Golden Age Idol--Golden Arrow!

I know what you're going to say...there are already too damn many bow & arrow characters--why should we revive yet another one? Marvel has Hawkeye (along with faux-Hawkeye Bullseye) and the Squadron Supreme's Golden Archer. DC has Green Arrow and two Speedy's and Merlyn and The Spider and heaven knows who else. And Image has Shaft. And don't forget Robin Hood, and William Tell.

Damn, there are a lot of archers out there. Why do we find them so fascinating?

Anyway, you're now saying, it's clear that we don't need yet another bow & arrow character. So why should we revive a really obscure one from the Golden Age that nobody remembers??

First of all, as near as I can tell, Golden Arrow was the very first comic book archer hero, debuting in Whiz Comics #2 (really #1...don't ask) back in February 1940. He beat Green Arrow by a year and a half. He beat the Spider by six months (and why, exactly, you have a characters whose main skill is archery call himself the Spider is beyond me). He beat Hawkeye by 20 some years. Golden Arrow is the pioneer of the genre, but he's sadly forgotten today.

The second reason is--Golden Arrow has the greatest damn origin story of any of them. Hands down. No "stranded on a desert island and had to learn archery." No "I was a carny." Nope, we've got an honest-to-gosh, actual nutsy Golden Age origin.

So sit back, relax, and see why the world needs:

It starts, as it always does, with Golden Age Science:

And the best part of Golden Age Science, as always, are the controlled experiments:

And not only has he developed fizzy lifting drinks, but conveniently:

Ah, yes, the secret steering device. Of course.

Famous last words:

Seriously, what could be the risk of a highly publicized outdoors test of a secret formula worth millions??

That's a lot of detail for one small caption. "Outlaw ex-munitions maker?" "$3,000,000, ranch house?!?" Maybe he needs to evil, to pay off the mortgage on that place...

Oh, and PRO-TIP: don't carry the secret formula with you during the experiment, because...

Of course, the parents die...but not baby Roger!

But he's far from safe, as he immediately launches into his second-season-24-Kim Bauer impression:


Fortunately, we've got a grizzled old prospector nearby, dagnabit!



So, Nugget Ned of course decides to raise the tyke for his own. And of course, we soon discover the secret to rearing children--let 'em play with wildlife, unsupervised!!

Oh, and he gets really good at the bow, too.


"Nugget Ned has little need for the gold he finds?!?!?!" What, this is a hobby for him?? This is a world where gold has no value?? What the hell??

Also...gold would make a fairly lousy arrow head. I'm just sayin'...

And, if that weren't already cool enough, Roger finds and tames the greatest stallion in the West.

Well, we get the inevitable deathbed confession...

And Roger takes off for revenge, just as Braddock is about to hand off the formula to his twin sons:

Bronk and Brute?!? BRONK and BRUTE?!?! What the...?

I show you this next panel, for one reason only:

How cool is it to have a secret button to summon cowboy henchmen?!?

Sadly for said henchmen, there is a reason why chaps are a bad idea at a superhero rumble:

Golden Arrow retrieves the formula, gets away without killing anybody (!), rides off into the sunset (seriously), and anonymously donates the formula to the U.S. government:

Of course, the development of the modern air force made your pappy's invention completely obsolete, but thanks anyway...

So what do we have here? A crazy mash-up of comic origin cliches...except this was early 1940, so they weren't cliches yet!! The murdered parents, the grizzled prospector, the deathbed revelation of his true parentage, the evil millionaire, the secret scientific formula, the hangin' out with animals...it's a delightful fully-stuffed origin, isn't it?

There's also the question of time-period. Some dialogue clearly places the story between WWI & WWII...but he's gallivanting around an Old West with Indians and prospectors, with no sign of electricity and telephones, and a press that's still amazed by dirigible technology. Things are further confused by a later team-up with Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher...Let's just say it takes place in its own special era, shall we?

Bill Parker's script is richer than many in the day, more complex and fuller, chock full of little details that many contemporary writers would never have thought to put in. A prospector with little need for gold? Wild...Greg Duncan's art, while cruder and more rushed than what we're used to today, was pretty impressive for the times...he's great on faces, and is almost impressionistic in some of the backgrounds and scenery.

Golden Arrow hung around in Whiz Comics for more than 13 years, and even had his own book for about 5 seconds. Yet even since the DC Borg Collective assimilated the Fawcett characters, there hasn't been a single sighting of Golden Arrow. Not a background appearance in an All-Star Squadron luncheon, not a glimpse during an Earth-S crossover, nothing. And let's face it--if you were a WWII-era hero and Roy Thomas didn't find a way to use you for even a cameo, that's serious comic book limbo.

So here's the pitch. This dude was orphaned, kidnapped by a mountain lion, raised by a playboy prospector, rides around on the best horse ever and shoots arrows made of gold (take that, Hal Jordan!), is the son of a scientific genius, and is in the Old West during WWII. That's gotta be worth at least a 6-issue mini-series, right? Hey, DC, if it helps, have him turn out to be Roy Harper's long-lost great-uncle or something...

Yeah, we've got too many damn archers already. But Golden Arrow was the first, and in lots of ways, the best and most imaginative. I don't need Simon or Paula for this one--DC, bring back Golden Arrow!!!