Did you miss me?
Because I sure missed all you guys! A few years back, some smart ass comic geek sent a letter to the editors of 411mania’s comic pages, demanding to know why there wasn’t much more coverage of Crossgen, the next big thing in comics.
This obnoxious fan ended up becoming a regular reviewer and columnist for 411mania and stuck around when they all moved to Inside Pulse and became the Nexus. But our story would have a tragic ending when young Skitch would find himself married with a child on the way and no time to devote to writing for his beloved Nexus.
I still loved the site and was a regular reader, including helping out with some ghost editing. But, that never matched the enjoyment I got from writing for Nexus, so after some discussion with our newest editor, I’M BACK!!
But, there was a slight problem with that. Due to disinterest in the current direction of the comic industry, I haven’t bought a new comic in almost two years. What would I talk about? I could have just done a column complaining, but that wouldn’t be particularly fun to read or write.
Then my wife reminded me of the boxes and boxes of comics and trades in our crawlspace and my charge became clear. I MUST TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THE GREAT STORIES OF YEARS PAST THEY MIGHT HAVE MISSED!
Besides, this gives me a great excuse to not get rid of them, “I can’t, honey, they are for research purposes!”
So, welcome to “A Skitch in Time” (thanks for the name, Grey), a new bi-weekly column that will hopefully find bring some buried gems back to the surface.
First up, Green Arrow (1988) 27 and 28.
I am a huge Mike Grell fan. Warlord, Green Arrow, Job Sable, I even loved his Iron Man run. Both as a writer and as an artist, Mike Grell sets a nearly impossible standard. Granted, I have no idea what he was thinking with this outfit for Cosmic Boy when he started as Legion’s artist, but hey, it was the 70’s.
One of Mike Grell’s most memorable creations is Travis Morgan, the Warlord. Fun fact, Warlord was the only book Marvel or DC launched in the seventies that stuck around until just about the 90’s (Warlord’s first run was from 1976-1988).
So who is the Warlord? Other than a real snappy dresser:
In his first appearance, way back in First Issue Special #8 (a series that also debuted Mikaal Tomas as Starman, which I am sure will be discussed in a later column), Travis Morgan is a Air Force pilot flying a SR-71 jet across the North Pole. His flight takes him into a hole in the Earth’s crust and he ends up in the Savage Land…I mean Skartaris.
Travis ends up using his trusty .44 to become Skartaris’s most celebrated warrior, the Warlord. It was just a fun sword and sorcery book with a lot of modern twists and turns. Warlord would go on last for 133 issues, and the Warlord and Skartaris would later appear in a bunch of cameos (including in Jurgen’s short lived Teen Titans), a Warlord mini-series in the 90’s, an episode of Justice League Unlimited, and a recently canceled comic series, also written by Mike Grell, which provided a proper fairwell to the Travis Morgan.
But I am getting WAY ahead of myself here.
What does any of this have to do with Green Arrow?
Travis was created to look a lot like his creator Mike Grell, and when Mike Grell took over Green Arrow (The Longbow Hunters, another MUST READ comic), the two characters ended up looking a lot alike.
Grell’s Green Arrow run was part of DC’s efforts to launch a line of comics for more mature readers. This didn’t mean load it up with nudity, blood, and cursing, it meant that the characters would tackle much more serious issues than most superhero comics had dealt with up until them. Grell wrote a very realistic Green Arrow title that really built on the great ideas that Denny O’ Neill developed in Green Lantern/Green Arrow.
During Grell’s run, Ollie didn’t fight demons or super villains, but instead he took on street crime and social issues. At the same time, we saw that Ollie was really starting to show his age. The book still had some humor and whimsy, but at the same time, it was also a very gritty read.
In issues 27 and 28, Grell decided to have some fun with his two most popular works. The Warlord arrives in Seattle from Skartaris and is immediately assaulted by criminals who think he’s the Emerald Archer because of their very similar looks. Travis easily dispatches his stream of assailants, and finds out that these attacks can all be tracked back to Green Arrow, so his tracks down Ollie just to slug him.
It’s puts a nice spin on the “two heroes meet, fight, and then team up to fight the bad guys” cliche. Travis’s actions cause a local crime lord to decide to go after the two of them, and Ollie, Black Canary and Travis all end up fighting together to stop them.
The story is very fast paced, told in just two issues, and provides a much needed break from the darker Green Arrow stories that Grell excelled at.
And Dan Jurgens is the perfect artist for this book. When I started reading comics, I first encountered Jurgens as a writer on Superman, but his art is full of action, and he really can tell a great story.
You can tell that Mike Grell and Dan Jurgens had a lot of fun working on these issues, and the end result is fun for the readers too.
This is something that I constantly fear is missing from comics these days. Short, punchy stories that seem to be just about reminding you how fun comics can be.
I found both these issues in a dollar bin a few years ago, and I would definitely recommend checking them out.
Other Thoughts
Hope you guys enjoyed the column. It was a lot less rusty than I was afraid of, so yey for that!
A column is only as good as the reader feedback, so please drop me a line with any comments, criticisms, or other books you’d like to see me take on. See you in two weeks!
