Stargirl Spring Break Special #1 (one-shot) preview / discussion thread

[Digifiend]

Hasn't it always been time travel?

No, Oliver and Speedy were originally deleted from the Seven Soldiers of Victory and replaced by a different archer hero, with their debut moved to the Justice League's time.

[ducklord]

No, Oliver and Speedy were originally deleted from the Seven Soldiers of Victory and replaced by a different archer hero, with their debut moved to the Justice League's time.

It's actually a really, REALLY tortured process. Not Hawkman/Donna Troy bad, but still really funny:

Pre-Crisis
There was an Earth-Two version of Green Arrow and Speedy. They were members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The whole team was tossed around in time when their unofficial "8th Soldier", Wing, sacrificed himself to save the Earth. They were eventually rescued during a JLA/JSA team-up, which notably included the Earth-One Green Arrow, who was amused to discover that he had a doppleganger.

Most of the Seven Soldiers, now dragged to the present, were rarely seen over the next few years. The Star Spangled Kid became a member of the JSA and Infinity Inc.. The Crimson Avenger died. Sir Justin went back in time to Camelot. There was a funeral for Lee Travis. And that was it until...

The Crisis
During the Crisis, the Earth-Two Green Arrow was explicitly killed as part of the "giving the dopplegangers one last hurrah" spree that happened during the story. Amusingly, the Earth-Two Speedy isn't given a similar send-off. Poor bastard.

Post-Crisis
In the Post-Crisis Clutter-Earth DCU, there never was a "Golden Age" Green Arrow or Speedy, as the one and only versions of these characters made their debut in the modern age. This leaves a hole in the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who by nature of their name kinda sort need, y'know, seven members. This hole is filled in various ways over the years: Sometimes Wing is a full Soldier, along with Vigilante's partner, Stuff. Sometimes Vigilante's other partner, Billy Gunn is added into the mix. One telling has the Shining Knight taking on a sidekick of his own in the form of a Golden Age Squire. Oh, and TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite were retconned in at one point. One of the more enduring retcons that eventually sticks is sliding Alias, the Spider (an old Quality Comics character) into Green Arrow's role (he's also eventually revealed to be a secret villain, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)

For my money, none of the retcons were particularly bad, but none of them felt great. This goes on for some years until...

New 52
Golden Age? What's a Golden Age? Everything's new and now! Check out these collars, baby!

Sorry. Let's fast forward to...

Right now
It's revealed that there was Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy who joined the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and they were (ta-da) the modern day Green Arrow and Speedy, spending some time stranded in the past due to Time Travel Shenanigans (as one does).

This, to me, is a perfectly cromulent retcon. While it probably means that a chunk of the Golden Age GA's adventures have been compressed/eliminated, it "restores" the original line-up of the Seven Soldiers, opens up some interesting storytelling possibilities for Ollie, and is good solid comic book fun.

I kind of hope that when the JLA/JSA rescued the Soldiers in this continuity, modern Ollie was confronted by the fact that eventually he had to go back in time and wear a funny costume. 'Cause that's funny

[Bruce Wayne]

I know it’s due to the show and all, but swapping Ystin back out for Justin seems... unnecessary?

Not really. Ystin had no connection to the GA era iteration of the SSoV. She was always connected to the Morrison version.

And writing an adventure with Courtney and SSoV was always something that Johns had wanted to do going back to his first book with DC.

[ducklord]

It's actually a really, REALLY tortured process. Not Hawkman/Donna Troy bad, but still really funny:

Heh. I just realized that I almost paraphrased the entire CBR article that's on the front page. I should get paid for this

[Cat]

It's actually a really, REALLY tortured process. Not Hawkman/Donna Troy bad, but still really funny:

Pre-Crisis
There was an Earth-Two version of Green Arrow and Speedy. They were members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The whole team was tossed around in time when their unofficial "8th Soldier", Wing, sacrificed himself to save the Earth. They were eventually rescued during a JLA/JSA team-up, which notably included the Earth-One Green Arrow, who was amused to discover that he had a doppleganger.

Most of the Seven Soldiers, now dragged to the present, were rarely seen over the next few years. The Star Spangled Kid became a member of the JSA and Infinity Inc.. The Crimson Avenger died. Sir Justin went back in time to Camelot. There was a funeral for Lee Travis. And that was it until...

The Crisis
During the Crisis, the Earth-Two Green Arrow was explicitly killed as part of the "giving the dopplegangers one last hurrah" spree that happened during the story. Amusingly, the Earth-Two Speedy isn't given a similar send-off. Poor bastard.

Post-Crisis
In the Post-Crisis Clutter-Earth DCU, there never was a "Golden Age" Green Arrow or Speedy, as the one and only versions of these characters made their debut in the modern age. This leaves a hole in the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who by nature of their name kinda sort need, y'know, seven members. This hole is filled in various ways over the years: Sometimes Wing is a full Soldier, along with Vigilante's partner, Stuff. Sometimes Vigilante's other partner, Billy Gunn is added into the mix. One telling has the Shining Knight taking on a sidekick of his own in the form of a Golden Age Squire. Oh, and TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite were retconned in at one point. One of the more enduring retcons that eventually sticks is sliding Alias, the Spider (an old Quality Comics character) into Green Arrow's role (he's also eventually revealed to be a secret villain, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)

For my money, none of the retcons were particularly bad, but none of them felt great. This goes on for some years until...

New 52
Golden Age? What's a Golden Age? Everything's new and now! Check out these collars, baby!

Sorry. Let's fast forward to...

Right now
It's revealed that there was Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy who joined the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and they were (ta-da) the modern day Green Arrow and Speedy, spending some time stranded in the past due to Time Travel Shenanigans (as one does).

This, to me, is a perfectly cromulent retcon. While it probably means that a chunk of the Golden Age GA's adventures have been compressed/eliminated, it "restores" the original line-up of the Seven Soldiers, opens up some interesting storytelling possibilities for Ollie, and is good solid comic book fun.

I kind of hope that when the JLA/JSA rescued the Soldiers in this continuity, modern Ollie was confronted by the fact that eventually he had to go back in time and wear a funny costume. 'Cause that's funny

Don't forget their Convergence story. I forget how that handled things.

[blunt_eastwood]

It's actually a really, REALLY tortured process. Not Hawkman/Donna Troy bad, but still really funny:

Pre-Crisis
There was an Earth-Two version of Green Arrow and Speedy. They were members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The whole team was tossed around in time when their unofficial "8th Soldier", Wing, sacrificed himself to save the Earth. They were eventually rescued during a JLA/JSA team-up, which notably included the Earth-One Green Arrow, who was amused to discover that he had a doppleganger.

Most of the Seven Soldiers, now dragged to the present, were rarely seen over the next few years. The Star Spangled Kid became a member of the JSA and Infinity Inc.. The Crimson Avenger died. Sir Justin went back in time to Camelot. There was a funeral for Lee Travis. And that was it until...

The Crisis
During the Crisis, the Earth-Two Green Arrow was explicitly killed as part of the "giving the dopplegangers one last hurrah" spree that happened during the story. Amusingly, the Earth-Two Speedy isn't given a similar send-off. Poor bastard.

Post-Crisis
In the Post-Crisis Clutter-Earth DCU, there never was a "Golden Age" Green Arrow or Speedy, as the one and only versions of these characters made their debut in the modern age. This leaves a hole in the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who by nature of their name kinda sort need, y'know, seven members. This hole is filled in various ways over the years: Sometimes Wing is a full Soldier, along with Vigilante's partner, Stuff. Sometimes Vigilante's other partner, Billy Gunn is added into the mix. One telling has the Shining Knight taking on a sidekick of his own in the form of a Golden Age Squire. Oh, and TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite were retconned in at one point. One of the more enduring retcons that eventually sticks is sliding Alias, the Spider (an old Quality Comics character) into Green Arrow's role (he's also eventually revealed to be a secret villain, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)

For my money, none of the retcons were particularly bad, but none of them felt great. This goes on for some years until...

New 52
Golden Age? What's a Golden Age? Everything's new and now! Check out these collars, baby!

Sorry. Let's fast forward to...

Right now
It's revealed that there was Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy who joined the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and they were (ta-da) the modern day Green Arrow and Speedy, spending some time stranded in the past due to Time Travel Shenanigans (as one does).

This, to me, is a perfectly cromulent retcon. While it probably means that a chunk of the Golden Age GA's adventures have been compressed/eliminated, it "restores" the original line-up of the Seven Soldiers, opens up some interesting storytelling possibilities for Ollie, and is good solid comic book fun.

I kind of hope that when the JLA/JSA rescued the Soldiers in this continuity, modern Ollie was confronted by the fact that eventually he had to go back in time and wear a funny costume. 'Cause that's funny

Is there a TL;DR version of this?

[ducklord]

Is there a TL;DR version of this?

You whippersnappers with your MTVs and your 288-character attention spans. Fine:

Pre-CrisisThere were two Green Arrows and Speedys on Earth-One and Earth-Two. The Earth-Two ones were in a group called the Seven Soldiers of Victory in the 1940's.

Post-Crisis
Earth-Two never existed, so there was no Green Arrow or Speedy in the 1940's. The Seven Soldiers of Victory had many, many retcons trying to fill the gap in their membership.

Just Now
A fresh retcon has come along, saying that the modern Green Arrow and Speedy spent some years time-marooned in the 1940's, during which time they wore their original goofy costumes and joined the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

[CaptCleghorn]

I read the issue. ANY chance to get to read about the 7SV is welcome, especially by someone who writes the characters with respect. Granted, there are nits to pick, but realizing the team still has some sort of camaraderie is wonderful. Finding a relatively simple way to fit Ollie and Roy back onto the team warms my heart as well. Of course, this development works best if you don't think about it in too much detail. Emiko and Courtney also have a kind of Bruce and Clark flavor as well. Darker and lighter which is a very workable formula. Still, this was less a one-shot than a prelude to future stories. I liked it and was glad I was able to buy and read it, but I know why this was really a Stargirl special.

And Brec Bassinger rocks.

[Digifiend]

Well, if there's anyone who knows the character as well as Geoff Johns does, it'll be the actress that plays her on TV - she probably read all of Stargirl's comics as research for the role. And that excuses page she wrote was good.

[JLH]

I really enjoyed this one-shot. It was incredible seeing the original SSOV again and that end of issue prologue is something I've been wanting to see for the last decade.

[Factor]

Such a fun issue. I'm really excited for the new series (and JSA too, finally!)

[MajorHoy]

Such a fun issue. I'm really excited for the new series (and JSA too, finally!)

"Finally"?

When are we getting it?

Just showing us something doesn't mean it'll be out in the next few months. Just look how long it took after DC Universe: Rebirth before we actually got the Three Jokers mini-series.

[Johnrevenge]

"Finally"?

When are we getting it?

Just showing us something doesn't mean it'll be out in the next few months. Just look how long it took after DC Universe: Rebirth before we actually got the Three Jokers mini-series.

Exactly. Till they don't make an official announcement, I'll consider this as just another tease from DC, nothing else.

[Jekyll]

Another tease and will be an empty promise until it is physically on the shelf.

[Factor]

For once I'm trying to be optimistic.