BrianWilly
Disciple of Whedon
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Okay so the below review sounds kinda negative, but really I should mention that any opportunity to see Connor strike out on his own and be in the spotlight again fills my insides with a distinct gooey warmth. So for all my btchin', I do plan on enjoying the hell out of this miniseries.
With that said, thoughts from B/T thread...
Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood #1
The really good thing about having a character's longtime writer come back to write the character again is that there's no question that the character will be treated with respect, will be very well understood, and well be portrayed as the fans like him/her to be portrayed. This was the case when Ron Marz returned to handle Kyle Rayner recently. The bad thing about having a character's longtime writer come back to write the character again is that, very often, events and progressions which happened after said writer stopped writing the character will be forgotten, ignored, or mishandled. That's unfortunately the case in this instance as Chuck Dixon comes back to write Connor Hawke.
Connor's back at the monastery where he grew up and hanging out with Eddie Feyers, which at once seems a bit odd considering what he's been doing for the last few years. It's not out of character for Connor to return to the monastery for solace or reassociate with Eddie of course; it's the motivation that seems odd, the motivation being that he's feeling adrift and conflicted towards Ollie. But the idea of Connor still having a lot of unresolved father issues regarding Ollie just rings hollow right now. Sorry, but it does. I realize that it was a significant plot point throughout Dixon's run, but that was when he thought his father was blowed up good and he would never have a chance to properly resolve those unresolved issues. Since Ollie's return, writers like Smith, Winick, and Meltzer had done incredible things in reference to those very issues, and while Connor may not have been on the shiniest of terms with his father the last we've seen him, I think it's fair to say that he's long since moved past the point where he'd have scary dreams with his dad shooting him with arrows and calling him second best. And I can't, in all honesty, drum up that much enthusiasm for a miniseries that's likely going to be filled with those ideas. It made sense when Ollie was dead. But nowadays when Ollie's just a phone call away and more than capable of (if not actually willing to) hearing his son blab about his issues, it just rings hollow.
With that particular tidbit out of the way, how does the rest of the issue stand up? Well, it stands up mostly as an introductory issue, which means that we got a lot of exposition and set-up, which means not a lot actually happens and a lot of characters are introduced that we don't really care about yet. Which is just fine; this is just the intro, and it does its job well. I'm looking forward to this archery competition and all of the wackiness that's bound to ensue.
And the ending of the issue was a real treat; Shado's back, and of course everyone knows that Shado's the mother of Ollie's other illegitimate child, which promises a lot of fun angst very very soon. For all my rantings about Connor's father issues, Ollie's infidelity and basic ****in' ways is one of those issues that actually makes sense for Connor to still be hung up about, given that it obviously influenced him directly and is one of the few things we've seen to actually get him full-on pissed.
And hey, props to the artist for actually remembering for once that Connor is mixed.
So I give this issue a...
(6.8 out of 10)
...with the acknowledgment that it might, and probably will, get significantly better.
With that said, thoughts from B/T thread...
Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood #1
The really good thing about having a character's longtime writer come back to write the character again is that there's no question that the character will be treated with respect, will be very well understood, and well be portrayed as the fans like him/her to be portrayed. This was the case when Ron Marz returned to handle Kyle Rayner recently. The bad thing about having a character's longtime writer come back to write the character again is that, very often, events and progressions which happened after said writer stopped writing the character will be forgotten, ignored, or mishandled. That's unfortunately the case in this instance as Chuck Dixon comes back to write Connor Hawke.
Connor's back at the monastery where he grew up and hanging out with Eddie Feyers, which at once seems a bit odd considering what he's been doing for the last few years. It's not out of character for Connor to return to the monastery for solace or reassociate with Eddie of course; it's the motivation that seems odd, the motivation being that he's feeling adrift and conflicted towards Ollie. But the idea of Connor still having a lot of unresolved father issues regarding Ollie just rings hollow right now. Sorry, but it does. I realize that it was a significant plot point throughout Dixon's run, but that was when he thought his father was blowed up good and he would never have a chance to properly resolve those unresolved issues. Since Ollie's return, writers like Smith, Winick, and Meltzer had done incredible things in reference to those very issues, and while Connor may not have been on the shiniest of terms with his father the last we've seen him, I think it's fair to say that he's long since moved past the point where he'd have scary dreams with his dad shooting him with arrows and calling him second best. And I can't, in all honesty, drum up that much enthusiasm for a miniseries that's likely going to be filled with those ideas. It made sense when Ollie was dead. But nowadays when Ollie's just a phone call away and more than capable of (if not actually willing to) hearing his son blab about his issues, it just rings hollow.
With that particular tidbit out of the way, how does the rest of the issue stand up? Well, it stands up mostly as an introductory issue, which means that we got a lot of exposition and set-up, which means not a lot actually happens and a lot of characters are introduced that we don't really care about yet. Which is just fine; this is just the intro, and it does its job well. I'm looking forward to this archery competition and all of the wackiness that's bound to ensue.
And the ending of the issue was a real treat; Shado's back, and of course everyone knows that Shado's the mother of Ollie's other illegitimate child, which promises a lot of fun angst very very soon. For all my rantings about Connor's father issues, Ollie's infidelity and basic ****in' ways is one of those issues that actually makes sense for Connor to still be hung up about, given that it obviously influenced him directly and is one of the few things we've seen to actually get him full-on pissed.
And hey, props to the artist for actually remembering for once that Connor is mixed.
So I give this issue a...
(6.8 out of 10)
...with the acknowledgment that it might, and probably will, get significantly better.
.
