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| Once again, Sholly Fisch said it best. |
Green Arrow's latest foe in his title is The Crimson Archer, a cleverly refurbished villain from his Golden Age. A lot of what ails the green-arrowverse is rooted in his having a weak rogues gallery, so it makes me wonder who else deserves this sort of restoration. Here are my ten top candidates!
1. Bull's-Eye
Clearly I feel this way, since I'm Bull's-Eye's number one (and possibly only still-living) fan.
Obviously it would have to be a new Bull's-Eye, since the original one would be long dead. Unless, hm, let's see...
UNLESS Per Degaton was angry that Ollie's encounter with Alexander the Great changed him to the champion of democracy who won the Battle of Arbela (which, as we know, undid Degaton's first attempt to rule the world).
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| Because the most essential characteristic of Per Degaton is that he's a ****. |
So, to get back at Green Arrow (in a very roundabout, Degatonic way), he... brought all of Ollie's foes BACK TO THE FUTURE to bedevil him. Which would explain how so many of them simply vanished without resolution. Geoff Johns, get cracking!
In the Golden Age, the fact that Bull's-Eye was a Joker rip-off was a downside to the character. But nowadays it could be hilariously lampshaded, with the Joker being the old-school villain's biggest fan (I would happily defer to the Joker). Maybe Joker would even bankroll him, just because watching Bull's-Eye annoy Green Arrow is the best entertainment money can buy.
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| Of Gayland fame. |
Easy enough to reinvent these criminal acrobats as a pesky parkouring street gang who form part of the criminal backdrop of Star City. Star City deserves some local color to help contextualize Green Arrow, and the Red Devils would certainly count as that.
Sure, his original schtick of giving professionals ugly plastic surgery makeovers to blackmail them into aiding his crimes is... well, let's be kind and just call it "unsustainably elaborate".
Nevertheless, a criminal plastic surgeon is a useful concept. Batman's world doesn't make enough use of the Crime Doctor, so Dr. Angel might as well occupy this niche for Green Arrow.
4. The Sea Scourge
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| From Adventure #134. |
Now, this isn't the same pirate guy (Captain Kilgore) we memorably saw Green Arrow flail against. But I'm all for a Pirate of Penzance Villain for Ollie's rogues gallery. It fits in perfectly with Green Arrow's whole "Brave & Bold" background.
5. The Flag
Oh, yes. The Flag (né Titus Flagsmith).
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| He CHOSE that outfit, you realize. |
The Flag fought Green Arrow twice (Adventure #128 and 135) and he is a PIP. He looks absurd; he's obsessed and homicidal; his theme is ridiculous and too narrow to be sustainable. He's the Signalman on cocaine. In short, he is Green Arrow's version of the Penny Plunderer.
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| I mean! The man makes MODELS of his intended crimes, like he's Doc Brown in "Back to the Future". |
For all these reasons, he is PERFECT candidate for revitalization as a (re-)new(ed) Green Arrow villain. I have never written about the Flag before, but I'm beginning to think it may be incumbent upon me to do so as a public service.
6. The Roper
Exactly what it says on the tin.
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| Behold: The Roping Montage |
The Roper (Adventure #178). He's stupid. He's rich, but still wants to be a criminal. His outfit is risible. His schtick, based on a single, limited piece of equipment, is nonsense. He lair is THE ROPE-CAVE, for god's sake.
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| He is the Green Arrow's Killer Moth. |
In other words, he is the perfect foil for Green Arrow.
7. The Crime Platoon
Sure, the idea of "criminals who operate like an army" has been done plenty of times.
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| Adventure #181. |
But the Crime Platoon is SO literal about it and the Beagle Boys masks are too cute. Plus, with their military stylings and strict discipline, they seem designed to irk Ollie the peacenik playboy.
8. The Octopus
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| I don't think of him as a terrible supervillain. I think of him as an outstanding and innovative performance artist. |
Another no-brainer. Every costumed crimefighter needs at least ONE thematically-obsessed semi-supervillain, and the Octopus is definitely the one that Ollie deserves, in any decade.
9. Prof. White, The Black Magician
Oh, yeah; this is the stuff!
Everybody deserves an evil magician as foe. Usually they are smooth charming villains, but Prof. White is a raving madman.
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| An AGGRIEVED madman, who blames his misfortune on Green Arrow. |
"I hate you, too--hate you-- HATE YOU!" It's nice to have a villain I can identify with, since I hate Green Arrow, too. Prof. White has the colorfulness of a Flash villain and the insane bitterness of a Batman villain.
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| You might say he lost his head. |
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| This is exactly the kind of situation Green Arrow needs to be facing. |
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| "DO YOU HEAR?" |
10. Blaze
Yeah, I know; fire villains are a dime a dozen. But that's partly why I think Ollie needs one.
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| That is one of comics' most awesome helmets, people. |
Blaze never got a second outing, but his first one shows me he's got the stuff.
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| Fire in a crowded theater? Incendiary messenger pigeons? You're a genius. Blaze! |
He's not a mental defective like Flash's Heat Wave or an addled pyro like Batman's Firebug (or Firefly, if you are one of those modern readers who don't understand who Firefly REALLY was) or a weirdo like either of the two "Blazes" whom Batman fought. He's imposing and intelligent.
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| As well as fireproof and arrow-proof. |
Which of these get YOUR vote?
4 comments:
I've never really enjoyed Green Arrow's costumed villains; he does better against street-level criminals, where guns are challenge enough. Ollie is in that uncomfortable spot where he doesn't have the powers or skills to punch far above his weight class like Batman does, so treating him like Batman doesn't work so well.
What COULD work would be if he were a thorn in the side of a Kingpin-like character, who publicly applauded Green Arrow's crime-busting but occasionally tried to rein him in with out-of-town specialists. Even then, it would have to be an occasional threat at most; you don't want the same bad guy or cabal behind every challenge a hero faces. It's just boring reading.
- HJF1
"a Kingpin-like character" I will count this as a vote for St. Louis Louie.
My first choice would originally have been Bull's-Eye, simply because it's so thematically appropriate (and I'm still considering customizing a Bull's-Eye action figure). However, I'm rather taken with the Red Devils. I like the idea of a criminal gang of acrobats battling Ollie and I like the parkour idea -- basically a group of skillful second-story men who can match Ollie on Star City's rooftops.
Considering their skill sets and the "circus performer" hook, I can easily imagine the Red Devils as Bull's-Eye's gang (or perhaps just fans).
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