Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special: The Return Of ........


(Warning: Contains Major Spoilers)


I skimmed through the Wedding Special at the local shop yesterday.

Notice I didn't say "bought". That's in part because I'm far from sold on the idea of Ollie and Dinah marrying, having been a huge Birds of Prey fan. It's also because Judd Winick is far from being one of my favorite writers. (Plus, I had to leave room for the new Suicide Squad book.)

The finished product didn't exactly sway me from my preconceived notions, particularly with the fight scenes.


Memo to Judd Winick: Dinah Lance aka Black Canary is one of the top martial artists in the DC Universe. She definitely has more moves at her disposal than kicking a man in the nards! Plus, she runs a team with two Green Lanterns and a guy who can see dust settle on the moon, so she should know that finding a lost ring later in a small general area is not a problem.

So then I got to the ending.....

(MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!)



...where an apparently mind-controlled Ollie suddenly attacks Dinah and tries to kill her on their honeymoon, and her only recourse (????) is to stab him in the neck with one of his arrows.

Memo#2 to Judd Winick: Really, Judd ? That was her only option? Top DCU martial artist, remember? Do the words "pressure points" mean anything to you?

Suffice it to say I didn't find too many good things about the book, and I walked out of my comic store without it.

But then something hit me: Exactly how did Ollie get brainwashed in the first place? And then I realized:


Back in February of this year, in this column by Lisa "Ragnell" Fortuner, I introduced a catch-phrase that I predicted would replace "Superboy-Prime punched a wall" as the leading explanation for character inconsistencies in the DCU, and even beyond it.

That phrase?

Slade's hypos.

I thought it would be the leading comic catchphrase of 2007. But that never came to be. The phrase "A Skrull did it" swooped in to steal my glory. (Damn you, Bendis!!!!)

But with Ollie's mind control at the end of the Wedding Special, that can only mean one thing:

"SLADE'S HYPOS" IS BACK, BABY!

IT'S BACK!!

WOO HOO!!!!!!