah as everything tonight keeps reminding him of her  Because of ANGST!

The guy with the spray-paint was committing vandalism over a woman in the first alley he and Dinah beat up criminals in together when they first came to Seattle.  The fight between Nuklon and Shrapnel is over a woman.  And then the espresso cart Ollie and Dinah used to go to all the time gets trashed!  Thankfully, Ollie does have one thing on his side - the love of the people of Seattle!


"Well, gee thanks.... say, shouldn't you people be fleeing in terror or at least taking cover?"
It's at this point that Ollie gets an idea, though he reflects that if he does it, he'll probably have to leave Seattle forever.  What happens next doesn't make a lick of sense to me.  I suspect Ollie's internal monologue here is really Kevin Dooley's excuse for forcing the goal of The Powers That Be (i.e. bring Ollie back into the main DCU) and trying to give Ollie one more reason for hitting the road other than "Get away from my ex and everything that reminds me of her."

The conflict, I think, is that Ollie can't operate in a city where he's caused massive property damage and Seattle won't want him around because they're so peaceful and unused to this sort of thing.  The problem is that - the DCU being what it is - it's patently unrealistic for a major city to not have some kind of accommodation for supervillains and the collateral damage that they cause.  They'd have to have a higher-than-average Act Of God insurance policy, at the very least! 

Adam Savage be damned! I reject your reality and substitute my own!

So what is Ollie's plan?  In defiance of common sense, the laws of physics and Myth Busters, Ollie is able to use the spark from an arrow hitting blacktop to ignite a trail of gasoline.  This instantly causes the nearby gas station to explode, knocking down Shrapnel and Nuklon without causing any other property damage whatsoever or injuring any of the civilians!  Enter a grateful Barbie look-alike, who it turns out was the target of Shrapnel's misplaced affections.  Yes, she's been standing there watching these two yahoos fight over her all this time and it seems she's eager to reward the hero of the hour.  Unfortunately for her, Ollie has another woman on his mind.  And unfortunately for Ollie, that woman was in the crowd... watching Barbie trying to kiss him.


And in front of Dinah, Kevin McAllister's grandfather expresses his shock.
So here's a question - why the hell wasn't Dinah doing something in all of this?  She's just as much a superhero as Ollie and it wouldn't be the first time she's fought someone outside her weight-class.  Did she just now get there?  If so, why is she walking away from what could still be a volatile situation where lives are in danger?  Because I think that saving lives is more important than your avoiding the drama caused by running into your ex in public.  Just saying...

Naturally, the impossible explosion barely slowed Nuklon and Shrapnel down.  Faced with the love of his life turning her back on him again and his last bit of patience for what had already been a terrible, awful, no-good, very bad day exhausted, Ollie loses it.  He then proceeds to tell everyone in the immediate area why they suck in no uncertain terms.  This goes about as well as everything else Ollie has tried to do today.


Shrapnel, seems to fly away through a controlled explosion.  Nuklon peacefully lets the cops arrest him, knowing that the Justice League will probably have him sprung in 24 hours.  And Barbie stomps off after telling Ollie he isn't really that attractive and she is SO worth having men fight over.

Enter Lt. James Cameron - the closest thing Ollie has to a Commissioner Gordon in the Seattle Police Department.  The two are far from friends but over the years they've built up something of a partnership of convenience.  In brief, Ollie was allowed the freedom to operate provided he kept the police informed of his activities and in return they would bring him in as a consultant to deal with certain cases.  This makes it completely out of character when Cameron decides to dust off the '"vigilantes cause trouble" speech he gave Ollie when they first met back in The Longbow Hunters.


I'm going to angst in an alleyway!  Or maybe on a rooftop!  I haven't decided.  ANNNNNNNGST!

By this point, Ollie has had more than enough.  So he steals Lt. Cameron's thunder, basically saying that they can't kick him out because he's leaving.  This announcement stuns Lt. Cameron so greatly that he drops his coffee... wait a second.  Where did he get that coffee from?!  I know this is Seattle and there's a coffee shop on every corner but... did he just come from the coffee shop?  Did the cops just give up on trying to contain the fight and decide to take a break?  I'm not sure if that's the smartest thing they could have done or the most neglectful!  

*sighs* Anyway, the issue ends with Ollie saying goodbye to Seattle, goodbye to Dinah and deciding he's going to San Francisco.  No word on if he'll be wearing flowers in his hair.

This comic isn't quite as bad as I remembered it but it's still pretty bad.   The fight scenes hold up pretty well if you ignore the blatant violations of the laws of physics and Ollie's written like the smartass we all know and love.  But the continual angsting in the middle of the action gets really old, really quick.  And Ollie comes off as an incredibly ineffective hero, with none of his actions doing anything positive and the central conflict of the issue resolving itself after everyone involved collectively says "Screw you guys.  I'm going home."

This issue set the trend for the biggest problems with Cross Roads as a whole.  First, since the entire goal of this storyline was to bring Ollie into stories involving other DC Comics characters, every single one of these stories feels like an issue of someone else's comic where Ollie is a guest star rather than the focus of the action.  Next, because Ollie is so frequently out of his element, he doesn't come across as the competent, experienced hero that he is.  Finally, because the creators involved are unfamiliar with Ollie as a character and his level of experience, there's a lot of moments where Ollie is horribly out of character in terms of what he will do and what he's capable of.

This issue was not too bad in that regard.  Next time will be much, MUCH worse.