I might have said something about finishing my dark heart of the soul analysis of Twin Peaks as a reworking of Peter Pan, but that shit be dark and depressing, and I got a little weekend getaway in Kyoto planned, so I felt more emotionally comfortable blogging about two white bread characters. Just be grateful I didn't have the time to include other blondes like Barry Allen (now a brunet on the CW), John Constantine (dyed thanks to NBC), or Animal Man
The Brave, the Bold, and the Blonde gender bender await after the jump!
Green Arrow
Before I joined the Church of Morrison
comics, Denny O’Neil was my patron saint. His novelization of Batman: Knightfall became my bible from
then onwards one sophomore day I covertly purchased it from a bookshop. Repeatedly
reading that and later seeing Batman
Begins motivated me enough to fall down the comics’ rabbit hole after about
a 7 year absence. Knightfall’s intro
or afterword, I forget, by Greg Rucka (No slouch when it comes to writing great
comics, Gotham Central, Wonder Woman,
Wolverine, to name a few) helped point me in the right direction towards some
guys named Frank Miller, Neal Adams, and of course Denny O’Neil’s seminal run
not just on Batman, but Green Arrow. Rucka described how O’Neil reworked what
for decades was an unapologetic Batman knockoff, complete with ward sidekick,
Arrow Car/Plane/whateva, millionaire alter ego, and striped the character of
his wealth, housed him in a poverty stricken tenement, and made the once square
jaw WASP a vocal opponent of racism, pollution, government corruption, and anything
else a 90s Captain Planet might encounter. With my Bruce Springsteen fanaticism
and Joe Strummer Punk leanings, of course I was going to fall in love with
Green Arrow. I could have been Marty’s mom in Back to the Future and GA suddenly swoops in with the pick up line,“I’m your density…”
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| Down with Fat Cats, Daddy O |
It wasn’t until College that I got to read O’Neil reshaping
of Green Arrow, which began in Justice
League of America and carried over as the anarchistic counter to the more
straight laced Green Lantern in Hard
Traveling Heroes. I’ve talked about “The Killing of an Archer” before when
GA accidentally causes the death of a criminal, then tears up his costume and
bow, crashes his Arrow Plane into a mountain in Northern
Cali, and seeks forgiveness from a monastery of Zen monk archers.
By now we’re so familiar with the hero who gets beaten down
and has everything stripped away, just so he can rise up stronger than before.
It’s an archetypical tale older than comics, yet it wasn’t commonplace in
comics until O’Neil, and of course Neal Adam’s (responsible for so many amazing
stories, but deserves a unique prize for Green Arrow’s Van Dyke beard)
retooling of GA. Frank Miller, an admitted student of O’Neil and Adams, during
his run on Daredevil and hitting it’s peak in Daredevil: Born Again had the hero being put through a very similar
ringer and deconstruction.
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| Pain. Miller eats pain in the morning with a side of cornflakes, Jack |
With Arrow in its
3rd season and Ollie’s billionaire company drying up, I’m hoping the
writers give the character the liberal bleeding heart his counterpart in the
comics, as well as myself share.
Aquaman
I have solved DC’s Aquaman problem.
Besides being an intense comic book fan (is there any
other), I consider myself to be quite the pretentious film buff. I’m talking
Kubrick, Spielberg, 40s film noir, Eastwood, Coppalla, Hitchcock, James Bond
counts, Lynch, Scorsese, Carpenter, but the one who I consider the greatest…
Kurosawa. The reason I’ve been in Japan for the past four years. The
director’s masterpiece, Seven Samurai,
should be ripped off entirely for a blockbuster Justice League film, which
could be the greatest single achievement in superhero cinema… and maybe salvage any respect I could possibly have for Zack Snyder.
If you’re not familiar with the basic plot of the
aforementioned film or it’s cool Western remake The Magnificent Seven they both involve a poor small village being
forced to hire sword/gunmen for protection against a group of 40 horsed
bandits. The farmers can only offer food and board for protection so that only
invites the truly honorable, thrill seeking, or experience lacking individuals
to fight off impossible odds. There’s no better way to spend 3 hours and 40
minutes with a Criterion Collection Edition on a rainy Rashomon day!
Obviously you’d substitute a rural village for a distant
planet or parallel dimension, but here’s how the character archetypes breakdown;
The Leader, who although physically skilled, can
provoke respect or intimidation with only a glance
Superman
The Zen Warrior, who seeks only to perfect one’s
craft, yet chooses violence as the last course of action
Wonder Woman
The Right Hand Confidant, who having just met the
leader, takes an immediate liking and interest in his actions
J’onn J’onzz (Martian Manhunter)= Steve McQueen
The Jester, who brightens the group morale in dark
times
Plastic Man
The Student, who is under the tutelage of the Leader,
and involved in a tragic romance that comments on social prejudice
Could throw in Jon Stewart or Kyle Ryner GL, but Black
Canary won’t let WW be the only chick in this fan fictional pipe dream
The Mysterious Man with No Name, who I’m drafting in
from Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, which
spawned Clint Eastwood’s stardom and prompted Frank Miller to write Dirty Harry
Batman in TDKR
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| I don't care what they say, I love you All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder |
The Rebel Outsider, who although an enthusiastic and
adept fighter, can never do enough to be fully accepted by the group
Aquaman! Two Toshiro Mifunes for the price of one Justice
League movie. The Mifune performance in Seven
Samurai steals the show, which has much to do with the actor’s manic acting
approach, and sympathetic back-story makes him the most accessible stand in for
the audience. Just imagine Aquaman meeting up with the JLA for the first time
and puffing his chest, going on about being the descendent to the throne of
Atlantis. Of course Aquaman is fit for comedy, but he needs to have some sense
of redemption in a story, which wasn’t the case when Geoff Johns made the king
of the seven seas a MadTV inspired whipping boy with the constant barrage of lame
fish jokes at the start of the New52. Seriously… fish jokes, daddy issues(added
to the list along with Green Lantern, Flash, Capt. Cold, Cyborg, Earth One
Batman of Johns resume), and a murdering back-story
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| "I don't talk to fish" actual Geoff Johns dialogue. Not actual Ivan Reis art |
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