InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I AM NOT A CROOK!"

dr_hermes (dr_hermes) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-16 22:47:00

Entry tags:

char: aquaman/orin/arthur curry, char: green arrow/oliver queen, char: green lantern/hal jordan, era: silver age, publisher: dc comics, title: justice league of america

Just how strong IS Green Arrow anyway?
Just a few panels from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA# 5, with the usual Gardner Fox appproach of giving kids exciting, colorful epics that regard the laws of physics as mere suggestions.

Okay then. Green Arrow climbs out of his jet in mid-air (leaving it on auto-pilot, I suppose). Standing on the wing and not getting blown off by the 600 mph winds, he whips three fishing-hook arrows out of his quiver and fires them in close succession. Not only does he manage to snap his teammates who are falling from another plane (and look how far away they are in that first panel), he then grabs the fishing lines and lowers all three of them to the ground. He's reeling down roughly six hundred pounds of dead weight from a jet to the ground. Damn. If he can do things like that, he doesn't need a bow and arrows to fight crime.I loved Fox's stories for their imagination and outlandishness, but honestly, the guy went overboard as soon as he put paper in his typewriter...

char: green arrow, era: silver age, creator: gardner fox

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	blaketiger 2009-09-17 02:56 am UTC (link)
	This goes a long way to proving my Unified Bowstring Theory. (Arrows>>>>Physics) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-09-17 03:30 am UTC (link)
	This could be the breakthrough the scientific community has been hoping for. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sistermagpie 2009-09-17 03:43 am UTC (link)
	That's damn impressive shooting, Ollie. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	aaron_bourque 2009-09-17 04:35 am UTC (link)
	. . . please. That? That's nothing. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sd_mouser 2009-09-17 04:43 am UTC (link)
	I tend to ask myself what the pull is from that bow. The non-compound bow. The one he uses constantly. His arm strength is probably JUST shy of being listed as "meta" (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jcbaggee 2009-09-17 06:36 am UTC (link)
	I seem to recall him saying during "The Archer's Quest" that his bow and a 100 pound pull on it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kamino_neko 2009-09-17 02:01 pm UTC (link)
	200, I believe. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ashtoreth 2009-09-17 05:03 am UTC (link)
	I totally did that in Dungeons and Dragons. -_- (Reply to this)

	ex_zemo315 2009-09-17 09:59 am UTC (link)
	Well, he DID strangle Solomon Grundy, who represents a problem even for Superman, with his broken bow... (Reply to this)

	alschroeder 2009-09-17 01:55 pm UTC (link)
	The Arrowplane is also a hoverjet? He tied the lines to the wings? There's an arrow-winch built into the wings? Ahhh, you're right. Ridiculous. Fun, but ridiculous. Still...I love how Gardner Fox got six months' worth of plotting these days into one single issue. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-09-17 07:15 pm UTC (link)
	I have a strange cognitive dissonance. Even though I realize Silver Age stuff like this is hopelessly silly and implausible, I love it to bits. It's fun. It's colorful, flamboyant and imaginative. And I don't find myself hating the world after reading it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-17 07:17 pm UTC (link)
	Which is more than you can say for nine-tenths of TODAY'S comics... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	deepspaceartist 2009-09-17 02:27 pm UTC (link)
	Honestly, even recently he's stated to be using a 200-pound pull bow IIRC. Ollie doesn't need martial art skills. He can just break your bones with one hand. (Reply to this)

vitruvian23
2009-09-17 03:44 pm UTC (link)

Well, I have to think that the Arrowjet has some kind of hover capability or at least a very slow stall speed, otherwise, he'd be plowing his friends into the ground at 600 mph as well.

That being said, his arm strength would have to be amazing in order to handle, as you say, at least 600 lbs of dead weight, even assuming that he's just lowering them using the bow as a lever or something, and couldn't pull them back up. Not that plenty of costumed crimefighters don't handle nearly as much weight, more dynamically, whenever they're swinging on a grappling line with a passenger...

But yeah, with that kind of arm strength, and only needing to hold the draw for a split-second, GA should be able to use at least the estimated 180 lbs draw weight for a historical English longbow (far greater than either competition or hunting draw weights of most modern bows), and possibly greater with a custom bow. Given these panels, I might say he could even go up to a 300 lb draw weight, and be shooting regular arrows with more penetrating power than bullets from most handguns.

(Reply to this)

	btravage.livejournal.com 2009-09-18 01:40 am UTC (link)
	Ya'know, a compound bow wouldn't look THAT out of place. What with all the other high tech gadgets he has strapped to his arrows already. (Reply to this)

psychop_rex
2009-09-18 04:48 am UTC (link)

You know, it's entirely possible that he looped the strings around something off-panel, letting the plane take the weight, and then lowered them down on a sort of pulley setup. (Yeah, it's implausible, but, y'know, so's the other thing.) What struck ME was not that - what struck me was the casual mention of 'fishhook arrows - which I use for fishing when on vacation'. Say WHAT now, Green Arrow? You catch fish by firing arrows at them and then reeling them in? I suppose it's not the worst strategy in the world, but for something that's supposed to be a relaxing sport, it strikes me as kinda missing the point.

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	mari_redstar 2009-09-19 01:24 am UTC (link)
	Ollie doesn't actually like fishing. He just likes finding stuff that doesn't need to be glued to arrows and gluing it to arrows. (See also: drill-arrow, gun-arrow, plastic-cat-arrow, doorbell-ringing-arrow.) His and Dinah's love life is unique. And long-range. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-09-19 03:02 am UTC (link)
	Well, one of the things he glues to arrows is fish. Not cut-up filleted fish, either - straight-out-of-the-water, untouched-by-human-hands-except-to-glue-'em-to-arrows-type fish. He must get 'em from somewhere. (Reply to this) (Parent)