Green Arrow (v3) #44

Green Arrow (v3) #44
"New Blood, Part Five: Positive"
Cover Date: January 2005
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Phil Hester (Pencils), Ande Parks (Inks)

Previously...

Okay, so Judd Winick was on one of the early season of The Real World, and that season had a roommate who had AIDS. Anyway, Judd Winick later wrote a comic about said roommate called Pedro and Me that was basically the only critically acclaimed thing he has ever done. So he decided to see if lightning could strike twice, I guess.

In terms of where Green Arrow is at this moment in time, well, it's still Ollie Queen, and his son Connor is hanging around, as well as a teenage girl he picked up named Mia. She was a former teen prostitute, which I only mention because the entire issue kind of hinges on that fact.

Plot

This issue picks up right after last issue's cliffhanger, where Ollie found out that Mia tested positive for HIV. Ollie demands to know how this possibly could have happened. Mia explains that as a teen prostitute, she had lots of unprotected sex and shared needles when she shot herself up with meth. And the doctor explains that HIV is transmitted through exactly those mechanisms.

Ollie then demands to know what the difference is between AIDS and HIV. The doctor explains that too, and then we get a discussion of viral loads and drug cocktails. Shit, I have this issue, which means about seven years ago I spent $2.50 on a fucking PSA. Shit, I'm the real victim here. I mean, Mia isn't even fucking real, and only got HIV so Judd Winick could try and steal some mainstream attention. I'm the guy who's never going to get that money back.

Meanwhile, Connor and some dude are talking about a crime-lord who managed to murder the former mayor and is slowly taking over Star City. Now this is a subplot I can get behind!

But, no! The reader shall not be given respite from this very important discussion of AIDS, so Connor gets a phone call and drops everything so he can go home and talk to Mia. Kind of sucks for the people of Star City that every hero in the city has decided to take a hiatus from crime-fighting so they can talk about AIDS, but, hey, they're fighting ignorance, and isn't that a much more dangerous foe than an crime lord who just killed several high-ranked city officials?

Connor shows up and the house of archery and immuno-deficiency so the characters can talk about HIV and AIDS some more. It turns out that the anti-viral drugs have side-effects. Mia decides she's done talking about this. Winick denies us this mercy:

Later that night, Ollie gets out of bed and angrily spars with some practice dummies in his basement. This does not cure Mia's HIV.

Anyway, it's suddenly two weeks later, and Connor decides to start accusing both Mia and Ollie of being in denial. "Every time you look at her, all you see is AIDS." Green Arrow has super-vision? Oh, he meant metaphorically. Hey, could Superman see if some had AIDS just by looking at them?

Connor then goes off on a diatribe about how Mia is living with AIDS, and that she's not going anywhere, and neither is her disease. Well, not until the DC Reboot, at any rate.

But Connor is not done with his denial busting yet! Not by a long shot. He talks to Mia later that night, and manages to coax her into admitting that having HIV makes her feel 'dirty' and that 'no one will want to be with her.' I can't believe I spent $2.50 on this. Fuck!

Connor's response? Kissing her. He then clarifies to mean that while he himself wants no part of her, that the kiss symbolizes that it would theoretically be possible for someone else to want her. And then the issue ends.

Next Issue: Mia announces to everyone in her high school that she has HIV and used to be a prostitute. Apparently if Mia has HIV, she's going to make every on the god-damned planet hear about it.  Also, she becomes Green Arrow's sidekick. I spent $2.50 on that issue too. I fucking hate my life.

Commentary

$2.50! That's money I'm never going to get back!  Fuck!

Damage Stars: **************

JSA # 71

JSA #71
"JSA/JSA, Chapter IV: Past Mistakes"
Cover Date: May 2005
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Don Kramer

Previously...

Per Degaton, a time-traveling Nazi, has decided to try and go back in time to fuck with JSA, since they keep thwarting his plans to change history so that the Nazis win. For whatever reason, he decides the best way to accomplish this is to head back to the early 50s and dick around with the past versions of the JSA. A bunch of the present-day members of the team get wind of this and head back in time to help out, and...well, that's about it, so far.

Plot
  
The Golden Age Atom is about to break into the Golden Age Hawkman's house for reasons too boring and meaningless to get into here. Atom Smasher, his future godson, steps in and they get into a fight. After a while, they stop fighting and start talking, and decide to help round up both version of the JSA to fight Degaton.

Still in 1951 the present-day Mr. Terrific has gotten himself captured by the Ku Klux Klan, which leads to him beating up them all up. Then he meets the past-Mr. Terrific who was in the area. The past-Mr. Terrific remembers the last time the two of them teamed up, which kind of encapsulates the problem of this story right, come to think of it. I mean, most of these guys have already hung out with their namesakes at some point, often for several decades.

Per Degaton finally appears in the story to torture the past Hourman for a while by wiping out his friends and family from ever having existed. But then the current Hourman, the past Hourman's son, shows up to rescue his dad. They both escape.

Stargirl and Starman also team up, with Stargirl trying to get Starman past his guilt of having help build the atomic bomb, which takes her exactly one page because if a teenage girl from the future tells you it's going to be okay, who are you to argue? This subplot is also notable for being a retread of the last few issues of James Robinson's Starman run.

Oh, and Sandman and past-Sandman, and the Johnny Thunders of two eras also come together to team up. Because most dudes reading comic books really want their comics filled with page after page of maudlin emotional conversations, especially if they're mostly retreads of earlier issues!

Both versions of the JSA convene to realize that while they want to stop Per Degaton, none of them actually know how to do that. The Hourmen bust in to announce that Degaton to assassinate the president of the United States! To Be Continued!

Commentary

I can remember a time when seeing the name 'Johns' emblazoned on the front of a comic didn't fill me with a sense of dread. And, in fact, I'm pretty sure it's comics like this one are what soured me on this one.


I guess, from a comparative standpoint, this really isn't so bad, the writing is decent and the art is good enough, but still, when 75% of a comic is about characters having stupid little sentimental moments, you kind of wonder...

Let's take the Atom and Atom-Smasher conversation, which is the centerpiece of this issue. The Atom is helping a bunch of goons arrest Hawkman for some nebulous reasoning that has to do with the Red Scare. But then the Atom decides he can't go through with it. It's a story of redemption. That is supposed to be a mirror of Atom-Smasher, who is currently on the outs with the JSA because he...murdered a few guys. In Atom-Smasher's defense, you can't help an anti-hero conquer a country without killing a few enemy soldiers. So, you've got some doubling there, but it's rather clumsy, and it's between two characters that no one has ever cared about, despite the two having been in existence for a combined eighty years at this point.

Still, the real problem here is if you were a kid in 2005, you just spent $2.50 on a comic that has roughly four times more heart-to-heart talks than fights, and that must have...wait, I bought this comic, and I basically have the emotional maturity of a kid, let me try and channel my past self:

2011 Dynamo: Past me, I have come from the future with an important question?
2005 Dynamo: Wait, you're from the future! Did the Cubs win the World Series?
2011 D: Fuck, they don't even win a playoff game,  but that's not why I'm here, I need to know, what was your reaction to JSA #71?
2005 D: The one with all of the talking? Why didn't anyone fight anyone? Why does Geoff Johns insist on making Stargirl a Mary Sue? Why? Answer me that, Future-Dynamo! Answer me now!

Damage Stars: ****
(It gets an extra star for obliquely mentioning the actual Damage in the story)