Arrow: Season 2.5 #14 - A Review

To save Felicity, Ollie has surrendered himself to The Church of Blood!  Roy has the means to track him but with Diggle helping The Suicide Squad overseas he's a little short on back-up. Thankfully, there is one ARGUS agent who is available to help but calling them an unlikely ally is the understatement of the year.


Meanwhile, in Nanda Parbat, student Mesi Natifah is brought before Ra's Al Ghul. The leader of the League of Assassins does not impress easily but the young woman's actions in troubled times have accomplished that deed. And now he's ready to make her a rare offer...



One would think it impossible for a comic set between the seasons of a TV series to truly surprise its readers - we already know what characters will survive to see Season 3!  Yet Arrow: Season 2.5 #14 managed to surprise me not once, but twice!  I won't say anything beyond that save this - if you're a fan of the Arrow TV series and you aren't reading this comic already, you should start. Now.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #13 - A Review

As the Suicide Squad return home from their mission and debrief, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper leave on a new mission.  Brother Blood has captured Felicity Smoak and he demands a high price for her safe return - The Arrow himself!


I have mixed feelings about the script for this issue.  On the one hand, it's nice to see Roy Harper indulging in some of the snark so common to his comic-book counterpart.  On the other hand, I'm not sure that Felicity - even with her increased confidence post-Season One - would be quite so free about heckling Brother Blood as she is here.  There's a lot of good comedy here but I'm not sure it really fits Felicity's scared mode.


While I may quibble with the dialogue in this issue, I have no qualms about the artwork.  Joe Bennett and Craid Yeung continue to do a fine job on the main Arrow comic.  And Szymon Kudranski proves as impressive as always on the back-up Suicide Squad story.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #12 - A Review

I have only one word to say after the latest issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 - More!


The recent Suicide Squad: Crisis In Khandaq Special has proven superior to every Suicide Squad comic since the New 52 reboot and I would love to see this as a regular feature alongside the regular Arrow and The Flash comics.  Like John Ostrander before them, Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu have drawn upon real world events to tell a tale that takes advantage of the setting of the DC Comics Universe while still being grounded in a gritty reality.

And yet there are a number of little touches that are offered up with surprising subtlety, such as Deadshot showing the outrage only a father could at the thought of little girls being endangered.  And Khem-Adam - this world's version of Black Adam - proves a frightening foe even without magical powers.  It spoils little to say that not everyone makes it out of this issue alive but hopefully Khem-Adam will return someday... perhaps even on Arrow itself.!


The artwork by Szymon Kudranski is as excellent as ever.  Comparable to Tony Harris in his photo-realistic style and use of shadow, Kudranski's also an excellent caricaturist who perfectly captures the likeness of the actors from the show.  This book has never looked as good as it has under his pencils.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #11 - A Review

About the last thing John Diggle wants to do is go back overseas in the company of Deadshot - the man who killed his brother. But when the alternative is his pregnant ex-wife going overseas in the company of the man who killed his brother (i.e. the very last thing John Diggle wants), he didn't have much choice but to volunteer and lead Task Force X into a war zone. He may be signing his own death warrant but that's why they call it The Suicide Squad.


I asked for it. And boy did I received it!  A full-length Suicide Squad special worthy of the name! I said in Arrow Season 2.5 reviews past that the back-ups by Keto Shimizu and Szymon Kudranski needed to be their own full-length book.  And what we see in this issue more than justifies my belief in the creative team.


I'm reluctant to say more about this issue save this: if you're a fan of the classic Suicide Squad comics of John Ostrander, you'd do well to check out this issue even if you're not normally an Arrow viewer.  Fans of military adventure fiction will likely enjoy this comic as well.  And Arrow-heads?  You'll like it too, especially for the cameo at the end.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #9 - A Review

Arrow: Season 2.5 #9 contains no major revelations nor big surprises. There are no major plot twists nor exciting cliff-hangers.What it does contain are a number of resolutions and set-ups for adventures yet to come.  These include Felicity being kidnapped by Brother Blood's cult and a Mirakuru-enhanced madman with a grudge against Oliver Queen being released onto the streets of Starling City.


Despite the generally sedate tone of the issue, Marc Guggenheim delivers a lot of good character moments as he engages in his house-keeping of the book's many subplots. Brother Blood indulges in some non-sequesters that would do Felicity Smoak proud. Roy Harper and Quentin Lance both awaken from their respective comas. And Oliver Queen has a prophetic nightmare as he comes down off the newest version of Vertigo to hit the streets.


The Suicide Squad story by Keto Shimizu shares this laid-back tone.  This story is devoted toward the introduction of a brave young woman, who offers herself up as a bride to one of Black Adam's followers in order to spare a pre-teen girl the same fate.  The art for both comics continues to adhere to the high standard set by Joe Bennett and Szymonn Kudranski's work to date on this series.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #8 - A Review

Poisoned by a new Vertigo variant, Oliver Queen is running amok. Hallucinating that his dead loved ones have come back to haunt him, Ollie put a major hurt on John Diggle, who was just barely able to escape to the Arrow Cave.  Good thing Sara Lance just got back into town and The Canary is on the case!


There isn't much action to this issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 and what action there is proves surprisingly brief.  Another surprise is that Joe Bennett seems to be a little off his game this week, with some of his characters oddly posed throughout the book - particular Canary in her fight with Arrow!  Still, Marc Guggenheim delivers some fun and witty dialogue as Round Two with Brother Blood and his followers is set up.  More, he appears to drop some hints regarding a certain mastermind with a league of his own and how it might be possible for several characters thought dead to have come back.


I fear I'm becoming a broken record with this comment but I have to say it again.  The only thing wrong with the Suicide Squad back-up comic is that it is too short!  Szymon Kudranski's artwork is amazing and Keto Shimizu's script manages to convey the personalities of both Deadshot and Bronze Tiger, though they barely have any dialogue at all!

Arrow: Season 2.5 #7 - A Review

Oliver Queen and John Diggle have escaped from the lair of Brother Blood.  But the fight is just beginning.  A vengeful Huntress is waiting for Ollie as he emerges from the sewers... and she's not alone!  Other people - loved ones he's failed - are there to confront Oliver, including his dead parents and best friend, Tommy!


The secret "twist ending" of this issue isn't much of a surprise.  Dedicated Arrow-Heads will guess almost immediately what's going on.  Despite this, Arrow: Season 2.5 #7 is an enjoyable read as writer Marc Guggenheim takes advantage of the gimmick to give us some insight into how the usually close-lipped Ollie views his mistakes.  Amusingly, some of his complaints mirror those of comic fans regarding how the character of Helena Bertinelli was treated when being adapted for the show or how Ollie reacted to Slade Wilson's killing of his mother.  An all-star team of artists worked on this story, giving the whole affair a disjointed feeling as the art shifts along with the visions tormenting Ollie.  For once, this lack of visual continuity works to the story's benefit.


As usual, the Suicide Squad back-up story by Keto Shimizu and Szymon Kudranski is as enjoyable as the Arrow one.  Indeed, it is so enjoyable I wish it was its own comic!  Getting one page every two weeks is a maddening way to tell a story and I'd love to see this as a longer feature.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #6 - A Review

The main portion of Arrow: Season 2.5 #6 is high on action and short on plot.  The focus lies upon Ollie and John, fighting to escape the clutches of The Church Of Blood.  At the same time, The Church of Blood begin the process to convert one of their own into a Mirakuru-enhanced soldier.


The script by Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu is up to their usual standard, up until the last page. It is then that we are hit with something that honestly surprised me and things go above and beyond the usual high standard. I won't say what but suffice it to say it will inspire talk regarding a number of fan theories about the story-line of Season Three.

Sadly, the Suicide Squad page this week is a little lackluster, serving no purpose other than to let us know that Amanda Waller is more concerned about punishing the wicked than saving the innocent.  This is not exactly a newsflash to any fan of the show or the comics who has been paying attention. It's unclear why this scene is necessary beyond showing Lyla Michaels' growing discomfort with her job.


Still, the artwork is as wonderful as ever.  Joe Bennet is a wonderful fight choreographer and the action scenes in the main portion of the comic are well laid out.  And Szymon Kudranski adds his usual shadowy aura to the Suicide Squad back-up.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #5 - A Review

When the suspect in Laurel's latest case begins spouting off about a leather-masked god named Blood, it hits too close for comfort.  The rest of Team Arrow agrees it bares investigation, even though it's impossible for Sebastian Blood to have returned from the dead.  Meanwhile, Malcolm Merlyn - who would be faintly amused to hear anyone say that the dead don't come back - begins his training of his daughter Thea.

Meanwhile, in Khandaq, the terrorist leader responsible for kidnapping a number of schoolgirls gives the public a name.  He calls himself Khem-Adam - the ancient Egyptian phrase for Black Adam.  More, he claims to be a conduit for the ancient gods and to feel no pain...


The script for this issue by Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu is fast-paced and feels just like a storyboard for an episode of the show.  The dialogue is crisp and hilarious and the action scenes well-played.  As before, I find the Suicide Squad back-up story to be as interesting as the main story and wish more space was being allocated for it, particularly in the wake of this issue's revelation that the terrorist leader for the group we've seen in action so far is Black Adam. Time will tell if we're about to see the first proof of magic in the unified DC Television Universe or if this is just another bone for the long-time comic fans.


The artwork is just as good as the scripts. Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung offer up some fine heroic artwork that is reminiscent of the works of Mike Grell, though not so heavily inked. The equally wonderful work of Szymon Kudranski in the Suicide Squad story is grittier and more realistic by comparison, in keeping with that story's darker aesthetic.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #4 - A Review

Arrow: Season 2.5 #4 is primarily concerned with the back-story of the new Brother Blood and how one of Sebastian Blood's underlings came to acquire his boss' mask and formed a doomsday cult in Starling City. The writers do a good job of delivering this information without it seeming like an exposition dump.  Nevertheless, this issue does feel somewhat repetitive as much of it repeats scenes from the show verbatim before building on the established material.  Nice as it is to see the "Bitch With Wi-Fi" scene again, it would have been better to see more new material.


The artwork by Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung is largely excellent, save that it loses fine detail in the middle and far distances.  A larger problem is that Bennett draws nearly every page as if he were emulating a camera that was in the process of falling to one side when it took its shot. I can understand wanting to vary up perspective but there's a number of pages where one wonders if they need to tilt their head to view the artwork properly or if someone changed the alignment of their monitor.


Personally, I found the all-too-brief back-up story involving the Suicide Squad far more interesting, if only for the revelation that Barack Obama is the president in the DC Television universe.  That's not to say the plot - based on current events involving religious extremists in Africa - isn't gripping stuff.  It is and I wish this comic devoted more than a page every two weeks to it.  I'd also like to see more of the photo-realistic artwork of Szymon Kudranski, whose previous work on Green Lantern I enjoyed.

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Arrow: Season 2.5 #3 - A Review

Times are tough for Oliver Queen and company.  Money is getting tight and it's getting harder and harder to get all the wonderful toys Ollie needs in his crusade to protect Starling City.  And things are becoming harder still, with Brother Blood seemingly returned from the dead and leading a new gang.


The third issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 is largely a housekeeping issue.  Little happens here in terms of the long-term plot, save that Ollie learns about Brother Blood's return and we, the readers, learn the secret of Brother Blood's resurrection.  One wishes they had kept the secret going a little longer but the story doesn't suffer from the revelation.  And there's a fair bit of humor in the opening sequence where we learn just who has been providing Ollie's new trick arrows.  The issue closes with the first part of a Suicide Squad mini-comic that promises to be an interesting read, if only for the real world issues it is based around.


The artwork is largely competent but nothing special.  Craig Yeung continues to create some wonderful splash-pages and close-ups but his work loses fine detail in the mid-range.  The Suicide Squad story drawn by Szymon Kudranski isn't bad, though it is heavily shrouded in inks as is typical of Kudranski's work.  Thankfully, the deep shadows fit the story, so in this case it works.