It has been noted that early Green Arrow tales are basically early Batman with the bats removed. And without any good supporting cast. Plus there are arrows.
The excellent thing about this, at least from the perspective of someone who writes about comic books on the Internet, is that where Batman pitted himself against a small collection of quality villains and a stream of second-stringers, Green Arrow rated Grade B antagonists at best. Virtually everyone he ever fought was an ode to how not to commit super-crime.
Case in point: the Wind, who made his one and only appearance in World's Finest Comics No. 37.
High Point of Career:
I suppose that one could count having the balls to go up against two of the greatest archers in the world using only a high-powered fan as a pretty decent accomplishment, and it is indeed impressive that the Wind manages to stymie Green Arrow and Speedy on two separate occasions:
Impressive, yes, but even more so is that magnificent costume. Just look at it!
An orange suit with a blue cape/cowl combo, topped with a head-mounted weather vane? By any metric this costume should be a disaster, but the Wind actually manages to pull it off. My best guess as to why this horrible conglomeration is so appealing is that old man hatchet-face sticking out from under the cowl. Evidently the wearing of ill-conceived super-villain costumes are yet another activity that you can add to the list of things that only irascible old men can hope to get away with anymore, like pinching ladies' bottoms or casual racism.
Mode of Defeat:
Twofold! First, Green Arrow and Speedy finally noticed the enormous fan that had been blowing their arrows off-course for the last two days and, instead of walking in a wide arc around the stream of air and turning off the power to the thing, built themselves a giant bow and arrow with which to shoot it. Because a crime-fighting theme isn't worth a damn if it isn't applicable to every situation.
Of course, while they were eliminating the Wind's power of Standing Near an Enormous Fan-Equipped Truck, the Wind himself was making his escape. And then there were about five more pages of horsefeathers that I can't be bothered to remember. The important part, though, is that everything culminated in a dramatic bout of fisticuffs atop an arrow-shaped tower...
... where the Wind was almost blown to his doom by a powerful gust of wind. It was irony what got 'im in the end, guv.
Low Point of Career:
I'm going to preface this by saying that I love Golden and Silver Age comics. They're great - I'll probably read some after I finish writing this. A large part of reading such comics is accepting them for what they are - if you spend all of your time picking apart the characters and the plot according to today's standards you suck all of the joy out of the experience.
Having said that... the Wind's plan is complete horseshit.
A man named A. Wynd, an arrow collector, the Wind is unable to acquire the penultimate piece for his collection: a set of the arrows that Green Arrow and Speedy use to fight crime. So he puts on a costume and commits a series of crimes in such a way that arrows are scattered everywhere for him to acquire afterward. AND he doesn't actually complete the thefts that he starts, so that he can't be arrested once he gets what he wants. But having jumped through such hoops to avoid possible prosecution, Wynd immediately lets slip that he is going to complete his collection by straight up stealing a historically significant arrow from the next town over.
What he doesn't do:
Remember that he sent Green Arrow a letter the month before, begging for arrows.
Recall that his name is Wynd, which coincidently sounds the same as the costumed alter-ego he assumes.
Steal that last arrow before abandoning his identity-concealing mask.
Follow Green Arrow around for a week or two, which would have allowed him to collect enough discarded arrows to build another eerie themed house.
Collect anything that is actually at all interesting. That is, anything other than arrows.
The Wind, ladies and gentlemen! His whole dang life was a low point!
Good night!
