Showcase Presents: Green Arrow, Vol. 1

Showcase Presents #6

by Jack Kirby, Ed Herron, Dave Wood

Written by Jack Miller, Ed Herron, Gardner Fox and Bob Haney; Art by Jack Kirby, George Papp, Mike Sekowsky and Neal Adams; Cover by Lee Elias and Jerry Ordway

The Emerald Archer's Silver Age adventures get the spotlight! This volume reprints stories from ADVENTURE COMICS #250-266, 268-269, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #50, 71, 85, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4, and WORLD'S FINEST #95-140. Along with his sidekick Speedy, see Green Arrow take on all manner of crime in Star City!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Superheroes

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2006

About the author

Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."

Reviews

[Adam Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book collects all the short Green Arrow stories in Adventure Comics and World's Finest from 1958-64 as well as his first appearance as a member of the Justice League in Justice League of America #4, a guest appearance as the young Oliver Queen in the Superboy Strip, and three appearances in the Brave and the Bold team up. This takes a look at the Silver Age Green Arrow prior to his rebirth as a left wing ideology in the 1970s.

Like many features of the era, most of these Green Arrow suffered from a strict page count limit. of 6 or 7 pages that gave little time for development. Only the last four appearances in World's Finest got up to 10 pages and those felt like padded six page stories. The guest appearance were interesting but Green Arrow's role was often variable and he ended up out classed at every turn.

The stories aren't bad, but they really aren't all that memorable either following the pattern of the Green Arrow and Speedy firing trick arrows to save the day. The nutty trick arrows were a great feature, but the writers never did enough to make this work. Mostly, the Green Arrow came off as a poor man's Batman.

The book had some highlights. Among the short stories were the Miss Arrowette features. Probably of all the wannabe female crimefighters to "plague" male Superheroes in the early 1960s, the most over the top sexist portrayal was that of Miss Arrowette who had made her own trick arrows around things like hair style or the mascara arrow. She was probably the most entertaining character in the book. The 60 pages of Jack Kirby stories are also pretty god.

The other guest appearances are fun for good writing, not actually for Green Arrow's appearances which are lackluster. The one exception to this is a 1969 guest appearance in Brave and the Bold which debuted the modern Green Arrow look. The character's personality and income status hadn't changed. The Green Arrow was given a fair shake. The art by Neal Adams is fantastic and contrasts nicely with the art in the previous issue which was more of a traditional silver age Batman story.

Overall, the book gives good reason for the Green Arrow's radical 1970s makeover. Without it, there's no way the character would be around today because prior to his radicalization, there just wasn't much of a character there.

[Janna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Campy, predictable, silly arrows, time travel, Robin Hood, Merlin, wacky science, a little bit of old timey acceptable racial stereotyping, a female archer who stereotypically bungles everything while trying to be save the hero (but ends up being useful anyway)... it's ridiculous and I really enjoyed it. It's worth it for sheer fun and to really see where Green Arrow started. The compendium ends with an issue after a 28 month break from the character. It's implied that during this time Ollie gave up being G.A. to mature into a businessman doing good for the state as a financier (and to grow a handsome Van Dyke beard). He'd made alterations to the costume (notably trading cuffed boots for tight ones, long-cuffed gloves for a combination glove/arm guard, and a short tunic laced up the front) transforming it into the, now iconic, Green Arrow costume.

I've read other reviews and some people are bother by the lack of coloring. It didn't occur to me when I started reading it that it LACKED coloring so it didn't bother me (though I do wonder a little what the originals looked like).

My personal favorite is the Robin Hood sequence in "The Green Arrow Robin Hood" September 1959. I also like Miss Arrowette (on principle) and hope she fleshed out later in life.

I like the stories, love the art, adore the character.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not genius comics by any stretch of the imagination but pretty entertaining trash anyways. The earlier stories illustrated by Jack Kirby are pretty cool lookin'(not to take anything away from the terrific Lee Elias). The stories are all short and economic so you never get bored with them if they're clunkers.

I thought the Arrow Car was a sporty counterpart to the Batmobile, the Arrowplane was a spiffy piece of business and pre-heroin addict Speedy was a sweet, good-natured boyish sidekick in the grand DC Comics tradition.

My favorite story is the one where Speedy isn't getting enough allowance money from Green Arrow so he whores, I mean hires himself out for extra archery work for some much needed cashio.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a little bit of overlap between this and the Jack Kirby Green Arrow Omnibus and the Justice League Vol 1 by Gardner Fox. That having been said, this presents a truly astonishing number of early Green Arrow comics. It's full of the Silver Age insanity that will have you rolling your eyes. Net arrows, harpoon arrows, and handcuff arrows abound. The Arrow Car, and the punnily ridiculous Arrow Plane are in tall order here.

What is astonishing about reading these stories is seeing what later Denny O'Neil drew upon for Green Lantern/Green Arrow with such astonishing success. Yeah, Ollie was really nothing much during this time period. Bonnie King was there instead of Dinah Lance, and Speedy was just an odd insecure lost kid. But there were the seeds of all to come. There were Ollie's charitable convictions, his care for Speedy, and the seeds of more possibilities in place.

The final issue here is The Brave and the Bold where Neal Adams redesigned Ollie to the more classic design that we all know and love today. What's funny is the same design appears a bit earlier when Ollie touches something radioactive for some reason and briefly lends Robin Hood a hand. Ah, comics. The deeper you dive in the more ridiculous and lovable they all are.

Also: man, I need more Snapper Carr in my life.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a real fun collection. Sure Green Arrow was kind of derivative of Batman. Where Batman had the Batcave, the Batmobile, the Batplane, Robin and even a female counterpart in Batgirl, Green Arrow had the Arrow Cave,the Arrow Car, the Arrow plane, Speedy and even a female counterpart in Miss Arrowette. They were both millianaire playboys with youthful boy wards and there was even a Bat and Arrow signal. What can you say except DC knew a good thing when they saw it in Batman, so they tried to repeat their success with Green Arrow. Unfortunately for Ollie Queen and Roy Harper, the never achieved the iconic level of the Dynamic Duo.

This may be due in part to the fact that the Emerald Archer never faced the villainous A-squad that Batman did. Almost anyone can rattle off a few of Batman's rogue's gallery if given a minute. But how many even serious comics fans are familiar with Green Arrow foes such as: Iron Archer, the Pneumatic Man, The Birdman Gang and Bonzo the Ape Archer?

The stories are often gimmicky, problems are solved by using some kind of convenient trick arrow. This is probably in part because that as back-up stories many of G.A.'s tales are pretty short and require a speedy resolution, such as one provided by a trick arrow. But Green Arrow's skill with a bow and quick wit is cited as often as his crazy arrows as the reason for his triumphs, and later, longer stories often required Green Arrow and Speedy to actually use their gray matter to solve problems. And sometimes the gimmicks were just downright amusing: Boxing Glove or Umbrella arrow anyone? This is a delightful and imaginative and BIG compliation. Because there are almost 70 stories here, you can read several a day for weeks before you finish. Read'em while your cooking,doing the laundry or leave this volume lying around the toilette to class it up. Here are a few highlights:

Adventure Comics # 259-The Green Arrows of the World- Inspired by America's green Arrow, crack archers from around the globe have taken on the mantle of the Green Arrow in their repective countires. "Counterfeit" Carson torpedoes their first ever convention. Featured Trick Arrows: Boxing Glove arrow, Jiu-Jitsu arrow, Lava arrow, Time Bomb arrow, Vine arrow, and Heli-Spotter arrow.

World's Finest Comics # 95-Green Arrow vs. Red Dart- A new hero, the Red Dart, enters the scene. But is he all he seems? Featured Trick Arrows: Flashlight arrow, Umbrella arrow.

World's Finest Comics # 97- Menace of the Mechanical Octopus-Green Arrow and Speedy draw a bead on some dastardly thieves using the Greatest Getaway Vehicle EVER, a giant flying,submersible, metal octopus! Featured Trick Arrows: Rope arrow, Short Circuit arrow, Acetylene arrow, Aqua-Lung arrow, Fire Cracker arrow.

Adventure Comics # 256-Green Arrow's First Case-The pulse pounding Origin of the Green Arrow! Featured Trick Arrows: Rope arrow, Net arrow, Drill arrow(for opening coconuts), Fake Uranium arrow.

Adventure Comics # 258-Superboy meets the Young Green Arrow- Perennial busybody Superboy learns through his time machine that he just tinkered together, that new classmate Ollie Queen will one day don the mantle of Green Arrow. He decides to "help". Featured Trick Arrows: Boomerang arrow, Pitchfork arrow, Boxing Glove arrow, Rope arrow.

World's Finest Comics #113-The Amazing Miss Arrowette-A yucky girl aims to fight crime by imitating her hero, Green Arrow. Featured Trick Arrows: Hairpin arrow, Powder-Puff arrow, Boxing Glove arrow, Hand Lotion arrow(?), Hair Tint arrow, Needle and Thread arrow, Hair-Net arrow.

World's Finest Comics #114-Green Arrow's Alien Ally-The battling bowmen team up with atiny little alien who looks like the alien Fred Flintstone used to hang out with in order to clobber a big alien super-criminal. Featured Trick Arrows" Alien arrow.

World's Finest Comics # 117-The Cartoon Archer-The master bowman is ridiculed by the Press! Por Que!? Featured Trick Arrows: Boomerang arrow, Fire Extinguisher arrow, Battering Ram arrow, Fan arrow, Boxing Glove arrow.

World's Finest Comics # 136-Magician Boss of the Incas-The Emerald Archer disguises himself as an Incan warrior in order to vanish the evil wizard, the Mighty Micro. featured Trick Arrows: Fire Cracker arrow, Rain arrow, Lightning arrow, Rope arrow, Vacuum arrow.

Brave and the Bold #85-The Senator's Been Shot!-This one was written by Bob Haney and drawn by Neal Adams! "Relevent" late 60's Green Arrow joins forces with Batman to puzzle out the murder of a Senator, a senator Bruce Wayne may have to replace! Also, the fellas doubt their effectiveness as heroes. Featured Trick Arrows: Unfortunately none:(

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy Green Arrow. What with Green Lantern being my favorite hero, it only makes sense that i would like the GA so much. But the stories contained in this volume were less than satisfactory. In the beginning, GA was pretty much a carbon copy of Batman, except geared toward a younger audience (younger? Like six or seven, as opposed to Batman's eleven to twelve year old readers?...i started typing that sentence meaning it to be funny, but now that i look at it it seems accurate). How similar are they? Let me count the ways:

-They are both billionaires and fine upstanding citizens who use their vast wealth for the good of the community and live in a mansion on the outskirts of town
-Both mansions are built on top of a large cave which serves as a base of operations. The difference is, one is called the Batcave and the other is the Arrowcave.
-Batmobile/Arrowcar, Batplane/Arrowplane, Batsub/Arrowsub, Batsignal/Arrowsignal, etc.
-Both have a sidekick who is about 16 years old (Robin/Speedy), orphaned, has to balance superhero life with school life, is a boy, sleeps in the same room but a separate bed, and in costume wears mostly red. However, Batman & Robin drew far more criticism for supposedly being gay (see Batman on Wikipedia).
-Neither have superpowers; both rely on ingenuity and devices to get the job done.

Etcetera.

The stories in this volume are mostly culled from issues of Adventure Comics and World's Finest Comics published between July '58 and March '64, with a few issues of The Brave and the Bold thrown in at the end. Only the B&B issues, and the one JLA issue in the middle, are reprinted in their entirety, so the stories are extremely short, most of them totaling six pages (because both magazines contained several stories per issue, not all GA).

The collection presented here could have been better. First of all, i would have left the first story, "Green Arrows of the World," out. For one, it's a terrible story, and for two, it screws up the continuity. It makes GA out to be more like Green Lantern, now that i think about it, because it shows kind of a Green Arrow Corps (i don't think it had a name) similar to the Green Lantern Corps. It was dumb and, if i didn't know so much about the future of the character, i may not have continued past that point. Also, i don't understand the inclusion of Justice League of America #4. It's true this is the issue in which GA is admitted to the JLA, but it's not as though they shoved all further issues of JLA into this volume. Brave and the Bold #28, Green Lantern's first appearance in the JLA, was not included in the first GL volume. And since JLA #4 is in the first volume of JLA, i now have it twice. Also collected twice is B&B #71, which is in the Showcase volume The Brave and the Bold: The Batman Team-Ups vol. 1, since the issue is a team-up with Batman.

Were i in charge, nearly all of the contents would have been omitted. The very last story (B&B #71) seems like a logical choice to begin collecting Green Arrow stories; they didn't start at the beginning anyway, just at the beginning of what they define as the Silver Age. The end of this collection shows large time lapses where no Green Arrow stories were published; throughout, the stories were originally published almost monthly. When you come to the end, the last few stories are World's Finest #140 (March 64), B&B #71 (April 67), and B&B #85 (August 69). The last story, B&B #85, shows a drastically different Oliver Queen and Green Arrow. This is his first appearance with the beard and a new outfit. This is the first time the character has become politically active, a move which would define him for the next four decades and probably beyond. The ending point of this book should have been the start; it was the one story i was incredibly impressed with.

At least, with that being at the end, it's got my appetite whet for volume 2. But, who knows when the hell that will be published.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, in the early days Green Arrow was one of many heroes that were trying to cash in by ripping off Batman, but due to the art and wild ideas of Jack Kirby the formula works, or is at least forgivable, as it's such a fun read.

Watching two guys take on spies, thieves, mad scientists and the occasional alien with bow and arrows is bizarre and fun.
The heroes have a funky car, not as cool as the Bat-mobile, and a ton of gadgets, all that fit on an arrow head. Some are so crazy, that you can't help but love them.

The issue where GA meets the archer heroes of other countries was great.

Goofy, with only a thin connection to reality, but a really fun read.
So, if you want to learn about GA's pre-beard/pre-politics/pre-acting like a horny fratboy days, this is one of the most entertaining places to start.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just proves why graphic novels are not the same thing as a comic. The comic's here are so terribly written it's painful to read. Clearly the writers are more into telling rather than showing; ironic for a genre that's more about showing. Still, there were a few early Green Arrow comics that are important to know. But I'm glad that we have improved this genre. This was a pill I'm glad to have swallowed and don't have to repeat.

[Ian Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wears better than some of the other DC comics I've read around this era. However a lot of the stories feel rushed due to the condensed page quota they were given. Worth a read especially if you prefer your comics before they got more serious and complex. but I would definitely recommend dipping in and out of this book rather than reading on masse.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing bit of reading, and a pretty comprehensive collection of Green Arrow's Silver Age adventures--taking him from his Batman-clone-with-a-bow days to the more familiar left-wing champion of the oppressed.

[Buddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's full of adveture.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the extreme cheesiness that has come to be expected of Green Arrow- if you can appreciate boxing glove arrows then you will love this volume