Green Arrow (vol.2) #27 (1989)
Green Arrow (vol.2) #27 (December, 1989)
“Enter…”
Writer – Mike Grell
Penciller – Dan Jurgens
Inks – Dick Giordano & Frank McLaughlin
Colors – Julia Lacquement
Letters – John Costanza
Assistant Editor – Katie Main
Editor – Mike Gold
Cover Price: $1.25
I am a lazy man at times. While I’m still very much in a Green Arrow mood, part of me is certain that we’re doing a fourth day in a row on the Emerald Archer simply because the box is still sitting in front of me.
Well, whatever the reason… I think we’re in for another treat!
It’s the Dual Van Dyke Show!
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We open at some dive bar near the pier in Seattle. A fellow with a really bad mohawk approaches a shadowy man with some very familiar facial hair. I’m not sure I’ll be able to “keep up” not knowing who this “shadowy man” actually is, but we’ll do our best. The punk brandishes a blade, however, the stranger quickly makes the fella realize his folly.
Back at Sherwood Florist, Ollie returns from a night-out, and gets bandaged up by Dinah. They talk about how good Dinah’s getting at wrapping… which is clearly an indictment on just how long Oliver’s been at this vigilante-ing. I’ll try not to go on (and on) about how neat it is to see one of our heroes actually age… just more of that “history” DC so callously flushed. Anyhoo, Ollie and Dinah head downstairs.
Elsewhere, our shadowy man is approached by a prostitute. He declines the offer, but thinks to himself that Seattle is a lot friendlier a town than he thought. It’s pretty funny. The lady of the evening, however, doesn’t take kindly to the rejection and thinks some choice words to herself (which I won’t include here).
We follow the shadowy man, as he turns down an alley. He finds out just how friendly this town is, when he walks right into a street gang… who he scares off with the quickness.
Back at Sherwood, Dinah and Ollie spar… then make out. Just another night in for these two!
Back to the shadowy man… as we walks across a bridge. He is approached by some “connected” looking fellas, who have a message for him. They throw an arrow at him… and accuse him of offing some “worm” named Benny.
They’re here to kill the shadowy man… however, give him the option of just throwing himself off of the bridge. There is some doubt, however, that they got the “right guy” here… but c’mon… how many people in this town have such a stunning Van Dyke beard?
Our man ain’t havin’ none of this… and so, he chucks the arrow he was tossed right through one’a the wise guys’ throats!
Then… a bolt of lightning illuminates the sky… and we can finally see who we’ve been following this whole time. Could it… nah, it couldn’t be… (c’mon, play along).
One of the baddies the hops in his car and attempts to just run Travis over! Our man just calmly stands there… draws his pistol… and shoots the car. It’s pretty great. Morgan tells the fella that it’s time for a chat.
We jump ahead… back to Sherwood, where Ollie is awakened by a knocking at the door. Ollie is shocked… bamboozled even, when he answers the door and sees… well, a dude who looks just like him!
He’s even more shocked by the “message” he has for him!
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Another super fun issue… that kinda pokes fun at some of Mike Grell’s protagonists having a certain similar “look”.
I love that Ollie is so notorious around the city that, just bearing a passing resemblance to him might get your block knocked off… that is, of course, if you aren’t Travis Morgan… the Warlord.
The streets of Seattle… yikes. Having just returned from a trip there myself, it wasn’t the… cleanest, or most visitor-friendly of cities… but, it wasn’t anything like this. Then again, I suppose the 1980’s were a long time ago indeed.
The Dinah and Ollie scenes, as we’ve come to expect, were very very strong. I’m fighting the urge to go all “Chris” on ya here… but, it’s just more of those connections and relationships that were tossed to the wayside for a twitter bump, and television show synergy… but weren’t/aren’t reflected in long-term sales gains.
Anyhoo… not all that much more to say about this issue. It’s setting the table for what’s to come next. It was really funny to have Ollie and Travis face-to-face. I’m sure readers at the time were pretty gobsmacked!
Overall… fun issue, and certainly worth your time! Some great early-ish Dan Jurgens art here. It’s crazy to imagine that he’s like two and a half years away from killing Superman at this point! This issue by it’s lonesome isn’t available digitally yet, however the collected edition it’s a part of is!
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