Arrow S05 E05: Human Target

When we left "Arrow" last week, Wild Dog had been captured by Charon, Tobias Church, and torture had begun, and continues as we open this week. Even though Team Arrow is on the hunt, and eventually find Wild Dog, it's too late. He broke, and told Church that the Green Arrow is actually Oliver Queen.

This is a curious turn. First, it happens offscreen and second, it seems too easy. As Rene is digging his own grave at gunpoint, he does get some vital information out of Church - why he's in Star City. Being a port city with water access Church can get drugs into and out of the country easily, perfect base of operations. As we go to commercial break, I couldn't help but wonder if this was all part of Oliver's plan. It would not be the first time we viewers were the last to know something like this.

We also know that Church is working for Prometheus, supposedly this season's big bad. I don't know who this television version of Prometheus is but I have to say I'm distressed that it's another archer. Really, another archer? It's like speedsters on "The Flash," what is it about Green Arrow that attracts so many archers?

In the comics, Prometheus was created by writer Grant Morrison as an anti-Batman (and there's the other recurring "Arrow" theme - everything Batman). He fought the Justice League using a database of fighting techniques, strategies, and information on his potential enemies that could be downloaded directly into his brain. Above and beyond defeating both the Justice League and the Teen Titans, he blew up much of Star City. In the end, Green Arrow ended him with an arrow through the head, long story short.

There were two other villains who called themselves Prometheus in the DC Universe. One was a henchman of Doctor Alchemy who gained super powers from an industrial accident at Kord Industries, went on to fight the Teen Titans, and died in one of Roulette's fight clubs. Notably, Roulette, who recently clashed with Supergirl on the CW, also in the comics believes her grandfather to be the Terry Sloane Mr. Terrific. The other Prometheus was an imposter disguised as the first one I talked about above, an inferior pretender.

Of course speculation on who this television version of Prometheus is a game for another day. This episode is about something else - someone else. And for comics readers, the title of the episode alone spoils any surprises that may occur within the show. For the uninitiated, the Human Target is a comics character with a very specific skill set and modus operandi.

Christopher Chance is a master of disguise who used to appear in the back-up slot of 1970s Action Comics. Created by writer Len Wein, Chance would assume the identity of a person marked for murder until the killer was captured. Oftentimes Chance would appear to be murdered, making it easier to find the killer, thus the name, the Human Target. Earlier in the episode, he is namelessly referenced as John's old friend.

Here on "Arrow," Chance is played by Wil Traval, no stranger to comics television as he played Will Simpson on "Marvel's Jessica Jones" on Netflix, a character who in the comics becomes the powered psychopath Nuke. The Human Target has had two other TV incarnations, the first was a limited run in 1992 with Rick Springfield, and two seasons played by Mark Valley in 2009. So, as I was saying, when Oliver is shot dead, no comics fans were surprised.

The ending of the episode seems incredibly rushed. The threat of Tobias Church is ended prematurely, a dangerous complex criminal exited in favor of yet another nearly invincible mystery archer. Boo, hiss. Chad L. Coleman is wasted if this is his run on "Arrow," and furthermore Wild Dog not getting a proper shot at payback is just as bad. Before dying at his hands, Church gives up the secret of Green Arrow's identity to Prometheus, eliminating the problem of Church telling everyone in prison.

It's all too easy, too convenient, and rushed as if the showrunners wanted the Charon storyline over as soon as possible. If so, then they know how we all felt about Damien Darhk all last season. And then they throw a real monkey wrench on the trashfire. Chance saved Oliver's life in the Bratva flashbacks, unknown to Oliver, but now known to the pesky reporter Thea has been clashing with. One manufactured plot point, made to order, why was Oliver in Russia when he was supposed to be on a deserted island?

There were a few good points this episode, among them the return of Spartan, and John and Rene bonding. Oliver did actually have a few moments of sanity and normality, but unfortunately it turns out that was really Christopher Chance. Although, the writers must have been confused because Oliver continues to act human with Felicity, saying they should both move on romantically.

One hope for this wholesale shoveling away of prior storylines should be that perhaps we'll have a clean slate to start from. Also I hope having Spartan back won't overshadow the new Team Arrow recruits who I'm really starting to like, more than Oliver, but then again, that's not all that difficult. And I wish we'd seen more of Scimitar, named only in the credits, Church's masked freak bodyguard. That was a quick cameo.

Next: So It Begins!

Lost Hits of the New Wave #29

"Bop 'Til You Drop" by Rick Springfield



There was a time when Rick Springfield was cool, we may all want desperately to want to forget it, but it's true. Memory is a tricky thing. We may want to remember Rick Springfield as bubble gum pop, but there was a time he was considered not only rock, but even a little tiny bit new wave. I heard "Jessie's Girl" for the first time on WMMR, and follow-ups "Affair of the Heart," and the two videos featured here, all on WYSP during their new music hour.

Rick Springfield was impossibly huge in the early 1980s, between his music career, appearances on "General Hospital," and even a feature film Hard to Hold, before vanishing into semi-obscurity.

The truth is that he had been around a long time before his 'overnight success,' was a minor pop idol and even had his own Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s. And after, he was the original "Forever Knight," the original "Human Target," and released what I think his best album, Tao.

I fully agree with my online friend DJ Marilyn Thomas, "Bop 'Til You Drop" is a New Wave song, no matter what you say, you selective memory music heathens.

And then there's this one...

"Human Touch" by Rick Springfield



Rocker trying desperately to be new wave in a music video, trying to capitalize on the odd music video fashions of the time, pretending it's the future, and looking uncomfortable the whole time - check. For a long time, this was what music videos looked like. At least it's not...

"You Got Lucky" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers



Wow, the future looked kinda bleak in the early 1980s...

The Cape: Pilot

NBC has a lot invested in this mid-season replacement. A lot of the comic book community, the core target audience for NBC's failed "Heroes," laid the blame for its failure on the one missing element that makes superheroes superheroes - costumes. Almost in retaliation, along with the continuing successes of comics properties like "The Walking Dead," "Human Target" and Marvel's Avengers cartoon and movie franchise (so far at least), NBC wheeled out "The Cape," a series whose very concept revolves around a superhero costume. The pilot first aired last night, along with the second episode, and both will re-air tonight. Here are my thoughts on the pilot.

We start in the hyper-reality of the fictional city of Palm City, part Miami Beach, part Los Angeles, but all comic book gimmick with a real world spin. Yep, it's "Heroes" with costumes. Or rather at its start, super-villains with costumes - as a masked baddie, known as Chess, blows up the chief of police in a blast of special effects that our yet-to-be hero survives.

The title sequence is hardcore comics, paneled pages similar to the original "Wonder Woman" series with a darker edge. The music by Bear McCreary is very heroic, a close cousin to both Danny Elfman's Batman and John Williams' Star Wars, leaving no doubt as to what kind of television event we are watching - this is a superhero show.

Our hero, Vince Faraday, played by Australian actor David Lyons, seems to be the only honest cop in Palm City. With the death of the chief of police, the police force is taken over by the ARK Corporation - running into cliché number one. Evil corporations are so 1980s, especially in the comics. Cliché number two is not so bad, The Cape is actually the comic book hero idol of Faraday's son. An inspired concept sprinkled into a set-up we can see coming a mile away. He's going to take on this identity to impress his son, right?

As the secret origin story of our hero progresses, I found myself getting more involved despite my objections. There's the mysterious and invasive blogger called Orwell. And a rogues gallery is being constructed, other than Chess, there is also the near-mutant Scales with reptilian skin. I don't want to, but my fanboy groove is getting on.

My fanboy groove was so on that when the Carnival of Crime showed up, an old comic book gimmick that was old when Stan Lee drenched it up in the early days of Marvel Comics, and was ancient when it killed the last story arc of "Heroes," I didn't mind at all. Faraday is now believed dead, worse than that, the public believes him to be Chess, and he's saved by this Carnival of Crime - led by Max Malini, played by Keith "I'm cooler than Samuel L. Jackson" David.

They are a little bit Circus of Crime in their prime, a little bit "Carnivale" and a whole lot of fun. I love these guys, and would watch the show just for them. It's twenty minutes in, and I am hooked. When Faraday takes a cape and contrives to become The Cape, it's a bit much, but I follow where I'm led. Then Malini gives him a 'magic' cape and trains him in the use of it, and I see Batman Begins flashbacks. Have I mentioned I'm hooked?

Faraday takes on Scales, sort of a Killer Croc light, played by Vinnie Jones, on his first mission, and runs into Orwell, played by genre favorite Summer Glau. With her addition to the cast, the team is complete, we have our players and Faraday becomes The Cape. The end of the show gives us a taste of how things will work to whet our appetite for the rest of the series.

I gotta say I was hesitant when I started watching, but now hope "The Cape" stays around for a while. Let's hope the ratings are up and the quality only gets better. Check it out.

Dick Giordano 1932-2010

There is very sad news today, award-winning comics legend Dick Giordano has passed away. He began as an artist in the 1950s with Charlton Comics and soon rose to editor-in-chief as he introduced their action hero line and brought in many new talents who would themselves later become legends in the field.

The realistic art style that defined the realism of the 1970s was largely due to his distinctive inking. Any artist he inked became instant dynamic, among them Neal Adams, Dick Dillin and Ross Andru. Some of the best known and loved versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, the Human Target and especially Green Lantern and Green Arrow hold his brilliant lines.

As an editor at DC Comics, Giordano helped to relaunch many of their characters in the 1980s. He helped create their mature imprint Vertigo, brought in talent from the UK like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, and was instrumental in the fight for creators’ rights.

His legacy and inspiration is evident in every facet of the comics industry both inside and outside. We have lost one of the great ones. Dick Giordano will be missed. Rest in peace, sir.

Human Target - Sneak Peek

"Human Target" will be opening for "Dollhouse" Fridays nights next season on Fox. It's loosely based on the DC Comics character Christopher Chance, the Human Target. This isn't the first TV shot for the character, Rick Springfield tried it for seven episodes back in 1992. And yes, that is Chi McBride from "Pushing Daisies" and Jackie Earle Haley from Watchmen.


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