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Next issue it'll be revealed that the shot didn't just make him brain dead, it gave him AIDS.

And made his legs fall off.

And the cloud did it because it thought Connor was gay (the cloud is homophobic).

SPOILERS -

Bad news is that he's alive. Good news is that he's brain dead. Not the ideal situation, but if it keeps him out of the books for a while I guess I'll take it.

Kudos to Winick for the maiming. Boo to keeping him alive.

Didn't the miniseries from last year end with him being made immortal or somesuch, or am I wildly misremembering?

It was pretty lame. When he comes back (because we know he will), he'll remarkably have no brain damage whatsoever. Sheesh. Just kill him if you don't like him.

The sad part is that he writes Connor a whole lot better than he writes Ollie.

There were two things about the issue that bugged me.

The first one was that it was a full issue of a zillion superheroes calling eachother by their first names. Non-stop. Was there even one use of a super-hero name in the book? He shouts "Clark". He couldn't shout Superman? If whoever shot Connor was still watching, they would be like... "so, Superman answers to Clark, eh?" Then, they all swap names in the hospital, most notably when "Diana" called Batman "Bruce"... when asking him is there was anyone around to overhear! "So, Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy, anyone about to hear our secret identities?"

Second, and this is just one of those 'new things' that everyone does now (esp in DC), but I am already sick of this thing where there is a tragic injury and ever hero coes to the hospital together and worries and/or mournes. I think the book should be able to have some time to itself. Every book does not need to be a Justice League book. Actually, yeah, sometimes it's like Justice Leaugue is the core book, and the single hero books are the spin-offs. No, let GA/BC stand on it's own!

I thought Connor bathed in dragon's blood or something in his mini series and that was supposed to give the other guy dragon mojo--so why not Connor? Certainly, he needs a jolt of interesting juju since being around his dad makes him turn to "the badass who almost beat Shiva" to "Connor, the ER Archer"...

And why I'm on my rant, they should have made him gay. He would be so much more fun as gay. Especially when liberal daddy GA has to deal with Connor picking up the manizing instead of womanizing.

Connor really got shafted. Or needs to be.

But if the heroes don't all come together, Jordan, then we miss an opportunity for dozens of captions telling us how they're like a big family!

Incidentally, interesting how there was no big pow-wow when Connor was shot by Onomotopoeia. Or when Roy was shot by... whoever the hell it was that shot him.

So between the Green Arrow and Black Canary wedding special and this, I'd say it's a safe bet that the new Titans series will open with most of the characters seemingly killed at the end of the one-shot sitting around in a hospital drinking orange juice and eating cookies. Looks like Winick is becoming quite fond of the old bait n' switch cliffhanger.

Not a bad tactic, really. These things get people talking about the book, which in turn makes more people check them out to see what happens next. It's not the best way to drum up interest in your book, but Winick isn't the best writer, anyway. I just hope he doesn't start overusing this trick, as it's fairly annoying.

Winick was so good in Exiles, when did he becameDC's official hack writer?

Winick was so good in Exiles, when did he becameDC’s official hack writer?

Aren't like 90% of DC's current writers official hacks? At least when writing under Didio's editorial watch?

And as far as that nonstop first name thing, who started that? Was it Loeb? I know Meltzer raised it to a whole new level, but who started the ball rolling?

To be fair, he wasn't actually that good on Exiles. I recently re-read the first couple arcs on that and realized how wrong I had been at the time.

What if GA JR. kept the brain damage, but wanted to continue being a superhero, and then the Justice League has to handle him constantly making a mess of things, because he's not fully functioning. I guess I just want to see Batman explain to someone that they are mentally disabled.

AWKWARD.

Kind of ironic, T., that you would be so in favor of the maiming of this character, and at the same time criticize DC's current maim/kill-exploitation style.

I'm critical of it, but at the same time if they are so gung ho about it they might as well get rid of Connor Hawke.

That being said, though, I flipped through the issue today and it was actually quite well written. Outside of the Meltzerish excessive use of first names, I thought it was emotionally genuine and somewhat poignant. And Cliff Chiang's art really sold it well also.

So, Conner gets to spend at least some of Winnick's run while in a coma? Sounds like he got lucky.

Pre-Crisis of 86, Black Canary met with Superman in the Fortress of Solitude and called him "Kal-El." He replied, "Call me Clark."

At the time, that seemed awesome and it made sense that the Fortress wasn't bugged. Now that it's the norm to use first names in public places, it seems pretty stupid. Having these guys seen Raising Arizona?

To be fair, Winick acknowledges the use of first names by having Black Lightning comment on it. Batman gives the all clear in a great bit of dialogue between he and WW.

Overall, I don't like the development, but I can live with it for now. It's not as bad as I had thought (i.e. Connor completely dead and gone) but Chiang's artwork was as fantastic as usual and Winick's script WAS genuinely moving in places, capturing the sense of urgency a panicked parent would have.

Any issue where Connor Hawke doesn't die is Eisner-worthy.

> Any issue where Connor Hawke doesn’t die is Eisner-worthy.

Wouldn't that make for an awfully long ballot?

Oops, sorry for the open tag.

Yeah, this issue was a disappointing resolution to what looked like a good story development. Especially because even while brain dead, Connor Hawke still continues his nauseating saintlike behavior as we discover that he always knew Ollie's misdeeds and was such a big man about it that he forgave him long ago. Connor Hawke reminds me of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election, where she's just so nauseatingly perfect it drives Broderick to insanity.

Black Canary dies next.

Logic progression---

1. Black Canary's adopted daughter was killed, then was alive.

2. Ollie was killed, then was alive.

3. Conner was killed, then is alive.

Black Canary is next, as she is the only main character left that hasn't been killed in the last 6 months.

Lame writing.