A young couple – a black man and white woman – board the Ferris Wheel at Seattle’s Pier 57. The man is reluctant as he is afraid of heights, but the woman insists that it will be romantic. “Up and up you go,” the operator says. “When you come down, nobody knows.” Once they reach the top, the woman peers over the side at the sights. The man, however, is suddenly pulled out of the car. By the time the Ferris Wheel completes its circle, the woman is missing as well.
Thus begins writer Benjamin Percy’s first story arc for the Green Arrow comic book, issue 41 of DC’s New 52 relaunch. Percy was best known as a horror novelist at the time, and his “The Night Birds” narrative for Green Arrow has its fair share of scares. More significantly, the storyline also references social justice issues prevalent within the United States, a feature that Percy would more fully develop when DC again reimagined its comic book line with Rebirth.
The day after the couple disappeared from the Ferris Wheel, a jogger finds the severed hand of the young black man. “Witnesses say they suspect a shark or orca attack might be the blame given the chewed-up quality of the remains,” a television newscast explains. An old woman who regularly rants on the sidewalks of Seattle has a different viewpoint, telling passers-by, “Beware the Night Birds! Close your windows, lock your doors, for when the sun sets they shall steal away your children!”
That evening, Seattle Seahawks linebacker Eddie Ridge steps onto his apartment balcony for some fresh air. Just as had happened on the Ferris Wheel, Ridge is suddenly lifted into the air and eventually dropped to the ground. “No word yet on whether this was suicide, murder or accident,” a news reporter tells viewers the next morning. “But our sources say his body appears to have fallen a far greater height than a two-story balcony.”
Oliver Queen – CEO of one of Seattle’s largest corporations, Queen Industries, and secretly the superhero Green Arrow – believes that somebody had to have seen something and enlists the services of his tech guru, Henry Fyff. Fyff pulls up surveillance camera footage from the pier, and the young couple who disappeared can be seen walking towards the Ferris Wheel. As for what happened afterwards, all that can be found is a brief blur on a single surveillance image. “There’s a two second delay between each image capture,” Fyff tells Queen. “So it’s there, then it’s gone.”
The next day, six more dead bodies are discovered, with all but one of them African American. That evening, Green Arrow pays a visit on the predominantly black Pennytown, a fictional neighborhood in Seattle. “Every morning, there’s less of us,” the superhero is told. “Some dead in the street, some just gone. Ghost-gone. Been happening for months.”
When Green Arrow asks why he hasn’t heard about the disappearances, the African American woman replies, “Whether good news or bad news, it’s no news here in Pennytown. We’re invisible.” She then directs him to Willis “Big Dog” Coleman, the unofficial mayor of the neighborhood.
Coleman turns out to be the next target when he is pulled off the ground and into the sky during an illegal dog fight. His dead body then mysteriously falls back to earth the following morning in the middle of downtown Seattle. “Men been vanishing from Pennytown for months, and nobody’s paid any attention,” an African American man tells a news reporter. “Not until now. Not until a body shows up in the land of lattes and yoga pants.”
In another part of the city, Police Chief Westberg is addressing the officers under his command. “People are dying,” he says. “And they’re looting, breaking windows, burning buildings. We’ve got to put a stop to it. We’ve got to get Seattle under control.” He then introduces Aaron Zimm, who claims to have the solution – a large, floating machine with long mechanical tentacles and claws that he calls the Panopticon.
“We know to fear the snake not only for its diamondback patterns, but for the way in which it coils and rattles,” Zimm explains. “The human body and its behaviors are similarly mappable. We have programmed the drone to identify the dangerous among us. The Panopticon scans facial expressions, posture, apparel, manner of speech, geographical location, and more. All of which can quantify the likelihood of criminal intent.”
An African American police officer objects, saying it sounds like racial profiling, but Zimm merely replies, “The good guys have nothing to worry about. But the scum? The refuse? The smears of human waste? They should be very worried indeed.” The “scum” and “human waste” apparently includes a homeless teenage white girl who becomes the Panopticon’s next target after she steals some food.
The original Panopticon was a prison design proposed by eighteenth century philosopher Jeremy Bentham that featured a circular building sitting in the middle with a guard tower on top. The tower’s windows were shielded to prevent inmates from knowing precisely when they were being monitored, and the mere threat of being watched would theoretically keep the inmates in line.
As for the latest Panopticon, Oliver Queen was so preoccupied with his Green Arrow duties that he absentmindedly signed a contract as CEO of Queen Industries funding Aaron Zimm’s project without fully understanding the implications. Now realizing that he is partially responsible for the Panopticon being used in Seattle, he is intent on shutting it down. Even Green Arrow, however, is unable to defeat such a machine, especially with Zimm himself directing the drone from inside it’s domed tower.
“My associates might care how much melanin someone has in their skin,” Aaron Zimm tells him after the superhero has been taken captive. “My only concern is how industrious you are, how you better society. I’m not a racist. I’m a supremacist.”
If Green Arrow can’t handle the Panopticon, the hundreds of protesters in Pennytown are even more helpless against it. Carrying signs that declare, “Penny Town Matters,” “We R Not Invisible,” and “This Is What the 99% Sounds Like,” they take to the streets regardless. One of Zimm’s minions tells the crowd, “Everyone who wants to live, leave.” Someone shouts back, “You can’t silence us!” but the Panopticon suddenly appears to prove him wrong. The police label what happens next as a full-scale riot, with a five-alarm fire laying waste to the neighborhood and twenty African Americans dead as a result.
Chief Westberg denies any connection between the events in Pennytown and the Panopticon, and despite protests pouring in from everywhere corner of the city, insists that the drones will continue to patrol the streets of Seattle. “Know that there are political and business interests mixed up in this,” he adds. “For now, I’m afraid, there’s a new sheriff in town.”
Although being held captive by Aaron Zimm, Green Arrow is still intent on bringing down that “new sheriff.” Fortunately Henry Fyff and Oliver Queen’s half-sister Emiko – who, although only a teenager, is equally adept with a bow-and-arrow and likewise considers herself a superhero – have come up with a plan. The tech guru has designed special arrows that emit an electromagnetic pulse capable of rendering any electronic device within fifty yards useless, while the tip of another arrow is filled with “super spongy silicon.” Once the arrow punctures a drone, Fyff can tap into its hard drive and override the system.
Emiko takes the arrows and heads off to find her half-brother. When Green Arrow successfully escapes from the clutches of Aaron Zimm, the siblings team-up and take down the Panopticon. Henry Fyff’s device works to perfection, and the main drone sinks into Puget Sound with Zimm trapped inside while the others simply self-destruct – putting an end to the terror of the Night Birds.
Anthony Letizia