Seattle has produced its fair share of rock stars. Jimi Hendrix was born in the city in 1942, for instance, learned to play the guitar at age fifteen and made his onstage premier in the Jaffe Room at the Temple De Hirsch. Kurt Cobain was born 25 years after Hendrix in nearby Aberdeen, and likewise performed at Seattle nightclubs before finding national success with the launch of grunge, a movement that included fellow local artists Alice in Chains, the Screaming Trees and Pearl Jam.
Then there was the Electric Unicorns, a 1970s musical phenomenon that rivaled the Beatles in popularity and cultural significance. Their songs of peace and love inspired an entire generation before tragedy struck in 1981. Mere months after John Lennon was murdered in New York City by a deranged fan, Electric Unicorns drummer Kent Dawson met a similar fate in San Francisco, bringing a premature end to the group.
While Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain were factual rock stars, however, the Electric Unicorns were fictional icons within the Green Arrow comic book series written by Mike Grell during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although Oliver Queen and his superhero alter ego had traditionally made their home in the imaginary Star City of DC Comics, Grell used Seattle as the setting for his series while intertwining elements of the region into various narratives as well. The two-part story arc “Reunion Tour” is a prime example, adding to Seattle’s musical reputation when the remaining members of the Electric Unicorns suddenly find their lives endangered by an unknown assailant.
The first issue of “Reunion Tour” begins with the death of Joe Cleary, former bass player of the Electric Unicorns who found a second career as a television actor following the band’s break-up. Cleary had just entered his onset trailer during a production break when the mobile dressing room exploded into flames. Oliver Queen and his personal/professional partner Dinah Lance – aka Black Canary – watch the news report at home, feeling a sense of nostalgia not only for the music of the 1970s but the idealism that had once been the centerpiece of Green Arrow.
“Hal and me – we were going to change the world,” Queen reflects in regards to his “Hard Traveling Heroes” adventures with fellow superhero Green Lantern. “Sometimes I wonder what happened to us. Maybe caring went out of fashion.”
The news broadcast likewise fills in the backstory of the Electric Unicorns. In addition to deceased drummer Kent Dawson and bassist Joe Cleary, the band included keyboardist Rufus Fairchild – who had been besieged by drug and alcohol problems throughout his career – and lead singer Ward Brackett, still actively performing with his wife Junie in the heavy metal rock group Deth’ Hed, whose members dress in makeup similar to the real world rock group Kiss.
The career of the Electric Unicorns mirrors that of the Beatles in more ways than having band members gunned down by deranged fans. The Beatles, for instance, had manager Brian Epstein, while the Electric Unicorns have Phillip Kelly. Kelly likewise shares similarities with producer George Martin – it was an audition tape that led to record deals for both groups but with the caveat that a member of each needed to be replaced. For the Beatles, the change was substituting Pete Best with Ringo Starr, while for the Electric Unicorns, it was Joe Cleary replacing Tommy Schaeffer on bass.
At Cleary’s funeral, Rufus Fairchild tells Ward Brackett that he has been off drugs for close to a year, and this time believes his abstinence will be permanent. The next day, however, Fairchild is found dead in his home, the victim of a massive overdose. While it could have been accidental – or even a suicide attempt – Seattle Police Lieutenant James Cameron launches an official investigation due to the fact that other members of the Electric Unicorns had been murdered.
Ward Brackett, meanwhile, is enjoying a quiet evening in his Seattle mansion, unaware that his security team is slowly and methodically being incapacitated. By the time the perpetrator has found his way into Brackett’s living room, it is revealed to be none other than Green Arrow. Believing that Brackett’s life may be in danger, Oliver Queen wanted to prove just how vulnerable the musician was and convince him to accept police protection.
“Maybe I’m an incurable do-gooder,” Green Arrow replies when asked why he cares about Brackett. “Or maybe it’s because your music is part of a time when life was sweeter – and innocent. We all thought we could change the world, but you did. Not by politics or heroics but with your music.”
As the two of them talk, they are suddenly interrupted by Tommy Schaeffer, who was able to make his way into the mansion now that Green Arrow has temporarily removed all of Ward Brackett’s bodyguards. Schaeffer is not the only one who takes advantage of the situation, however, as shots are suddenly fired through the window. The would-be assassin is quickly caught but turns out to likewise suffer from mental illness, just like drummer Kent Dawson’s killer.
“Guy’s name is Edwin Curtis,” Lieutenant Cameron explains afterwards. “And until yesterday morning he was a resident of the state mental facility. Says he was hunting the last unicorn.” Tommy Schaeffer asks if that was the case, then why did he get a bullet in his arm instead of Ward Brackett. “Shoot you?” Cameron replies. “He didn’t even know who you were. He’s just not a very good shot, that’s all.”
Despite the attempt on his life, Brackett refuses to cancel a memorial concert at the Seattle Kingdom to benefit the families of Joe Cleary and Rufus Fairchild, but does consent to Green Arrow being his head of security for the performance. “How the hell am I supposed to provide security and protection for a man who’s going to stand up in front of 35,000 people, just begging to be a target?” the superhero rhetorically asks Dinah Lance. “If anything goes wrong, it will cause a stampede.”
Lieutenant James Cameron shares a similar sentiment in regards to the police investigation. “It’s got all the makings of a Charlie Chan movie,” he says. “We’ve got a jealous wife, an agent who just happens to have insurance policies on all the band members, a disgruntled ex-member of the original group, and the last of the Electric Unicorns – back in the spotlight with a concert to end all concerts. World-wide coverage just in case he gets knocked off tonight.”
Green Arrow, Black Canary and James Cameron have chosen the video control booth on the opposite side of the Kingdom from the stage as their observation point. Near the end of the concert, something catches Green Arrow’s eyes on one of the camera feeds. Asking the technician to zoom in for a closer look, he notices drops of blood on the hand of the group’s keyboardist.
Green Arrow immediately grabs an overhead camera and instructs the technician to send it towards the stage. The superhero is aware that the concert’s finale includes an explosion from a large cylinder prop triggered by the keyboardist, and arrives just in time to slice the connection wire with an arrow. As Brackett wonders why the pyrotechnics didn’t go off, Green Arrow leaps onto the keyboardist, who is revealed to be Tommy Schaeffer underneath the Kiss-like make-up.
Schaeffer still has the original audition tape that led to the Electric Unicorns being signed to a record contract. He was fired from the band shortly afterwards but was now willing to commit murder in order to reap the financial rewards he missed out on decades earlier. “But it’s a piece of crap,” Ward Brackett says of the tape. “No one would ever buy it.” Tommy Schaeffer simply replies, “Not while you’re alive, that’s for sure. Remember John Lennon’s ‘Lost Session’ tape? When you’re dead, they’ll buy anything.”
And with that, the two-issue “Reunion Tour” story arc of Mike Grell’s Green Arrow comic book comes to an end, with Oliver Queen saving the day and proving that while caring may have gone out of fashion as he had earlier told Dinah Lance, it was still part of his persona nonetheless.
Anthony Letizia