Sunday, May 3, 2015

Episode 10: Slingshot

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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3 comments:

  1. 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!)

    So, 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!

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  2. 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.

    I 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

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  3. 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.

    If 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.

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