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.

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.

Wouldn’t that make for an awfully long ballot?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.