The 'Round-The-World Crimes, #3

Having pulled off his theft of the Zok Movie Studios payroll as his "visit to Spain", Bull's-Eye is on to his next target: the Red Fez Cafe!

In Star City's famous Little Morocco neighborhood, of course.

"So I figure Bull's-Eye's world tour will take place right in town!"  Boy, nothing gets past you, does it, Ollie?  I don't know why Bruce says all those things about you.

Bull's-Eye is really the master of smack talk.  The Joker's too busy throwing flunkies at Batman to say anything other than, "Get him, you fools!"

I love the idea that Star City has "many colorful foreign sections." I would definitely write it that way. But nothing usual; only ethnic neighborhoods you never actually find: Uruguaytown; Moldovaville;  Little Yakutsk; Vatican Avenue. After all, Star City deserves some unique and charming character, and Green Arrow sure doesn't provide any.

Bull's-Eye's visit to the Red Fez seems desultory, merely a pit-stop to make sure Ollie can catch up with him. His real target lies elsewhere...

I'm just not going to ask how Ollie knows the manhole outside of the Red Fez leads to Chinatown.  But I'm sure it's due to some disastrous dinner date at the Red Fez.  

Roy is awesome; probably has the entire Chinese calendar of festivals memorized, in Chinese.   Let's hope Speed Saunders is there at the festival, examining a bloody corpse in the street, and Ollie trips over him on the way out of the sewer.

Ah, yes.  The Feast of the Purple Dragon. I never miss the one here in the District.

Bull's-Eye, a planner, has already weaponized the purple dragon itself as his mean of robbing the Chinatown bank (which, as always, is closed on the Feast of Purple Dragon).

In comics, flames will melt ANYTHING.
Except Superman, of course.

This is the moment Ollie's been waiting for: the chance to do some high wire acrobatics on an arrow line. He lives for that.

Poor Roy, passive-aggressively trying to rein Ollie in at every turn, to no avail. "So, this is a bank robbery and there are already police here armed with guns, so maybe we could hang b--"
"TALLY-HOooooOOOOO!"

Meanwhile, Bull's-Eye is making good his exit via the back alley.

Oh, fer-- you're not REALLY going to fall for this, are you, Leapo?

Well, look at that. A giant target that Bull's-Eye didn't put there just happens to be in the alley blocking his getaway.  What an odd coincidence <eyeroll>.

The Green Arrow's maneuvers at this point are solid; he goes OVER the bank, having reasoned Bull's-Eye escape route is in the back.

Unless Roy suggested it off-panel. Possibly in Chinese.

Fisticuffs are a lot more effective than arrows in close quarters.

"This is too much!"
HAW! I love Bull's-Eye.

Bull's-Eye fed-up reaction at this point is priceless.  And familiar. Where have I seen this scene before...?

Oh,  yeah. Guess Frank Miller's a Bull's-Eye fan, too.

SHOOT HIM, LEAPO, SHOOT HIM!

Sorry; wrong comic.

SHOOT HIM, LE-- Oh. I guess not.
Apparently The Green Arrow is better prepared than The Batman today.

Clearly, Bull's-Eye is not prepared for the unlikely event of The Green Arrow having a brain in his head; he's got no rockets up his leg-sleeves this time!  But there is one obvious (and thematic) exit available to him; the giant target!

No toon can resist the old "Shave and a Haircut"!

Bull's-Eye can't resist jumping THROUGH the bull's-eye as a means of escape; it's just too on-point.

But...WHAT'S THIS?!

<sad trombone noise>

LMAO. Nice one, Ollie.  Somehow, in the amount of time it took Bull's-Eye to jump into the sewer outside the Red Fez, you:

• determined he was going to rob the Chinatown bank;
• deduced his likely avenue of exit;
• acquired or manufactured a giant bull's-eye sign;
• hung it in the alley behind the bank;
• alerted the police to park a paddy-wagon behind it;
• and returned with Roy to the rooftop of the building across the bank.

Yeah; no; I ain't buying it.  It's a nice idea, and if this were a Batman story, the writers would have found a way to give Batman the time to do all that.  But this is a The Green Arrow story, and he was simply allowed to catch Bull's-Eye because there were only two more panels left and it was time for the writers to head to their local Red Fez for some highballs.

Although the Joker has certainly fought The Green Arrow,

The Joker #4, 'natch.

we've never had the chance to see Bull's-Eye go up against The Batman. HOWEVER...

Yeesh; prison life was hard on Leapo.  Somebody must have cut his nose off. My money's on the Penguin.

in 1961, he WAS the person who inspired another criminal to become "The Blue Bowman" to fight Batman.

But we aren't going to waste any time on Phil Cobb.  
Bull's-Eye he ain't.

The 'Round-the-World Crimes, #2

Having been disparaged in the newspaper as a "local yokel", that baleful buffoon, BULL'S-EYE, has resolved to commit a series of " 'round-the-world" crimes ... without ever leaving town!  

A plan, which seems only to EMPHASIZE the newspaper's point, not refute it.  
But I do have not have a Golden Age brain.

Naturally, Bull's-Eye has to advertise this plan to the word (and to The Green Arrow).

"The Green Arrow will stop him!"
We are all of us born into this world with the trusting innocence and naiveté of a Star City citizen.

Now that The Green Arrow and his sidekick know Bull's-Eye new M.O., they conduct an exhaustive analysis of his potential targets, warn those places and make arrangements to be immediately contacted directly in case of a Bull's-Eye attack.  Meanwhile, they methodically search all the abandoned warehouses, which, by law, all villains must hide out in.

Yes, Roy; knowing how and where a criminal is going to strike IS a great help in crimefighting.  Next time you see Bull's-Eye, perhaps you can politely ask him to somehow indicate where his next target it. Oh, wait, I forgot; HE ALREADY DOES THAT..

Nah, just kidding.  They do none of that because The Green Arrow is not a detective.  They just cruise around town in the gigantic Arrowcar, hoping they see one of Bull's-Eye signs that indicate where he will strike.

Or wait for the police to tell them where to go.
I'm sure there are a lot of police in Star City eager to tell The Green Arrow where to go.

I am enthralled by the name "ZOK" studios, one of the most counterintuitive in-story business names I have even seen.  Sure, nowadays, you might name a movie studio "Zok" as part of positioning its brand as a wacky outsider, a producer of exciting and unusual films.  But this is August of 1947 and one does not do that.  Movie studio names must reflect Size, Height, or Quality: Mammoth, Zenith, Utmost, Superior, Colossal, Apex.

And we all know EXACTLY where Apex Studios is.

I guess all the good names were taken by decent studios in serious cities like Coast City and Apex City, leaving Star City with only crappy names left like "Zok". So Zok-ward head the Quivering Duo, where Bull's-Eye is attacking the set of a bullfighting picture.

There's an interesting detail here I want to focus on.  At first, the film-makers are distressed at the interruption of their film-making. UNTIL...

"Relax! It's just that baleful buffoon Bull's-Eye!

They thought that they had reason to be upset; UNTIL they realized it was "just Bull's-Eye".  So either the Star City public doesn't take Bull's-Eye seriously (can you imagine?) or they are simply ON HIS SIDE, which is a measure of the popularity of The Green Arrow.

Points to Zok Motion Picture Studio for hiring culturally authentic actors.

Jeez, Bull's-Eye works that "costs a dime if you miss" bit to DEATH.  One day, I'd like to see Ollie take him at his word and, suddenly remembering that he's extremely wealthy, just unload a dump-truck of dimes on him, likely killing him with comic book irony.

It worked on Rocky Grimes, after all.

I'm actually impressed by what The Green Arrow does next. He ignores Bull's-Eye, who is clearly just trying to draw all the attention to himself, and focuses on stopping the henchmen, who are meanwhile robbing Zok Studios.

Payroll. It's always payroll.  Being a crook in the Golden Age was SO EASY.  No wonder they ran around Issuing Challenges and Daring The Authorities To Stop Them.

This, however, is where Bull's-Eye shows he's actually a clever villain rather than just a dumb crook. One of the readers of this blog is a long-time friend with whom I have worked many times, including producing some very complicated (but wildly successful and profitable) stage productions, and we have been asked repeatedly for The Secret of Our Success.  Naturally, there were many factors, but we always simply point out that, unlike everyone else, we assumed that some things would go wrong, and we PLANNED for it.  So, too, Bull's-Eye:

Bull's-Eye already ASSUMES The Green Arrow will catch his stooges.  In fact, he's counting on it.

I love the fact that riding a bull, and directing its course, is child's play for Bull's-Eye.  Bull's-Eye isn't the Joker's rival; he's the Joker's IDOL. Poor Joker; he'd love to be a carefree, laughing crime-clown, but he lives in Gotham City.  There, you have to rack up a substantial body count before the police, let alone, Batman will give you any attention.

"Not yet, Dick; the body count is still single-digit.  We mustn't dilute our brand."

Bull's-Eye merrily rides the bull through a fence and away from the studio, BUT The Green Arrow is also prepared with his anti-bull arrows!

We don't actually see The Green Arrow stop the bull, which happens between panels.  I assume Ollie, who, always remember, is a American tribal anthropologist, and Roy, who, always remember, was raised within such a tribe, simply shot it dead and justified it by making sure they used every part of the bull, letting nothing go to waste.  Regardless, Bull's-Eye was even prepared in case the bull got shot!

He has ... rockets up his legs and flying squirrel wings in his costume?  Bull's-Eye's the BEST.

How does he land safely? Please; dude invented parkour, while being shot at. He's ain't called "Leapo" for nothing.

Tomorrow: The Green Arrow gets two more shots at The Bull's-Eye!