Wow has it really been eight years since Arrow started? Eight seasons of Oliver Queen fighting crime in Star(ling) City?
In many ways you could call Green Arrow the Iron Man of DCTV. Like the MCU all of the top tier characters were tied up elsewhere and one of the lower teir characters got the tap to build a universe, in the case of DC it was the movie people who had all the cool toys.
To many people Green Arrow was a wanna be Batman with a Robin Hood twist. And many people wrote Arrow off for just that - the early seasons were heavily influenced by the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy but dammit I loved it.
I was a huge fan of the Mike Grell run of Green Arrow comics in the 80s which were grim gritty street level crime comics and Arrow delivered that in spades. The twist was that it was the start of Green Arrow's career instead of a man in his forties (which lead to his death after Grell's run)
The early seasons had flash backs to five years earlier showing how Oliver gained the skills and knowledge he used in his fight against crime in the present day.
The show wasn't perfect but what show is? I would have swapped season 4 and 5's flashbacks around as four took him back to the island he was stranded on in seasons 1 & 2 and then five sent him to Russia to race back to the island to be rescued at the end of the season to take us to the start of season 1's present day story.
The flashforwards to 2040 in later seasons did nothing for me. I was hoping though that they might tie into the season 1 Legends of Tomorrow episode "Star City 2046")
I wasn't wild on all the costumes that were given to characters over the show. Wildcat and later Black Canary costumes were some of my least favourite - I liked Sara Lance's original Black Canary costume. Other costumes like Ragman and Wild Dog were spot on.
Some characters got the short shift in the show either through actors not coming back or taken away by the movie people (Huntress, Suicide Squad, and Deathstroke).
The wasn't beholden to the comics, creating new characters (John Diggle, Sara Lance), recreating exisiting names (Felicity Smoak) and letting the story take them where it would - in at least on occasion the show used our knowledge of comics against us with the relevation of the true identity of Prometheus. It was a surprise and while it could have rubbed some fans up the wrong way it made me incredibly happy - it solved a mystery with a twist that I wasn't expecting and handed me a new mystery that I thought I already knew the answer to.
Like Iron Man, the show grew and The Flash spun off from it, and then we added Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman, with Supergirl and Constantine joining from other networks which all culminated in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Crisis was probably the ultimate way to end Green Arrow's story in a tale so massive that it ranged outside the scope of the current Arrow-verse and affected other DC live action shows. I won't spoil how it ended but the final episode was a great ending for Oliver Queen.
Arrow was a show the defied expectations and changed TV superhero shows building a universe that challenges the MCU for a fraction of the budget.
Showing posts with label Arrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arrow. Show all posts
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Thursday, November 15, 2018
The Great Vigilante reread: Vigilante Southland 2016
Here we are at the end of the road. So after Dorian Chase's viiglante ended. There was no more Vigilante.
The New 52 had Pat Trayce make a couple of appearances in the Deathstroke title.
But 2016 was a very good year. DC wound back some of their New 52 changes with Rebirth and brought back some of the iconic versions of characters.
For Season 5 of Arrow it was announced that Adrian Chase and Vigilante would appear.
And DC announces that there is a new Vigilante series Vigilante Southland, which used the Vigilante logo from Adrian Chase's series.
Could it be that Adrian Chase was being ressurrected? It seemed possible.
Instead we got a new Vigilante Donny Fairchild in a six issue miniseries written by Gary Phillips and art by Elana Casagrande. However only the first three issues were released in floppies and the other half of the series was a trade exclusive.
It seems that poor reviews and sales killed the series but at least the entire series was released in a trade paperback.
When the series came out I pointed out some of the problems I had with the series as the continuity was a little hard to follow ie the main character shaves his head between panels. and this reread was a much soomther experience knowing some of these things but I needed to have muddled through it the first time figure out what was going on,
In many ways the story reminded me of the Howard Chaykin Miniseries Midnight Men (for Marvel's Heavy Hitter line). Donny Fairchild has no connection to any previous Vigilante (including the original Greg Saunders) but there seems to be a group of vigilantes operating in LA, Donny's girlfriend Dorrie Smallwood wears a similar outfit and is killed at the start of the story. As far as I can tell she never uses a codename like Vigilante.
Her mentor Mike Relagardo, used the indentity of the Eastsider 20 years ago before he was shot and paralysed. I like the idea of a legacy group of heros all operating in the same area using differnt names but I'm not sure if Vigilante is be the best alter ego for this idea.
But the floppies kept me interested enough to seek out the trade.
But Gary Phillips wasn't only one reviving Vigilante in 2016. Arrow brought Adrian Chase and The Vigilante into the series in season 5.
In a surprise move Chase wasn't The Vigilante - he was Prometheus the big bad of that season. Arrow as a show cops a lot of crticism for not being 100% faithful in the adaptation, but I don't mind it.
In this case it meant the the reveal of Prometheus was a surprise because as comic readers we expected Chase to be Vigilante and I was going "who is Vigilante?" (BTW there was a sweet George Perez sketch of Vigilante in at least one episode)
In season Six we discover that Dinah (Black Canary III) Drake's old police partner Vincent Sobol.
Vigilante was a fun antagonist for Team Arrow and who knows someone might cast a Donny Fairbanks, Dorian Chase, Justin Powell, Dave Winston or Alan Welles and bring back the Vigilante.
The New 52 had Pat Trayce make a couple of appearances in the Deathstroke title.
But 2016 was a very good year. DC wound back some of their New 52 changes with Rebirth and brought back some of the iconic versions of characters.
For Season 5 of Arrow it was announced that Adrian Chase and Vigilante would appear.
And DC announces that there is a new Vigilante series Vigilante Southland, which used the Vigilante logo from Adrian Chase's series.
Could it be that Adrian Chase was being ressurrected? It seemed possible.
Instead we got a new Vigilante Donny Fairchild in a six issue miniseries written by Gary Phillips and art by Elana Casagrande. However only the first three issues were released in floppies and the other half of the series was a trade exclusive.
It seems that poor reviews and sales killed the series but at least the entire series was released in a trade paperback.
When the series came out I pointed out some of the problems I had with the series as the continuity was a little hard to follow ie the main character shaves his head between panels. and this reread was a much soomther experience knowing some of these things but I needed to have muddled through it the first time figure out what was going on,
In many ways the story reminded me of the Howard Chaykin Miniseries Midnight Men (for Marvel's Heavy Hitter line). Donny Fairchild has no connection to any previous Vigilante (including the original Greg Saunders) but there seems to be a group of vigilantes operating in LA, Donny's girlfriend Dorrie Smallwood wears a similar outfit and is killed at the start of the story. As far as I can tell she never uses a codename like Vigilante.
Her mentor Mike Relagardo, used the indentity of the Eastsider 20 years ago before he was shot and paralysed. I like the idea of a legacy group of heros all operating in the same area using differnt names but I'm not sure if Vigilante is be the best alter ego for this idea.
But the floppies kept me interested enough to seek out the trade.
But Gary Phillips wasn't only one reviving Vigilante in 2016. Arrow brought Adrian Chase and The Vigilante into the series in season 5.
In a surprise move Chase wasn't The Vigilante - he was Prometheus the big bad of that season. Arrow as a show cops a lot of crticism for not being 100% faithful in the adaptation, but I don't mind it.
In this case it meant the the reveal of Prometheus was a surprise because as comic readers we expected Chase to be Vigilante and I was going "who is Vigilante?" (BTW there was a sweet George Perez sketch of Vigilante in at least one episode)
In season Six we discover that Dinah (Black Canary III) Drake's old police partner Vincent Sobol.
Vigilante was a fun antagonist for Team Arrow and who knows someone might cast a Donny Fairbanks, Dorian Chase, Justin Powell, Dave Winston or Alan Welles and bring back the Vigilante.
Saturday, August 19, 2017
New Pulp TV Series
So after the top 50 New Pulp Movies list a couple posts back, I decided to do a New Pulp TV series list. I've put them in alphabetical order (more so I don't double up) and not to play favourites.
1.
Adventure Inc
2.
Agent Carter
3.
Agent X
4.
Airwolf
5.
Arrow
6.
Bugs
7.
Burn Notice
8.
Daredevil
9.
Darkwing Duck
10.
Human Target
11.
Intelligence
12.
Jack of All Trades
13.
Jonny Quest
14.
Kim Possible
15.
Knight Rider/Team Knight Rider/Knight Rider 2008
16.
Legend
17.
Leverage
18.
MacGyver/MacGyver 2016
19.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
20.
Now and Again
21.
Nowhere Man
22.
Person of Interest
23.
Queen of Swords
24.
Relic Hunter
25.
Sable
26.
Sam Fox Extreme Adventures
27.
Soldier of Fortune Inc/ Special Ops Force
28.
Stingray
29.
Street Hawk
30.
Tales of the Golden Monkey
31.
Terra Nova
32.
The A-Team
33.
The Adventures of Briscoe County Jnr
34.
The Cape
35.
The Deep
36.
The Equalizer
37.
The Finder
38.
The Green Hornet
39.
The Librarians
40.
The Mummy: The Animated Series
41.
The Persuaders
42.
The Player
43.
The Pretender
44.
The Punisher
45.
The Sentinel
46.
Transporter: The Series
47.
Vengeance Unlimited
48.
Veritas: The Quest
49.
Veronica Mars
50.
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Saturday, October 29, 2016
What I bought October 2016
Okay this is a new thing I'm going to do here. My local comic shop Secret Identity Comics gets their delivery monthly rather than weekly, so after I make my monthly pick up I'll blog about what I bought and other purchases during the month. Some items will have a quick capsule review others especially longer items will just be mentioned with a possible review down the track.
ARROW: THE DARK ARCHER DC
I'm a huge fan of the Arrow which has been aired here in Australia on Fox 8 express from the States. This has been an issue in the past when the show was on Free to Air and season 2 took sooooooo long to air. (let's not get me started on Agent Carter) .
I'll admit that the seasons have had a few missteps - the focus on a magical enemy in Season 4 being one but overall I love the show. It's gritty and street level, it deviates from the source material but I can live with that. I have been collecting the various tie-ins, four volumes of Comics and a novelisation. (I'm yet to read Arrow Vengeance but I was a little disappointed to see it was a novelisation of season two as I was hoping for an original story.
The comics are interesting, they started as digital comics and they expand the world of the TV series, letting us know more about other characters behind the scenes of the episodes.
The Dark Archer is a really interesting idea John Barrowman, who plays Malcolm Merlyn The Dark Archer, and his novelist sister writing a story that expands on the background of that character. The story jumps between the present (just after season 3) and events in 1985.
We discover that Malcolm's real name isn't actually Malcolm Merlyn but rather Arthur King (and we are left to wonder if this another pseudonym). We learn more about Malcolm and his history and we get a rather good action adventure story with young Arthur hunting down a mystical artefact and the consequences of that coming back to haunt him. These flash backs mimic the show but are tied into the present day story more effectively that the TV show does in some cases.
This is a solid story firmly set in the world of Arrow.
JAMES BOND #10 Eidolon part 4 Dynamite
So we are over halfway through Bond investigating Eidolon and this issue finally brings things to a head. We discover that SPECTRE had planted sleeper agents in various agencies around the world. Bond gets some very good action pieces as M and Moneypenny. I'm enjoying this series and look forward to the next issue.
Peepland #1 Hard Case Comics imprint of Titan Comics
Christ Faust and Gary Phillips co-wrote this 80s noir story set in the peepshows of New York's Times Square. Oh man this is what I wanted to read - a gritty sexy story that would sit beside Control Freak, Money Shot and "The Foot Job". This first issue sets everything up for a great ride in the rest of this miniseries.
VIGLANTE SOUTHLAND 1 of 6
Gary Phillips' second entry in this list. When I heard that Vigilante was getting a new series and that Adrian Chase was appearing in Arrow season 5, I wondered if as part of Rebirth they were bringing back Adrian Chase.
The solicitations soon dispelled that notion and that we would be reading about a new Vigilante (which makes him the eighth person to use the name in DC)
I love Vigilante, I have nearly all 50 issues of the 80s series, and the other attempts at reviving the character after that. I found this issue a bit of a challenge to read and I suspect that rereading will reward me with things that I missed the first time. There's a jump in time that took me off guard in the start of the issue which took me out of the story and perhaps coloured the rest of my reading of this issue. I'm on board for the rest of the miniseries but I was left feeling that things hadn't been set up enough in this issue. I like the characters and the LA setting is a refreshing change for comics especially an LA away from the glamour strips we normally see.
Last but not least
THE STORY OF THE PHANTOM novel by Lee Falk published by Hermes Press
Back in the 70s Avon books published 15 Phantom novels. Over the years I've looked unsuccessfully for these books so I was super excited that Hermes Press is reprinting these books.
I'm really looking forward to reading this.
ARROW: THE DARK ARCHER DC
I'll admit that the seasons have had a few missteps - the focus on a magical enemy in Season 4 being one but overall I love the show. It's gritty and street level, it deviates from the source material but I can live with that. I have been collecting the various tie-ins, four volumes of Comics and a novelisation. (I'm yet to read Arrow Vengeance but I was a little disappointed to see it was a novelisation of season two as I was hoping for an original story.
The comics are interesting, they started as digital comics and they expand the world of the TV series, letting us know more about other characters behind the scenes of the episodes.
The Dark Archer is a really interesting idea John Barrowman, who plays Malcolm Merlyn The Dark Archer, and his novelist sister writing a story that expands on the background of that character. The story jumps between the present (just after season 3) and events in 1985.
We discover that Malcolm's real name isn't actually Malcolm Merlyn but rather Arthur King (and we are left to wonder if this another pseudonym). We learn more about Malcolm and his history and we get a rather good action adventure story with young Arthur hunting down a mystical artefact and the consequences of that coming back to haunt him. These flash backs mimic the show but are tied into the present day story more effectively that the TV show does in some cases.
This is a solid story firmly set in the world of Arrow.
JAMES BOND #10 Eidolon part 4 Dynamite
Peepland #1 Hard Case Comics imprint of Titan Comics
Christ Faust and Gary Phillips co-wrote this 80s noir story set in the peepshows of New York's Times Square. Oh man this is what I wanted to read - a gritty sexy story that would sit beside Control Freak, Money Shot and "The Foot Job". This first issue sets everything up for a great ride in the rest of this miniseries.
VIGLANTE SOUTHLAND 1 of 6
Gary Phillips' second entry in this list. When I heard that Vigilante was getting a new series and that Adrian Chase was appearing in Arrow season 5, I wondered if as part of Rebirth they were bringing back Adrian Chase.
The solicitations soon dispelled that notion and that we would be reading about a new Vigilante (which makes him the eighth person to use the name in DC)
I love Vigilante, I have nearly all 50 issues of the 80s series, and the other attempts at reviving the character after that. I found this issue a bit of a challenge to read and I suspect that rereading will reward me with things that I missed the first time. There's a jump in time that took me off guard in the start of the issue which took me out of the story and perhaps coloured the rest of my reading of this issue. I'm on board for the rest of the miniseries but I was left feeling that things hadn't been set up enough in this issue. I like the characters and the LA setting is a refreshing change for comics especially an LA away from the glamour strips we normally see.
Last but not least
THE STORY OF THE PHANTOM novel by Lee Falk published by Hermes Press
Back in the 70s Avon books published 15 Phantom novels. Over the years I've looked unsuccessfully for these books so I was super excited that Hermes Press is reprinting these books.
I'm really looking forward to reading this.
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