Green Arrow Annual #6 (1993) Bloodlines Earthplague Part 3

[pyrotwilight]

I'm sure you've noticed the trend of how the Bloodlines Annuals tend to go by now with long drawn out appearances and attacks and the like. It's rather odd how this issue plays the Parasites angle and how little actual battling there is and  how much story there is instead which I'm guessing was a staple of the Mike Grell Green Arrow run.


18 pages from a 56 page story.

 

During this period in Green Arrow's live he essentially was living a very simple life and acting as Robin Hood in apparently Seattle and as far as I can tell his identity was also public knowledge given how the story goes.

The story opens with Ollie busting some would be art thieves.

 

Enter Kieron Masterson.



(Did Ollie fight in Vietnam or is it him just saying everyone felt great loss from the Vietnam war?)

Ollie and Mr. Masterson get hit by a Thunderstrike err I mean lightningstrike and we see a quick memory flashback in Masterson's head.

 

The two however are luckily fine (damn that's a rather random and unlucky event...)

After the two part Ollie heads back to his hole in the ground (rather literal in this case) and while exhausted sees he has a letter for a Bowyers Children Sanctuary Gala addressed to him, Oliver Queen, so I'm assuming his identity was public since he shows up there in full Green Arrow garb without anyone raising an eye.

There he spots a certain redhead.



And yes, I love how Lissik pretty much admits she's evil to Ollie but he writes it off as a joke. This is also one of the most "human" looks we've seen of the Parasites and ever really do. I guess she actually invested the time into researching Green Arrow since she likes strong men? Before eating them anyway and I'm assuming her "clay" are men to her with the centuries thing as a joke or she was just making stuff up, either way.



And yes, those were the same fellows Ollie had pinned at the beginning of the story, they were found and used as food by Lissik but the police use the cover story of the lightning killing them so that they can talk to Green Arrow about what he saw when he was there.

Meanwhile Mr. Masterson gets attacked by some guys trying to get some laughs but who Masterson starts to beat the crap out of.

 

This display of manly awesome attracts a certain female.



 

We then see a side of the war not often brought up. How the Vietnamese ran brothels and had their women sleep with the soldiers as a way of making money from the soldiers though they at least paint it in a not completely awful light by having Masterson make a point that they're doing whatever they can just to survive, particularly since the Vietnamese know the US won't be keeping their soldiers here to help forever.

One of the men selling his women's services is a man named Tranh who offers his cousin Nguyen Thi Linn to Masterson who's the Captain of his squad now. At first Masterson is completely refusing the idea but takes him up on the offer when he sees some of his fellow soldiers are essentially about to treat her like a slab of meat.

 



 

And so Masterson begins a mad dash to get his future in laws out of Vietnam with him. But hopes do not always happen.



And the flashback ends with us finding out he never did see Linn again and while not specified the explosion from his vehicle is presumably what caused his disfigurement. A very sad story indeed. But while he never did see or hear from the two again he believes they did make it out alright.

And so Lissik ends her quest for info about Masterson (why'd she care anyway, really? Oh well, exposition.) and does what she does.

 

And then we'll skip the next bits but basically just have Masterson found and put into the morgue and he wakes finding himself transformed no longer blind (at least not in a conventional way) he sees the world like an infrared radar seeing heat signals everywhere rather than having his actual sight back and finds his hook hand changed as well, able to seemingly cut through objects with amazing ease. At first he thinks he's dead but soon wises up and heads to track Lissik.

 

Ollie has been tracking Masterson in connection to the mysterious deaths which the police suspected he might be a part of and shoots in an arrow at him giving Lissik time to attack back..

 

Ollie quickly falls under Lissik's control and is almost about to be preyed on.



The powerbox shocks Lissik and she vanishes with the two losing track of her in the flash of light from it exploding on her.





I'll admit this was a treat compared to some of the other annuals since it focused more on everyone's characterization. I'd have loved to see what it'd be like if Masterson ever got back to Vietnam or otherwise re-united with Linn and as a Vietnam survivor stories with him in the modern day would've been interesting to see since he's clearly not as kill happy as other Vietnam based characters *cough*Punisher*cough* He'd have even been interesting to see in government based groups as well given his past as a soldier and so on.                                           

Comments

[aaron_bourque]

Ollie never fought in Vietnam.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; and his line about it is actually kinda stupid.

[psychopathicus_rex]

He never FOUGHT in Vietnam, but it is - or was - part of his history that he was an active protester against it back while it was going on, and romantically involved with a radical activist who took things a step further, so it's perfectly in character for him to have been AFFECTED by the war. Hell, my dad never fought in it, but it certainly affected HIM.

[aaron_bourque]

Yeah, but . . . being a veteran means something. I kind of have a personal issue about this sort of thing, because while my father served in the Marine Corps during the war, he was never actually sent overseas (by a series of strange coincidences or miracles I don't know, but if he'd've been sent, I likely wouldn't be here today, so there's that).

And for a protester to claim to be a vet?

Nooooooo.

[psychopathicus_rex]

He's not claiming to be a VET, he's simply saying that the war affected him.

[aaron_bourque]

He literally says "we all are veterans" of that war.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, yeah, but he's speaking metaphorically. The Vietnam War wrung America out - whether you were fighting in it, protesting it, or just reading about it in the paper and watching it on the news, one couldn't help but be affected by it. It was a major, major thing - if you lived through the period, it was bound to affect you SOMEhow.

[btravage]

Which is why it's 100% in character.

[aaron_bourque]

Well, yes. Don't get me wrong, I love Ollie, but he is a massive bonehead.

[recognitions]

Yeah, I would think Masterson would have been ready to punch Ollie in the head for that comment.

[kamino_neko]

Ollie's ID was known at this point. All through Grell's run and into the last series before the current one until Winick took over, his ID was publicly known. Though for most of Smith's run, he tried to maintain separate identities, but nobody - NOBODY - failed to realize Oliver Queen and Green Arrow were the same person. Mia had a bit that I can't really remember when he tried it on her, but it amounted to 'ok, you saved me, so I'm going to humour you', when he sought her out as Oliver Queen after saving her as Green Arrow. (And I suspect that was mostly because of his initially returning from the dead with everything after travelling the US with Hal missing from his memory.)

[psychopathicus_rex]

So... how'd he get the costume, then?

[pyrotwilight]

Self transformation apparently. Admittedly weird but in a non posted page he does sense there's energy flowing through him which might be some kind of handwavy explanation, maybe some slight reality warping since his physiology essentially changes dramatically from one form to another between being younger and having essentially a magic cutting Hook on him.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Hrrm. Well, I guess if his powers are really some sort of shapeshifting, that would make a sort of sense - after all, J'onn does that all the time.

[kamino_neko]

It appears to be a side-effect of his powers.

[silverzeo]

So... whats with the belt.... harness thing on the guy's costume?

[pyrotwilight]

Looks like stylized armor to me.

[shanejayell]

Wow that is a 90's costume. *bleh*

[halloweenjack]

Yeah. Well-written background but if you stuck him in a line-up with every other 90s superhero, it would be tough to pick him out.

Pet Peeves

[featheredserpent]

It's Seattle! So of course it rains all the time and you can see the Space Needle from anywhere in town. That's how you can tell it's Seattle, even though everything else looks like Manhattan. Way to do your research, guys.

Re: Pet Peeves

[wizardru]

You need to expect that every movie, comic book and TV show around is going to misrpresent any location that isn't Manhattan, Los Angeles or Toronto. Because that's where most of the creators live and create.

Of course, even NYC and LA aren't exempt from misrepresentation. Here in Philly, we've acted as stand-ins for NYC (most recent example: Limitless) or Paris (Transformers 2). And of course most shows completely misrepresent the cities there in (if you were to believe National Treasure, then one could run from CIty Hall to Independence Hall in about 3 minutes). Hell, these days, I'll settle for them just getting the skyline right.

All that said, I only see the Space Needle in one shot, there. Not that egregious, all things considered.

[wizardru]

I like how his superpowers also suddenly allow him to become young, too. I mean, if we assume that he was still 22 at the Fall of Saigon, that makes him a minimum of 40 here...but I guess he becomes all super-heroey and becomes young? And ripped, I guess.

Do they discuss how he gets this whole costume gig or does it just appear fully-formed from the eye of Zeus? The costume itself is very 90s,but not too bad...but that pony-tail? UGH.

[pyrotwilight]

Yeah, his costume is just a side effect of his powers.