Radio-Play Comics - Green Arrow 5: The Black Arrow Saga (Mike Grell Run Part 5, issues 35-40)

[@fusionspace175]

I have to address an inconsistency having to do with Oliver and Shado making love. If you watch my episode Green Arrow 2: Here There Be Dragons, you can see the time period when it must have happened, and in that episode I say they made love at some point during a day of fishing and resting, while Oliver healed from his arrow wound, given to him by a surprised Shado when he found her. She does indeed care for him through days of delirious sleep as well though, and the fact is I don't know if she's just telling Dinah a lie to protect her feelings here, or if she's confessing a shameful truth. Ollie and Dinah's relationship isn't so strict that he couldn't have a one time fling with Shado, a purely physical act, without destroying it, he has quite a reputation as a ladies' man, and based on that I assumed that's what happened at the time. But it's equally possible it was just a platonic friendship and I read too much into it. In any case he does not seem to be consciously aware the child is his, at least not at this point in time, but he is later shown (after returning to life, I believe) to have known about Connor and pretended not to, so that is within his character as well. You'll just have to make up your own minds about what really happened, I've shown you the world as best as I can see it at every point, and it could also be an editorial retcon, for that matter. As for the old man Ollie meets on the mountain, I do hope no one will find it an offensive use of the 'magical Native American' trope, because if I were to guess, that's actually a literal forest spirit like the one Oliver met in England, and the DCU is a place where such things absolutely exist. It's entirely possible it just chose that way to appear to Ollie, wanting only to give a boost to his own spirit. I don't think it's too likely he imagined all or part of it, but that is also a possibility, if you prefer to take a more hardline realistic view. I do think that Mike Grell was making his best attempt to be respectful when borrowing from and representing Native American cultures, and given Oliver's break with the United States, he wanted to show a bond with a deeper part of the land, so he had a good reason in the story for doing so.

[@mrdgenerate]

Im so glad you make these. Cant imagine the time it takes. U the man 💪

[@fusionspace175]

With many of these comics, like Green Arrow, Batman Knightfall, and the Death of Superman, I've loved these stories for decades now, so it doesn't seem like much to ask to give them three weeks or so back, so other people can enjoy them too. Can you believe I used to crank out episodes every week in the beginning, then every two weeks? With my current computer and editing software I can't stick to that schedule anymore though, it's less suited to what I do.