Wednesday, July 19, 2023

DEATH IS THE PRIZE: The Lieutenant Arrows

When last we left Ollie, he was trying to prove that HE was Green Arrow to a bunch of (people who he doesn't realize are) criminals, in distinction to the three fakers who've shown up.

Let's call them Fat Arrow, Hillbilly Arrow, and Tall Arrow.

In a sensible city like Fawcett, these fan-boy auxiliaries would become an on-going comedy relied aspect of Green Arrow's adventures. But Ollie himself pretty much provides his own comedy relief.


This whole deal has to be delegated to the guy in the gang that Green Arrow won't recognize by the actual Gangleader, St. Louis Louie, and his ridiculously large bow-tie. That's the reason the underling doesn't just shoot ALL the Green Arrows and be done with it, I suppose; it's just above his paygrade.

What a bow-tie. In Gotham City, he'd be a bow-tie-themed villain (Mr. Butterfly? You couldn't call him "Bat-Wing").  Frankly, he stinks of Ally Babble and the less you know about Ally Babble the better.

And so, minutes later...  the "William Tell" plot, where all the Green Arrows have to compete in an archery contest to determine which one in the genuine article, is ON.  

Fat Arrow, who claims to be a Green Arrow fan, can't even CONCEIVE of hitting a target that's ON THE GROUND.  And he closed the comic book store early for this!

While all this sitcom nonsense is going on, Roy Harper The Underage Adult is worried that Ollie's not back from school and may be caught in a bad neighborhood.

Sidekick is LITERALLY worried because his super-hero went to a bad neighborhood. Shake my head. It's too sad even to laugh at.


Roy heads to "Elm Street", the name that strikes fear into the hearts of all law-loving Star Citizens.  

Arrow Fact: Roy Harper is a certified Special Education teacher, thanks to his time with Ollie Queen.

So, rather than just, you know, shooting the crooks in the legs, Roy chooses to play along with the whole "PSST!" part of the plot like he's on an episode of That's So Raven! I'm a big fan of just shooting crooks in the leg. Whenever anyone shoots me in the leg, all my focus on criminal activity evaporates immediately.

But, no, Roy has to play along because its in his youthful-ward-contract, I guess, or they send him back to the Rez. So, as usual, he out-William-Tells Ollie by screwing up what would have been Ollie's winning shot in the "Will The Real Green Arrow Please Stand Up?" contest.



Ollie, to his credit, figures out that the person who hit his green arrow with another green arrrow was not one of the Other Green Arrows, but, um, Red Arrow or whatever Roy's codename is.

Hillbilly Arrow is NOT kidding around.  He's increasing keen on REPLACING Green Arrow. In Gotham City, he would become Catman or Hugo Strange or Killer Moth. But, no; this is Star City and he's just Hillbilly Arrow (no real name needed).

Ollie, while no one is looking, apparently, just magically pops up to the roof to chat with Roy about the situation.


Did Ollie CATAPULT up there using the Arrowcar? I'd like to think so, but we know from previous panels that he took THE ARROWPLANE (unless of course we are still in the early period with the Arrowcar was CALLED the Arrowplane, even though it was a car, because Star City).  Regardless, Ollie's got an giant yellow vehicle parked somewhere nearby that he easier could have simply whipped out the keys to as a way of proving that HE is Green Arrow.

But that's just not how things are in Star City, so don't think about that...

9 comments:

Bryan L said...

Lieutenant Arrows. I knew it.

Scipio said...

It had not occurred to me AT ALL until you said; I stole it from YOU>

Anonymous said...

Lieutenant Arrows is inspired connectifying. Well done!

Although, I keep thinking about, suppose there were no criminals afoot, and Roy discovered that Ollie simply spends his Thursdays hanging out with a group of people who cosplay as him. That would take some explaining.

- HJF1

Anonymous said...

Fat Arrow is Francine Fishpaw’s father. It’s so obvious.

- Hoosier X

Scipio said...

HX- I assume there's a Flaming Cave Lounge franchise in Star City.

Scipio said...

"Lieutenant Arrows is inspired connectifying." Bob Rozakis wouldn't have hesitated for a moment.

Anonymous said...

Roy is clearly the Penny to Ollie’s Inspector Gadget.

- Mike Loughlin

Bryan L said...

I appreciate the approval of my connectifying.

I'll probably undercut my credibility by noting that I rather admired the Lieutenant Marvels as a youngster. I have a fondness for heroes with odd restrictions -- the Lieutenants have to shout Shazam at the same time (and presumably in each other's presence) to change to Marvels. I imagine them standing together saying, okay, on three ... one ... two ... Shazam! And of course taking two or three times to get synced up. Hillbilly! You're behind!

Though now I wonder if now they could coordinate by phone and transform at a distance as long as they spoke in unison ...

Scipio said...

"the Lieutenants have to shout Shazam at the same time (and presumably in each other's presence) to change to Marvels"

... I did NOT know that.