Green Arrow #40 - A Review

Green Arrow #40 is one of the most contrived, over-the-top and outright ludicrous comics I have ever read. And I loved every page of it! This issue is a fitting capstone for a run that has tried to do as much as possible to resurrect elements of the Green Arrow mythos long dead while simultaneously turning the New 52 reality into something recognizable to fans of the Arrow television series.

It remains to be seen just how successful Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Soklowski will be in that regard in the long-term. With a new creative team set to come on post-Convergence we could well see yet another shift of the status quo on a book that has been continually unstable since the first issue!

For the moment, at least, I am content.  Whatever faults this run had - and there are many - it managed to at least be amusing and avoided being dull.  How can it be dull when you have the likes of Lex Luthor, Batman, Katana, Arsenal and an army of Green Arrow's other allies, enemies and acquaintances uniting to bring down the tyrannical billionaire John King and his Subjects.


This issue is packed with a lot of action and very few explanations. For instance, the panel above is all we get to see of the villain Cupid in this issue. Except for a quick cameo on the final page of last month's issue, Cupid has not been seen in The New 52 Green Arrow book.  No background has been given for her and there is no explanation of who she is. So if you didn't read the Green Arrow/Black Canary book almost a decade ago or see her recent appearance on Arrow... well, too bad. Perhaps it is unreasonable in the Internet age to expect these things to be included as part of the narrative when we are given enough information to look up Cupid's page on ComicVine. Call me old fashioned but I like to see these things in the book itself. That just seems like Storytelling 101.

A similar problem comes up in the final battle, where - in defiance of all logic - King elects to go after Green Arrow with a sword. He hasn't been shown to be a swordsman before now. Nothing has been said about him using a sword to kill people. And it adds nothing to the final battle (other than looking cool) as this is merely a set-up for an obvious trap.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE... billionaire playboy with a royalty-based surname in this town!
The artwork of Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion lends an epic scope to this material that it doesn't truly deserve. With a lesser art team, this series might have looked as ridiculous as it seems.  As it is, it looks amazing and the fight scenes that make up the majority of this issue are all well depicted.

In the end, I'd say this run on Green Arrow was a success.  It lacked the depth of Jeff Lemire's run but it did set out what it was meant to do. And an Arrow Cave with Felicity Smoak and Mia Dearden in the house should prove to be a welcome starting point for the series to begin with in two months time.

Green Arrow #38 - A Review

As Green Lantern and Green Arrow reluctantly team forces to save a hospital full of victims from John King's men, Mia Dearden falls into her father's clutches.  Even with the aid of Katana, can the Emerald Allies save the day? Can they even stop arguing for two minutes?!


If I were to sum up my feelings about Green Arrow #38 in a word, it would be 'torn'.

There is so much about this comic that doesn't sit right with me.  I don't like that Mia Dearden's past as a drug-using teen prostitute has been brought back into play. There was just no reason for it with her new background as the daughter of sociopath billionaire John King.


Another problem I have with this comic is with its lack of explanations for any of the new characters' backgrounds.  We have no idea how long Mia has been on the streets, but the previous issues suggested that it hadn't been long - perhaps a year or two at the most. And we've been given no explanation as to who the heck Mack Morgan is and just why he is so important to John King.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this issue is John King's descent from ordinary rich jerk villainy into "cartoonish supervillainy".  Now, granting that this IS a superhero comic, the best Green Arrow comics have had some grounding in reality regarding their villains motivations. And yes, John King is a social Darwinist who would think nothing of killing an entire hospital to cover up one murder. But when we reach the point where the bad guy is ordering his minions in a hospital to stop providing care to the dying and expecting people to just go along with it with no questions asked, you have also passed the point at which one can still credibly believe John King to be an arrogant but subtle manipulator. Captain Planet villains are more subtlety evil than this!

So why am I torn on this book if the villain is so melodramatically awful?  Because the treatment of the heroes is so perfect!

The Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen of the New 52 universe are not the best of friends.  Heck, they don't even like each other that much! But the chemistry between the two characters is apparent here - the classic situation of two people not liking each other because they are so much alike. The banter between the two is hilarious and becomes doubly so when Katana is forced to put up with them.


One thing I'm not torn on, however, is the artwork of this issue.  Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion provide their usual high-quality work.  The action of the issue is well blocked throughout and colorist Gabe Eltaeb depicts everything with a rich and vibrant palette.

I'll continue to read this book for now, but I hope that John King's madness is exposed soon and that there are no plans for him to be a long-running villain.  There's just no way for the character to last that long at his current pace of deterioration.

Green Arrow #37 - A Review

The mysterious Mia Dearden has been rescued and the reasons for her endangerment have been brought to light.  It seems she's the illegitimate daughter of billionaire philanthropist John King and she's gotten a hold of a list of thousands of "Kings Men" - bought officials ready to do whatever Mr. King wants. And what Mr. King wants right now is Seattle under his thumb and Green Arrow dead!


By all rights, I shouldn't like this new run on Green Arrow as much as I do.  Virtually all of the supporting cast has been jettisoned, with Felicity Smoak quickly sliding into the trusted techie role after only a single issue.  That sort of thing is normally a big no-no for me when it comes to established titles.

And yet, here it works to the book's benefit.  The honest truth is that for all the good Jeff Lemire did during his run on Green Arrow, he didn't do much to develop the supporting cast.  Most of the characters he introduced were unmemorable at best or outright annoying in the case of Ollie's half-sister Emiko.

For lack of a better way to say it, this comic just feels more like what a Green Arrow comic should feel like. Not only in terms of bringing in characters like Mia and Merlyn (he isn't identified by name in this issue but - c'mon, we all know who that archer in black is!) but in terms of setting Oliver up against an enemy who is a symbol of everything Oliver Queen should fight against - corruption and corporate power.  The final page of this issue is also a nod to the classic DC Comics of yesteryear and a relationship that has been sorely missed in The New 52 universe.

While some may quibble about the continuity of aesthetics between creative teams, I do not believe anyone can complain about the artwork on this issue.  Granted, my opinion may be biased as I'm a fan of Sampere and Glapion's previous work together on Batgirl but I do love the artwork on this book. The characters are all uniquely designed and the fights are well laid-out.  My one complaint is that colorist Gabe Eltaeb could try and offer a little more variety in the shades of yellow used to depict the many blond cast members.