Geek Syndicate Issue 5 | Page 44

Geek Syndicate
an alien invasion by himself but he can help those who really need it and he is stealthier than your average vigilante. The latest show, Arrow, is much more dark and is about one man’s crusade to right the wrongs of his father and restore his city to its former glory. One of the key difference between the two is the actual bows. Smallville had GA using all types of technical Marvels. where Arrow goes with a very basic bow using various arrow heads. In my opinion Arrow really shows off the skills of an archer in the real world and is much more believable.

Fantasy Films

Other Comic Archers on Screen
Other notable mentions of Bows in comic book movies go out first to Thomas Jane in the second Punisher movie (after Dolph Lundgren’s) who uses the weapon for long range stealth attacks and then Jessica Biel as Abigail Whistler in Blade Trinity. Here Abigail uses a compound bow which also doubles as a kind of ultra violet sword where the strings go. If you think about it, the bow is an excellent weapon of choice for killing vampires as they are really quick to fire, are accurate, have excellent range and the arrows can be made entirely from wood: instant stake through the heart. Another example of killing the undead is in The Walking dead where we have Daryl using his trusty crossbow to quietly get the, erm, kill shot through the brain of the “walkers”.

The bow has also been seen plenty of times in the fantasy genre with probably the most widely seen example being Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The wise and youthful looking Elf uses the bow as his primary weapon of choice with a rather sloppy approach to his actual archery skills and supernatural speed of firing an arrow although with his never ending supply of arrows, I would think he would need a larger quiver. The bow’s proudest moment in the films though were by far the Elven archers firing their arrows on masse towards the army of the enemy. Other Fantasy films with archers include the Chronicles of Narnia series. A certain large man on a sleigh gives Susan a present of a Bow and Arrow set that he promises will always

aim straight. Through the film you see her become more and more confident with the weapon and actress Anna Popplewell shows off her excellent archery skills by displaying perfect form in nearly all cases. Then we get Natalie Portman in the supposedly funny action fantasy Your Highness playing a strong female warrior out for vengeance using her bow to battle her enemies. Once again we see that the female actors are much better at actual archery than the men with all of the above ladies displaying better skills than Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Renner and Justin Hartley from Smallville. So what does this tell us? Well that it seems the female actress want to encourage the sport and respect it by training hard and putting their learning on screen.
Image © Disney, 2005

Robin Hood
For most people living in the British Isles the most famous archer has been Robin Hood who robbed from the rich to give to the poor and for those that remember the song feel free to sing it now. Robin Hood has been represented many times on the big and small screen with the most recent be-

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