Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Hawkman and Green Arrow, guest-starring in Les Miserables:



What I don't know about Les Miserables could fill...I don't know, a book or a musical play or something. Maybe you can pick up the gist of it from today's comic: from World's Finest #259, "Stake Out Earth" and "Regarding the Winged Wonder" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Dave Hunt and Vince Colletta.

After stopping two kids from rolling a wino, Green Arrow is on the scene to see a mysterious electrical alien. Injured by GA's net arrow, the alien is more concerned about the coming of the Searcher, who, according to him, only cares about justice and has been looking for him for five thousand years. After visiting with Black Canary, Ollie sees another electrical alien's arrival on TV, and goes to check it out. This one's the Searcher, who turns out to be a dick, injuring Canary since he thinks she and Ollie are trying to protect his quarry.


Taking the injured Canary to the JLA's satellite, Hawkman takes up the case; wondering if maybe Ollie's anti-authority attitude led him to over-sympathize with the criminal. Hawkman tracks the criminal with a device that looks like a tennis racket, then asks him his crime. The criminal proclaims "My crime was that I was hungry...and chose not to starve!" Formerly the leader of a poor planet, when a plague destroyed their crops, and after no one would help them; the criminal stole a food ship from a richer planet. Describing the food as one world's delicacy, he did little harm, but still fled his world so the Searchers would only come after him.

Then, with the ease that a man might throw a switch; Hawkman, throws a switch!
Hawkman tries to talk the Searcher into showing leniency, but is swatted aside. The Searcher and his quarry then battle, sucking electrical power from the grid. Hawkman overloads the grid, and the aliens, throwing them into another dimension to finish their battle. Or, that's what Hawkman tells Green Arrow and Black Canary. At any rate, even though he seemingly felt the quarry had been punished enough, Hawkman still throws Jean Valjean to Inspector Javert. There's a lesson there somewhere; namely, that Hawkman's kind of a jerk.
'Oh, yeah, Ollie.  Totally didn't just atomize those two.  Sure.'

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