I am upset at Lian's death because it highlights how deconstructive comic books have become. I am not against having heroes suffer, but there has to be a pay-off.
Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
Well, considering what Marvel has done to the Punisher there may be a market out there. However, DC already has a character like that in The Vigilante. Now why doesn't DC use The Vigilante? I think it has to do with a series of essays by a real life attorney. I can't find the link a this moment, but he destroyed the basis of The Vigilante's motives.
A reason I found on the DCMB is that Lian's very existance ages Roy. She's a casulty of the clamor for a more Silver Age feel to comics.
Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
Well, that's over. We've quite possibly seen four of the top ten worst superhero comic books ever... all spawned from one mini-series, generated from a previous mini/event that is starting to look respectable in comparison (Justice League: Cry For Justice).
There's been a lot of focus on this series. All of it negative...and all of it deserved. All but the first issue have had three pencil artists and at least two inkers. For the life of me, I can't understand why. It wasn't rush solicited and it isn't such an important book that several others would be damaged by it running late. The only explanation I can come up with is constant re-writes. Why do I feel this is likely the case?
Because one of the hallmarks of the series, continued in this issue, is inconsistency and things that just don't make any sense.
We have keys switching sides on an orderly's belt and his co-worker seemingly oblivious to physically struggling with Roy. Then there's a super-villain wearing his costume under his prison uniform and then having that directly contradicted by a comment by Harper. Of course, a jailed Green Arrow walking around in his full costume barely gets one to bat an eye after that. We have terrible perspective in the art, with blades that go from looking like knives to short swords and back again from one panel to the next. One of those blades somehow pulls a cellblock switch when thrown straight, which manages to damage the reader's ability to suspend disbelief more, something that previously seemed impossible. Yet I still paused out of incredulity when I noticed a large blotch of blood somehow wind up on a wall that would have been shielded by the attacker's body.
There's not much to say about the writing that hasn't already been said in reviews all across the internet for the first three issues. It's written at all times for extreme shock value, which leads to a product that only manages to be entertaining through the same way one might enjoy a movie that wins a Razzie: laughing with friend at how bad it is, as you gather together to pick it apart.
I think the idea to have Green Arrow wear his costume in prison is a direct result of Marvel. I think it was Bendis who established that villains could where their costumes because of good behavior.
Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
O’Shea: In the Legion book, the current storyline features the kidnapping of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad’s twin children. Were you hesitant to build a plotline around putting the heroes’ children at risk, given the recent negative reaction to the death of Liam (Roy Harper’s daughter) in the Justice League: Cry for Justice?
Levitz: I haven’t followed the reactions you’re referring to, but I think there’s a reality to children being at risk in the world, and certainly in the melodramatic world of the Legionnaires’ lives, it’s not unexpected.