Comments on: The Only Review the Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special Needs

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:42:51 +0000

I’m remembering that story a while back where they explored how Hal Jordan brought Ollie back to life and revealed that Oliver Queen’s soul was still enjoying its rightful rest in the afterlife–what Hal was able to bring back was the physical shell with memories and whatnot, but no spiritual component. I wonder if that figures into the sudden out-of-character murderousness?

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:04:38 +0000

Oh, right, right, I’d forgotten how much I disliked that relationship as well. And I appreciate your optimism.

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:17:44 +0000

It sounds like he’s thinking of Storm & Black Panther.

And certainly, Marlowe, I can see your point. Given his current charges, he certainly should be thinking of Dinah’s motivations as well. I’m just providing a possible innocent explanation for this shortcoming, but it certainly is a failure on his part.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:30:19 +0000

Marlowe, who are you thinking of? I’ve quit reading so much Marvel these days.

By: Marlowe

Marlowe — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:33:11 +0000

Rob, I can certainly understand Winick focusing more on Ollie than Dinah given that he’s been writing Green Arrow for quite some time now. What bothered me was that he didn’t give a single reason why the marriage was in character for Dinah when most of the complaints I’ve seen regarding shoehorning this in have been related to her storyline. He may have only just become Dinah’s primary writer, but since that’s what he now is, I’d feel more reassured if it didn’t seem like her motivations were an afterthought.

Johanna, it does feel a little like history repeating here. I seem to recall another editorially mandated super hero wedding where the bride began acting very out of character as soon as marriage was in the picture just a year or so ago. Apparently the trend isn’t limited to just one publisher.

By: Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:20:30 +0000

…yeah. Now that you mention it, Don, it makes more sense in light of this particular turn of events.

By: Don MacPherson

Don MacPherson — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:23:43 +0000

On a related note, I guess we know why DC opted to have Red Arrow, not Green Arrow, join the lineup of the Justice League in the first story arc of the new series.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:53:32 +0000

Rob, that’s a great observation, that we missed out on the best part in favor of Canary obsessing over her ring.

Marlowe, isn’t that always what happens? I’m more disturbed by his revelation that we should be happy they didn’t kill off Dinah, as originally planned.

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:19:12 +0000

True — but he has been writing Ollie for around 50 issues, and is only starting out as Dinah’s primary writer. That’s probably a byproduct of that, more than anything else. He’s conditioned to think of Ollie first.

By: Marlowe

Marlowe — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:51:16 +0000

There’s an interview with Judd Winick up on Newsarama about this issue. In it he’s asked whether the marriage was shoehorned in, since many readers felt it was out of character, particularly for a post-Birds of Prey Dinah. I think it’s incredibly telling that he spends a paragraph talking about why this makes sense for Ollie, what his motivations are, how it fit well with his storyline, but gives not a single reason for the marriage fits with Dinah’s storyline and character.

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:38:21 +0000

Kelson said: Super-villains always seem to crash heroes' weddings. Sometimes they even crash heroes' relatives weddings. From what I can tell, the only way to avoid it is to get married off-panel. Even that doesn't really work. We had three friggin' specials on this wedding, and they still got married off-panel. Maybe it's me, but a wedding special should really have an "I do" scene.

By: Korkuss

Korkuss — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:34:53 +0000

I’m still shocked for the end of this issue…

And I don’t think that that is good

By: Don MacPherson

Don MacPherson — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:51:30 +0000

kjchen wrote:
There’s always Tales of the Teen Titans #50, where Wonder Girl marries non-super powered Terry Long. It’s too bad that a simple, lovely story like that (without the Ending You Must Not Miss!) probably wouldn’t make it past editorial nowadays.

Years later, that comic-book marriage ended in divorce, and later still, Donna’s husband and child were killed off.

Cheery.

By: Dani Atkinson

Dani Atkinson — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:14:08 +0000

Let’s just start inviting the supervillains. They’re gonna show up anyway. They may as well get cake.

By: kjchen

kjchen — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:59:29 +0000

There’s always Tales of the Teen Titans #50, where Wonder Girl marries non-super powered Terry Long. It’s too bad that a simple, lovely story like that (without the Ending You Must Not Miss!) probably wouldn’t make it past editorial nowadays.

By: tyler

tyler — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:33:12 +0000

y’know, this just made me think: where are the stories about female superheroes with non-powered husbands? wouldn’t that be a fun story, if someone like Wonder Woman or Power Girl got married to some regular guy and you had the reverse of the Peter/Mary Jane situation. Personally I think having a married superhero opens up lots of possibilities, but we’ve all seen what today’s creators have done with that. Maybe they’re too young to understand marriage or if they are married, they have a more old-fashioned view of it.

“The Incredibles” did a terrific job of showing us married heroes and it was one of the best superhero stories of… well, ever.

By: Mike Gold

Mike Gold — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:33:01 +0000

Like, none of these people ever heard of divorce? It’s the American way.

Ever notice how comics couples rarely (if ever) seem to cheat? They just go straight to the big death scene. American comic books seem to make a good argument for adultery. Well, I guess that’s the Comics Code for you…

By: Adam Arnold

Adam Arnold — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 01:41:42 +0000

To be perfectly honest, I read all three of the past three wedding specials in a row earlier this evening and loved it all until the Green Arrow/Black Canary: Wedding Special.

The Black Canary Wedding Planner was a lot of fun to read, and the Justice League of America: Wedding Special really shined in how it brought the “Legion of Doom” into the comics again. And then there is this mess of an actual Green Arrow/Black Canary: Wedding Special that has little to no continuity or characterization in common with the previous two books… it just made me sad that two books could be so good and then the one that was supposed to count ended up being so darn bad.

By: James Schee

James Schee — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:47:08 +0000

Ah… you know times like this I’m really glad that I stopped paying attention to DC/Marvel as a whole. (outside of trades of certain series I get at the library)

By: Kelson

Kelson — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:04:33 +0000

I didn't enjoy the fact they had to make it a 'villains crashing wedding' event

Super-villains always seem to crash heroes' weddings. Sometimes they even crash heroes' relatives weddings. From what I can tell, the only way to avoid it is to get married off-panel.