DC Announces Rise of Arsenal / Fall of Green Arrow

I don't usually report on every news item that comes through with comic books, except that this week there have been a couple fairly major announcements that have come down the pike and I felt that they were worth noting. This, however, I definitely wanted to post and comment on since it follows up my Attention Must Be Paid article on Red Arrow and Cry for Justice #5. Today, DC announced through their blog The Source that there were going to be a one shot, a new miniseries, and a series defining arc on Green Arrow spinning out of Cry for Justice. Hit the jump for the story.



The Rise of Arsenal and The Fall of Green Arrow

Here's the write-up from the Source:

What happens when a hero has a fateful decision to make? And how can another hero rebuild his world after a life-altering tragedy?

Both ideas are explored in two special books hitting in March, both written by J.T. Krul: JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE AND FALL #1, which bridges the gap between JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL four-issue mini-series. Concurrently, readers of the ongoing GREEN ARROW series will deal with the fallout in a storyline titled “The Fall of Green Arrow,” starting with issue #31.

What happened? Who’s to blame? What does this mean for the Emerald Archer and his former sidekick?

And then IGN.com has an article interviewing J.T. Krul on their site which you can find here, but the main thing I wanted to highlight was this exchange from Krul:

IGN Comics: Keeping in mind that Cry for Justice hasn't wrapped yet and there is plenty that fans haven't seen and won't see until it does, the first thing that jumps out at me is the name "Arsenal" in The Rise of Arsenal title. Can you speak at all about why Roy has reverted back to his old name? Is it as simple as him not being able to use a bow and arrow now that he has one arm?

Krul: No, there is more to it that that. The name change is symbolic of that, but it has more to do with the horrendousness of the injury that he goes through in Cry for Justice. It really just changes his mindset. It's that riff we were talking about - the proactive vs. the reactive. Whereas Red Arrow was a more traditional Justice League member, stand-up guy and public figure, Roy had a cloudier history when he was Arsenal. As Arsenal, he has a lot of things he's done in the past that would not be representative of Red Arrow. There's the physical transition as far as the arm issue goes, but there's also more of a psychological transition he's dealing with as well.

IGN Comics: I understand Cry for Justice #5 just hit recently, but I've already begun hearing similar grumblings from fans about the development. Mainly, there point is that the DCU is home to characters like Cyborg, so there's no reason why Roy shouldn't be able to get himself a perfectly functioning cybernetic replacement arm. Is that something you'll be addressing in the course of these projects?

Krul: Yes, we'll be addressing it all. It's not going to be a Winter Soldier thing, where he gets a replacement arm and is good to go. Again, it all harkens back to why there is this transition from Red Arrow to Arsenal.

 So what does this mean you ask? I think it means that we're going to be looking at one of the things I feared most after the injury happened, that they are going to undo all of the work that Meltzer put into Roy's character and now revert him to some one-armed revenge driven anti-hero. The whole, "He's not doing things Red Arrow would do, he's doing things Arsenal would do" dreck that doesn't make a lick of sense. Yes, when Roy was Arsenal he did a lot of questionable things and worked with a lot of questionable people, but he was still a hero dammit! And the answer to the bionic arm that Krul gives is just Grade-A bullshit. You know it, I know it, and he even knows it. And to top it all of, here's the cover to an issue of The Fall of Green Arrow:

Costume look familiar? It's because it's the F$*&ing costume that they have Green Arrow wear in Smallville because they don't have the budget to make a convincing looking Green Arrow costume. Now they're going to have the characters dress like they do in Smallville?! So Superman is going to run around calling himself the Red-Blue Blur and dress in a full-length black overcoat??! This is the dumbest freaking idea ever. to get rid of Ollie's awesome costume for this gaudy stupid things. Ugh DC, I played along with the War of Supermen you announced and didn't say anything about the stupid "Batman traveling through time" story that Morrison is doing, but this is too much. Stop ruining the few characters you have that I actually like! With Kyle dead, Roy injured, Wally nothing more than a sidekick, and Batman copying Captain America every step of the way ("dying", sidekick replacing him after fighting personal demons and other sidekicks to earn mantle, discovering he's not really dead but stuck in time, traveling through time and forcing hardships every step along the way, having the ending ruined by Bendis because he's a prick) there are almost no DC characters I'm willing to follow on a monthly basis anymore. And I hate that, I really do.