The Internal Damage Of The Hood: A History Behind Green Arrow
To whomever coined the term, Sweet Sixteen, you sir or madam are a liar. I remember my sixteenth year being one of the worst years of my life. It all started a couple months shy of my sixteenth birthday when my mother told us that our father had been abusing some substances, which I will remain nameless. She told us that there may be a slight chance of us moving to Texas to live with my aunt. Thats how serious the condition of my fathers addiction really was. That was just my home life. Thats not to mention the subjects in school I was failing and the issues with the girl I was dating at the time. All of this started coming down and weighting on me pretty darn heavy.
So I thought and pondered over a few sleepless nights and broke up with that girlfriend and focused most of my attention to the production of Guys and Dolls I was doing on top of everything else. Cue in a closing weekend for the production and a new girlfriend. Yup, that fast. Only but a mere three months into dating, Ill never forget my parents sitting me and my sister down with my youth pastor and his wife to tell us about my fathers addiction issues and the reasons behind them. Now lets fast forward another six months into that sixteenth year. I am currently failing two of my classes, still trying to deal with the fact of my fathers addiction and his attempted suicide only months before. To add all this up, lets throw in the girl I thought I was gonna marry cheating on me and my own thoughts of suicide. Not being prideful or cocky, but I know a thing or two about being damaged.
Which actually makes me thank God for Mort Weisinger and George Papp creating Oliver Queen in 1941. They were the gentleman who ushered in the creation of Green Arrow. Without them, Id have no one to relate to in this series. So thank you guys, who are probably dead, for giving the world a beautiful green archer. Damaged is our point of discussion this week, quite possibly the most psychological take on Oliver thus far into the series. We actually open up and see a flashback which sees Oliver being kidnapped by soldiers on the island. That in and out of itself should be enough to kind of scary anybody. Ive seen documentaries in which individuals discuss the toll of how being kidnapped replays on them psychologically. Almost like a home movie stuck within your replay that just replays itself over and over; having certain sights, sounds and smell trigger certain elements of the horrific memory. That alone should be enough for you to deal with, but it gets more extreme. Well talk about that in a little bit though. Last week, we close with the Queen household being bombarded with police accusing Oliver of being The Hood. Detective Lance is so convinced that Oliver is the vigilante. He carries the mentality that he has him figured out but Oliver is smarter than we give him credit for. Perhaps, the time on the island has made him wiser. Oliver reveals to Digg that getting caught was part of his plan. It was only a matter of time before someone caught onto the fact that this vigilante shows up right around the time of his arrival home. The thing that works so well with this episode is the fact that we only see very little of the villains and arrows but are more focused on the psychological toll the island took on Oliver. I think too many times in this comics culture we want these superheroes to be well, super. Beating up the bad guys and being totally awesome. No one ever wants to talk about the toll it takes on being a hero. Thats why this episode is so brilliantly written and acted. It focuses on these issues. It has to do something to your psyche when even your own sister thinks you are this killer that everyone accuses you of being. Your own flesh and blood thinks of you as the very thing youre trying to protect them from. What does that actually do to you? Were about to find out as this episode progresses. For background purposes, it is probably important to note that Oliver is under house arrest for these accusations. With that in mind, one of the most crucial scenes for this episode comes with a meeting between lawyers, Oliver and Detective Lance. Oliver agrees to do a polygraph test perhaps to give the detective peace about what happened to Sarah. Maybe this is closure for him. Now we cue, probably the psychological climax for this episode, the polygraph scene. Detective Lance is so convinced that Oliver is The Hood. We see a small build up to the hard hitting questions that truly break Oliver and its very obvious that he still carries haunting and chilling memories of the island. When asked if he was the man portrayed in the photo, we see a brief flashback to an integration of Yeo Feis location. Oliver is quiet to give up his rescuers location. Keep in mind, the photo questioned by Lance was the portrait drawn of The Hood from the pilot episode. Det. Lance is truly trying to break Oliver into a confession. Now, the trigger question about his time on the island is where you can pinpoint his heart starting to break. Lance points out his scars that were found upon his arrival home. Truthfully speaking if you remember, Oliver does tell people he was alone on the island. Its just like Johnny Cash sings though, whats done in the dark will be brought to the light (Gods Gonna Cut You Down). Lance questions if the scars were self-inflected. Heres where we see the beginning of Olivers true trials and psychological problems. In a flashback, the soon-to-be emerald archer takes a machete to his stomach and upper chest. He discusses between Laurel and her father about how he was tortured on the island. Interesting fact though about this is he is tortured by a famous DC Universe villain.
Believe it or not, hes actually tortured by The Terminator. No, Im not talking about the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, Im talking about Deathstroke. When the character made his debut in the New Teen Titans #2 in 1980, he was known as The Terminator but the creators changed the name to Deathstroke to avoid confusion with the Schwarzenegger franchise. Most of us before Arrow knew the character on the popular Cartoon Network show, Teen Titans. During this run, he was simply known as Slade, which is actually his alias. Lets get to know this character a bit better accordingly to his mythology. Slade Wilson, his actual name, ran from home at a young age to join the army. Pretty much Slade was the star pupil above any other solider and this landed him under the wing of an instructor and soon-to-be wife, Adeline Kane. After the birth of their son, he lends himself to a medical experiment for the army, which he was lied to about, in order to create super-soldiers. The experiment had a violent effect on Wilson, causing him to be bedridden. After finding out the effects of the experiment, he was put to a desk job for the army. This led to take up professional hunting in order to fill the void of his inner fighter. While a friend took up a suicide mission and was captured, Wilson donned the now infamous Deathstroke mask for an unauthorized mission to save his friend, Wintergreen. After the rescue effort, he was discharged for disobeying orders and donned the persona of Deathstroke. Oliver is a smart man. Lets just put it out because well its true. He throws a prison-themed party in order to act as an alibi to get Digg to take up the mantle of The Hood to prove Oliver and the vigilante are two different people. However, oddly enough Oliver is not the only one who is dealing with psychological problems throughout the term of this episode. Enter our other side of the coin, Mr. Walter Steele. Last week, we learned of tempest and the missing money from the company was used to buy a bogus company to cover up the sabotage of the Queens Gambit. Steele wants to find out more about why the boat was sabotaged. So he assigns Josiah Hudson, the head of security for Queen Consolidated, to move the yacht to a more secure location in order for an investigation to proceed. Well, that didnt work. Walter is later informed that Hudson was killed in a car accident after the meeting proceeded. Unfortunately, we later learn that Malcolm Meryln was the reason behind the murder, trying to cover up his tracks for what it is brewing. Now, do you think Im crazy for saying that Walter has psychological issues because someone got killed after a meeting they had. Well, thats not the part that weighs on him heavy. How does having your wife lie to you for God knows how long count? In a particular scene, in which Walter has Moira come to the office late at night, the beans start to spill. He confronts her about the knowing about the Queens Gambit being sabotaged. Steele is even a little convinced that she may have been lying to him throughout the course of their marriage. From my story, I shared earlier, I know how it feels to be lied to by the people who you love the most. Its a heavy burden to carry. So, what does Walter do? Takes a business trip to clear his mind and does not say for how long. So as if this isnt enough for psychological issues for this episode to contain, try being shot at. At the party, Oliver gets shot at and ironically the hit is given by Malcolm Meryln. Its to hide this giant secret; the same one that got Josiah Hudson killed for. So, scars , murder and attempted murder, can this episode get any more heavier when it comes to the terms of psychological? How about a kiss with your ex-girlfriend? During a scene, in which Laurel stops by the party, she and Oliver are in his bedroom. She confesses to him she spent all those years angry at him but was never stopped to think about how it may have affected him being on the island. She never stopped to think about what it must have been like on the island. What could have happened to him on it and what he had to do in order to survive. In a specific moment that truly defines the tone of their encounter, she requests to see his scars from the island. She feels sympathy for the man that only a few weeks she told to go to hell. However, this sympathy leads to them kissing and a moment of regret for the lawyer. A damaged individual is someone that takes time to cope. They are like a fragile scar that still hurts if you touch them in just the right place. I am no stranger to this truth. My heart weeps for Oliver because I see myself in him. Perhaps, you do too. This episode is a true achievement when it comes to entries into a comic book mythology. Sources: http://www.comicvine.com/green-arrow/4005-5936/ http://www.comicvine.com/deathstroke/4005-3588/