Reviewing the Black Canary story "Rainbows of Doom" and is Green Arrow-focused sequel "Slings and Arrows" from World's Finest Comics #244. Two great stories with art by Mike Nasser and Terry Austin that add two more rogues to Black Canaries Jailbirds.
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Sample pages from World's Finest #244.
Music this episode:
"Jump (For My Love)"
The Pointer Sisters
Planet Records, 1984.
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I was a kid on the Dollar Comic age. Back then that was a lot of money but you got a lot of pages. I tended to get Superman Family or Adventure, rarely spending the precious 'Washington' to get Worlds' Finest. (I do have absolutely vivid memories of WF #258 though, a story about a Kryptonian Lycanthropy virus!)
ReplyDeleteSo, much like the solo Canary reviews, these will be new to me.
First off, like you, I enjoy when villains use ranged martial weapons against Green Arrow. So Slingshot works for me here as well. I always thought Javelin should be an Arrow rogue. And even Slipknot works better for Ollie.
While the Rainbow Archer is quirky (he doesn't instill the fear that Merlyn does), I would like him as a Canary nemesis. Her having to fight an archer would resonate given the Green Arrow connection.
Perhaps the best thing about this story though is the art. I am a big Nasser/Netzer fan. Dinah looks unbelievable here, beautiful and strong. He drew a Martian Manhunter story guest starring Supergirl where Kara looks gorgeous. I can't put my finger on it exactly but Nasser's style reminds me of a perfect blend of Marshall Rogers and Mike Grell.
Look forward to the next review session!
I love Nasser's stuff...especially from this period. He drew a story in The Batman Spectacular (DC Special Series #15), and that was one of the first Batman comics I had bought for me off the rack. I seem to recall that lovely opening image of Canary being used on some merchandise at some point. It will come to me later.
ReplyDeleteI have this comic, so it's fudging with my memory if I saw Rainbow Archer anywhere besides here. I know Slingshot resurfaces during Ollie's run in Detective, drawn by Gil Kane! I agree, his costume is the type you just don't see anymore. Not overdesigned, but functional, and still a bit stylish. I'm a sucker for the Red Dart as well, thanks to a reprint of his first appearance in a DC Digest in the early 80s.
Neither of these guys got Who's Who entries, which is a shame. The Earthworm did, but they didn't. That ain't right.
Chris
Been very busy the last few weeks, and will continue to be for weeks to come, so sorry about the lack of comments. Also, I thought I'd already commented on this one, so I'm that much deeper in dutch.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, I had a copy of this issue for sale at my shop back in the day. Never read it myself, since it didn't feature any characters I was really into at the time.
Michael Netzer ran a campaign for work and recognition a number of years ago that centered on his association with J'onn J'onzz based on his three strips for the character in 1977. I got a lovely blog banner out of those efforts, but it seems like Nasser had as much of a potential claim to stake on Black Canary, which may have afforded him greater success. He has to be one of the historical best Dinahrtists, right?
The Rainbow Archer is such a Mort. Bad as he is, how could they have missed the obvious RainBOW pun? He's the kind of guy Slingshot would have killed in a Starman filler issue from 1998 just to build up whatever rep that's worth. Slingshot's got Bronze Age cool, though.